2nd August 2088

Dear Parents and Carers

Tomorrow a number of staff and parishioners will attend Deacon Joe’s ordination. He will be saying his  first mass as a priest for the school next Thursday on the feast of Mary McKillop at 9.15am. You are all welcome to attend.

We are privileged to be holding a special mass for Father Phil on the anniversary of his ordination. On Friday the 23rd of August Father Phil will celebrate 50 years as a priest. This is an extraordinary milestone to celebrate. As the school and parish of Sacred Heart are Father Phil’s family I encourage you to attend either this mass or Sundays 25th August  parish mass (Year One Family mass) to wish him well and thank him for his service to the church and our community.

This week we introduced new school expectations. All classes heard the same message about our PAWS expectations. As a school we have launched the Positive Behaviour for Learning program. This means that our expectations are explicitly taught and encouraged through the use of PAWS tokens. Many thanks to Summer Daggett from Mosman Paws (doggy day care) who, along with two cute puppies helped us introduce our expectations.

Positive Behaviour for Learning rewards the children who are meeting expectations with tokens towards a class reward. Please see the school expectations for all areas below. 

This week there has been a focus on Mathematics assessment and Maths professional development with our staff. A few hints for parents: 

Learn through play

Playing games can help your child practise simple addition and subtraction and develop their understanding of chance and probability. Cards, dice and board games are a cheap and very easy way to incorporate Maths into games.

Try the below activities:

• Matching card games like Go Fish or Snap.
• Order numbers on playing cards from smallest to largest, or largest to smallest.
• For school-age children, make the largest/ smallest number you can make with two/ three or more cards. This can help children begin to understand place value.
• Board games with dice are excellent ways for children to count forward as well as recognise number patterns on dice.
• Dice games with two dice involve adding numbers less than 10. Younger students can count the dots on the dice to find the total. Older children should be encouraged to start at the bigger number and count on.
• Play shops with your children – use play or real money to purchase goods from the ‘shop’. Encourage them to count back change, look at different measurements on boxes and take note of the shapes of packaging.
• Older children can be encouraged to pay for items at the ‘real’ shop and check that they have been given the correct change.

Later in the term we hope to run some parent workshops in mathematics. We will put the dates on the calendar shortly.

The School Photographer photographs will be sent home with your child once it is delivered to the school by Friday next week.  You will be given the opportunity to still purchase yours for a short while after the receipt of your child's sample photograph. 

A number of children in various years have contracted the flu over the past two weeks, we ask that children are kept at home if they shows signs of servere colds or flu symptoms. 

It's with sadness that I let you know that Mrs Dianne Loots (from our admin) will be relocating to the Gold Coast at the end of this term. We are sorry to lose such a dedicated member of our team but wish Dianne and her family well in the next chapter of their lives.

Regards

Julie Caldwell