Thank you to all our teachers and staff for their dedication and commitment throughout the year, we are so lucky to work together. Thank you to all of our parents and carers for your support and for all that you do for our school, your generosity is truly appreciated. A huge thank you to the beautiful students for the enthusiasm you bring each day, it has been wonderful to see your learning growth this year. For all those students and staff who are leaving, I wish you all the best in this new chapter of your life. As Saint Mary Mackillop told us “We are but travellers here” and I thank you all for travelling with us at Sacred Heart, whether for a long time or just a short journey, you will be missed and we are blessed to have had you as part of our school community. 

P & F Thank you

To the P & F and all parents, thank you for my lovely hamper, which I will certainly enjoy, and for your generosity with vouchers for our staff.  

A wonderful evening was celebrated at Warringah Bowls as the final P & F social night for the year. Thank you to our P & F executive for all of their organisation of the night and it was wonderful to see so many of our parents attending such a happy and successful event. 

Christmas ‘Carols on the Court’ today

What an exciting evening for our students. They should be in their classroom at 5:15pm, ready to start at 5:30pm. Children come dressed in their costumes as advised. All students remain with their class teacher during the carols. They can not sit with parents and we ask parents to keep all ramps free so the children can move around easily. 

Open classrooms - Festive theme

Coming up on Monday - opening our classrooms with a ‘festive theme’ to finish the year. This event is an opportunity for parents to come into the classroom to see their child’s learning and Christmas work or activities displayed around the room.  

Monday 16 December

8:50 - 9:20 Kindy, Year 3 & Year 4

9:20 - 10:10 Year 1, Year 2 & Year 5 

Final assembly for the year 

Our final assembly for the year is Friday 13 December - 8:40 am.  During this assembly we will award:

• Academic awards - one student from each grade Kindergarten to Year 5 for academic achievement in the following areas: Religious Education, English, Mathematics, Deep Learning, Physical Education and Creative Arts. Our Year 6 Academic awards are given at their Graduation Mass. 
• Sacred Heart Blue Awards for Faith, Generosity and Courage
• Max Doohan Awards for Sport
• Arrowsmith Awards

Guard of Honour for Year 6 & other students leaving 

A beautiful tradition where the whole school makes a guard of honour to farewell our Year 6 and other leaving students for the final time. This will take place on Wednesday 18 December at 2:20 pm. We welcome all parents and carers to join in this event. 

Classes for 2025 and Meet the Teacher

Our teachers, Miss Monckton, Mrs Meehan and I have spent many days organising and much thought on classes for 2025 to ensure that we have the ‘best fit’ of classes for all our students. We have taken into consideration many factors including:

• parent requests or information
• teacher observations or requests
• academic and well-being needs of our students
• diverse learning needs
• social and emotional needs of our students
• friendships, ability to work together and overall class dynamic
• ratio of boys and girls in each class
• the mixing of both classes from this year Blue and Gold to form new classes
• student friend preferences and individual circumstances

As you can imagine, this is a very comprehensive process. When considering parent requests we have achieved one or two aspects of the request.  Some parents shared a list of many friends they wanted for their child and we ask for your understanding that only one of two of these can be achieved.  Some parents requested their child not be with another child and we have honoured this where possible. 

Every child completed a 'friendship hand' where they listed five friends that they would like in their class. The teachers clearly explained that they would have one friend in their class for next year. Our Year 6 buddies assisted Kindergarten in this process. We have checked student friend choices in line with their new class and are very happy to advise that every child has one friend of their choice for 2025.  Some children have more than one friend, depending on the class mix. 

Blue and Gold are the class names across our school. If your child is in the same colour class for 2025, it doesn’t mean they have stayed in the class while others have moved. All students from the Year level were joined and then mixed into two new classes. Please remember that at a two stream school, the children are mixed each year. 

Our classes for 2025 are now finalised and no changes will be made (you can imagine that after completing this process, changing even one child would have a flow on impact to others). Next Tuesday afternoon is our ‘meet the new class’ & teacher session which provides opportunities for students to hear about some of the learning and expectations for 2025. When your child tells you about their new class and friends that may or may not be with them, we encourage you to be positive about the year as this will be your child’s learning journey and a new class is a new opportunity for learning and friendships.  

NEW - Parent Information Handbook

We have recently been working on an all-new Parent Information site.  This will take over from the current Parent Handbook attached to our School Website and does not have a password to log in.

Please take the time to read it as it has much information regarding our school that is quite invaluable.  It will be amended as needs arise.

Merry Christmas

I wish you a beautiful Christmas with your family and friends, celebrating the joy of Jesus’ birth, and I hope that you are able to have some time to relax and refresh during this special time of year. 

We look forward to welcoming students in Year 1 - 6 on Monday 3 February 2025 and our new Kindergarten students on Tuesday 4 February, 2025.

Wishing you God’s Blessings, 

Jane Taylor

Assistant Principal