Science Week
Next week is Science Week.  Thank you to Mrs McCartney, Miss Adamo, Mr Nokes & Mr O’Donoghue who have organised events throughout the week to celebrate. 

Book Week Parade
Week 5 is Book Week and our annual Book week parade is on Friday 22nd August after assembly.  Now is the time to start to organise costumes.  All parents & toddlers are welcome to watch the parade. 

Homework
There were a couple of enquiries about homework during some of our parent teacher interviews, so I thought I would outline our homework guidelines.

Homework at Sacred Heart has a focus on English and Mathematics, which mainly consists of reading nightly (see recommendations below), some word work, some number practice and consolidation. Additionally, our Religious Education ‘To Know Worship and Love’ text may be used for some home activities. Homework can be oral (reading, practicing sight words, learning number facts, praying) as well as written, and may include life skills.

When teachers set homework, they take into consideration the need for students to have a balanced lifestyle. This includes sufficient time for family, sport and recreation as well as ‘down’ time. The homework that teachers set may vary across the grades and may be set on a weekly or fortnightly cycle.  Homework is not compulsory as the very nature of homework means that this is a parental responsibility.  Teachers always encourage students to read and do some number work each week.  Our teachers try to minimise sending written work that needs to be marked, as homework isn’t used for any formal assessment of student learning, rather it consolidates the learning that takes place in class.

English Homework might include:

• Reading - this is the most important homework activity. Reading might consist of your child reading to you as well as you reading to your child. Reading a page of a story alternately is also beneficial as parents are wonderful models of ‘reading aloud’.
• Learning sight words, phonics, spelling rules or grammar tasks
• Some comprehension tasks
• The use of Study ladder - up to 3 activities per night

Recommended maximum English homework time each night:

• ES1 (Kindergarten): 5 - 10 minutes
• Stage 1 (Year 1 & Year 2): 10 - 15 minutes
• Stage 2 (Year 3 & Year 4): 15 - 20 minutes
• Stage 3 (Year 5 & Year 6): 20-25minutes

 Mathematics homework might include:

• Counting
• Learning addition and subtraction number facts
• Learning multiplication and division facts
• Revising concepts that have just been learnt
• Completing work online from Matharoo
• The use of Study ladder - up to 3 activities per night

Recommended maximum Mathematics homework each night:

• ES1 (Kindergarten): 5 - 10 minutes
• Stage 1 (Year 1 & Year 2): 10 - 15 minutes
• Stage 2 (Year 3 & Year 4): 15 - 20 minutes
• Stage 3 (Year 5 & Year 6): 20-25minutes

We hope that this approach to homework offers our families the opportunity to balance school and home life whilst consolidating learning at school. 

Mrs Jane Taylor
Assistant Principal