Dear Parents and Carers,

It has been a very big week at Sacred Heart with still many exciting events to happen.

Last Friday our School Captains and myself attended the Mosman Council International Women's Day Breakfast. The speaker Maeve O’Meara (an ex Sacred Heart parent) told of her exciting career as a journalist and TV presenter. It was inspiring listening to a speaker who had followed her dreams and not let anything stop her in her attempts to achieve her goals.

On Friday evening over 223 staff and parents joined us under lights in the school grounds. The event was run by the P and F and guided by Jacqui Mc Carthy and MJ Whitson. During the evening raffles and an auction raised $6500 for our sports club. I hope those that attended felt warmly welcomed to the school and used it as a great chance for parents to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Thank you to everyone who made the night such a wonderful success.

Over the last two days the school has gone through the process of Inquiry and Review. This process is held every five years and looks at how the school has improved over that time. On the first day the leadership team presented the work that we have done in teaching and learning over the last five years and presented the panel with the teaching programs and assessment data that we hold on all students. We also presented the work we have done on behaviour management, wellbeing, our work in Religious Education and the partnership with the parish. The panel interviewed Father Phil, parents, office staff, learning support officers, teachers, and students. They watched our teachers teaching lessons in reading, music, physical education and science. They also visited and saw in action our Arrowsmith class and our Diverse Learning team in action. 

On the second day of the panel visit the leadership team shared with the panel our vision for the work we will do for the next five year Strategic Plan. We will share the major points of the panel report when it has been finalised. The panel thanked the staff for their work. They endorsed the work we have done in the past and affirmed our future direction.

Today the children who are attending the Dance Fever showcase on April the 2nd began their group practice. Students who had not bought tickets were reminded that they must do this shortly. As the show dance this year is based on a basketball theme the children have been asked to wear the Sacred Heart basketball singlet as their costume (with black pants). Some children may need to borrow these. If you have a basketball singlet at home that no longer fits or is not being used I’m sure the children who don't have them would be grateful to borrow them. If you would like to drop any unwanted basketball singlets at the office it would be greatly appreciated.

FUTURE EVENTS

Tomorrow Barbara Arrowsmith will be visiting the school. Barbara is the designer of the Arrowsmith program (a cognitive training program) that we host in our school. She will be meeting teachers, parents and students of the Arrowsmith program as well as holding a public forum next week at Croydon.

A reminder that school photos will be taken at school on Friday 13th March. All children should wear their full summer uniform that day. See article below.

Sports and Year Six Mass - wear your favourite jersey to Mass - Sunday 15th March 9am Mass.

Regards

Julie Caldwell