Dear Parents, Students and Staff,

A busy week for our Year 6 students with them taking the next step in their sacramental journey with the Sacrament of Confirmation. Confirmation is the sacrament by which Catholics receive a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Through Confirmation, the Holy Spirit gives them the increased ability to practice their Catholic faith in every aspect of their lives and to witness Christ in every situation. Congratulations to all!

Thank you, Bishop Danny Meagher, Father Phil, Father Mark, Deacon Matthew. Also a huge thanks to Thomas Dabbah (Sacramental Coordinator), Kristen Jackson (Religious Education Coordinator) and our Year 6 classroom teachers for their preparation and care of our children.

Athletics Carnival

Last Wednesday we had our Sacred Heart Athletics Carnival. This year we engaged Zing Active (Dance Fever) to facilitate our carnival. A huge thank you to Ms Calizar and Mrs Taylor for all of their hard work behind the scenes to ensure this day was a success. What a wonderful opportunity it was to see everyone have fun and participate in a wide variety of activities. Well done to every single student who participated and a special congratulations to McAuley who won with 907 points. Thank you to my staff and all of our parent volunteers!

Bathurst

Year 5 had an amazing time in Bathurst for their very first sleepover camp. I was privileged to be able to attend and I loved observing our students interact and collaborate on a range of activities. I especially want to acknowledge and thank our dedicated staff who always strive to provide the best possible experiences for our students. Thank you, Mrs Watson, Mrs Siokos, Ms Blake, Mrs Thiermann, Mr O’Donoghue and Mr Nokes.

School Disco

Our Sacred Heart Disco was a huge success! Much work goes into the organisation of such events to ensure both the enjoyment and safety of our children. Thank you to all parent organisers and parent volunteers. Particular thanks to Michelle Smith, Lucy Kierath, Alicia Ryder, Jessica Lucs, Ines Fernandez Sanchez, Emma Aouad & Rebecca Colwell. I also thank my staff for attending one or both of the sessions.

SACRED HEART FEAST DAY

Next Friday, 16 June is our feast day. We thank in advance, Anthony O’Gorman (Max and George - Year 5) and his team from O’Gorman and Partners Real Estate for providing the sausages/bread and labour for our sausage sizzle on the day.

Zara Hance (Year 3) 

Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Survey

We now invite staff, students and parents to complete online ‘The Tell Them from Me (TTFM)’ Partners in Learning Survey to provide feedback on their experience of our school.  The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process.  

The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Mosman.

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.  Please refer to the compass message posted earlier this week or use the following URL Link:

https://tellthemfromme.com/yrmn5

The survey window will open today and close on Friday 16 June, 2023.

The purpose of this annual survey is to gather information to enhance what we are already doing at our school.  This survey is separate to the current ‘Consultation Process’ happening at Sacred Heart and Blessed Sacrament.

We ask that you try to separate the consultation process and complete the TTFM survey solely on current Sacred Heart teaching, learning and wellbeing experiences.

May God bless all our families.

Leanne Meehan

PRINCIPAL

Sports Carnival 

A wonderful day was had by all last week at our Sports Carnival, with beautiful weather and happy students.  We have received very positive feedback from parents, teachers and most importantly our students who had a very fun and active day.  Thank you so much to all of the wonderful parent helpers who assisted throughout the day and across all of the events.  

A big thank you to all the teachers, the Zing Activ team and to Miss Calizar for all of their work in organising and running the day. 

School Photos

Our school photos have arrived and look fantastic.  Thank you to Mrs Luscombe who has collated the photos and today handed all photos ordered by a family to the oldest child.  If your child is absent, we will hand them the photos on their return.  

Book Week

Mrs Jago has organised some wonderful activities and events to celebrate book week which starts in week 6 of Term 3.  We will have a ‘Book Fair’ from 21- 25 August, a Book Week Parade on Friday 25th August, competitions and then a Book Week Performance incursion on Tuesday 5th September.  Mrs Jago will put together some ideas for the book week parade and provide more details of the events next term. 

Staff Development Day

Our Staff development days are being held on Friday 30 June and Monday 17 July.  SCECS will be open for these days.  

Student Academic Reports

Our teachers are currently writing reports on your child’s academic achievement for Semester 1 (Terms 1 & 2)  These will be available on Compass on Friday 23 June and I will send an alert when available.  

When you read your child’s report, please be mindful that the report is based on the learning for the year so far - a snapshot in time.  Teachers select an achievement grade based on a variety of learning and assessment tasks over the semester.  This might include samples of work, formal and informal testing and anecdotal records of achievements.  It is best to focus on how your child is achieving at this point in time rather than comparing to previous years as students may have changed stages or are at a different point of learning within the stage.  When looking at grades please carefully consider the achievement level descriptors associated with the report.  Kindergarten have a three point grade scale; Basic, Sound and Thorough and Years 1 - 6 are graded as below.

• Extensive - The student has an extensive knowledge and understanding of the content and can readily apply this knowledge.  In addition, the student has achieved a very high level of competence in the processes and skills and can apply these skills to new situations.
• Thorough  - The student has a thorough knowledge and understanding of the content and a high level of competence in the processes and skills.  In addition, the student is able to apply this knowledge and these skills to most situations.
• Sound - The student has a sound knowledge and understanding of the main areas of content and has achieved an adequate level of competence in the processes and skills.
• Basic - The student has a basic knowledge and understanding of the content and has achieved a limited level of competence in the processes and skills.
• Elementary - The student has an elementary knowledge and understanding in a few areas of the content and has achieved very limited competence in some of the processes and skills.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Our Parent Teacher Conferences will be held early in Term 3 to give you the opportunity to discuss the report and your child's learning goals for Semester 2.  

Sacred Heart Public Speaking

This term the students have participated in their class Public Speaking as part of their learning in English and yesterday we had the privilege of listening to one student from each class speak at the SHM Public Speaking Competition.  Thank you to Mrs McCartney for leading this initiative in our school and for ensuring that the process throughout the term, and the final event has been successful. 

Congratulations to our first place and finalist from each year.

This year we are also entering our Sydney Catholic Schools North Sydney / Harbour Network, Public Speaking Championships.  We can enter one student from Stage 1, one student from Stage 2 and one student from Stage 3 to represent Sacred Heart and compete against eight other schools.  

Congratulations to these students who were chosen to represent Sacred Heart.  We wish them well in the competition being held in Week 10. 

Stage 1: Xavier Lyon

Stage 2: Olivia Natal

Stage 3: Lucas Fenwick 

Wishing you God’s Blessings

Jane Taylor

Assistant Principal

Saint Marcellin Champagnat acknowledgement this Friday!! 

ALL students in Champagnat Gold colour house are invited to wear Sports Uniform and a YELLOW/GOLD accessory!

If your child is in the Champagnat colour house, you may like to share with them the following fact file on Saint Marcellin Champagnat.

Upcoming Friday Masses- families welcome!

Year 5 Grade Mass- Friday 9th June @ 9:30am

Years K and 6 combined Grade Mass- Friday 23rd June @ 9:30am

It was lovely to see the Year 1 families and teachers at the Year 1 Family Mass on Sunday. Also thank you to the Kinder/Year Six families who were able to attend their Family Mass the previous Sunday. What a great opportunity for the school community to gather in celebration of our faith. A very big thank you to the families who volunteered to bring a plate for the morning tea, to the students who did a reading or a special job, to the families who serve the morning tea and to our Pope Francis Award students for contributing to the morning teas/singing with the Sunday choir/assisting with the tidy up.  

Sacramental Programs

Congratulations to Year Six Confirmation candidates for making their Sacrament of Confirmation last week!

First Holy Communion enrolments are now open for students in Year Four (and older) who have been baptised and received First Reconciliation are now welcome to enrol into our Term 3 First Communion program. Here is the direct enrolment link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8zMTryofCNNfD7SQpSP_7sRIn3uDbpTSZdVBzBayaUtau4Q/viewform 

If your child is baptised but has not received First Reconciliation and you would like them to receive First Communion next term then please contact Thomas (Sacramental Coordinator) on sacraments@shnparish.org.au

Family Educator Anna Macri is coming to the end of her pilgrimage.  She has forwarded a couple more photos of her journey:

The cave of St Michael the Archangel. Remarkably this alter is all underground & was consecrated by St Michael himself. It is the only building of worship in the Catholic Church that has not been consecrated by man.

Climbing Apparition Hill in Medugorje was challenging. A little sacrifice for our lady was extremely rewarding. Many people climbed  30-40 mins up the steep rocky hill with bare feet. So much faith on that hill. It was breathtaking & humbling. 

Helpers needed in Sacred Heart Parish Hall on the first Friday of each month

We recently had our first seniors luncheon in Sacred Heart Parish Hall on the 2nd of June since pre-COVID – it was a great success!

But we need more helpers. Do you have a couple of hours to spare on the first Friday of next month?

The lunch takes place after the midday Mass and we are looking for some volunteers that might like to help Karen Riddell (who has been running the lunch for many years). They can help with setting up the hall, making sandwiches, serving or cleaning up afterwards. It all finishes up by about 2.30pm usually.

If you can help in any way please call Theresa at the parish office 02 8969 3200.

The Senior’s luncheon will take place on the First Friday of each Month (except in January).

Kind regards

Theresa

Parish Secretary

Holy Family Catholic Parish Mosman

Once again, it has been a busy couple of weeks for Sporting Events at Sacred Heart. On Wednesday 24th May, we had exactly 31 students represent Sacred Heart at the Primary Championships Zone Cross Country. Everyone ran an amazing race with some students beating their personal best for times or doing better than what they expected. We are all for improvement and being a better version of yourself at Sacred Heart so congratulations to all who participated.

A special thank you to Mrs. McCartney and Miss Blake for being there in my absence and for doing an amazing job coordinating students, events and for keeping me updated!

Gisele Camus is to be commended on her outstanding efforts at Cross Country, walking away with 1 st place for her Conference 1 and coming 2 nd place overall with a time of 09:08 for 2kms, shying away from 1 st place by only 10 seconds! An amazing effort that she should be proud of.

Last week was also a big week in sports. Three of our children from Year 6 represented Sacred Heart in MacKillop State PSSA in Tamworth. The students were there for an entire week for training and games.

Sienna Livermore and Leon Pichler represented us for Basketball. Sienna fought hard and her team walked away with a bronze medal. An absolute great achievement. 

Leon’s team also did exceptionally well walked away with a gold! Femke Elenbass  also represented us in PSSA Hockey. Despite sustaining an injury, Femke was still able to walk away in Fourth place! She did extremely well and should be proud of herself.

Leon, Sienna and Femke should all be proud of their efforts as they played with other players whom they don’t usually train or play with and had versed players from all over the State. What a way to celebrate their final sporting year at Sacred Heart.

On 31st May, we had our jam-packed action filled day with our Kindy to Year 6 Athletics Carnival. It was so great to see the whole school combining and celebrating school spirit at Allan Border Oval. The children had a great time, receiving plenty of ribbons and taking part. A special thank you to all of our parent volunteers and teachers who attended and assisted. Without them, the day would not have been possible. Zing Activ and Wayne were also an essential aspect as to the success of the day and I had forwarded our gratitude onto them. I hope all that attended, volunteered, supported and watched had a great time.

The team house points were:

 McAuley - 907
 MacKillop - 796
 Champagnat - 794
 Polding - 749

Congratulations to McAuley and to all of the event winners of they day.

Miss Austrie Calizar

Sports Co-ordinator 

Independent Research into the Arrowsmith Program

Arrowsmith has been extensively researched since the inception of the program over 40 years ago, with independent studies published in 2022, in major journals such as “Learning: Research and Practice” and “ Applied Neuropsychology- Child” which have been peer reviewed.

New technology such as MRIs conducted pre and post a 6 week Arrowsmith intensive intervention showed significant brain change. Arrowsmith had a marked impact on the way students brain functioned, increasing both the amount of chemical signalling within the neurons and the connectivity between the different networks necessary for learning. Leading to more efficient and faster processing speed and increased activation of the pre-frontal cortex with increased ability to plan and organise, think logically, problem solve, regulate emotions, and manage impulses. Resulting in significant academic improvement in reading fluency and comprehension, spelling, maths problem solving and computation.

To find out more please contact Lucinda.thaw@syd.catholic.edu.au or visit the
Arrowsmith website at https://arrowsmithschool.org/

2023 SCHOOL FEES