8th March  2019

Dear Parents and Carers

CATHOLIC SCHOOLS WEEK

This week was Catholic Schools Week. Sydney Catholic Schools celebrate our dual purpose of providing a quality education and a rich connection to faith. Sydney Catholic schools educate more than 70,000 students and employ more that 9000 staff to do so. This morning we opened the doors of our school to potential parents. We proudly showed off our classrooms and visitors spoke to our Year Six students who were their tour guides. Thank you to all the teachers and students who gave up their valuable time to support our Open Day.

The season of Lent began this week. We celebrated mass with Father Phil in the church and a liturgy with Deacon Joe in the hall. Thank you to our teachers who prepared the mass, the music and the liturgy in order to celebrate this important time in our Church year. Please see the handout at the end of the newsletter for information on Ash Wednesday. Mrs Lozina has included a family Lenten challenge based on our school motto Faith, Generosity, Courage.

Today is International Women’s Day. Our school captains and myself were privileged to attend a breakfast held by Mosman Council. The speaker at the breakfast was Professor The Honourable Dame Marie Bashir the first female governor for NSW and the longest serving for 13 years. Marie spoke humbly of a life of service for those less fortunate, something she learnt from her family who expected that with the gift of learning that she give something back to society. Much of her work in psychiatry was with the marginalised and she has been a great advocate for mental health outcomes for all.

Thank you to our many Sports Club conveners who look after our different codes. Have you had a look at their new website.  https://www.shmsportsclub.org.au/ 

Sacred Heart Celebrates

Over 200 tickets have been sold to this event. We’ll see you there!!  

VACATION CARE THIS HOLIDAYS

Attached is a flyer for our first vacation care run by SCECS at school. The service will run each day of the holidays excluding public holidays. Listed are the days the service is available and the activities on each day. Some days there will be excursions out of the school and some there will be events at school. Please book in or register early so that Liam can ensure he has the correct ratio of staff booked in for each day.  

STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY

School will be closed and the staff will be attending professional development on the 29th April, the Monday after the school holidays. Our staff will be working on improving children’s writing through the analysis of the children’s writing samples.

SCECS are taking your enquiries for the Pupil Free Day on Monday 29th April, SCECS Holiday Camp days start from 7am until 6pm and this additional date will be $60. 

Regards

Julie Caldwell

To all Parents of Carers of SHM.

I would like to remind you all that the Annual General Meeting of the Sacred Heart Parents and Friends is taking place in the school hall next Tuesday evening the 12^th of March from 7.00pm onwards.

As always the meeting is open to everybody to share views and ideas  and being the AGM if there is anybody that would like to put themselves forward to join as a member of the executive committee there are forms in the school office in soft or hard copy that can be filled out prior if you wish to join.

The Sacred Heart Mosman P&F require the assistance of a CA/CPA parent or friend who is able to spare a few hours reviewing the P&F accounts and the evidence of authorisation for payments made by the P&F.  Materials will be provided for the review and this will ensure that we are able to avoid unnecessary expense in engaging a third party.  Please contact Stewart Old (P&F Treasurer) on 0411 099 990 or stewartold@hotmail.com if you are ready, willing, and able to assist.

I hope to see you there next Tuesday.

Kind Regards

Chris Janes

On Behalf of SHM P & F

The Sacred Heart sporting season has definitely gone off with a bang! Students are loving their experience at Dance Fever (Mr De-Villiers has picked up some new moves), students engagement with the PE Field Hockey unit has been extremely positive, and student achievements in the competitive sporting arena has reached new heights!

We have a number of students to acknowledge in this newsletter.

Congratulations to Toby Roper-Marshall, Sabine Lozina, Joe Chard and Cassidy Thomson who represented Sacred Heart at the Mackillop Basketball trials earlier this month. For these students, this has been a 3 month process of ongoing trials and training to reach this level. A further congratulations to both Toby and Cassidy who have been offered positions on the Mackillop Basketball Squad. I would like to personally congratulate these students on their persistence, dedication and modesty throughout this trialing process. The Sacred Heart community is proud of your efforts!

  

It does not stop here! On Wednesday I had the privilege of taking 13 of our Sacred Heart swimmers to the Eastern Regional Swimming Championship. It was an incredible day of student achievement, learning, comradery topped of with a day of sunshine (no students were sunburnt in the making of this event).

Our Senior Girls Relay Team were the shining stars of the day! Not only did they win their relay event by over 10 metres, they also broke the Eastern Suburbs Regional Championship record time for this event!

Cassidy Thomson, Isabella Livermore, Jessica Hogg and Phoebe Lechner are now the current record holders for the Eastern Suburbs 200 metre senior girls relay! Congratulations girls! Your hard work, dedication and modesty is a true asset to your achievements. They will be competing at the Mackillop Championships in 2 weeks time at Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre. Good luck in all your preparation girls!

Students in Years 3 and 5 participate in the annual NAPLAN tests in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The assessment provides parents and schools with an understanding of how individual students are performing at the time of the tests.

In 2019, your child will sit NAPLAN paper tests. However, children in other schools across Australia will sit the NAPLAN online tests this year. Federal, state and territory education ministers have agreed that all schools will move online by 2020. State and territory education authorities will determine when their schools move online.

NAPLAN paper tests will take place between 14 - 16 May, 2019.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process - it does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance.

All students in Years 3 and 5 are expected to participate in the annual NAPLAN assessment. Students with disability may qualify for adjustments that reflect the support normally provided for classroom assessments. You should first discuss the use of any disability adjustments for your child with your child’s teacher.

A formal exemption may be granted for a student with disability that severely limits their capacity to participate in the assessment, or for a student who has recently arrived in Australia and has a non-English speaking background.

Your school principal can give you more information on special provisions or the process required to gain a formal exemption.

Mother, Daughter and Teacher gave their Gift of Time for the Gift of Bread 

We currently have approx 100 new books for the library that need to be covered with contact. If you have some time available over the coming weeks, could you please contact the school office to let them know. Many thanks in advance.

 

Participant ticket sales are now closed and no further sales for participants can be accommodated.
 

Bookings for Spectators:
Parents and Spectators – are required to purchase tickets through Try Booking. These tickets are ALLOCATED seats and a certain number of seats are available directly behind your children. Once these tickets are sold, there are additional ALLOCATED seats available in the blocks which are located at either end of the Arena


Date:   Thursday, 4th April 2019
Time:   Doors open 4.30 p.m. for a 5.30 p.m. start – finish 8.45 - 9.00 p.m.
Venue: Quaycentre (formerly known as Sports Centre), Corner of Olympic Blvd & Sarah Durack Ave, Sydney Olympic Park, NSW
Drop Off for Students @ Hall of Champions Level 3
Cost:   $9.00 per spectator  
                                 
 
SPECTATOR TICKETING – Tickets will now be pre-sold and allocated seats are bought online through trybooking.com
 
 
STEP 1 – trybooking.com                                     
STEP 2 – enter Dancefever into Search event   
STEP 3 – Click on the Day of the Challenge       
STEP 4 – Click on Book Now        
STEP 5 – Scroll down to your school.  Spectator seating Block
STEP 6 – Enter the Number of Spectator Seats     
STEP 7 – Next         
STEP 8 – Finalise Payment

CLICK HERE - VIP INFORMATION - for registered student participant  info to the Dance Fever Interschool Challenge for 2019.  

We look forward to your company on the night and guarantee a wonderful time for all.  

The following morning on the 5th of April at 8.40am the children will get an opportunity to perform their dance for the school community at the Big Blue Awards.

Kind regards,

Admin

The following resource has been shared by Sydney Catholic Schools to increase family engagement with road safety education.

Important reminder about vehicle movement around schools

It is important to remember of some basic road safety rules around the school.

When “dropping” children before school at carline we remind parents/ carers who disregard this kiss and drop process by getting out of their cars then standing on the pavement, chatting for many minutes with other parents/carers that this is potentially dangerous behaviour. We have also observed children jumping out of cars, in the middle of the road, whilst others wait in the long line of cars behind those parked cars. 

Be mindful of children and their parents walking and cycling to school, as well as those students catching buses or waiting to be picked up by parents in vehicles. Schools can be very busy places at drop off and pick up time, and your courtesy and patience are appreciated.

The 40km/h school zones are in place and are applicable from 8.00am-9.30am and 2.30pm-4.00pm on school days and speeding penalties apply.

If you do speed or park illegally, you can expect a fine and the loss of demerit points.