Dear Parents and Carers,

Our Character Strength liturgies began on Monday. They are a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the year and to be able to meet up with your child’s teacher before we head off to the holidays in a short while. The Character Strength liturgies have been a tradition at Sacred Heart for many years. They are based on the work the school has done with positive psychology. Each child has one of the 26 strengths highlighted. This is the strength that they have shown in their work and at school over the last year.  You will be sent a reminder by your child’s class teacher. Each liturgy is in the church and all begin after 2pm. The dates are all in the Compass calendar - see the link here. A reminder that all of our events are on this calendar. Please check it often over the next few weeks. It is a live calendar and any changes are immediately reflected here.

A reminder that any Zoom links we provide have a host. As it is our community’s expectation that we keep your children safe, unidentified guests on Zoom will not be let into the meeting by the hosts, i.e. "iphone" or initials are not acceptable.  A first name and last name is essential. 

Our Christmas Fair was a wonderful success. I'm sure the children have told you about their amazing day. As you can see from the photos the children were treated to stalls, fun games, and lots of fun.

The day was not possible without some very hard work by our teachers and our “behind the scenes” parents. The exciting thing was that the fair was actually part of Year One’s Deep Learning Project where they were solving a real world problem : The Spring Fair has been cancelled - what should we do? Year One recruited their learning partners: Year Six, parent consultants, Mosman Council (recycling team) and the school Leadership Team to help them solve the problem. Their answer: The Christmas Fair!.

Thank you to the instigator and organiser of this project, Mrs Petersen. Her enthusiasm, leadership and organisation ensured the Christmas Fair was such a great success. Thank you to the Christmas Team who met regularly with Mrs Petersen - their fun approach and “can do” attitude ensured the Christmas Fair was an event shared by all and used each teacher’s talents. Thank you to Miss Blake, Miss Jackson, Miss Brickley, Mrs Grebe, Miss Conroy, Mrs Ruming and Mrs Jago. 

Thank you to Year Six and their teachers, Mrs Sheehan and Mrs O'Callaghan who put the stalls together and ran the Fair on the day. Thank you to all the teachers in the school who “Decked the School” so that it feels a lot like Christmas here at Sacred Heart!

Five parents answered our “behind the scenes” help callout. Their support in preparing Year Six through consultation meetings and on the day was invaluable. Many thanks to Jacqui McCarthy, Anja Venn, Lynda Griffin, Jennifer Burns and Alison Ramadge for your work and support.

Our teachers are putting together footage of the day and this will be ready when it is finished. We will send you a link when it is complete. 

Our raffle winners were:

Taronga High Rope Voucher - Will B

Soft toy and book - Ewan M

Books - Zahra S 

Orpheum Tickets - Jack W

Lolly Jar correct guess - Isabella E

Congratulations to Mrs. Samantha Edwards who has been appointed to the substantive position of Religious Education Co ordinator at Sacred Heart. This position is as third leader on the leadership team of the school. Mrs Edwards has been in the acting role as REC since Term 2. Samantha has previous experience as an Assistant Principal and Literacy coach. We are very excited by this appointment as it means we go forward into 2021 with a strong leadership team with the ability to continue to move the school’s strategic direction forward.

Regards

Julie Caldwell

Dear School Community,

As the 2020 school year is coming to an end I would like to update you on what has been happening behind the scenes and update you on what our thoughts are for 2021.

Firstly, the P&F met for the final time this year last Tuesday evening 24th of November in person for the first since our meeting in term one. We all agreed that 2020 has been a year we might want to put behind us due to the restrictions that the onset of COVID 19 forced upon us and the P & F committee certainly felt frustrated that we were unable to conduct events we would normally that could bring the school community together. We look forward to 2021 with the optimism that restrictions are lifted and we can get back to a “normal” operating rhythm.

We wish to thank outgoing Parent Liaisons Allison Ramadge and Jenny Winter for their time and effort overseeing and coordinating the efforts of all our class parents. An extraordinary amount of work goes on behind the scenes and Allison and Jenny together have worked quietly and tirelessly. 

Committee members Stefan Mielewski (Annika, Year 6), Henry Pilat (Oliver, Year 6) and Marissa Hughes (Lucinda, Year 3) are leaving  Sacred Heart. We thank them for their time and contribution whilst on the committee. 

As we look to 2021 our focus will be  to support and develop the school community and warmly welcome new families and a  calendar of events has been developed for 2021 with that aim in mind. The exact format for each event remains to be seen as we assess COVID restrictions at the time of each event. There might well be a plan A, plan B and C for each event that takes place but for now we have set aside dates and the intent is to hold these events with those COVID restrictions in mind.

For now two dates for your diaries are the new kindergarten families and new families to the school welcome event on the Saturday the 20th of February. This will be follow by our second event our annual P&F welcome event for all school parents and carers so book your sitters and Save the Date for Saturday the 6th of March.

The full calendar of events we have set aside for now looks as follows:

Date                              Function

20/2/21                         Kindy/New Parents Welcome Event

6/2/21                           2021 Parent Welcome Event

7/5/21                           Mothers Day Breakfast

21/5/21                         School Disco

31/7/21                         Mid Year Parent Social Event

Term 4                           Spring Fair (date TBD)

3/9/21                           Fathers Day Breakfast

4/12/21                         End of Year Social Drinks

We also draw your attention to the four P & F meetings to be held in 2021 starting with the AGM in February where we elect a new executive and committee to operate in 2021 and as always all parents and carers are welcome to attend each of these meetings.

Meeting                                    Date

AGM                                         23/2/21

General Meeting                        8/6/21

General Meeting                        10/8/21

Final meeting                            9/11/21

Looking to 2021 these events don’t happen by themselves and  the school community needs volunteers to make these happen. If you are looking to get involved we encourage you to consider a class parent role or joining the P & F. There are vacancies for 2021 and this is a great way to meet and connect with families across the school. Your kids love seeing you involved and you will have a lot of fun and make new friendships. Please reach out to parentliaison2020@gmail.com if you would like to take on a role or myself on chris.janes@tech2u.com.au or Steph Bailey on curransmr@yahoo.com.au if you have an interest in joining the P & F.

The P & F Committee looks forward to 2021 and seeing the school community active and involved but for now we wish each and every one of you a Happy and Holy Christmas 

Kind Regards

Chris Janes

On behalf of SHM P & F

As our annual swimming carnival has been cancelled for the 2020 year, to accommodate for students who are passionate about competitive swimming we will be asking students to submit their personal best times to be considered for the 2021 Eastern Cluster Swimming Team. For those students who would like to be considered, please complete the following form with details of the events you would like to be considered for; your times and a date this time was achieved. If this is not possible, it would be great if a student could be timed close to the submission of this form - this will also be accepted. To make this process streamlined, we would appreciate it if the times submitted could be verified by a coach or representative.  

A reminder to any families leaving Sacred Heart, the Clothing pool welcomes donations of good quality uniforms. Similarly if there are any families looking to buy good quality second-hand items, it is a good time to buy them prior to the end of this year.

In line with Sydney Catholic Schools guidelines around attendance and school processes, there have been recent changes to Compass and the way that attendance notes can be entered and saved. 

For student leave greater than 10 school days outside of the school vacation period, parents will need to contact the school submitting an application form via email to info@shmosman.catholic.edu.au  this form is available in the School Documentation area in Compass, or appears as a pop-up when a parent attempts to add an Attendance note for a period greater than 10 days.  All applications will be reviewed by the school and approved at the discretion of the Principal. 

Further to this, Attendance notes entered via Compass requesting student leave between 5-10 school days will also be reviewed by the school.  These notes can be entered into Compass and parents will notice a pop-up stating this.  Upon receiving the note, the school will review the request and contact the parent/caregiver should amendments be made to the note or the attendance code requested. 

We thank you for your support with this and appreciate the time and effort of our parents/caregivers to regularly access Compass, especially in the area of attendance and explaining absences. 

COMPASS: