Dear Parents and Carers                                                             

   

Lent - Be More! 

Today is Be Kind Day at school. 

Students were greeted today by our school leaders and a very special welcome. Children have been given kindness tokens to acknowledge when someone has been kind to them. While we encourage the practice of kindness and support students in their friendships through wellbeing, it is relevant to look at why we do what we do as a school. Our core purpose as a Catholic School is to spread the message of Jesus and the gospel values. If we look at His three year ministry much of what He did is the blueprint for living a good life. A life of kindness. He expressed forgiveness, He included the marginalised, He showed love and compassion. We hope that all members of our community share these same values and we hope to be a community that is characterised by our commitment to kindness, based on the modelling of Jesus.

Cross Country Trials 11th March

The Cross Country Carnival was cancelled last week due to an impending storm. It will be replaced by Cross Country trials only and has been moved to the 11th March. As we need to get our team selections organised quickly for the Conference carnival at Eastern Creek we would like only the students who are competing for a place in the team to attend as we would need to go ahead with the event even if we have poor weather conditions.

Kinder Welcome Event

Many thanks to all the Kinder parents who attended the Kinder Welcome event on Friday evening. It was a chance for our current parents and new parents to meet. Thank you to our Kindergarten parents who organised the event supported by the P and F. Thank you to Chris Janes our President and Claire Tynan for assisting.

Enrichment

Please see Mr Brierley’s information regarding Enrichment opportunities at Sacred Heart.

From the P and F 

Sacred Heart Mosman has been fortunate to receive support from Ritchies at Spit Junction for many years.  Since its inception, the program has raised over $4,500 for the school, via the P&F Association. Ritchies are updating their community rewards program and we need your help to continue receiving support.

For those that shop at Ritchies at Spit Junction, the school will receive 0.5% for every dollar you spend in the Ritchies Stores if you sign up for membership with Ritchies via their apps and scan your phone each time you shop.

All you need to do is:

1. Download the app (using the QR codes below)
2. Register your email address
3. Nominate “Sacred Heart School Mosman P&F” as your preferred Community Benefit Program under the “Community” tab in the app
4. Scan your phone each time your shop at the store

You’ll be able to see a running total of how much the school has received, and also be eligible for special offers etc with Ritchies.  It will work at the Spit Junction store, plus other Ritchies locations in NSW, VIC and QLD.

This is a straightforward, hassle-free way to support the school.  Thank you for your help!

QR Codes for the apps are below.

The next few weeks…these dates are also contained on the sidebar of our newsletter and the calendar on the homepage of Compass.

Week 6

4th March David Harrington - Indigenous Perspectives

5th March David Harrington -  Indigenous Perspectives

Week 7

7th March Year 6 2020 - Reunion Mass

9th March - Year 4 Rocks Excursion

10th March - Year 4 Reconciliation

11th March - Cross Country Trials

11th March - Grade One Mass

12th March School Photographs - summer uniform

Week 8

16th March - Sports Club Meeting 7pm

17th March - Confirmation Family Night - parish

18th March - Year 5 Reconciliation

19th March School Athletics Carnival (Years 2-6)

19th March - School Open Day for prospective parents 2022

I hope you have a lovely week!

Regards

Julie Caldwell

Students celebrating birthdays at SHM

Birthdays are such a special time for our students. They love to create birthday charts in classrooms, do ‘countdowns’ to the big day and whole class ‘Happy Birthday’ songs (outside, of course).

Most parents and guardians would be aware that a number of difficulties arise when students celebrate birthdays at school. We would like to remind parents of two particular requests from the school:

• We have asked that no foods or gifts be brought to school to celebrate birthdays. Due to COVID-19 regulations, we ask as a general rule that items brought from the home of one student do not go home with another student at the end of the day.
• Additionally, we would ask that when inviting children to a birthday party or celebration, we would ask that invites are not handed out at school, namely in the playground or the classroom. This can be particularly upsetting for some students who are not invited - so we would ask that it is done privately outside of school.

Literacy and Numeracy Enrichment opportunities for 2021

At Sacred Heart, we firmly believe in offering an education to our students that is rigorous, engaging and allows each child to achieve. We understand that each student possesses areas of strength, interest and need. We notice each student.

For a number of years, the Enrichment program at Sacred Heart has offered a range of experiences and opportunities for our students that challenge and extend beyond the chronological age curriculum. The Enrichment program will continue in 2021 with an extensive screening process to allow the most eligible candidates to join the programs. The selection process will be repeated each year.

In order to be accepted into the Literacy or Numeracy Enrichment programs, students will be assessed in a number of ways via:

• NEW: CogAT (Cognitive Abilities Test) screeners (provided by ACER)
• Data from the ACER PAT standardised assessments in Reading and Maths administered every six months
• NEW: External reports from a range of health professionals when students undergo assessments that identify intelligent quotient (IQ) as well as abilities in verbal comprehension, visual spatial, fluid reasoning, working memory and processing speed
• Nominations from class teachers
• NEW: Nominations from parents

In the past, we have used teacher nominations and data from class assessment and standardised tests. Our aim is to ensure that the process is transparent and as fair as possible to allow the most eligible candidates to receive a place for the current calendar year. 

Nominations for Enrichment from parents

We would like to invite parents and guardians to participate in the nomination process this year. Nominations are open from today (Wednesday 3rd March) and will close for processing early next week (Tuesday 9th March). Either follow this link or scan the QR code below:

Mrs Russell

We would like to thank Mrs Susan Russell for the time, effort and care that she has offered to the students participating in the Enrichment projects over the past several years. She is currently caring for her gravely ill husband and so I will commence Enrichment lessons from Week 8.

Thank You

Thank you to all of the parents, guardians and community who continue to not only support our Enrichment programs, but support the teaching and learning at Sacred Heart. I will be managing our Enrichment programs moving forward at Sacred Heart for the remainder of 2021 so would be the best person to contact if you have any questions or concerns. Feel free to email nicholas.brierley@syd.catholic.edu.au any time.

Mr Nick Brierley

Assistant Principal

School photo day is Friday 12th March.   Students to wear Summer Uniform. Please see the flyer to order school photos here.

If you have a child or someone you know has a child due to start Kindergarten in 2022 - our Open Day is coming up on Friday 19th March.  Bookings are essential.  Please contact the school office to book a suitable time.  

Sacred Heart values the input and time given by the many volunteers who help create safe and productive learning environments for our students.

Persons seeking to volunteer in any capacity eg excursions, reading groups, Athletics or Swimming Carnivals in a SCS school MUST complete this SCS Induction each year and obtain a Working With Children Check (WWCC) from the Roads and Maritime Services. This is a compulsory requirement. 

If you wish to become a volunteer this year you must complete the Volunteers Working with Children (WWC) Accreditation Process (WWC Accreditation Process), which involves being inducted in child protection, reading and understanding the obligations and procedures under the relevant child protection legislation and SCS policies, as well as providing your Working With Children Check (WWCC) clearance number for verification by SCS. Please click on the following link to complete this process.  

It is expected that all volunteers (including parents, family members) will support this process if they wish to be approved to volunteer in an SCS school. 

If you have any further questions, please contact the school office.

COMPASS: