Dear Parents, Carers, Students and Staff,

Winter is certainly upon us and I don’t know about you – but I didn’t need to look at my calendar to realise it was here! The nights are suddenly very cold and frosty. We might be excited by reports of the snow fields opening earlier than planned for the ski season to begin in earnest but for the many homeless people across Australia the freezing weather will be a very hard cross to bear.

According to Homelessness Australia the homeless rate in Australia has increased 13.7% in the last five years. Homelessness Australia uses statistics from the ABS Census of Housing and Population and the AIHW Specialist Homeless Services data collection. The ABS Census is conducted every five years, with the most recent release being for 2016. These figures indicate that across Australia 116,427 people were counted in the Census as being homeless on Census night 2016 (up from 102,439 in 2011). In NSW alone there were 37715 people homeless which equates to 50.4 people per 1000 of the population. This figure represents an increase of 37% since 2011. 

To put this national figure in perspective, Australia’s two largest stadiums are each not large enough to hold this many people. The Melbourne Cricket Ground has a capacity of just over 100,000 and Stadium Australia can hold around 83,500 people.  It is difficult to imagine that so many people can be sleeping rough or otherwise homeless in Australia in 2021. Closer to home for all of us, it has been wonderful to see such a generous response from our school community to support the St Vincent De Paul hamper appeal. These hampers will be presented to our local Vinnie’s chapter at assembly this Friday.

With best wishes,

Steve Conlon

Acting Principal

Parent Teacher interviews

At this stage, our Parent Teacher interviews for Semester 1 are planned for Week 10.

The use of Zoom for Parent Teacher interviews in 2020 was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from parents and so we are considering its use again in 2021. Please complete this short poll to indicate your views so that we may plan accordingly for our school: Strawpoll

Finally, we would like to invite students to participate in Parent Teacher interviews this year. Of course, it is entirely up to parents to make that decision, but from a school perspective, the students are more than welcome to join the discussions.

More information will be sent in coming weeks about dates and how to book your interviews.

Enrichment opportunities for 2021

Our students will be told this week of their acceptance into our Enrichment program. Classes have recently completed their assessments (including AGAT, PAT Maths and PAT Reading), and we have also taken into account the additional reports from health professionals, parent nominations and teacher nominations. We have endeavoured to accept students performing in the top 20th percentile of our standardised assessments.

We will repeat the process for 2022 at the end of the year, and will base selections for Enrichment in 2022 using the above data and assessment results from the end of 2021. Those students who were not selected this round may just not be ready at the moment, but the process will occur again to ensure opportunity, fairness and equity.

We definitely want to assure parents that there is quality differentiation occurring across the curriculum for all students in all grades so that we can best meet the needs of students across the school.

Tell Them From Me survey

Tell Them From Me is a survey organised by Sydney Catholic Schools used to identify areas of success and challenge within schools, and identify areas for growth in coming years. I believe that an email was sent to all within our community about the survey last week, but it can inevitably be caught up in the myriad of emails that you will all receive each day.

We would like as many responses as possible for our school survey. If you would like to complete the survey, you are more than welcome. All responses are confidential and anonymous. For more information, please head to tellthemfromme.com/shmosman2021.

Carline

The school has been given some feedback regarding carline both before and after school. We have more staff allocated to carline than ever before and all staff are trained on what to do to ensure its effectiveness, but we still have issues from time to time.

Some things to be mindful of:

• Stay in your car at all times. This will keep carline moving, particularly in the mornings when there are no teachers available to supervise.
• When waiting to move through the crossing, be mindful of looking ahead to see when there is room to move forward. Avoid your mobile phone or chatting with other parents on the footpath.
• Be aware of ‘no standing’ zones. Rangers from Mosman Council are vigilant with their monitoring.
• Wait until the road is clear to move through the crossing. If there are cars or buses on the other side of the crossing, it is best to stay put until it is clear. This keeps our crossing safe and clear for students and teachers.

The safety of our students, teachers and parents is paramount.

ICAS (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools)

Each year, we offer the opportunity for parents to book their child into an ICAS assessment. This year, parents will have the opportunity to purchase an assessment for their child to participate in Science, English and Mathematics and Spelling Bee for Years 2-6. There are no assessments for Kindergarten and Year 1.

To book an ICAS assessment for your child, please head to bit.ly/icasparent and use our school code WZQ733.

Dance Fever

Week 10 of this term is shaping up to be a very busy week for our community. The Interschool Dance Fever Challenge is scheduled for Wednesday, 23rd June and will be held at Ken Rosewall Tennis Centre in Homebush Bay. We have been told that it is alongside the State Sports Centre where it has been held previously.

A Compass Event has been created and will be shared with parents today. Online consent required via Compass and your account will automatically be billed.  While tickets for parents, family or friends can be purchased via Trybooking. Please see the Compass Event for more information.

Uniform

Winter made quite the entrance this year, with temperatures dropping in recent weeks. It was great to see so many students wearing school jackets and jumpers (and of course, Year 6 in their new jerseys with thanks to the Year 6 class parents). We are reminding students to ensure that their name is on all clothing brought to school.

It is also a good time to remind all students about the best way to wear their uniform. In particular, we are reminding boys about their ties being worn, and being worn properly as well as their shirts tucked. We are reminding the girls about their ties too. We are trying to reinforce how positive it is to be known for your tidiness and being well presented.

School Disco

As the great Billy Joel once said, Oh! What a night! The school disco was a fantastic night for students to gather together in our School Hall for a night of dancing, activities, challenges and of course, some pizza and other culinary delights. Nights like this don’t just happen. We had a great team of parents who were on site from 11.30am led by Mrs Golshan Cowan among others. Mrs Alison Ramadge was also excellent in communicating with the school as to how it might be organised. Thanks to all the parents who gave of their time and effort! An additional thank you to all of our teachers who gave their Saturday so that students could enjoy their night. Thanks to all!

Mr Nick Brierley

Assistant Principal

Please note that the next SHM P & F meeting has been changed from Tuesday 8^th of June to Wednesday the 16^th of June.   7.00pm in the school hall.

Saint Marcellin Champagnat Founder Day - this Friday 4th June

All students in the Champagnat Colour House (Gold Colour) are invited to wear their Sports Uniform this Friday, to acknowledge the Feast Day of Saint Marcellin Champagnat (Sunday, 6th June).

Vinnies Winter Hampers

Thank you to the Sacred Heart Community for your generosity in sending items for the Vinnies Winter Appeal Hampers. If you wish to donate any more items, please do so by tomorrow, 3rd of June. Thank you!

Sacred Heart Feast Day- next Friday, 11th June 

The Feast of the Sacred Heart celebrates Jesus’ divine love for humanity. It falls on the 2nd Friday after Pentecost. Our Sacred Heart Feast Day Mass will begin next Friday 11th June @ 9:15am led by Year Four. Parents of children in Yrs Two, Three and Four are most welcome to attend the Mass - please come 10-15 mins earlier to sign in.

In the afternoon, we will be presenting our Vinnies Winter Hampers to St Vincent de Paul Representative, Peter Marshall. Hampers will be presented on the Basketball court from 2.40pm. Parents are welcome to attend. 

Thank you for your continued support of our Religious Education Initiatives.

Kristen Jackson

Religious Education Coordinator..

The Fruit of the Week - Pears!

This week I have been really getting into Pears! To me, they are the underrated fruit in the garden. They can make a salad really pop! Some would say, they are good in pairs! *Queue knee slap here* The Pyrus communis, the latin word for pear, is a popular and globally consumed fruit. The pear fruit was originally seen to be cultivated and consumed in China as early as 2000 BC! Pears grow similar to apples. They grow on trees and when they ripen they fall to the ground. Pears are highly nutritious fruits and contain a number of health benefit goodies. Such as Fibre, Vitamin C and K, potassium and Copper. Pears are also super good for your gut health! And you know what they say, a healthy gut is a healthy body! Well...they don’t really say it but they should! So next time you make a salad, try adding a pear to it. Apparently they pair perfectly with other things.

Sport

I would like to thank all the wonderful parents who assisted in this year’s Athletics Carnival. The day was an absolute blast and the students had a wonderful time. We at Sacred Heart are very blessed to have such a supportive and involved parent body. Again, thank you all so much for assisting and to those who attended as spectators. We appreciate having you there!

Athletics - High Jump and Long Jump

As the High Jump and Long Jump were not present at this year’s Athletics Carnival, Mr De-Villiers will be taking Expressions of Interest for those who would like to compete in these events. To be considered for these events students will need to know the technique required for these events to avoid disqualification when participating in the events. Please send the following information to Mr De-Villiers or if you have any questions.

1. Name and age of student
2. Events to enter and length/height achieved
3. When and where it was achieved

COMPASS: