Term 1 2025 Weeks 3&4
Principal's Message
Dear Parents and Carers,
It has been a busy but productive start to the school year. We are nearly halfway through our first Term and it is lovely to see the students embracing the learning opportunities at Sacred Heart in an engaging and positive way.
Our Opening School Mass was a special celebration with Fr Pius who shared encouraging words for our school community. Our School Leaders - Archie Flipp - School Captain and Campbell Morse - Sports Captain proudly received their badges as they were commissioned into their roles for 2025. Thank you to all who were able to join us at Mass. Please know you are always welcome to do so. Our next Mass will be on Ash Wednesday, 5th March at 12.15pm. We hope to see you there..
Well done to our students Pippa, Isabella and Rex who made it to the Dio Swimming Carnival at Gulgong on Tuesday. Rex is to be congratulated on his success at the Dio Carnival. He will be progressing to the next stage at Dubbo on 11th March. Good luck Rex!
Thank you to all who attended the P & F Meeting on Tuesday, 25th February. Your dedication and time for our school is certainly appreciated.
We are very excited to be hosting the Loreto students in Week 5! Thank you Mrs Hallett who has organised a timetable for the girls time with us at Sacred Heart. We are looking forward to them joining us next week.
Please join us for our Welcome Back BBQ and Parent Information Session next Thursday, 6th March from 5pm - 7pm. The Loreto students will be present to assist in activities with the children while parents are able to listen to the information presented by staff. Please be sure to indicate if you are attending in further correspondence from our school to assist us in catering for the BBQ. Our resident musician is bound to entertain us with their live music!
Our CEBD School Consultant is Steve Muller. He has visited our school twice this term. During his visit on Wednesday, 26th February he did a walk through all the learning spaces and commented on how engaged the students were. When leaving a classroom, one student commented “is he the President or Prime Minister?”.
NAPLAN will commence in Wk 6 - Tuesday 12/3 - Writing, Wednesday 13/3 - Reading and Week 7 - Tuesday 18/3 - Conventions of Language and Wednesday 19/3 - Numeracy. Our Yr 3 and 5 students will be sitting the NAPLAN assessments. Please see the attached information on NAPLAN 2025.
To support the safety, wellbeing and learning of all students and families at Sacred Heart you will find the following attachments on:
School Attendance, Road Safety, Cyber Safety and CEBD Student Wellbeing Framework. Please reach out if you would like information on other related topics.
God Bless.
Kind regards,
Sarah-Jane Canham
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday will be celebrated on Wednesday, 5th March 2025. Our students and staff will attend Mass on Ash Wednesday at 12.15pm. Please know that you are welcome to join us.
What is Ash Wednesday?
The video below provides a great overview of what Ash Wednesday is all about. Ash Wednesday is the start of Lent. Lent is the liturgical season in which we are preparing for Easter. Lent goes for 40 days. During Lent we focus on the three pillars; Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving.
Important Dates
2025
Term 1
25/2/25 - Northern Region Swimming
3/3/25 - Moorambilla @ CCS - Years 3-6
3-7/3/25 - Loreto Partnerships
5/3/25 - Ash Wednesday
7/3/25 - Parent Information Night BBQ
11/3/25 - DIO Swimming
12-24/3/25 - NAPLAN
19/3/25 - Parent Teacher Interviews
24/3/25 - Pupil Free Day
4/4/25 - Cross Country
10/4/25 - Homebush Swimming
SPB4L Focus
Weeks 3 & 4
We arrive and leave the school grounds safely.
We are safe when we follow the playground rules.
Year 1 & 2 News!
Year 1 and 2 have been busy getting back into the swing of school life and I have had a great time getting to know them. They have been practising their handwriting, reading books, writing sentences, ordering numbers in Maths, singing songs and lot's of other fantastic things!
Update With Mrs Pettet
Today marks the first day that I contributed to the newsletter for Term 1. I personally had a wonderful and busy holiday break. I do hope our Sacred Families enjoyed a relaxing break from the hustle and bustle of getting their child or children ready for school Monday to Friday.
Similar to last year, I continue in my role as Learning Support teacher and providing teachers release from face-to-face (RFF). Who I provide release for this year has changed. I provide release for Mrs Palmer once a week, on a Monday, and release for Mrs James on a Wednesday. During their release time, I take Yr 3/4 for Religion. I provide Mrs Kitchin with release on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On a Tuesday, Yr 5/6 have me teach them for both Religion and Visual Arts, Wednesday sees me have them for Music and Drama,
Sadly I have not been timetabled to have K12 for any specific lessons this term. However, lucky for me, Year 1/2 are only next door to me. Thankfully, I get to teach Yr 2 Phonics each day, except for on a Friday. Since I don’t get to work with Kindergarten, I deliberately chat with them when I’m outside, whether I’m on duty or not. I must say, our two Kinder students have settled into Kinder life well and I enjoy watching them play on the equipment when I’m on duty, and enjoy our playground chats.
The focus for Year 5/6 Visual Arts this term is Christmas Art. A Christmas focus at this time of year seems absurd for this time of year. The reasoning is to see the continuation of Year ⅚ participating in the Diocesen Christmas Art Competition. So far, we have looked at primary and secondary colours, and how to work with various shades and tones of the same colour. The students also sketched artwork using perspective techniques taught explicitly in a lesson. This week saw us focus on drawing portraits. If your child is leaning towards including a portrait or portraits in their Christmas Art composition, I strongly advise them to practice drawing portraits at home throughout the term. A useful video to use as a teaching tool for drawing portraits can be found by typing in the search bar: lazyarts how to draw a face for beginners proportion video. I’d share the link, but it is about six lines long.
For Year 5/6 Music, I am using for the first time lessons from a music program called Amplify. So far I am very impressed with the program. I have learnt a few new things from it myself. For Drama, the unit centres on mime and movement.
The photos to follow include photographs of Year 5/6 taking part in a Music lesson and some of their portrait sketches. The remaining photos are of some students using some of the occupational therapy (OT) resources. All students can access these if they organise it with their teacher or myself. I sometimes don’t mind using them myself.
Parent Information Night
Free Webinars
We have some fabulous free learning opportunities for families this term. Please see flyers below for more information and how to register.