Term 3 - Week 6 (19th August)

Student Protection Contacts

From The Principal

Professional Learning Plan – Our school is no different to any other school when it comes to continuously shifting the way we do things to ensure the very best, research based, teaching occurs in every classroom for every child. There is a lot of good work that goes on ‘behind the scenes’ with teacher's and school officer's (‘teacher aides’) learning and then applying these new practices. While engaging in this learning and doing everything else is very tricky, often choosing what to focus on over what not to focus on, is one of the hardest things to do.

Even as parents, we want to do everything that we can for our children. However, when we try to do this, we end up doing fifteen different things not so well; confusing ourselves and our children in the process. It is like trying to prepare a three-course meal for numerous guests and coordinating everything and everyone to meet the deadlines and expectations. Similarly in our schools, we have tried to implement many different things at once because there are so many good things we can do to progress children in their social, emotional, academic and spiritual learning. When we try to do this however, we look back after five years and can’t honestly say that something has ‘stuck’ for every learner.

For a number of months now, our teachers have been engaged in a process of conversation in determining what our focus at Sacred Heart is going to be for the next 3 years. The very sharp focus is going to be on ensuring that our children become good learners. This will include everyone knowing what it means to be a ‘good learner’ and children knowing what they are learning and how they are to be successful when they are ‘doing’ something. Embedding this across our school will involve:

• The frequent collection of student voice - checking in with students across the school by questioning them against our priorities. ‘Student agency’ ensures that children know that they have a voice in the learning. They should be able to answer these questions at any time:
  • What are you learning about (the ‘learning intention’ of the lesson)?
  • How are you doing (the ‘success criteria’ of the lesson)?
  • How do you know (how you are doing)?
  • How can you improve?
  • Where do you go for help?
• Parent voice – engaging our families in what a ‘good learner’ does and how we are going about doing this for our children – together. This will also include gathering feedback from you as to how we are going.
• Teacher voice – frequently checking with our teachers to ensure that they are clear on the focus. Our professional learning team meetings will focus on impact cycles of student growth against this priority.
• Peer observations – teachers observing each other ensuring that there is consistency of practice for our learners and that we continue to learn from one another.
• Learning data collection - continuous collaborative moderation of student progress against agreed benchmarks.

This focus will equip our children with the tools and strategies to be resilient in a changing world. Not surprisingly, this focus is also clearly stated in our strategic plan amongst other priorities. Why this priority? We believe that focusing on this priority, will bring about high levels of success in all other areas for our children.

Special Meeting – As mentioned in our last newsletter, a ‘Special Meeting’ will be held on Monday 29^th of August where we will vote on a move to consolidate the school Board and the Parents and Friends Association to become the ‘Sacred Heart Parent Engagement Network’. This meeting will be held in our school’s staffroom at 6pm. This meeting will include parents from St Anthony’s Primary School who will speak of their experience in moving to this model in recent years. More information will be emailed out on the ‘why’ of this change soon. Every family is welcome to attend either online or face to face.

New Technologies Plan – This year we have been investigating a move from the current one-to-one iPad program that is currently in place from years 1-6, to a new program. The new program, beginning in 2023, will see children from Years 1 to 3 using school-based iPads with our Years 4 to 6 students using school based laptops. This will be a move away from take home leased devices and ‘bring you own devices’ (BYOD), to a school levy which will cover the provision of these devices at school. The levy will be a part of the school fee structure. We believe there will be many learning benefits to this shift of approach. In the meantime, we ask families that were thinking about purchasing a BYOD for next year, to not do this for school purposes. From next year, there will be no BYODs at our school. More information will be coming to all families on this soon.

Email Communication – communication is the heartbeat of any school and therefore we have a number of different ways that we can communicate with one another. Recently, schools across our diocese have rolled out the ‘Sentral’ parent portal. While this platform is great for communication out from the school to you (e.g.  reports, messages, excursions), and great for families to report student absences, for now, we ask that email is used to communicate directly with teachers. We ask that you allow 24 hours for your teacher to respond. Please email the office if you feel that your email has been missed. If an urgent message needs to get to your child’s teacher, a phone call to the office is best. It goes without saying, that a quick chat at the end of a school day is also welcome.

Book Week – This week our school has celebrated ‘Book Week’. The ‘Readers Cup’ challenge has been coordinated by Mrs Watkins and Mrs Wheeler with much fun being had across all year levels. Thank you for your support of our book week parade yesterday – the children had a blast! Thank you too goes to Mrs Watkins and Mrs Wheeler for the running of our ‘Book Fair’ in the library. It’s been wonderful to see children showing each other their new books. The proceeds of this fair comes back to our library, ensuring that we continue to provide quality literature for our children.

Congratulations – to Christopher Quick and Anita Juac on their recent qualification into the ‘West Zone’ team to attend the Darling Downs Athletics Carnival on Wednesday 24^th  August. We wish them a fun day of competition – good luck!

God bless,
Mr Tyronne Maher

From The APRE

Hospitality in Action in 5L
Our Year 5s have been busy getting ready to welcome a new student to their class. They brainstormed ways to make a new student feel welcome and then they broke off into little working parties of their choosing. Some groups are creating a virtual tour of Sacred Heart, while others have organised a desk ready for him and have designed a name tag for his desk. Others have written letters and cards; some have made welcome signs and others have volunteered to be his buddy while he settles in. Thank you to our Year 5 students and Ms Kelly for your efforts to live out the Mercy value of Hospitality!

Father’s Day at Sacred Heart
Our next Assembly will be dedicated to celebrating Father’s Day! On Monday, 29^th August at 2:15 pm, 4C will lead a Prayer Celebration and all families are most welcome!
This year as part of our celebration, we will be sharing a photo story of our amazing Sacred Heart fathers and those who are like fathers to us. All Sacred Heart families are invited to send in a maximum of two photos to be included in this photo story. All photos must be sent into Mrs Lucas via email (alice.lucas@twb.catholic.edu.au) by Friday, August 26th at 3:00 pm. Late photos may not make the photo story, so start getting them in ASAP!

Relationships and Sexuality Education
In Week 8, the relationships and sexuality education (RSE) lessons will be taught to children from Prep to Year 6. Please have a conversation with your child/children and clarify any questions that they have after these lessons.
These lessons are part of the Australian Health and Physical Education (HPE) Curriculum of our school and all schools across Australia.
Please be assured that this material will be handled with sensitivity. Below are the learning intentions for each year level which are derived straight from the Australian Health and Physical Education (HPE) Curriculum. You will also receive a note home with further details for each year level. If you have any questions or concerns about the content being covered or your child's participation in these lessons, please contact your child’s classroom teacher.

Families play an important role in your child’s relationships and sexuality education. Please take the time to maintain an open dialogue with your child by being a good listener, giving honest answers and trying to understand your child’s point of view and feelings.

Kind Regards,
Mrs Alice Lucas
Assistant Principal Religious Education

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from: Pin on Faith (pinterest.com.au)

From The Middle Leader/Curriculum Co-ordinator

The Importance of Reading…… and not just in Book Week:
This week sees the celebration of Book Week and at Sacred Heart we immerse the students in various opportunities to explore all types of stories and discuss the storylines and features of these focused books. However, reading is a valuable skill regardless of the time of year. One key benefit of teaching the habit of reading is the development of critical thinking skills. Reading books increases knowledge, enhances inventiveness, builds vocabulary and generally makes you smarter. By reading with a child daily they can learn new words and this regular and consistent reading can help improve a child’s concentration abilities. Overall, one of the most important skills any child can leave primary school with is the ability to read independently and effectively for meaning.

Mrs Charlie Barrett
Middle Leader/Curriculum Co-ordinator

From the Learning Support Teacher

Learning Support Teacher wears many hats. Today’s article is about the Student Support Committee.

The Student Support Committee is a collaborative approach to dealing with behavioural, academic and/or emotional problems that students may encounter in the school and home environment.
The team is composed of the Principal, Assistant Principal, Middle Leader, Guidance Counsellor, Classroom Teacher, Learning Support Teacher and sometimes specialist agencies involved with the child. The classroom teacher or a team member can refer the student to the committee. The committee meets twice a term for each class.
The Student Support Committee process is an effective, proactive approach to problem solving at Sacred Heart. In some cases, concerns can be addressed in one session while in other situations the support may be ongoing. Sometimes there is a need to refer parents to other agencies (e.g. a Speech and Language therapist). The problems that are addressed are many and varied. Anxiety, lack of concentration, an inability to make friends and delayed progress in learning, are illustrative of the types of issues that are addressed.
By tapping into the collective wisdom of the group, the team is able to assess performance, discuss relevant background issues and pool ideas on effective means of supporting a child's learning and development. As team members bring a diversity of expertise, perspectives and ideas to the process, the collaborative problem solving generates strategies, approaches, interventions, and plans which are to be regularly reviewed to achieve maximum effectiveness. The action resulting from the meeting will be addressed by a team member and reviewed at the next meeting.

Mrs Anne Robinson
Learning Support Teacher

From the Guidance Counsellor

Introduction to Fear-Less Triple P
Anxiety is the most common emotional difficulty experienced by primary aged school students. Parents can assist their children, identify and manage their emotions and develop resilience and coping strategies with access to the right tools and knowledge.  Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) has recently released a new program which focusses on assisting parents with their children’s anxiety. This free online evidence-based program is developed by Clinical Psychologists and can help parents feel more confident in their approach to parenting.

Fear-Less Triple P Online

• Get a better understanding of anxiety and fear and what can be done about it.
• Get a whole range of tools and strategies based on proven principles.
• Know what to do when your child is anxious or upset.
• You choose what works for you – adapt to suit your family, your values.
• Do it on your phone, computer, or tablet.
• Videos and fun interactive learning.
• 24/7 online, at your place, at your pace.
• Track your progress and print your certificate.

The Fear-Less Triple P Program is part of the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program. Fear-Less isn’t about eliminating fear altogether – sometimes, fear protects us. Instead, it’s about giving your family a toolbox of strategies, skills, and knowledge to manage anxious feelings and stop unnecessary worrying. Fear-Less Triple P is based on extensive research with families of anxious children by clinical psychologists. It can work for you too — and now it’s online! Seven informative modules

1. Understanding Anxiety
2. Promoting emotional resilience
3. Setting a good example & encouraging realistic thinking
4. Understanding Avoidance
5. Responding to children’s anxiety
6. Constructive problem solving and maintaining progress
7. Parenting during COVID-19

Click on this link to Find out more today

Mrs Sarah Jackman
Guidance Counsellor

Class Awards

Class In Focus

PREP C & PREP J

We made it to 100 days! The Prep students had a fabulous time celebrating their 100^th day of school. They presented their collections of 100 items to the group and then had a morning of activities based around the number 100. As usual, we had a wide variety of very creative collections. We’d like to say a big thank you to the Prep parents for your support in this project!
In our Integrated Unit this term we are examining the weather and how this impacts our daily choices, as well as some of the features of maps and places that are special to the students.
By now you will have received an invitation to our Father’s Day liturgy and play afternoon. Please return this form so that we can cater accordingly.
Keep an eye out for information (soon to be released) about alphabet day and how we will be celebrating the students learning all the letters of the alphabet!
Please keep working on high frequency words with your child. These are vital for students as they continue on their reading and writing journey.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher if you have any questions about any of the Prep happenings.

Ms Jesse Curtis and Ms Mandy Johnson

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From The Arts

DANCE AND DRAMA

All classes are currently exploring different aspects of Drama and Dance during their “Arts” lessons. I hope they are coming home telling you about the wonderful creations they are making in class. There will be short plays performed at the end of the term showcasing Year 5 and 6. They will be able to share their talents with the Prep classes.

2022 Book Fair and Book Week Dress Up Parade

Book Fair

Book Week Dress up Parade

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2023 Enrolment Intention

To help us with the 2023 class structure and enrolment numbers, it would be appreciated if you would please complete the '2023 Enrolment Intention' Form if your child/ren are NOT returning in 2023.  Please click on the link below to complete. We ask that this form be completed as soon as possible.  Thank you for your attention into this matter. 

https://forms.office.com/Pages...

The Uniform Shop

Thank you for your continued support of the school’s uniform shop.
Normal Uniform Shop hours:
Mondays & Thursdays 8.00am - 10:30am.
If Monday is a holiday, the Uniform Shop will open on a Tuesday.
Red anklet socks (sizes 2-8 & 8-11) are $5.00 on special.

FREE BUTTONS available for Boys’ red shirt, girls’ red and white blouse & Prep red polo.
The uniform shop carries donated pre-loved items (including Prep).
Thank you for all the donations to the uniform shop these are greatly appreciated. Please continue to support the uniform shop with donations. These can be left at the office.
*We accept Cash, EFTPOS or Layby*   Please note: this is at the Uniform Shop ONLY
Ms Betty Davison
CONVENOR

School Crossing Safety

St Ursula's College Fun + Fitness Challenge Day

National Tree Day

Sacred Heart Parish