Sacred Heart Primary School Toowoomba eNewsletter

Student Protection Contacts

From The Principal

Dear Families,
Rewarding Effort and Progress - Next Wednesday, your child’s Semester 2 Report, will go ‘live’ on the Sentral Parent App. Reporting to an A to E scale is a mandatory government requirement and this happens in all state and catholic schools. As adults, in a world of results, benchmarks to reach, deadlines to meet and promotions to be attained, it is easy to become focused on results. When we do this with our children, we are unaware of the negative message that we send to our children. When the result becomes the focus, our children come to think that not reaching the ‘result’, means that they are not progressing. Rarely, do we focus on the progress our children have made and the effort that they have applied.
We would challenge all parents to talk about their child’s growth and the work that they have put in. They will talk about the A’s and B’s too, but this is often because we as the adults tend to focus too much on them. Instead, talk with your child about what they didn’t know or couldn’t do at the start of the year or semester, and compare it to what they know or can do now. Children need to feel that they are successful and need to be reminded of their achievements. A letter on a report card will not do this alone.
Next week, as part of our final assembly, we recognize a boy and a girl from each year level who have made exceptional progress this year through personal application of good learning behaviours. These learners are not those who have necessarily received an ‘A’ on their reports. These children have been resilient, organised, cooperative and persistent in their efforts and their progress is reflective of this. We look forward to celebrating the achievements of these students and others. All families are welcome to attend our assembly next Friday, the 2^nd December from 10:45am. The 2022 year will conclude at 12pm with all children leaving for their holidays.

Christmas Concert - Preparations for our 2022 Christmas Concert, on 29^th November, are in full swing. Our Music Teacher, Miss Cherie Runciman, along with our parent group and classroom teachers, have been busily preparing our children for their musical items. Please note the following details for the evening:

There will be food stalls and Christmas craft (made by your children) stalls in operation. Please bring cash. All purchases will be cash only.
The Parent Engagement Network are supplying 2 slices of Pizza, a juice and a ice block to each of the students (free of charge).
Our barbeques will be serving food from 5pm with a chip and dagwood dog van running too. There will also be baked items for those who might like to enjoy these while watching the show.
Food will not be served after 6:15pm. This will ensure that our volunteers are able to watch their children perform. The performance will begin in the hall at 6:30pm.
Your children are required to wear a particular standard of dress for their performance:

Please see the ‘Arts’ section of our newsletter for this information.
Students will be required to sit in their designated class areas during the concert.

Thank you to our Parent Engagement Network and all our parent volunteers for their work in both the preparation and running of the event. A special thank you too to our Parish for the use of their chairs on the night and to St Mary’s College for providing us with their portable stage. We are sure that our families will have a great time. We look forward to seeing you there.

Board and P&F News
Further to the news offered by our Parent Engagement Network Secretary (Mr Scott Alston) in this newsletter, we would like to thank our Parent Engagement Network (PEN) for their work this year and their dedication; contributing positively to our children and school community in general.
A special thank you to this year’s president, Mrs Liz Lucht. Prior to the decision being made to merge our ‘Parent’s and Friends (P&F) Association’ and school ‘Board’, Liz was president of the P&F and a member of the school board. When the merge occurred, Liz agreed to stay on in this position for the PEN for the remainder of this year. Like many members of our PEN, Liz has networked fantastically in our community, and, in doing so, has continued nurturing the positive ‘vibe’ that those before her have established, drawing in all families to be a part of ‘what we do’ at Sacred Heart. We wish Liz and her family all the best for the year ahead.

‘Up’ Morning - Last Thursday our children took part in our ‘Up’ morning. At this time, all children, including our 2023 Prep children, moved ‘up’ to their classes of 2023. This important routine serves the purpose of establishing the very important relationships between students and with their teacher. This introduction also reduces some of the natural anxiety that change causes. All of the children were very excited and had an enjoyable morning with their 2023 classmates and teacher.

Congratulations and Farewell - This being our last newsletter for the year, on behalf of our school community, I would like to congratulate our Year 6 Leaders and our Prep Students.
Congratulations to our Prep Students on completing their first official year of schooling. The engagement of our families in the progress of their children has been outstanding.
Finally, to our Year 6 Leaders, well done on completing your 7^th year of primary schooling. We have been blessed with a fine group of leaders this year and we are confident, with the continued support of their families, that they will continue to represent themselves well at their respective high schools. We wish you all the best for the future.
For those leaving our school, we wish you health and happiness and thank you for being a part of Sacred Heart School. We wish Ms Mandy Johnson, Mrs Anne Robinson, Mrs Mallory Anderson and Ms Heidi Kelly, all the best for the year ahead. We are very thankful for your time and energy and the support of your respective families. Teaching is one of the most rewarding, yet challenging and time demanding vocations in the world and behind each of us, is a supportive and understanding family. We also wish Mrs Kerry Weber, one of our dedicated school officers, a restful 6 months ahead with her family as she takes some well-deserved long service leave. We look forward to seeing her in the new year.
Thank you to all of our families for your support of your children and our community at Sacred Heart Primary School this year. It’s been a pleasure working with such a professional school team and an engaged parent group this year. I look forward to continuing along with you all next year, in achieving our school goals for the good of our learners.

I wish you all a safe and blessed Christmas break.

Mr Tyronne Maher

From The APRE

Compassion in Action
Thank you all for your support of our Compassion in Action Appeal! As I made my way around the classrooms it really was heart-warming to see the baskets and yellow buckets quickly filling up with donations! Donations are welcome to be brought into our classes through to Friday morning. Each class will bring their donations forward as a part of the Graduation and Awards Presentation next Friday morning. Our donations will then be shared amongst the Vinnies Christmas Appeal and the Yellow Bridge’s Yellow Bucket Challenge.

Feast of Christ the King
Thank you to our Year 5 students for leading our final Assembly prayer this week. Their handmade symbols made the sacred space look beautiful.

A focus on the teaching of RE
This week we were fortunate enough to be joined by Mrs Lee ann Weekes who modelled various Advent themed Religious Education (RE) lessons in various classes from Prep to Year 4. Lee ann is an Education Officer from the Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office. Teachers then met with Lee ann and I to start the planning of our RE units for Term 1 next year. It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on this year’s teaching of RE and also to look forward to next year.

Christmas Concert
There really is a buzz around the school as we prepare to come together as a school community for our Christmas Concert. This is my first Christmas Concert at Sacred Heart and from what I have heard it is a highlight of the school’s calendar! I look forward to seeing as many families as possible at the Christmas Concert next Tuesday night!

Thank you
I would like to thank all the staff, families and students for making me feel so welcome here at Sacred Heart. When I am asked what I do or where I am now teaching, I am proud to say that I am a part of the Sacred Heart community. It really has been a pleasure getting to know everyone and I look forward to 2023. Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a safe holiday!

Mrs Alice Lucas

Prayer of the Week

Image retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/519813981986700570/

From The Middle Leader/Curriculum Co-ordinator

ASSESSMENT AND REPORTING
Throughout the semester teachers conduct various types of assessment and then at the end of each semester report cards are written and provided to students and their families. Getting a report card is a big moment for both students and their parents. Some students are excited and happy about it, others feel stressed and anxious. Please remember to share the progress with your children; praise them for their successes and the positive points that are reported.

Overall, the purpose of assessment is to:

promote, assist and improve teaching and learning
help students to achieve the highest standards they can
provide parents/carers with meaningful information on students’ achievements and information for reporting and certification.

For Sacred Heart families, the Report Cards for Semester Two, 2022, will be available on the Parent Portal on Wednesday 30^th November. These reports are a summary statement that records the achievement of students for the end of this last 6 months. Teachers make a judgement based on their shared professional knowledge about how evidence in student work (in various forms of assessment) matches the achievement standards.

If you are interested in reading more on the year level achievement standards and the curriculum being taught please visit:

https://acara.edu.au/news-and-media/resources-for-parents-and-carers

May all our students and families have a safe and peaceful holiday season. We look forward to everyone returning in 2023 for an exciting new year of schooling.

Mrs Charlie Barrett

From the Learning Support Teacher

How does the school use its funding for special needs children A question that is often asked by parents, is what funding is available for their child and what support will they receive.
A range of support is available to meet the needs of students with disability in Catholic schools.
Schools must put in place reasonable adjustments to ensure all students with disability can participate.
Schools receive additional funding to help support students with disability.

School based funding
Catholic schools receive extra funding to support students with additional needs. How much funding the school receives is based on an annual survey undertaken by the school. This survey is called the National Consistent Collection of Data of School Students with Disability (NCCD). Teachers collect data for the survey which identifies the level of adjustment students are being provided:

Support – low level adjustments such as monitoring the student
Supplementary – adjustments occur for particular activities at specific times throughout the week
Substantial – adjustments to the education program occur at most times throughout the day
Extensive – high support needs with high level of adjustments at all times

How the funding is used
Based on the NCCD survey, the school receives funding to support all students with disability at the school. This is not allocated to individual students but comes as one amount to the school based on the NCCD survey. The Principal decides how the funding is used. The funding, for example, can be used to pay for:

Additional teaching staff
Specialist staff
Professional development
Specific educational resources
Equipment

A Goodbye Message
On a final note, I want to thank all the wonderful staff and families at Sacred Heart for the last three fulfilling and enjoyable years to finish my teaching career. It has been a delight getting to know your children and watching them grow as young people and as learners.

People have asked me many times, am I excited to be retiring. The answer to this is yes and no. Yes, as I will spend more time having fun with my grandchildren and no, as I have loved teaching and will miss the children.

I know that the Sacred Heart community will warmly welcome our new Sacred Heart Leaning Support Teacher, Genny McNair who will bring a high level of professionalism and expertise to the role.

Best wishes and goodbye Sacred Heart families, and I hope you enjoy a happy and safe holiday.

Mrs Anne Robinson

From the Guidance Counsellor

The Brave Program for Anxiety
The Brave program is a free, interactive online program for the treatment and prevention of childhood and adolescent anxiety. There are also programs for parents.

BRAVE is a free cognitive behaviour therapy tool based on established clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of child and adolescent anxiety, as described by the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. The Brave program was designed to assist parents and their children develop skills and coping strategies so that worries do not stop young people from doing the things that they want to do. There are about 10 sessions depending on the age of your child and each session takes 30-45 minutes to complete.

If you would like to find out more about this program please have a look at the website, which contains useful resources and information for you and your family.

Login | BRAVE Self-Help Program (uq.edu.au)

Mrs Sarah Jackman
Guidance Counsellor

Classroom Awards

Class In Focus

Prep
We’ve made it to the end of the year! Congratulations families on your Preppie’s first year of school. We’d like to thank you for the support you’ve shown over the year and wish you luck as your child moves on to Year 1. It has been our pleasure to watch them grow and learn ALL of the new things over this year and reflect on just how far they’ve come.

In the interest of continuing this growth, please keep reading and practising high frequency words over the holidays (and maybe include a little bit of fun too).

Please enjoy photos from our teddy bear picnic/camping trip. The students planned the best location on the school grounds (and were disappointed we couldn’t take a bus) and then drew on a map to show where we went.

As Ms Johnson finishes her time at Sacred Heart, she’d like to thank all of the families, past and present, for their kindness, support and trust over the past ten years. While the move to Downlands is a very exciting move for Ms Johnson and her family, it also comes with sadness – Sacred Heart will always have a special place in her heart.

Ms Jesse Curtis

We have had a wonderful year full of much learning and many fun experiences. Now is the time for them to move to the next part of their educational journey as they spread far and wide to their chosen high schools. Our Graduation Day is Friday 2^nd December and everyone has now received their invitation. Our Graduation Mass starts at 9am, morning tea is provided for the graduating students and their families after this. The Final Awards and Graduation Ceremony will start at 11am. We look forward to seeing everyone there.

This year we will also farewell Mrs Anderson from Sacred Heart as she moves to a relief teaching role so she can spend more time with her young family. Mrs Anderson has a great love of teaching and this has shone out in our classroom. I will miss her greatly, as will the incoming seniors of 2023. We wish her all the best for the future and look forward to her being at Sacred Heart on her relief days. Behind the scenes and ensuring that all students (and teachers 😊) are supported in their work and assignments and that all photos are captured for the Grad Mag and other celebrations, is our amazing Mrs Weber. We must also wish her a wonderful 6 months away from Sacred Heart from the start of 2023 as she takes long service leave to spend time with her family and in her family business. She will also leave a hole in our school; her ability to support our students and teachers will be hugely missed and we look forward to her return in the later part of next year.

Finally, we thank our families of Year 6 for their constant support throughout this whole year. It has been wonderful to know that you all trusted us to care for and educate your children in their last year of primary school. We are thankful for the partnerships and connections that were formed.

So now we take this opportunity to wish everyone a safe and blessed Christmas, and a happy New Year.

Mrs Charlie Barrett

SOME STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS of THEIR SENIOR YEAR:

ALANA: “My highlight of the year was that we got to do a lot of things together as a group.”

INDI: “The best thing for me was being school captain and attending all the extra events.”

LACHLAN: “I enjoyed the Maths Excursion and Emu Gully – these are stands out for me!”

NEVAEH: “Emu Gully stood out for me because we were able to show how well we could work together, display mateship and how to take care of each other!”

KENZIE: “We were given many opportunities that we only get as Seniors!”

JAXAN: “Interschool sport was fun for me and how we showed teamwork when passing.”

HAYLEY: “I really enjoyed Mrs Barrett’s birthday party!”

SIFFAT: “My favourite part of Year 6 was being able to do soccer and also swimming.”

ETHAN: “My favourite thing was being with my friends from last year to finish our year.”

Sport News

Swimming Carnival – Well done to our students on their efforts during our swimming carnival yesterday. It was wonderful to see children stepping outside of their comfort zones and challenging themselves – what a brave group of students. Congratulations to Kelly House on being the overall points winners and to our aged champions for their efforts. Thank you to our families for coming along and supporting the children.

I am very excited that our Christmas musical will be performed next week on Tuesday 29^th November.

Each class will have an item they will be able to perform as we move around the world following Santa Claus dropping presents off to all the boys and girls.

Please make sure that you have your costume requirements ready for your child.

Sacred Heart Instrumental Concert

I would like to congratulate the students who participated in this event on Monday 14^th November. We had a lovely evening of entertainment showcasing the students who have been involved in the instrumental program this year. I would like to thank the Parent Engagement Network for providing refreshments.

Thank you to Miss Jessie Joy for an outstanding year of instrumental teaching here at Sacred Heart. We are very lucky to have such an energised, supportive and talented tutor here at Sacred Heart.

If you are interested in having lessons in 2023,
please contact Cherie Runciman cherie.runciman@twb.catholic.edu.au

PARENT ENGAGEMENTNETWORK NEWS - NOVEMBER

The Annual Meeting of the Parent Engagement Network was held on Monday night (21st November). The Executive positions of President and Secretary were declared vacant, and elections were held. The successful candidates were:

President—Zoe Strugnell
Secretary—Scott Alston

The meeting passed a motion of thanks to Liz Lucht for the fantastic work she did as President in 2022. The Principal and the outgoing President gave reports on the highlights for 2022 and these are produced below.

Principal’s Report

Successes for the 2022 year include:

A restructure of learning support this year to include a stronger focus on the early years and follow up with families.
A finalisation of our professional learning plan for the next 2 to 3 years
Merging of the P&F and Board to the Parent Engagement
Stage 1 planning for nature play area
Finalisation of stage 1 of C‐Block
Uniform policy

President’s Report

Firstly, I would just like to say it has been such a pleasure being a part of the Sacred Heart P&F group and I will miss it dearly.

Our school has a wonderful spirit and community and all it needed was a bit of direction and a spark to be lit for it to catch fire.

Over the past year we have done so much. Our school community spirit was on‐point especially at the sports event bake sales which have only gotten bigger and better each time. We said where and when to our class groups, and they delivered more baked goods than I ever could have expected.

One thing this amazing group of people has managed to do this year is bring consistency, commitment, and enthusiasm. I merely bossed you all into organising an event, and you made it your own and absolutely killed it.

Our Mother's and Father's Day stalls were amazing and so innovative and creative. Our discos have turned over record amounts.

We have also been present at school run events, and that has been so lovely to see.

One thing that we all have in common is wanting the best experiences for our kids. We want our children to have great memories of school and remember the fun. I may be biased, but I think we have done extremely well at working together cohesively when building events and streamlining the event planning.

We have learned from mistakes and done better with each event. Our communication to each other outside of the meetings speaks for itself. Our meetings are no longer frustrating and going around in circles trying to figure out where to start. They are concise and filled with information about what has already been planned.

I also feel that opening up the P&F to the entire school by setting the classes to events, and sending out zoom meeting links to all, has broken a stigma. The stigma that the P&F is only for a select group of parents who are generally friends. A clique if you will.

We have made our group totally inclusive and welcoming, and I think that it has really paid off in spades and is only continuing to grow.

We have such strong and different personalities, yet we have managed to get along so well. We have managed to make everyone feel heard, comfortable and respected, while compromising successfully. This is a credit to everyone here and from what I hear, a fairly rare occurrence in these types of situations. They don't call it a stigma for nothing!

Lastly, I want to thank Ty. You are the best thing to happen to Sacred Heart. I can feel your drive and positivity to make the school the best it can be. You work tirelessly and are always available to us. We couldn't have made such a massive change without your guidance and open mind. Your willingness to listen to all of our ideas and never shut us down is just so heartening. You have been a joy to work with both in the P&F and as a parent of the school. Your support is second to none.

Sacred Heart is in excellent hands. Thank you all again

Tennis Coaching in 2023

The Uniform Shop

We accept EFTPOS only - NO CASH OR LAYBY
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.

SCHOOL BAGS: School Bags are COMPULSORY to the WHOLE SCHOOL. Do you have the correct bag? Available from the Uniform Shop for $39.50
SCHOOL PULLOVERS - This is a compulsory uniform item for Years 1 to 6.

SPRAY JACKETS are compulsory for students in Years 1-6 only.
PREP STUDENTS DO NOT REQUIRE SPRAY JACKETS!

SPECIAL

Size 6 sports shorts
Size 4 sports polo

2023 Uniform Price List

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.
Ms Betty Davison
CONVENOR

Sacred Heart Parish

Sacred Heart Parish Website

Community Notices

ST JOSEPH'S COLLEGE 2024 ENROLMENTS
Enrolment applications to St Joseph's College are open for 2024, and 2025.
New and current families are urged to submit their application now.
Applications for 2024 close in Week 6, Term 1 2023 (3rd March), with enrolment interviews to be held from the 20th - 30th of March.
Start your enrolment process today: https://www.sjc.qld.edu.au/st-josephs-college-enrolment/enrol/

Term 4 - Week 8 (25th November 2022)