Term 1 - Week 10 (30th March)

Student Protection Contacts

From The Principal

Every Day, Every Minute Counts – We have all heard the message from schools over the years that, when it comes to attendance, ‘every day counts’. This today is still certainly the case and a message worth revisiting. We would go a step further and add that every minute of every day counts too. A child that is thirty minutes late each day, loses two and a half hours (or half a day) of learning each week. Arriving late also triggers a heightened, anxious state for most children as they are coming into an environment, not knowing what they have missed in both learning and social interactions.

A recently published government document ‘Creating Parity- The Forrest Review’* by Andrew Forrest, identified that if a child’s school attendance falls below 90% (i.e. they frequently miss more than half a day of school a week) their education is considered at risk. If attendance falls below 80% (ie they miss a day of school every week) their education is significantly diminished. In other words:

• Less than 80% attendance - no better than no schooling at all.
• 90% attendance is required for a child to receive the education needed for job readiness.
• Attendance is even more important than the quality of the school.

Attendance is constantly monitored at Sacred Heart Primary School. If an attendance concern is identified, then a letter is sent home that raises the concern and the family is invited to discuss with me the reasons for this. If there is still no improvement, a letter is issued stipulating that attendance must improve in a two week period. At the end to the two week period, if there is still no improvement, the family is contacted again to discuss the student’s enrolment at our school. 

An enormous amount of time, planning and funding goes towards ensuring that everything is set for your child’s learning every day. When they are not here to utilise the learning opportunities, this time is wasted. Please contact the school, if you are having difficulties getting your child to school.

Farewell Jim - Our groundsman, Mr Jim Booth, is finishing up this week. Jim has been supporting the school in both a volunteering and paid capacity for about 20 years - taking great pride in everything he lends his hand to. Jim's wife, Maria, has also had a long-standing relationship with our school and continues in a relief teaching capacity.  Jim looks forward to getting away in the caravan more and spending time with his family.

Taking Jim’s place, is Mr Dominic (‘Dom’) Willett. Mr Willett also has a strong connection with the school with his wife, Julie previously being employed at Sacred Heart in one of the administration roles. Dom comes highly recommended by Jim, already having his own grounds maintenance business.

We acknowledged Jim’s time with a small gift at our Easter Pageant assembly this morning. On behalf of the entire community, I wish him all the best for the future.

Parent and Teacher Meetings – These very important meetings began this week for our early years classes and will continue into the first weeks of Term 2 for our other classes. Your attendance at these meetings are impactful as they show your child that you care about their efforts and their progress. These Semester 1 meetings are compulsory, and all families are encouraged to attend.

Enjoy the Easter Break – With the end of term break, comes Easter. This is a very special time to spend with family and friends. The Easter Message is one of new life and new beginnings, expressed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. I would like to thank our entire team for their energy, enthusiasm and passion they have brought to your children’s learning in this first ten weeks of the year. I would also like to thank you, our families for your continued support of your child’s learning. I wish you all a blessed and relaxing Easter break.

God Bless,

Mr Tyronne Maher

Principal

From The APRE

Environmental Warriors – Lunch time dance party
Last week the students who have been spotted picking up rubbish around our school by our teachers and the member of the Mini Vinnies group were rewarded with a Lunch Time Dance Party. It was a great way to spend the lunch time, celebrating those people who have been looking after our environment here at school.

Thinking of others at Easter
Our Mini Vinnies group have gathered to create little care packages for people going through a tough time this Easter. We used the money that we raised at the Mini Vinnies Free Dress Day to purchase all the things we needed. Thank you to all the families who supported the Free Dress Day as I am sure the goody bags will be very much appreciated by the people who receive them.

Easter Pageant
Today the school performed at the Easter Pageant. This is definitely one of the highlights of Term 1. Our Easter Pageant recontextualises the Stations of the Cross so the students can better engage with the Easter story. Thank you to Mrs Cherie Runciman for all of your work to prepare the students for the Easter Pageant! Thank you also to Mrs Hannah Jesshope and Mrs Angela Tevelein for your work in organising the Easter Raffle! Congratulations to our winners!

I hope everyone has a restful break over the next two weeks! I hope you are able to take the time this Easter to reflect on the story of Easter. School will start back on Tuesday 18th April.

Mrs Alice Lucas
APRE

Prayer of the Week

From the Learning Support Teacher

During the last few weeks hearing and vision screeners have been conducted for our Prep students.  These tests are very important in setting our prep students up for successful learning and social interaction during their first year of school.

Many of our prep students have already had vision and hearing assessments prior to coming to school as parents together with their medical practitioners, may have noticed difficulties with speech and early development.

Vision and hearing can fluctuate throughout a child’s schooling and it is very important to have these screened annually.  For students struggling with their learning, this is our first point of investigation in determining the cause of their difficulties.

It is very important to keep the school informed of any visits to specialists and to share with the school, copies of the assessment results and diagnoses. These will be added to student files to build a complete picture of the health and development.  These are also important in determining the area and level of support required for each student.

We are happy to provide information to specialists when given a week’s notice of the appointment and can assist parents in accessing specialist services and assessments where available.

Wishing you all a very happy Easter,

Mrs Genny McNair
Learning Support Teacher

From The Middle Leader/Curriculum Co-ordinator

PARENT-TEACHER INTERVIEWS
After a term of learning, it is the perfect opportunity to take up an interview time with your child’s teacher. Teachers welcome the prospect of having a discussion with parents around the growth in their children.

At Sacred Heart, our classroom teachers see themselves as partners with parents in all students’ learning. Our teachers will provide a copy of interview notes that should cover all areas of the discussion held and they can certainly add to this if parents raise other queries. Parents are provided with a copy of the interview record and are very welcome to get back to the teacher after the interview if further clarification is required.

This conversation provides parents with time to ask questions and hear about the learning and social development of their children. Interviews usually only run 10 to 15 minutes, so it is good to jot down any queries that you may have or any items of information for the teacher. Examples of this may be your child recently visiting a specialist, something that is happening at home that may impact your child’s focus at school or just exciting news for them to share at school.

Questions could be as simple as those listed below:

What are the students working on now?
Is there anything about my child's needs that I should know?
Does my child ask questions, participate in class discussions and other activities?
Is my child's progress satisfactory?
What activities does my child seem to enjoy the most at school?
Who are my child's friends?
Does my child join in with other children in the playground?
What kinds of things will the class be doing over the next few weeks?
How is my child progressing in comparison to others in the year?
Is there anything I can be doing to help my child at home?
Do you have any concerns about my child?

Be aware that the parent-teacher interview is not the only time parents can discuss their child with the teacher, and at Sacred Heart we welcome all communication to build our educational partnership.

We thank parents for their time in attending these valuable conversations.

Mrs Charlie Barrett
Middle Leader/Curriculum Co-ordinator

From the Guidance Counsellor

Zones of Regulation

Sacred Heart Primary School has been implementing the Zones of Regulation for many years as a Social Emotional Learning Program. The Zones of Regulation provides a common language for the School Community and can also provide a tool for students to name and identify their feelings.  It is normal for children to express their emotions which can range from one extreme to the other, and sometimes, when they feel safe and have a supportive environment the emotions may even be more extreme. At Sacred Heart Primary School, we teach students to use colours or Zones, that can make it easy to identify which Zone they are in. For example, being in the Red Zone, means that they have lots of energy, may be feeling quite angry or overly excited. Feeling angry is a normal feeling. It is the pause between the feeling and the reaction, that helps us learn how to better respond appropriately.

When a child’s emotional responses are disproportionate to the situation or when big emotions take over the rational part of their brain (Prefrontal Cortex) and they go into the ‘Fight or Flight’ mode.  Children need a person who can model and demonstrate how to regulate their emotions and work out strategies that can be a much healthier way to respond rather than acting out. I’ll leave you with this message from the author of the Zones of Regulation,

“Honor all feelings and experiences...as well as valuing the differences in how we regulate...and follow the work of thought leaders in the neurodiversity-affirming, anti-bias, and trauma-informed teaching movements and integrate best practices from them.” (Kupfers, 2011).

For more information please visit the Social Thinking Website:  https://www.socialthinking.com/

Enjoy the holidays and stay safe,

Mrs Sarah Jackman
Guidance Counsellor

Class In Focus

Year 2A

How do we create a world of love and peace?
Spoiler alert: It’s all about relationships!
This term in Religious Education (RE) we have been exploring how believers seek to heal relationships through reconciliation. We have dived into stories from the Bible, looking at how the Prodigal Son and Zacchaeus both mended relationships that were fractured! Students then reflected on times when they have acted to mend a relationship and they created stories that they could tell a Prep student to help them to understand the importance of saying sorry when you’re in the wrong. We also critiqued our school’s Mercy values to determine which of our values helps us to mend relationships.

Mrs Jacque Armstrong and Mrs Alice Lucas

Sport News

Congratulations Justin!
Justin Nelson has been selected to represent the Darling Downs region for Basketball! This is a tremendous achievement with 70 boys trialling for selection for one of the 10 spots available. We are so proud of you Justin. We wish Justin all the best of luck as he now prepares for the State Championships in Townsville.

T-Ball Gala Day
Our Year 4 students had a wonderful day at the Toowoomba Catholic School’s T-Ball Gala Day. Mrs Manley passed onto me what a great day it was with the students representing our school beautifully.

Cross Country
Our Cross Country has been postponed until Friday 21^st April. This will give the children another 2 weeks to prepare for their race! It will be a 9.00am start on the Friday and spectators are very welcome. The new House polo shirts look great! If your child is need of a coloured shirt for Sports Day (i.e. Swimming Carnival, Cross Country and Athletics Carnival) then please see Betty in the Uniform Shop as the polo shirts are very reasonable priced at $15.00 each.

Swimming
Glennie Aquatics are holding a swim accelerator program over the Easter holidays which may be of interest to parents who would like to improve their child’s swimming and water safety skills. Please give the team at Glennie Aquatics a call if this is something you would like to book in!

Mrs Alice Lucas
Sport Co-ordinator

From The Arts

Easter Pageant

STATIONS OF THE CROSS

Congratulation to all the students involved in the Stations of the Cross performance. This year we focused on incorporating Auslan (Sign Language) to our class prayers and some of our songs. Well Done to 6B who led the Stations with their readings and tableaus. Here are some pictures from our rehearsal on Tuesday and we will have some more next term of the performance.

Choir

Every Tuesday at 2.55-3.30pm in The Arts Room (near the school hall)

Students in Year 3 – 6 are welcome!

I would like to congratulate the choirs members and their commit to this extra-curricular activity. We have been having lots of fun learning our Stations of the Cross round and our eisteddfod songs. Here is a snapshot from our last rehearsal of Term 1.

Instrumental Program 

There are still spots available for this year. If you would like to enrol your child, please fill in the online form below or contact me directly via email.
Cherie.Runciman@twb.catholic.edu.au

https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=_f1LV0RCBUK3EBaPWwxYDVbF2GR6D2hAo-dL1hpSKMRUQTBXNEcwWURNTk05MlgxNVJBRkRUQjI4Sy4u

Ms Cherie Runciman
Music Teacher

School Photos - Wednesday 26th April

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.

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
UNIFORM SHOP CONVENOR

Tennis Lessons

Sacred Heart Parish

Community Notices