Week 7 has come and gone and we have had another great week. Kinder transition for 2022 has been an incredibly positive and successful program and our newest enrolments had a wonderful time on Wednesday. Thank you to Mrs Maher, Mrs Alexander and Ms McDonnell for all their preparation to ensure it was a success. The final transition day will be next Wednesday, and we are all very excited for what the new year will bring for this wonderful little cohort.

Today our year 10 students marked their final weeks at Sacred Heart with a shared breakfast at Planted before they watched a special screening at the Arts Centre. We are very proud of the young adults they have grown into and they have accepted the sad reality that their final weeks at Sacred Heart are not as they would have liked. However, they are being very positive, cheerful and helpful despite missing out on the work experience program. They have another week of substitute lessons before they have Activity Week in Week 9. We thank them for their positive and helpful attitude. Thank you to all the teachers for their support of Year 10, especially Mrs Murray.

At this stage we are preparing for the final presentations in a similar format to 2020. Due to COVID restrictions we are unable to conduct our Award ceremony in the traditional manner. We are planning for 3 separate presentations – Infants, Primary and Secondary. We will be sending out more details as the restrictions change over the coming weeks. We also are planning to invite our new Kinders to the Infants presentation to receive their hats because we are unable to hold our annual Advent Liturgy as usual.

Today the NAPLAN results will be sent home. Please read them very carefully keeping in mind that this has been far from a normal year. Overall, we are excited by the results especially because of the great improvement in all grades in Writing. This is the result of a significant investment over the past years in Primary to lift the skills and results. Staff have spent some time unpacking the data and considering future responses to any issues and strengths that have been identified. If you have any questions arising from the report, please make contact with the class teacher in coming weeks. We apologise for not sending them out when we first received them, but we wanted to spend some time being conversant in the results so that we could plan for next year and speak confidently to any question that may arise.

School photos will also be issued next week. Hopefully they will be a pleasant reminder of an interesting year. When we look back on 2021 it will evoke many different memories and emotions. Hopefully we all will be stronger and more resilient from the experiences of this year. We need to be patient, kind and resilient as we navigate the aftermath of a turbulent year.

Remember there is never a reason not to be kind! If you have to choose between being extraordinary and kind – be extraordinarily kind. Be the bigger kindness and always choose kindness.

God Bless