Today was one of the memorable days at Sacred Heart for all the right reasons. As a whole school we celebrated Harmony Day with the taking of the commemorative ‘Heart’ School photo, a sausage sizzle and then a K-10 harmony celebration with games and activities. To see our senior students mentor, care for and lead our other students in fun activities was just inspiring. There was laughter and squeals of delight as all our students played together in the autumn sun. The photos attached do not do the atmosphere justice. As part of our Annual School Improvement Plan we recognise the importance of building and nurturing a K-10 culture that focuses on collaboration and care for all our students. The splashes of orange to mark the day added a festive and positive vibe to the day. Thank you to our Leadership Team for coordinating the day and the staff for their support and assistance. A special thank you to past-student, Cody James, who generously used his drone to capture the whole-school photo. We hope that our students remember the lessons of Harmony Day in tolerating, appreciating and celebrating diversity and difference. Sacred Heart thrives on difference and we hope our students take this kindness and appreciation into the greater community.

As COVID continues to plague communities many of our upcoming events have been postponed. The Small Schools Rugby League, The Young Soccer Carnival and many more have fallen victim to the virus. Please carefully monitor if events will take place and be prepared for postponements and cancellations.

This week we also invited the Year 10 and Year 7 parents and students to the relevant Information sessions that are traditionally held at the start of the year. We were lucky to be able to host the evening and to enjoy meeting the parents and the staff from Hennessy for BBQ teas each night. Thank you to Ms Marsay for the epic task of coordinating the evenings and to our wonderful P & F who hosted a sumptuous feast on the Thursday night for the year 7 families. A special thank you to Mrs Ward for her organisation and her helpers; Julia McLeod, Mark Ward, Dan Fry and Gareth Jones.

A reminder that there are still expectations that students and staff take a COVID test if they display any symptoms and report any positive cases to the school.

The Easter break is quickly approaching and we realise that everyone is in need of a break. However, there are still two whole weeks of learning to go and we hope that all students will use the final 10 days to maximise their learning. It is important that students attend school at every opportunity so that they do not miss vital instructions. It is more challenging for students to catch up on missed work but there is an expectation that if they are away from school that they will seek out their teacher/s to find out what was missed and get access to the required work. We are also in the throes of the assessment period and the work covered, thus far this year, will be assessed.

On a number of occasions parents are presenting to the front office to collect their child/ren after being messaged from their child’s ipad or phone. In the instances where children are unwell it is a necessary part of our duty-of-care for students to inform a teacher rather than contacting the parent directly. If they miss the step of informing a teacher then we cannot provide the expected level of care because we are unaware that there is an issue. We never deny a student the opportunity to contact a parent from the front office if they require something or are unwell and we would hope that they follow school rules around making contact during the school day from their own devices. We will need to apply the appropriate consequences if they continue to contact their parents by breaking a school rule. This seems harsh but we are also trying to instil on our students some personal responsibility and organisation by remembering to bring their pwn equipment and materials rather than insisting that there parents leave work to bring missing items to school.

This week we joyously welcomed our new school counsellor to Sacred Heart. Mrs Maxwell joins our staff every Tuesday and Wednesday and every other Monday. We are so excited to have an incumbent counsellor to meet the needs of our community. Mrs Maxwell is busy learning the ropes of administration but will start seeing students in the coming week. Any student under the age of 14 is required to have parental permission to see the counsellor but older students may self refer. Even though our counselling hours have increased it is still a finite number of hours and we hope to fit in as many students who require the service as possible. Referral forms are available from the front office. Please note that when you visit a paediatrician or GP they after request specific psychological testing however, our counselling service do not include extensive psychological testing. Unfortunately, this type of testing must be sourced independently of the school and it can be quite costly.

Swimmers continue to take the world by storm. Last week we had simmers competing for a place in the Mackillop team for State. Halle Johnson and Zoe Lake swam personal bests to take out lots of medals. More details to come of all our other fabulous swimmers who competed over the weekend. 

In recognition of Harmony Day it is timely to remember to be kind to people who are different. Thankfully we are not all the same and that we have different strengths. There is always, always something positive to be found in every person. And it is never, never okay for people to be unkind. Sometimes we need to be mindful and fully conscious of how our interaction, manner and words are received and ignorance of the hurt that can be caused is not an excuse for being unkind.

Kind regards,

Ms Nicky Trinder

Principal

HARMONY DAY – POSTER and POEM Prize winners

Infants Poster : Ella Sannazzaro and Nate Blackney

Primary Poster: Sarah Watts

Primary Poem: Caileigh Sides

R/U – Harry Winsor and Ally Evans

Secondary Poster: Angel Hall

R/U: Ben Piffero

Secondary Poem: Henry Fry