The final day of the 2024 school year!

The year passed so quickly but we managed to jam as much as we could into the 41 weeks of school. Thank you to our entire community for their commitment, energy and support. We have had a fabulous year. The future does indeed shine brightly for Sacred Heart and all who are a part of the fabric of our school. 2025 promises to bring so much and we look forward to meeting all the challenges and exceeding all expectations.

Our Year 10 graduands celebrated 11 years of schooling thus far and the end of their time with us. It was a lovely celebration on Friday 13 December beginning with a Mass and culminating in the evening dinner. Thank you to the students for their maturity and joy. Thank you to the parents for their unerring support. Thank you to the staff for their continued commitment and zeal especially Mr Tim Mahon (PCA), Ms Megan Withers, Mrs Maxwell, Ms Wade and Ms Erryn Marsay for their efforts in making the day special and memorable.

Our Annual Awards was another special celebration of all our achievements and the efforts of our students in 2024. We acknowledged effort, positive behaviour, Christian values, sporting endeavours and academic achievement. We have wonderful students who make an effort each and every day. Thank you to Mrs Deep, Ms McGlynn and Mrs Bassingthwaighte for the hours of preparation that go into such a massive event. Thank you to all the businesses and families who sponsor our awards.

Our Primary building refurbishment is still progressing, slowly, but there is definite progress and it looks very impressive. Unfortunately, we will not be able to move in until sometime in Term One. This is not ideal but there have been unforeseen and extenuating circumstances that have delayed completion. We can’t wait to be in the new rooms and it will be worth the wait.

The end of the year is always a time of farewells and goodbyes. Families and students from across the school will move onto new challenges in other towns, other schools other jobs. We wish all our departing families the richest of blessings and hope they will always remember fondly their time at Sacred Heart. Once a Sacred Heart kid, always a Sacred Heart kid! There will always be a place at Sacred Heart for those who shared our journey.

We will also, sadly, farewell many staff who finish their time with us today.  Mr Tim Mahon and Mr Peter Turner who both begin a well-deserved life of retirement, Ms Brooke Thompson who will continue her career in Wollongong, Mrs Natalie Smith and Mrs Gen Bear  who are both spending time focusing on family for the year, Mr Ian Goodochkin and Ms Georgie McKelvie who finish casual contracts and have been invaluable in supporting our staff and students. Georgie will continue her career in Canberra and Ian will continue to do casual work across the region. We wish them every success and happiness as they begin this new chapter of their lives. We thank them for all they have given to our school community. We hope to see them again!

It has been an interesting challenge to ensure we have the very best teachers in front of our students next year. There have been many changes, many iterations and great flexibility in trying to construct the class allocation and timetables. At the time of writing this newsletter the class teachers are as follows:

ES1: Anita Chesworth, Stacey Fry and Jack Niddrie

S1: Susie Alexander, Skye Gay, Molly Baron, Heather Hunt, Wendy Van Kerk Oerle

S2: Heather Gammon, Brad Winsor, Grace Sutherland

S3: Patrece Maxwell. Julia McLeod, Kaitlin Niddrie, Ian Bell, Kylie Winsor and Lyne Witenden

Intervention and RFF: Kate Maher

We have worked very hard to ensure every student is placed in a class where they are able to succeed and make growth. The staff spend many hours discussing combinations and needs and the class lists will be released in January.

Over the past weeks we have started to add important dates to the calendar for 2025. Important dates for you to note well in advance:

Term One:

31 Jan: Staff return

4 Feb: Students return

6 Feb: Opening school Mass

7 Feb: Swimming Carnival

14 Feb: All Schools Beach Volleyball Carnival

17 Feb: Year 7 Information Session

18 Feb:  K-6 Information Session

24 Feb: Western Region Swimming TUMUT

5 March: Ash Wednesday

12-24 March – NAPLAN Years 3,5,7,9

26 March: SCHOOL PHOTOS

10 April: LAST DAY TERM 1

IMPORTANT: Sacred Heart is retiring its School supplied Apps program in 2025. As a result we will be remotely removing any apps supplied by the school and installed on BYOD iPads used at the school in 2024 and prior years. This removal will occur on the 24^th of January 2025. Please ensure you check the School apps icon on your BYOD iPad for a list of apps that will be removed. It is suggested you backup or export any work that you would like to keep from those apps before the 24^th of January. There will be no requirement of paid apps moving forward, however you may still get requests for free apps to be installed as required.

Remember the reason for the season and there is always a reason to be kind.

God Bless

Ms Nicky Trinder

Principal