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

Secondary Sport

Canberra Goulburn and Invitational Touch Carnival

Our last big sporting event for the year was the Canberra Goulburn and Invitational Touch Carnival on Friday the 15th November. This year it was based at the Country Club Rugby grounds and clubhouse, with additional fields across the road at Cootamundra High. Thank you to the Rugby Club and Cootamundra High for accommodating us while Nicholson Park was undergoing maintenance, and thank you to the Cootamundra Council for all the venue preparations.

There were 57 teams competing in 147 games across the day. To help with the successful running of the day, we needed many volunteers. Thankyou to everyone who helped with setting up, the canteen, first aid, and especially the referees. Without our volunteers a day like that cannot happen. We appreciate the Sacred Heart community’s ongoing support for the events we host.

The results can be found at the website - CECG and Invitational Touch Carnival

Representative Sport

There are many representative opportunities coming up early in the new year and due dates for nominations are very important for the process to run smoothly. 

Representative and pathway sports information can be found in several locations.

• CSNSW Sport website - for most pathway nominations beyond school level.
• Canberra Goulburn Sport website, nomination page and calendar page
• CSNSW - Facebook page
• Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn Sport - Facebook page

The pathway for a Secondary student in NSW to attend Australian National Championships is as follows:

• Attends school carnival to gain selection into the school representative team.
• Attends Archdiocesan Carnival or selection trial to gain selection into Archdiocesan team or through individual entry/nomination on the CSNSW.sport. 
• Attends Combined Catholic Colleges Carnival /Trial to gain CCC selection.
• Attends NSW All Schools Carnival to gain NSW selection.
• Attends the School Sport Australia Championship

There are many other opportunities available for our students to participate in and represent Sacred Heart in individual and teams sports. The information for these will be disseminated through the students ‘Sport @ SHC’ Google Classroom as events occur throughout 2025.

Secondary Sports Dates

Term 1 2025

W1

Tue 4th Feb - Students return - All Secondary Swimming Proficiencies and Carnival Preparation - Wear sports uniform, and bring a hat, towel, swimmers and rashie.

Fri Feb 7th - SHC Swimming Carnival

W2

Fri Feb 14th - Schools Beach Volleyball Carnival

W4

Mon Feb 24th - CECG U15s Touch Trials, Canberra

Wed Feb 26th - Southern Country U15 Boys AFL Trials, Wollongong

Wed Feb 26th - NSW All Schools Triathlon (Individuals), Penrith

Thu Feb 27th - NSW All Schools Triathlon (Teams), Penrith

W5

Tue Mar 4th - CECG Swimming, Canberra

Fri Mar 7th - CECG U18s Boys and Girls Soccer Trials, Canberra

Fri Mar 7th - SHC Secondary Triathlon - TBC

W6

Tue 11th Mar - Western U16s Girls Rugby League Trials, Canberra

Fri Mar 7th - SHC Secondary Triathlon - TBC

W7

Tue 25th Mar - CECG Netball Champs and U15s Trials, Canberra

Wed Mar 26th - Western Rugby League U15s and U18s Boys Trials, Redbend Forbes

W8

Tue Apr 1st - CECG and Wagga Wagga U18s Touch Trials, Wagga Wagga

Wed-Thu Apr 2nd-3rd - NSWCCC Swimming, Homebush

Fri Apr 4th - CECG Tennis Team Championships, Goulburn

Fri Apr 4th - SHC Cross Country - TBC

W10

Thu Apr 10th - Southern Country U18s Girls Rugby League Trials, Canberra

Thank you for a wonderful year of sport, fairplay and participation. Have a safe and happy Christmas.

Kind regards,

Megan Withers

Secondary Sports Coordinator