Chess Club
Sacred Heart Parent Partnership Forum
The Parent Partnership Forum will be holding their AGM on Tuesday 2nd May 2023 @ 5.30pm. We are looking for a Chairperson and a Secretary.
The Parent Partnership Forum supports the work of the principal and staff in implementing a comprehensive and contemporary education program. Parents have an advisory role in decisions made in the development and implementation of the strategic plan and policies of the school as well as the provision of resources which support the educational endeavour of the school.
Sacred Heart Primary School is committed to promoting and nurturing active partnerships with families and the wider community so that all have authentic opportunities to participate in the life and activities of the Student learning is enriched through positive and reciprocal partnerships with parents.
Important Dates
Community Events
Sacred Heart Parish
Church Times
- Sunday 19th March - Mass @ 9am
- Sunday 26th March – Mass @ 9am
- Sunday 2nd April - Mass @ 9am
- Holy Thursday 6th April - Mass @ 5.30pm
- Good Friday 7th April - Mass @3pm
- Easter Saturday 8th April - Mass @ 5.30pm
School Tuition Fees
School Accounts have been sent out. Can these please be paid by Friday 24th March 2023. At Sacred Heart, we have several payment options for your convenience: Cash, Cheque, ETPOS, Direct Debit and Centrepay. For further details on these payment options please see the school office.
Tuckshop
We are still looking for volunteers and cake cookers to run tuckshop on a Friday. If you can spare one Friday this term, can you please let Mrs Crick know at the office. Tuckshop runs from 9am – 1.30pm
Flexischools App
The tuckshop uses the App called Flexischools. This will make ordering and paying for Tuckshop easier. Attached are the instructions to download and use the App. Make sure you update your child's class name.
Student Protection
At Sacred Heart the safety and wellbeing of our students is our highest priority. All children should grow up free of violence or exploitation and be able to learn in a safe and supported environment. Schools have a number of specific child protection reporting obligations that are detailed in our Student Protection Processes and Guidelines.
It is a legislative requirement that all non-state schools have at least two nominated staff members to whom a student can report the behaviour of another staff member that the student considers inappropriate. We call these specially trained staff members School Student Protection Contacts, or SSPCs. Each SSPC has been nominated by the principal in recognition of their integrity, approachability and knowledge in the area of student protection. Whilst students are encouraged to speak up to any trusted adult in the school community, it is important that they know they can access these specific staff members at any time should they have worries, queries or concerns. You will have noticed posters throughout the school depicting our current SSPCs. The SSPCs are also published on our school website along with information about our student protection processes. In everything we do at Sacred Heart Primary School student safety is our highest priority, therefore the SSPCs at our school are key personnel in our overall safeguarding processes.
If a student wants to talk to someone about harm, abuse or inappropriate behaviour toward themselves or others, they can speak to a trusted staff member or one of our School Student Protection Contacts (SSPCs). The SSPCs receive additional training and are identified in the student protection posters displayed around the school.
Summary documents have been developed for parents and caregivers about our student protection obligations and our broader strategy for maintaining safe school environments.
Further information on all of the above topics can be found on the Toowoomba Catholic Schools website at the link below:
Embed Link - https://www.twb.catholic.edu.au/parents-and-community/student-protection/
Our Schools Student Protection Contacts are:
- Miss Ailie Lewis (APRE)
- Mrs Carolyn Crick (Administration Officer)
- Mrs Cara Haig (Principal)
Uniform Policy
Uniform and Hair
A gentle reminder that school uniform is very important to us at Sacred Heart. It shows pride and helps us all feel that we belong. Please make sure that students are wearing correct uniform (including white socks and plain black shoes) and that their hair is neat and tidy. We have noticed a number of students with hair below the collar that is not tied up and a number of rats tails that do not look neat and tidy. It is preferable that no rats tails or long mullet hair styles are seen at school, they are more suited to holiday time. Your child’s teacher may contact you to discuss hair styles.
Hats: Our school policy is ‘NO HAT – NO PLAY’. A green school hat must be worn and can be purchased form the office.
Jewellery: The only jewellery allowed is one set of fine studs or sleepers, a chain with some form of religious significance and watches.
Nail Polish: Nail polish is not to be worn.
Winter Tracksuit orders
The school is happy to place orders for tracksuits from our usual uniform supplier if parents are interested in purchasing them. The cost will be approximately $40-$45 for a full tracksuit (Pants & Jumper). If you wish to purchase a Jumper or Pants only cost will be approximately $25. The tracksuit top V-neck jumper will be bottle green with embrioded school emblem and tracksuit pants are doubled knee bottle green. School will only order what is needed. If you wish to order tracksuits, please have amounts/sizes to the school office by Friday 24th March 2023.
Sport
Class swimming days and times for Term 1 are:
- Thursdays:
- Year 1 & 2 – 12.15pm – 12.45pm
- Prep – 2.15pm 2.45pm
- Fridays:
- Year 3/4 – 12.15pm – 12.45pm
- Year 5/6 – 2.15pm 2.45pm
District, Regional and State Sports
This year we will continue to work with the Cunnamulla Sate School to support the district and regional school sports of Swimming, Cross Country, Athletics, Rugby League, Touch Football and Netball. However, if you wish for your child to participate in an additional sport listed below you are welcome to pursue that yourself, we will provide you the information. The timetable of regional trail dates for this Term are as below. *Please note that students need to participate in a district trial before a regional trial*.
Birthdays
Class Awards
Year 5/6
Welcome to week 8! The year 5 and 6 students have been busy the last fortnight as they finished writing their reflective essays and dived right into researching about countries in Asia. The students have done a fantastic job showcasing their Dance, Music, English and Science knowledge and skills throughout the term. Studies are moving away from the light and space and are zooming in to expand student knowledge on Asian countries.
Technology lessons have helped students to refine their researching skills while English lessons have had an informative text focus. Students spent time this week deconstructing informative texts and writing success criteria that are key features of the text type.
Mathematics lessons have focused on understanding grid coordinate systems and cartesian planes. Students have practiced locating coordinates and using directional language to move around a map. In HASS the 5/6 students enjoyed using google earth and many learners made great connections between the grid lines on the maps and our work on coordinates.
Religious studies have had students delving deeper into the book of Psalms. Students reflected on the meaning of different Psalms in the bible and linked that to our understanding of faith.
The 5/6’s had a great time building their cooperation skills in swimming lessons as they were challenged to complete a variety of strokes as a team. I wish you all a lovely fortnight.
Year 6 Leadership Liturgy will be on this Friday 17th March @ 8.40am.
Miss Abby Davidson
Year 5/6 Teacher
Year 3/4
Welcome to Week 8! Our Class have been terrific active learners and are consistently using the Habits of the Mind.
The Year 3/4 Students have dived into all things data and excel! It started with a challenge, organising a pile of uno cards into groups. This concept was then applied to how to organise and represent data effectively and setting up databases. Students created a database of information on the States and Territories of Australia and a database comparing Australia and its neighbouring countries. Students developed their excel skills and created graphs from their data.
This week students are exploring the important roles of the local government. Students will explore the local services in Cunnamulla and how the local government promotes community life.
I hope all the Year 3 students get a good night’s sleep this week in preparation for NAPLAN. Remember to be on time to school on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Miss Lilly Daly
Year 3/4 Teacher
Year 2
As the end of the term draws near, we’ve been intent on completing our units of work and ensuring assessment has been completed, among the other day to day activities that is our year 2 room. Am very happy to report that our reading results indicate healthy growth and while all are at varying stages, I’m delighted with their progress. With their continued hard work and dedication to improvement, they’ll continue to make pleasing growth.
In English, we’ve continued with the writing of sentences, ensuring the use of correct punctuation and of course, editing skills to make sure our writing actually makes sense. Our phonics to spelling programme is now well established and Miss Lewis supports me during that time to ensure all are working on skills that require teaching or reinforcement.
During maths lessons, we’ve spent time learning place value to tens for some while others are working with hundreds, tens and ones to 999. We’ve also begun learning how to spell the number names and encourage you to reinforce this at home using the chart in their maths homework books.
Our religion unit on The Teaching and Actions of Jesus has worked in very well with our Monday morning briefings on the Habits of the Heart, Belonging and Compassion. We’re currently reading parables and learning that they are stories that Jesus told that have a special message.
For the remainder of the term, we’ll be concentrating our time on the study of Significant People of Cunnamulla. The children will write questions and interview someone to find out information about a person of significance in the local community. They will find out why they are/were significant and how they are linked to places of importance in our town. That will keep us engaged right up until the last day, I’m sure!
Mrs Jenny Shellshear
Year 2 Teacher
Year 1
Welcome to Week 8! The year 1’s have been very busy this fortnight!
In English, we have continued to develop our understanding of words and their sounds. We have been looking at how we can separate words into their sounds to help us read and write them. One of the activities we have engaged in to help us with this, is a picture word match. Students had to identify the picture and find the card with the word written on it but the trick was the words were split into their sounds, so we had to put them back together again. The students have also enjoyed reading a variety of books, including Macca the Alpaca, The Wonky Donkey and The Pig in the Pond. We have been using our reading strategies to help us figure out tricky words, as well as finding words in the text that contain the sounds we have looked at in Phonics to Spelling.
Over the last fortnight students have also engaged in reading testing. All students have shown growth in their own knowledge and skills and we will continue to develop these for further success and growth. I am very proud of all students.
In Maths we have continued our focus on recognising, representing, and ordering numbers but have also introduced addition to 20. We have learnt how counting on can help us solve addition problems and using our 100s chart is a valuable tool to assist us when we get stuck. Students also created a combinations to 10 tool using their hands. Each student had their hands traced by Miss Charlton, which they then cut out and stuck into their Maths books, making sure the fingers stayed unglued. Using the fingers, students can fold down the number of fingers they already have and recognise the number left over. The number folded down and then number left standing, combine to make a total of 10. This was definitely a favourite activity this fortnight! Over the next two weeks we will continued to develop our knowledge of rainbow facts, counting on and number concepts.
We are getting to the end of our integrated unit of work! Students have been busily experimenting with materials for the best track and have begun planning how they will construct their own track. We did a controlled test with just a piece of cardboard and no ramp to give us a baseline of how far our cars can go using both push and pull. This distance was measured and displayed in the classroom for students to use as a goal to beat with their own track. The students have constructed their tracks and ramps in pairs and tested their car multiple times, each time looking at how they can improve their track to ensure their car is the one that goes the furthest! I am looking forward to the final test of the tracks this week, and I am sure the students are too!
Miss Ellie Charlton
Year 1 Teacher
Prep
Welcome to week 8! We have another busy fortnight ahead but the light at the end of the tunnel is nearing closer! The Preps have done some fantastic learning over the last two weeks and should be very proud of their efforts.
In English, we have continued our shared reading lessons completing scrambled sentences. The students have also started writing these sentences which was a great way to extend their work. To continue our English unit, we discussed all things rhyming by looking at the book Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. We discussed the rhyming pairs from the stories and used this knowledge to create our own characters. One of our characters that we created was ‘McGoo McBog, sitting on a log’. The other character that the students produced a rhyming pair for was ‘Scruffy McTat’. We had some very interesting rhyming pairs for our new dog ‘Scruffy McTat’.
In Maths, the students have begun investigating 2D shapes. We started our activities by sorting these 2D shapes into colours, then into the different shape groups and discussing the features of these 2D shapes. We worked at identifying the features of these shapes, for example I know a triangle has three sides and three corners. The students then looked through magazines to find more of these 2D shapes. During rotations, the students also used playdough to create these shapes. This definitely tested our fine motor skills.
Our letter craft has also continued in Prep as we continue to learn more sounds and start to use these in our reading and writing. Be sure to ask your child was sounds they are learning! Thank you for your continued support throughout this term. With eight weeks down and only two more to go, we are nearing the end of the Preps very first term of school! Have a great fortnight!
Miss Aimee Bretherton
Prep Teacher
Principal Report
We had our first PPF meeting last week and at this meeting I shared our school’s new Strategic Plan for 2023 (this has been uploaded to our website) and an abridged version of our school’s Annual Action Plan. These documents guide our school’s direction and project planning for the year. A couple of major projects that I shared with the PPF from these plans include the construction of a new fence around the school perimeter and the purchase of a 12-seater bus for school use. We will hopefully begin to update our classroom interiors at the end of the year as well.
The school’s learning agenda was also a focus with information given about the direction we are taking with our Ignite Learning approach in order to develop expert learners. We will continue to investigate our Habits of the Heart and Mind and have begun to do this on our Monday morning briefings. We started with two big concepts – belonging and compassion and have spent time unpacking what these big ideas are and what skills we need to use to make sure we are successfully using these habits to help us become ‘good people’. As the co-construction of success criteria is also a focus in our classrooms, we have been modelling this on our Monday morning briefings. I am so excited about how well the students have been able to help define belonging and compassion and how well they have also been able to help construct the success criteria for the skills needed for these. We will continue to work on our Habits of the Heart this term during Monday briefings and the teachers will be working on the Habits of the Mind in class. Our student voice collection shows us that these habits definitely help our students focus on learning behaviours, rather than just being good in class.
Also on the agenda for the year is hosting some 3rd and 4th Year Prac students. This will happen later in the year and I look forward to sharing more news about this as it comes to hand.
This week we are excited to welcome Mrs Belinda Tolete back to Sacred Heart – for real life! (Bluey reference for the many parents who I’m sure are familiar!) Mrs Tolete has been working online as our school’s learning support teacher but will visit us at least once per term in person. We are all very keen to see her.
Please see below our 2023 Annual Action Plan overview for you all to read.
Cara Haig
Principal
Community Events
Important Dates
