Sacred Heart Primary School, Cunnamulla eNewsletter

Principal Report

Another term of learning is ending, and I am very proud of all we have achieved. It has been fantastic to see the significant progress all classes have made with their learning and that all of the hard work is paying off. Just a reminder that it is super important for all students to be at school every day so that their learning journey is continuous and uninterrupted. Every day counts, even in the last week!

I am deep in the process of organising the school budget and staffing workbook for 2024. This process is quite complicated, and I don’t yet have any firm answers on what next year will look like for us. We are planning on keeping our 5 classes, plus our other roles so will be working hard to make sure we have some fabulous teachers to fill our vacancies. One classroom teacher advertisement has been sent out so please share this with anyone you think might be interested in teaching in our awesome school!

This week we farewell Mrs Ellie Widgell as she heads off on maternity leave. We look forward to meeting baby Widgell when he or she arrives mid next term! Miss Grace Carter has accepted the role of school officer for 18hrs/week to replace Mrs Widgell for Term 4 only. We look forward to welcoming Grace back to Sacred Heart.

Our Year 6 students enjoyed school camp last week and our 4/5s are having heaps of fun out at Thargo Sports Camp. Mrs Shellshear is enjoying her long service leave, sending us pictures of the lovely places she is visiting. What a great way for them to end the term. Those remaining at school have also had a great time, working, and playing together!

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday.

Mrs Cara Haig

Principal

Prep

We did it! Happy Week 10 and end of Term 3! It is crazy to think that there is only one more term left for 2023. The Preps have had a very successful term with lots of learning and progress being made in all our subject areas.

In Week 8, we were lucky enough to participate in an excursion with Dan and Cheese. We travelled to the Yumba Reserve, the Weir and the Sandhills. We learnt about the Bumble Bush, Medicine Trees, River Red Gum Trees, Coolibah Trees and the Snotty Gobbles. Dan and Cheese taught us so much about these places and why they are important to the First Nations people within Cunnamulla. Thank you to both of them for teaching us so much and for a very enjoyable excursion.

We also held our Fabulous Father’s Day event! Our Dads, Grandads and some Mums came to join us to celebrate such an important day for us. We had a Barbecue Relay Race with oven mitts, tongs and aprons. We also practiced shaving our Dad’s faces with shaving cream and paddle pop sticks. Thank you to all our parents who attended our event and made it a very memorable morning for our parents.

A special shoutout to our Prep students as well. This week, I challenged them to write sentences based on books that we have been reading in class and they blew me away with the work they presented! They have shown such great progress in their sounds knowledge and transferring this to their reading and writing! I am very proud of their efforts.

Thank you for another fabulous term! This has been a very speedy but exciting and enjoyable, nonetheless. Thank you to all parents and carers for your continued support this term. The student’s growth this term has been phenomenal, and I am so proud of how far they have come. I hope everyone has a relaxing two weeks and is ready and refreshed for the students’ final term of Prep!

Miss Aimee Bretherton

Prep Teacher

Welcome to week 10! We have survived another super busy Term in Year 1! Over the last fortnight the students have been busily completing their assessment items across all learning areas.

To finish off our Integrated Unit we went on an excursion around the local community. As we walked, the students identified Natural, Managed and Constructed features. We walked through John Kerr Park, past IGA, stopped at the Water Fountain and down the main street to Centenary Park where we rested and had a play on the playground. To complete our trek, we walked down to the Darby Land Bridge and explored the different features around the river. The students really enjoyed this excursion and their ability to apply their knowledge from the classroom was good. When we got back to school, the students used the Ipads to locate some of the features they had seen on the excursion on a map of Cunnamulla. They also labelled them as Natural, Managed or Constructed.

In English we have completed our Animal Information Reports and boy have we improved! The quality of writing in the Year 1 room has been of a high standard and all students should be super proud of their effort and what they produced as their final copy.

Maths has seen us wrapping up measurement with a final investigation on capacity. Our understanding has grown so much in this area, we are now beginning to work on our reasoning skills. This will be a tricky journey but with persistence and determination we will achieve our goal.

To finish off our Term, we will be hosting the Catherine McAuley Liturgy at 9am on Wednesday morning. We would love to see as many people there to support the students as we can get.

Thank you all for another fantastic Term! Enjoy your well-deserved break and I look forward to seeing you for our final Term of 2023.

Miss Ellie Charlton

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Week 10! It’s hard to believe we are at the end of term 3 already. Year 2 have been lucky to have spent week 9 and the beginning of week 10 with Mrs Campbell while Mrs Shellshear is away on long service leave. During the last two weeks of term, the year 2’s have used their time productively working on their English and Maths skills. They also visited the town library and were excited to see the Tawny Frogmouth and the Robot Cat during their Storytime.

The year 2s also got to spend time with the year 3s and the year 6s, learning about what happens in their classrooms. All the students worked tremendously together and enjoyed sharing the differences in their learnings together.

We are definitely ready for school holidays! Both students and staff are ready for some relaxation, fun and family time.

The year 2s are very excited to welcome Mrs Shellshear back next term.

Have a happy and safe holiday break ready to return for our final term of 2023.

Miss Ailie Lewis

APRE

Year 3/4

Welcome to Week 10 - time truly does fly when you are having fun!

Last week, students finished creating their amazing book awards! Their awards will be showcased in our classroom early next term. In Science, students conducted experiments around heat energy and investigated how heat is produced. We also welcomed a new student to our class - Riqbal Mahal. We hope he enjoys learning and having fun in Year 3/4.

This week, the Year 4 students are enjoying Sports Camp at Thargomindah. Students are participating in a range of sports, including - Rugby, acrobatics, athletics and orienteering. The Year 3 are having fun with the Year 6 class, completing a range of STEM activities and online researching tasks!

I am very proud of all the effort and persistence displayed this term, by all the Year 3 and 4 Students. It is fantastic to see all students become more curious and independent in their learning. I am very excited to see what they accomplish next term!

I hope everyone has a great holiday. I look forward to seeing everyone next term!

Miss Lilly Daly

Year 3/4 Teacher

Year 5/6

Welcome to Term 3 Week 10. Last week we left the Year 5 students behind and journeyed to the Sunshine Coast for Year 6 camp. We participated in many activities including, high ropes courses, laser tag competitions, arcade and beach games, mountain hikes and ninja warrior courses. We were on the edge of our seats watching the Croc show at Australia Zoo and laughing at Seals as they danced around the Sea life arena. The students had loads of fun as they conquered their fear of heights and built teamwork skills. We would like to extend a huge thank you to Nic Van Niekerk and Brad Palmer for accompanying us on camp and getting involved in all the activities.

I wish all the Year 5 students a great time at Thargomindah sports camp this week. I am sure you will have an amazing time. We have had a busy term and are due a well-earned break. Happy Holidays!

Miss Abby Davidson

Year 5/6 Teacher

Birthday

Hope Project

Last week we had a few visitors from the Hope Project team who taught basketball skills to our students. The HOPE Program works with the Charleville and Cunnamulla communities to improve health and social outcomes for children and young people up to the age of 25 years. The program's overall goal is to help address deep and persistent disadvantage, and its impact on young people’s development pathways.

School App - SZapp

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)
Mr Jesse Kupper (School Guidance Counsellor)
Mrs Cara Haig (Principal)

Tuition Fees

Term 3 Tuition Fees have been sent out. Please have these paid by the end of this term. 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 a 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.