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2023 Term 4 Week 8

Principal Report

As the year draws to a close, we take the time to celebrate the many wonderful things that have happened at Sacred Heart throughout 2023. The outcomes we have achieved this year would have not been possible without the many people who contribute to our school community across the year.

I would like to sincerely thank;

Our wonderful teachers and school officers for their continued dedication and hard work in supporting student learning. Together they have helped the students achieve fantastic academic growth and achievement.
Geoff from SWIN sports, for his fabulous sports lessons and Indigenous games he teaches every week during family rotations. Our students thoroughly enjoy learning and participating in your sporting and cultural activities.
Deadly Choices, for providing wonderful lessons throughout the year about Healthy Lifestyles and supporting our school in any way possible.
The Cunnamulla Police Officers, for always lending a helping hand when needed and supporting our students in every way they can.
Dan McKellar and Lawrence Anderson for taking our students on country and teaching many important and wonderful things about the Indigenous culture and the land on which we live. Your lessons are inspiring to all those who are a part of them.
Ethan Capewell and “The Chess Dads” for teaching chess skills and assisting with entering the online chess competition.
The Parent Partnership Forum for your continued support and Cassie White, for ensuring that our tuckshop continues to run for our students each week.
And to our students. Watching your growth, energy and enthusiasm towards learning has been a joy to be a part of! Keep striving to reach for the stars!

We will sadly bid Fr Shane farewell as he moves on to a different school next year. We sincerely thank him for his continued support ensuring our students experience vibrant liturgies and school Masses. We will miss his presence around the school and wider community and hope that he enjoys his future endeavours. Hopefully he will be able to return on a semi-regular basis so we can still enjoy his company. Fr Shane will conduct our end of school year mass on Wednesday 29^th November at 9:30am. This will be an opportunity to farewell him and our departing teachers. It would be appreciated if you could bring along a plate to share afterwards.

I look forward to seeing you all at Graduation tomorrow night and at the Christmas Show/Carols next Monday.

After a well-earned break, we will welcome the bright, smiling faces of our students in 2024. Good luck to our graduating Year Six students and to those families who are moving on to new communities.

Have a safe and happy holiday!

Mrs Cara Haig

Principal

Prep

We have made it! Week 8 is here and the end is in the sight. With the Prep classroom looking very empty and sad, our year is drawing to a close.

This fortnight, the Preps are finalising their assessment and work as teachers begin to finalise report cards. We are busy working away with these and squeezing in some Christmas craft as we go.

Students were lucky enough to venture to the shire hall to see ‘Drace Illusionist’ show us some amazing magic tricks! Thank you to Miss Tammy at the library for organising, Jeannie from the Cafe and Von from Friendly Grocer for the popcorn! This was lots of fun and a great way to end our year with some Christmas magic.

We have awards on Wednesday, Carols on Monday night and our Christmas liturgy on Wednesday morning at 8.30am. The students will be performing our own Christmas Nativity Play during mass so be sure to come and see our acting skills.

Thank you to all friends and families for a fantastic year! It has been my pleasure to watch these students enter at the beginning of the year, watch them learn and grow, and leave ready for Grade 1. I wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and look forward to seeing you all refreshed in the new year!

Miss Aimee Bretherton

Prep Teacher

Year 1

We have made it! I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by! All our assessment is now done and dusted, and the Year 1 students are enjoying some well-earned Christmas and craft activities. The students have all worked extremely hard this year and it is wonderful to see how far each and every one of them has come.

Over the past fortnight we have continued our focus on data, concluding our unit with creating a graph of our local weather over a period of 3 weeks. We observed the weather everyday at 12:30pm and recorded it in a table that was displayed in the classroom. At the end of the observation period the students used the gathered data to input into the iPad and created a bar graph. We then used the graph to answer some questions about the weather. The students thoroughly enjoyed this unit and have shown a solid understanding of graphing and the weather.

In English we have presented our persuasive speeches where the students had to convince me that Pig the Pug should not get presents. The reasons the students came up with and the justifications they offered were very clever and I was very excited to see the strong vocabulary students were beginning to use. There were many text to text connections made as well, demonstrating the growth in the students understanding of texts and how we can use multiple texts to provide evidence for our opinions.

We are also preparing for our Christmas Carols next Monday, learning a song and practicing. This has probably been a highlight for most of the students as singing and dancing is a big interest in our room. The students are very excited to share their song with you all.

I have absolutely enjoyed my time in Year 1 this year and am sad to say goodbye to the students, but I look forward to seeing where they go in their learning journey in the future. I hope you all have a relaxing and revitalising holiday break.

Miss Ellie Charlton

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

As the school year draws to a close, we have been finishing off assessment and enjoying a bit of down time after what has been a very big year. The children have all worked so hard and the growth in learning has been very pleasing. They are to be commended. This does not happen without a lot of effort and the holidays that are looming closer can’t come fast enough for some! I know each year we are amazed at the speed with which the months slip by but this year seems to have passed even more quickly.

In English lessons, we have typed up our persuasive letters to Santa and have posted them with our return address on the back of the envelope.

During maths, we have continued our exploration of data collection and representation, in addition to describing the properties of 3D shapes. Assessment has been high on the agenda, as we near the end of the year.

We have moved onto the story of the nativity in religion lessons, as we explore the season of advent and what it means. We have also been practicing our item for the carols’ night, which has been an assessment task for music this term as well, that focuses on rhythm and beat. We have also designed and constructed our maraca for our Design and Technology unit. Made from some recycled materials or those collected from nature!

All in all, a busy time interspersed with some fun Christmas activities by way of reward. I wish you all a happy, safe and restful holiday and thank you for the privilege of teaching your children this year. I shall take many fond memories of my time at Sacred Heart back with me as I return to Toowoomba to live fulltime.

Mrs Jenny Shellshear

Year 2 Teacher

Year 3/4

And just like that the 2023 school year comes to an end. It has been an absolute pleasure watching this cohort grow and succeed in all aspects of life. I am sure all the students would agree with me that this year has been full of laughs and learning.

This week, students finalised their Science and HaSS presentations. Students did a wonderful job capturing their knowledge on the topics explored this term and using their digital technology skills. Students also finalised their narrative write and shared this with the class. All students made great progress in their writing skills over the term. In Mathematics, students are revising number facts and solving a range of Christmas themed Mathematics investigations. Last week, students completed their final swimming lesson for the year. Thank you, Miss Mary-Anne, for all your hard work over the year. All students have improved their swimming technique greatly.

We will be practising our dance for the Christmas Carols this week! Be sure to come and support your child next Monday evening.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents and guardians, for your support over the year. I am so proud of each child and their wonderful academic and personal growth this year. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas season with their family and friends.

All the best!

Miss Lilly Daly

Year 3/4 Teacher

Year 5/6

What a whirlwind of a year to say the least. It feels like only yesterday I was welcoming the students into grade 5/6 and now, as we near the Christmas break, I'm waving them goodbye. I would like to congratulate the students on all their hard work over the year, they have all made great progress.

Over the past fortnight we have worked hard to complete all remaining assessments and unit work. This week we look forward to an array of revision and Christmas activities along with some graduation and Christmas Carol rehearsals.

Last Wednesday the Year 6 students, staff and families enjoyed a lovely meal at the Club Boutique to celebrate the graduates of 2023. Although it was a little windy the students thoroughly enjoyed the night. Thank you again to Carla, Pieta and the Club Boutique staff for your hospitality.

As this is our last newsletter for the year it feels only right to let some of the students share their highlights from the year.

Kirsten – My favourite part of this year was technology lessons.
Max – Going to Year 6 camp.
Brayden – Watching Maddi conquer the high ropes course.
Maddi – Blue Hedge was my favourite part. I also thought the bus ride home from camp was funny.
Thor – Thargomindah sports camp was fun.
Laura – Doing the science experiment when we made gas which produced a pink foam.
Charlie – All art lessons were really fun.
Penny – I enjoyed athletics.
Jakarhlem – I had fun at sports camp.
Jase – I also enjoyed sports camp.
Charlotte – I enjoyed reading to our buddies in library lessons.

I hope you all have a relaxing break and very merry Christmas.

Miss Abby Davidson

Year 5/6 Teacher

Class Awards

Birthdays

Graduation

This Wednesday 22^nd November we will be holding our end of year Graduation ceremony. All students are expected to attend and to wear their Sports Uniform (white shirt and green bottoms). The evening will commence at 6pm, so if students could please arrive at 5:45pm it would be greatly appreciated. All families are asked to bring a plate to share. We will conclude our graduation ceremony with cake to celebrate. I cannot wait to see everyone there.

Christmas Carols

Our school Christmas Carol Concert will be held next Monday 27^th November and will commence at 6:30pm. All students have been practicing their Christmas carol performances in class. It will be an event not to miss! Bring along a picnic blanket or camping chair to enjoy the carols under the stars. There will be Hot Dogs and drinks available for purchase.

Pre-Prep Transition Days

Prep Enrolments 2024

Tuition Fees

Term 4 fees are now overdue. Can these please be finalised ASAP. 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.

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/