Kindergarten Orientation

We were very excited to welcome our delightful 2023 Kindergarten on Tuesday morning. The spirit of our community nurtured the hearts and minds of these young children who settled easily into a wonderful morning of fun activities. We enjoyed the wonderful opportunity to have parents back in the school.

Celebrating Grandparents and Carers

We send a warm welcome to Grandparents, Parents and Carers to join us and visit the school for open classroom tours with their children next Thursday 3rd and Friday 4th. The rooms will be open from 3.15 to 4.00 on Thursday afternoon and 8.15 - 8.55 on Friday morning.

Virtues Awards

At SHPS we endeavour to be a people of virtue who value the power of knowledge.This year we introduced a Virtues Award to celebrate and affirm children who demonstrate school identified virtues. This is to highlight and focus on ‘Virtue’ in our school logo, ‘Virtue and Knowledge’. We are focusing on people of virtue and giving out virtue tickets when we see virtues being lived out in community.  

In Weeks 5 and 10 all children who received a ticket during the five week period receive an extra 15 minutes of play and the children whose names are drawn out of the jar have a pizza lunch with Mrs Staines.

Our school captains have written about this initiative below.

We want to be a community that makes a difference through living our shared virtues as we strive to nurture the hearts, minds and spirits of all we meet.

Class Structures 2023

Approved staffing for 2023 is as follows:

Two x kindergarten

Two x Year 1

One Year 2 (with large class support). We have capped the class at this point and will begin a waiting list in the hopes that we receive enough students for a second class.

Three classes in Stage 2. We cannot confirm this make-as we are still awaiting confirmation of numbers.

Two x Year 5 

One x Year 6

Canteen Arrangements for the remainder of Term 4

Currently we are outsourcing lunches from the Merchant Feast for the canteen on Tuesday and Thursday. Orders can be made through QKR with a shut off for orders at 6.00pm the evening before.

Counter cash sales for recess are available on Tuesday and Thursday. Most items are $1. Please do not send more than $3-4 per child. Children will not be allowed to purchase items for friends.

More information will be sent through COMPASS as Mrs Kane offers more options.

Take care and keep safe

New Parent Mix and Mingle - extended to parents in current Kindergarten and Year 1, who missed out due to COVID.

We invite parents from our current Kinder and Year 1 classes to join the Kinder parents of 2023 at our welcome to Sacred Heart Mix & Mingle. It is a great opportunity to meet other parents and connect with our community. Staff, Community Council members and Parent Reps are all invited to attend. This is an adult only event.

Mix & Mingle

15th November

6-7pm

Kinder courtyard

School Hats

We now have wide brim school hats in stock. Order through Qkr!

Twilight Fair News

Thanks for supporting our lucky dip stall through donations with a mufti day (out of uniform) tomorrow Friday 28th. Children can bring donations to the blacktop before morning assembly. Year 1 White are going to take on the service task of collecting the items. 

We are seeking donations of new items for the lucky dip stall. Please keep donations small enough to fit into a brown paper lunch order bag. A rough guide is no bigger than the size of an average adult hand.

 Lucky dip donation ideas:

• Handball
• Kids body wash
• Kids stationery - glitter pens/multi colour pens/erasers/chalk
• Stickers
• Puzzle
• Mini board game
• Whistle
• Lip gloss
• Small book (remember it needs to fit in a paper sandwich bag)
• Wrapped lollipops
• Small craft activities

Item to sell - GLOOMHAVEN game

This new game, donated to the Twilight Fair, will be highly prized by the right audience - probably not our primary school families! 

Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives, suited to ages 12+.  If you know someone who is passionate about role-playing games please mention this to them. It is brand new. We think we should be able to sell it for $100. Contact the office to buy it.

Twilight Fair newsletter 

Your eldest child is bringing home a printed copy of the Twilight Fair Newsletter #4 along with 5 fliers to advertise our event. We ask families to please share these fliers with neighbours and friends. 

Only four weeks to go. Please lock in Friday 25th November 3.30-7.30pm for our biggest community and fundraising event of the year. 

Yours faithfully,

Compass Notifications

Please refer to Compass for the following notifications:

• Speech Pathologist from ‘Eat, Speak, Learn’
• School Choir invite to join
• Term 4 Week 2 Reminders
• Tennis Reminder
• Lucky Dip Donations and Mufti-day Friday 28th October
• Canteen Open-Thursday Recess
• Twilight Fair News #4

Supporting an anxious child video series for families

In support of Mental Health Month, the ACT Directorate has produced a short video series to help families support their child if they are feeling anxious. The three videos are presented by senior psychologists. They cover understanding and responding to a child’s anxiety and tips about supporting a child when they’re feeling anxious.

They are available now on the ACT Education website at Wellbeing Support Resources for students and families.

School Captains

At the end of last term the School Captains initiated some new ideas within the school. 

The first initiative is a letterbox called the 'Captains’ Letterbox'.  The letterbox is intended to provide students from any grade in the school the opportunity to communicate things they would like the Captains to know about, including any troubles students might be experiencing, or any changes they might like to see in the school. The letterbox is located in the Front Office area.

The second idea the Captains initiated was the ‘Shooting Star’ Captain's Award.  Each week at assembly the Captains draw out a 'virtues' ticket and publicly acknowledge the reason the child had been awarded the ticket.  Students can earn a ticket by living out the school values and all teachers are encouraged to nominate students for living out our school values. Some of the values Sacred Heart has been focusing on this year are:

• GRATITUDE
• RESPECT
• INTEGRITY
• EQUITY

School Captains are watching to catch students doing the right thing.  Additionally, virtue ticket winners will still earn extra FREE PLAY and be in the running for the special Principal’s lunch with Mrs Staines. 

Thank you, from your friendly School Captains,

Zoe C, Olivia G, Ashleigh O & Leila W.

Minecraft

'Quick lock out the fox!' Stage 3 students welcoming the challenge of using Minecraft Education Edition to learn about cyber security in Questacon's Cyber Castle world.

Stage 3 Natural Disaster Expo

Today, Stage 3 presented to the Students, Staff, Parents and Carers their displays on natural disasters. Everyone enjoyed the hard work they all did in their presentations.

Fluffles Update

Fluffles is growing bigger and is enjoyiong her new farm life. She is learning to interact with the other chickens and is nearly big enough to be able to join them.

Playgroup

Thank you to all our wonderful Tuesday Playgroup families who kept playgroup happening while Mrs Wills was busy with Kinder Orientation.

Ashleigh represented Sacred Heart at the National Schools Judo competition in September on the  Gold Coast. 

She placed third and received a bronze medal. 

Congratulations to the following students celebrating their birthday this week 

Adian O, Lewis H, Joshua C, Matthew C, Riley D, Eric N.