Dear Community,

We are excited to invite all our dads, grandfathers, and father figures to our annual Father's Day Breakfast, which will be held tomorrow at 8:00 am in the school hall. It promises to be an excellent start to the day, with delicious bacon and egg rolls available and a coffee van on-site for you to purchase a fresh brew to kick off the big weekend ahead!

After breakfast, you will have the opportunity to visit classrooms and see the great work your children have been doing. Following this, we will gather for our Father's Day Mass in the Church, starting at 9:30 am. This is a special time for us to come together in prayer and thanksgiving for the important men in our lives.

Father's Day is a time to honour and celebrate the love, guidance, and support that fathers and father figures provide. It’s an opportunity to reflect on their vital role in our families and our community, shaping our children's lives with their wisdom, care, and dedication.

We hope you can join us for this special morning. Please remember to bring your prepaid tokens or see Mrs Wode in the morning.

Confirmation this Weekend

Many Year Six students will receive the Sacrament of Confirmation this Friday and Saturday evening at Sacred Heart Church. This is a significant milestone in their faith journey, as Confirmation deepens their relationship with God, strengthens their bond with the Church, and seals the gifts of the Holy Spirit within them.

The importance of this Sacrament cannot be overstated. Confirmation is a moment of profound grace, where our students will be fully initiated into the Catholic Church, affirming the promises made on their behalf at Baptism. It is a time of spiritual growth and a commitment to live out their faith with courage and conviction.

Our teachers, students, and parents have dedicated themselves to preparing for this special occasion. Their hard work, devotion, and prayerful reflection have been instrumental in guiding our students toward this sacred moment. We ask our entire school community to keep these young people in your prayers as they take this important step in their faith.

They will participate in their Confirmation Retreat Day tomorrow, another time to prepare for the Sacrament.

We especially thank Fr. Emil for his leadership and support throughout this journey. His guidance has been invaluable, and we are grateful for his dedication to our students' spiritual growth.

Please join us in celebrating and supporting our Year Six students during this blessed time.

NAPLAN Results

Sacred Heart has performed exceptionally well in the 2024 NAPLAN, proving it is one of the highest-academic-performing Primary schools in the ACT. With 85% of Year 3 students and 83% of Year 5 students achieving “Strong or Exceeding” across the NAPLAN domains, Sacred Heart has outperformed the ACT average performance for Year 3 and Year 5 cohorts by an impressive 18% and 10% respectively.

Sacred Heart Primary School continues to demonstrate academic excellence in Reading and Numeracy. With 87% of our students achieving “Strong or Exceeding” in Reading and 93% achieving this level of proficiency in Numeracy, it is clear that our amazing teachers, our approaches to learning, and the academic support we provide for each and every child are clearly impacting our students' abilities.

We are very proud! Well done students and staff!

Oztag Gala Days

This week, many of our students from Years 3 to 6 had the opportunity to participate in the Oztag Gala Days, and what a fantastic time they had! Our students showcased their athletic skills and their outstanding sportsmanship and leadership, serving as excellent role models both on and off the field.

We are incredibly proud of how they represented Sacred Heart, demonstrating teamwork, resilience, and respect throughout the event.

A big thank you to our dedicated teachers who supported, supervised, and coached our teams and to our parents who cheered from the sidelines!

Condolences

This week, we were informed of the death of one of our long-term staff members at Sacred Heart, Mrs Joan Kearns, who passed away at the age of 88. Joan was a teacher here for close to 20 years and was remembered as a kind, hard-working, and dedicated teacher who loved Sacred Heart. Her funeral will be held at Sacred Heart Church on Monday at 10 am. The family has asked if our senior students would form a guard of honour at the conclusion of the funeral.

May eternal rest be granted unto Joan, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her.

May she rest in peace.

Amen.

Claim the date: Grandparents Day

Please claim the date: Friday 29^th November. More information early next term.

In faith and partnership,

David Austin

Principal

Thanks for the warm welcome as I returned from leave. A month in Canada and Alaska was good for the soul. It was lovely to be greeted with smiling faces from each child and to share some stories of what I did in answer to their questions. I certainly learnt a lot about glaciers and lakes.  A huge thanks to the staff team who very ably covered my absence.

STEAM news and equipment

Classes are launching into some interesting work in STEAM, with many classes needing some recycled items to help them complete their tasks. 

We need 1) shoe boxes 2) plastic soft-drink bottles with lids and 3) pen lids. If you have some taking up space in your house, could you please drop them to Mrs Wode over the next two weeks. This should fill any gaps in supply. Thanks. 

Kinder - We are engineering a diorama of our favourite places. Children are asked to bring in a shoebox. We also need some adult helpers. See the compass notification for details.

Years 1 & 2 - Are learning about portraits. Children are encouraged to bring in a shirt/smock to protect their uniform from paint. An adult button-up shirt is perfect. Please write your child’s name on it and send it to their classroom.

Years 3 & 4 - Are experimenting with forces. Each child needs to bring in a plastic bottle with lid (a 1.25- 2L soft drink bottle is perfect). They also need a lid from a pen, preferably without a hole in the top. 

Years 5 & 6 - Are experimenting with changing states of matter. No extra equipment required currently.

2025 Term Dates

We have updated the school calendar with all term dates for 2024 and added the dates for 2025. 

Please note that there are eight pupil free days in 2025 for Catholic Primary Schools in the ACT, inclusive of the usual dates at the beginning of each year. These dates do not always match term dates published by the ACT Department of Education. Our pupil free days have been set by Catholic Education as an essential initiative under the CECG’s People Strategy framework.

Our school calendar continues to be accessible via Compass and our website

School Reminders

• Toys and games from home. A reminder that we ask children to not bring extra items to school. Yesterday we reminded them that collectible cards, such as the Disney ones, should not be visible at school. We ask parents to check that cards and other toys stay at home.
• Shoulder length hair needs to be tied up as part of our uniform policy.
• Gum should not be chewed at school. We are starting to see some littering with this and ask your support in maintaining hygiene in this area.

Yours faithfully,

Compass Notifications

Please refer to Compass for the following notifications:

• Kinder Health Checks
• Kinder STEAM helpers required

If your child is not returning to Sacred Heart Primary in 2025, please complete and forward the following document to the school office. This information is required for class organisation and government accountability. 

South Weston Athletics

Last Thursday, Sacred Heart took a team of 30 students to the South Weston Athletics carnival where students competed against the best athletes of our region. 

Mrs Kelly was incredibly impressed with the way our students competed, showed sportsmanship, and represented Sacred Heart in the best way possible.

We had some great results with Ella B winning a First and Second place in both the Discus and Shot Put. We also had Aleiya T taking home a bag of ribbons from her 6 event schedule. Both girls have qualified for the ACT Championships as well as Joey F for the 800m.

Oz Tag Gala Day

This week, Sacred Heart competed in both the Boys and Girls Oz Tag Gala days. We had 4 teams entered across the 2 days. In the teams we had some players with exceptional Oz Tag experience and skills, as well as students who were playing in the sport for the first time. Everyone had a fantastic day, lots of team work and skills were shown and, they again represented Sacred Heart wonderfully.

Special mention to the Yr 3 boys and the 5/6 girls teams who both made it to the Semi-Final, both only losing their game by the smallest of margins. 

Thank you again to the parents for supporting us in getting this day to go ahead.