Please read and print the End of Year Happenings at SHPS 2019

St Vinnies Christmas Appeal

Please see the attached note about our annual St Vincent de Paul Christmas appeal.

St_Vinnies_Christmas_Appeal.pdf

Private Piano Tuition for 2020

Private Piano tuition is again being provided at the school next year. Those parents who are wanting their child/children to have piano lessons, can contact the teachers directly on the following contact numbers;

 Mrs Hildegarde Mendoza Phone: 0417 580 975
 Mrs Pam Cox Phone: 0418 442 203
 Mr Craig Mewett Phone: 0409 151 887 / 6278 7382

Dear Parents and Carers,

Last Friday Mrs Thornton and 3/4 Navy led us celebrating the beginning of Advent.  The song "Be God's..." that was sung at the Mass had a really special message for us, to help us to ready ourselves for the birth of the Lord at Christmas time.

LET YOUR LIFE CHANGE THE WORLD ONE PERSON AT A TIME by being God's...

We are looking forward to this week's Kindergarten Nativity on Friday at 12.30pm.

Reports 

Reports will be sent home with children this Friday. Please send an email to the classroom teacher and front office if you need us to hold the report for any reason or you need it to be mailed.

Meet the teacher afternoon  

Just a reminder that children will have the opportunity to meet their teacher for 2020 on Tuesday 17th December.

We have a few staff who will be leaving Sacred Heart at the end of year -Mrs Binutti-Wilson, Mrs Anna Thornton, Miss Annie Brill, Mrs Shelley Salzke and Ms Kelly Evans. We wish to thank them for the gift they have been to our community.

We congratulate Mr Dillon Beltrame and Miss Megan Klomp on their recent re-appointments.

We will welcome Mrs Helen Hamilton and Ms Samantha Bartley to our staff for 2020.

Yours faithfully,

Anne Staines

Principal

Parenting Ideas

Thank you to the parents and carers who took the time to complete the Parenting Ideas Subscription Survey in the newsletter the last 2 weeks. (We are hoping the Schoolzine survey tool proves to be very useful.)

We had a range of responses about the use of the articles, webinars and website, including:

• Planning to use webinar. Resource very appreciated. The parenting advice is really helpful.
• I have read Parenting Ideas Insights, but I have not necessarily accessed resources beyond the articles.
• I didn't know about them or how to access them.

Our feedback through the year has been positive and staff have used several of the articles in conversations with families. The subscription was supported by the BeYou plan (formally KidsMatter) as a way to connect and support our community.

We will continue the subscription into 2020 as a result of the feedback, taking on board the need advertise this resource in a more visible manner, and review again at the end of the year.

Meanwhile check out the Parenting Resource tab on their website today.

• A current webinar is about transitioning to high school. ($37)
• A current blog is about losing a pet.

 https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/

Sacred Heart‘s Christmas Concert and Community Thank You Night Information 2019

It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Thank you to all families who have returned their RSVP to the Concert night and those who have offered to assist on the night with the dinner. We will publish a helper list early next week.

On the night please bring along your Santa hats, picnic rugs, camping chairs (for the BBQ afterwards) and your best singing voices!

The Concert will be held on Wednesday 11th December 2019 in the School Hall.

All children will need to be dropped off at classrooms* by 5:40pm. (*Year 1 please come to the Year 2 classrooms.) This will allow teachers enough time to prepare their class for the 6pm start. Children are to be collected from the classrooms after the concert. Please see the classroom teacher to have them checked off the class list. Your child is under your parental care from that point.

Thank You BBQ Dinner is from 7pm (BBQ and Salads) and will be held out the back on the school’s playground and oval area.

Please note that below is the run sheet for the evening and what we are asking children to wear for their class performances.

See you on Wednesday!

Yours faithfully

Thank you to our wonderful community for a tremendous 2019.

We have achieved many improvements as a community.  We are grateful for the support and volunteer contributions from our SHPS families.

One of the changes going forward is to improve the reporting of the school budget regarding the canteen, uniform shop and Community Council. This will aim to improve clarity around these areas regarding income and expenditure.

Stage 3 students have started the refresh of the bathrooms. This was a big item on their wish list of things they wish could be improved in the school and they were very keen to take a hands on approach to the changes. We look forward to seeing the changes in 2020.

The K-6 Complete subgroup held their final meeting for the year to bring together what they had learned from the information night and how they should go forward into 2020.  The major focus will be promoting all aspects of Sacred Heart better and providing a clearer picture of the school to current and prospective families and students.

Anne Staines guided discussion on the SHPS 2020 Strategic Plan. This is focused on improving the continuity of practice from K-6 and will be linked with the work of BeYou program and K-6 Complete to provide consistency in the way we deliver and market improvements. The strategic plan will be published on the school website shortly.

The Parent Reps have had a successful year organising social events, teacher gifts and encouraging communication between the families in our community.  Thank you to all of our Parent Reps for leading your class engagements, and the behind-the-scenes work that you do to help our community hum.

Thank you to Josie Lanzetta for arranging for our school to be part of the Southern Cross Club reward points program. Families within our community can link there club membership to the school and earn $$ for the school on each food and beverage transaction they make. 

The focus for next year will of course be our 50th year celebrations. There are a number of events planned throughout the year from trivia nights to discos and our gala night on 15 August. Please look out for further information and save the dates.

The next Annual General Meeting for the Council will be held on Tuesday evening of Week 3, Term 1. Please come along if you are interested in joining our Council and supporting improvements to our school.

All the best to you and your family for a safe and relaxing Christmas break. See you on Monday 3 February 2020 when school returns.

Sarah Lloyd | Catherine Woods | John Berry | Jac Hrast | Sharon Poole | Josie Lazetta | Brendan Mitchell | Kerry Wode | Anne Staines | Fr Richard Thompson

On Friday 22nd November, Mrs Stumbles and 17 Social Justice Leaders from Stage 3 attended the St Vincent De Paul Mini Vinnies Day. We participated in 11 workshops where volunteers from St Vincent De Paul talked through all of the different services they provide for the Canberra community.

Some of the services they provide are:

• Respite Camps - for children who are the carers for parents and loved ones
• Street to home - a service where they help people living rough find a way to a home of their own.
• Clemente - Where adults can go to learn skills to get an education and get a job
• Night Patrol Van - this service provides essential supplies for people living on the streets
• St Vincent De Paul Shops - All funds raised from the shops go directly back to our community.
• Family services - provides support for families to help them pay for food and bills. 
• Migrant and Refugee program - Supporting those new to our area and helping them to build their reading and speaking skills.

All of these services rely on the support that our community provides them through various ways, such as the winter appeal and the Christmas Hamper appeal. They were very grateful for all that we do and it really affirmed to the students that what we currently do in our school directly supports those in need.

We have launched our Christmas Appeal with the addition of purchasing new toys to be given as gifts for those children who may not receive anything on Christmas Day.   

As always, if you can support the St Vincent De Paul in anyway please do.