Sacred Heart Primary School, Cunnamulla eNewsletter

Principal Report

Term Two began with brain straining professional development for the teachers on the Pupil Free Day. Our Education Officer- Rachel Coggan led the day which focused on how learners learn, how Learning Intentions and Success Criteria assist learners and the different concepts and skills in the V9 Mathematics curriculum. The teachers worked extremely hard on these very high-level skills, and we are very proud of what they achieved on the day and what they are continuing to work on as the term progresses.

Although I wasn’t here to welcome them in person, it was lovely to see the students return to school last Tuesday. They too have already been working hard both in class and as a whole school. At morning briefing on Monday, the year levels nailed their definitions/explanations of the Habits of the Heart – Belonging and Compassion. Their definitions are up on the library door if you get a chance to check them out! Today we began to unpack the Habit of the Heart – Courage. This fitted in nicely after most students represented the school at the ANZAC Day March yesterday. Thank you to all who made the effort to pay their respect to the Service Men and Women, both past and present.

Yesterday at the ANZAC March we were presented with a lovely picture book from our local Fire and Rescue Service. We thank the Cunnamulla Fire & Rescue for this kind donation, we have placed this book in our library for students to enjoy.

Today we welcomed Mrs Tolete to school in person for the rest of the week. We are pleased that she is able to once again come and visit students, parents and teachers as part of her learning support work.

After an extended absence, we are quietly confident that Mrs Shellshear will return to school next Tuesday after the public holiday. While I enjoyed my time with the Year 2’s today, I know they are super keen to have Mrs Shellshear back!

Next week we will also welcome our Senior Education Leader – Mr Marty Savage to school on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Have a lovely long weekend!

Cara Haig

Principal

Prep

Welcome back! I hope everyone had a relaxing and refreshing holiday! The Preps have had an enjoyable start to school. We welcomed everyone back on Tuesday and kicked off our first day with a bang! Our Preps got stuck straight into their work with some holiday craft. The students were asked to discuss their holidays with a partner. They then drew pictures on some glasses and stuck this on an image. Their craft turned out so well and looks fantastic on display in the classroom.

This term for English, the students are learning about the fantastic author, Julia Donaldson. She has many familiar picture books like ‘The Gruffalo’, ‘Room on the Broom’, ‘The Snail and the Whale’ plus many more. The students will be investigating characters and their traits this term using Julia Donaldson’s books. The students already love her stories and are excited to continue reading more.

To start off our Maths, the students began with patterns to help refresh our memories. We collaborated on a craft and created our very own pattern snake! The students were given a small section of the snake and asked to create repeating patterns on their section. This snake is now on display in our classroom and the students are very proud of their work.

For our Connected unit this term, the students will be investigating superheroes! We will discuss a range of superheroes and look in detail at their suits, their vehicles, their powers, and overall how they are as a superhero. We started our unit with a brainstorm discussing superheroes we already know. The students came up with Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Iron Man, Hulk, Thor and many more. The students are very excited about this unit and eager to dive into learning.

With a fantastic start to Term 2, the Preps are ready for another busy term! Have a great week!

Miss Aimee Bretherton

Prep Teacher

Welcome back to Term 2! I hope you all had an enjoyable and relaxing holiday.

We began this term by looking at shapes and the features we can use to identify them. We did a shape walk through the school and the students were very excited to find all the different shapes our buildings and playground are made of including rectangles, squares, circles and pentagons. The students also discovered that some buildings are made up of a combination of shapes and that sometimes there can be shapes inside of shapes! Each student then made a shape book where they had to draw shapes, name them and write the features they use to identify them in the world around us. To finish of our understanding of shape, the students created a shape monster which required them to choose a variety of shapes and use them to create the scariest monster they could! Over the next fortnight, we will learn about partitioning and how numbers can be separated into different parts.

In English, we began looking at different texts and how we can make connections to them. We read a story and reflected on a time we have felt the same way or done something similar to the characters in the text. After this, we began looking at the characters in The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. We read the story and then discussed what the traits each character had in the story. The students discussed what they could see in the pictures and used this to describe the characters. We drew a picture of the Fox and labelled it with all the physical traits we could see, as well as writing a list of the personality traits he showed in the story.

Our integrated unit this term is about Families. We began this unit by discussing the different family structures and who was in our families. The students each created a family tree to show the people in their family and how they are connected (grandparents, parents and children). The next step is to discuss the different roles people play in families and how each person helps in their family. The students drew a picture of something they do to help out in their homes- I have to say, we have a lot of children who enjoy taking out the rubbish or packing up their toys!

I look forward to continuing our work over the next fortnight and learning more about each of our families.

Miss Ellie Charlton

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Welcome back to term 2. This term we begun reflecting on our Easter holidays and sharing our stories with friends. We have also looked at ANZAC day and explored the importance of our ANZAC’s and how our country has been shaped by their actions.

We have continued to work hard on our phonics, spelling and reading skills. We are looking at main ideas and events as part of our English unit, using picture books to identify and sequence important events from the story.

In Maths, we’ve continued to build our knowledge of addition strategies, we spent some time investigating addition sums and persisting through some challenging problems. We have also begun learning about time. We practiced our understanding of O’clock and half past and introduced quarter to. We explored how these times looked on both digital and analog clocks.

In Religion, we have begun looking at creation, we are exploring the importance of God’s creation. In Science we are looking at day and night, beginning with exploring movements of the Sun, Earth and Moon and what causes night and day.

We are all excited to be back at school and look forward to learning new things this term.

We have missed Mrs Shellshear and hope she is recovering well as she is still recovering from Covid. We look forward to having her back with us in week 3.

Miss Ailie Lewis

APRE

Year 3/4

Welcome back to Term 2! The Year 3/4 class are already stuck into their learning.

In HaSS, students are exploring the importance of rules and laws within communities and reflecting on how they keep us safe. This week students are looking at the difference between rules and laws, ask your child what they have already learnt about rules and laws! In English, students are learning to express opinions effectively to an audience. We are currently exploring language features in opinion texts and identifying facts and opinions. This term, we will also be exploring improvisation skills in Drama and rules and scoring systems that promote fair play in Health.

It has been wonderful catching up with parents and guardians at this Term’s Parent Teacher Interviews.

Have a great fortnight!

Miss Lilly Daly

Year 3/4 Teacher

Year 5/6

Welcome to Term 2! Only one week in and it already feels as though time is slipping by as we get straight back into learning. The 5/6 students were busy last week completing their information reports on countries in Asia, that they started last term. We also spent time practicing our ANZAC Day liturgy that the students lead this Monday. They did a beautiful job learning and performing the selected songs in Auslan.

In Mathematics, we have begun to look at data. The students have been revising how to construct bar graphs and will move onto analysing line graphs next week. They have also been working their way ‘out of the pit’ as they learn to master new multiplication strategies such as the grid method. It has been great to see many of the students achieve success in solving double digit and even 3-digit multiplication.

This term the focus for our integrated unit is colonial Australia. We will be discussing significant events that took place in Australia before federation. The students will then be using their knowledge about the colonisation of Australia to write historical fictions. Later in the term these narratives will be turned into claymations.

On top of all this great learning, the Year 6 students have been very busy working with Mrs Anthony to organise camp fundraising. As I am sure you would have heard we have a number of events coming up. Below is a list of some of our upcoming events:

Wednesday 26^th of April (Week 2) – Hot Drinks Stall
Friday 28^th of April (Week 2) – Hair styling at cross country
Wednesday 10^th of May (Week 4) – Hot Drinks Stall
Friday 12^th of May (Week 4) – Mother’s Day Pre-ordered gift delivery
Friday 12^th of May (Week 4 assembly) – Mother’s Day raffle drawn
Saturday 20^th of May (Week 5) – BBQ at the Races
Wednesday 24^th of May (Week 6) – Hot Drinks Stall
Friday the 26^th of May (Week 6) – Cunnamulla Show stall
Wednesday 7^th of June (Week 8) – Hot Drinks Stall

I hope you all have a lovely fortnight.

Miss Abby Davidson

Year 5/6 Teacher

ANZAC Day

Birthdays

Parent/Teacher Interviews

Parent/Teacher interviews are held twice a year in Term 2 and Term 4. These take place after school and run for 15 minutes. They are a valuable opportunity for parents to discuss their child/children progress across all aspects of school life. Interviews will be taking place in this week,(Wednesday 26th, Thursday 27th & Friday 28th April ). I encourage every parent to make an appointment. Please see or phone Mrs Crick to book an interview time.

Absenteeism

A recent study by Andrew Forrest, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, identified that if a child’s school attendance falls below 90% (ie they frequently miss more than half a day of school a week) their education is considered at risk. If attendance falls below 80% (ie they miss a day of school every week) their education is significantly diminished. In other words...

less than 80% attendance - no better than no schooling at all
90% attendance is required for a child to receive the education needed for job readiness
attendance is even more important than the quality of the school.

This research is powerful stuff that really quantifies what teachers and principals have known for years.

A recent State of the Sector Report from the Queensland Catholic Education Commission identified that in 2022, the Semester 1 attendance rate for Queensland Catholic schools was 88%.

Sport

SHPS Cross Country
This Friday, 28th April is our school cross country. Students aged from 2018- 2015 will complete their cross country run on the school oval. Students aged from 2014 - 2011 will complete their run out at the Cunnamulla Golf Course. If you are able to assist with transporting students to the Golf Club, please contact Mrs Crick at the school office.

Uniform Policy

Uniform and Hair

A gentle reminder that school uniform is very important to us at Sacred Heart. It shows pride and helps us all feel that we belong. Please make sure that students are wearing correct uniform (including white socks and plain black shoes) and that their hair is neat and tidy. We have noticed a number of students with hair below the collar that is not tied up and a number of rats tails that do not look neat and tidy. It is preferable that no rats tails or long mullet hair styles are seen at school, they are more suited to holiday time. Your child’s teacher may contact you to discuss hair styles.

Hats: Our school policy is ‘NO HAT – NO PLAY’. A green school hat must be worn and can be purchased form the office.

Jewellery: The only jewellery allowed is one set of fine studs or sleepers, a chain with some form of religious significance and watches.

Nail Polish: Nail polish is not to be worn.

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)
Mrs Cara Haig (Principal)

Parent Partnership Forum

The Parent Partnership Forum will be holding their AGM next Tuesday 2nd May 2023 @ 5.30pm. We are looking for a Chairperson and a Secretary.

The Parent Partnership Forum supports the work of the principal and staff in implementing a comprehensive and contemporary education program. Parents have an advisory role in decisions made in the development and implementation of the strategic plan and policies of the school as well as the provision of resources which support the educational endeavour of the school.

Sacred Heart Primary School is committed to promoting and nurturing active partnerships with families and the wider community so that all have authentic opportunities to participate in the life and activities of the Student learning is enriched through positive and reciprocal partnerships with parents.

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.

School Tuition Fees

School Accounts have been sent out. Can these please be paid by Friday 16th June 2023. 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.