Sacred Heart Primary School, Cunnamulla eNewsletter

Principal Report

Welcome to Week 6! It is hard to believe we are already half way through the first term. Last week Mrs Haig attended the principal forum in Toowoomba and I attended sessions online. Dr Pat Coughlin opened the forum with a keynote speech reminding us of our Diocesen strategic plan (Faith, Connection, Progressive and United) and challenged us to reflect on what type of leaders we are for our school communities. He spoke about the importance of being ‘Change Agents’ for our communities, providing us with key examples of how to achieve this. One example being, do you champion change with your team?, or do you control and contain change for you team? Our Leadership Team looks forward to develing into these more deeply back at school and during upcoming leadership professional development so we can lead our school in the best possible way.

During the forum we were also asked to think about the question, what is your current school story? I thought instantly about our school Habits of the Heart and Mind as they share so clearly and simply what we are about at Sacred Heart, becoming good people and great learners. We see importance in visiting our Habits weekly with our students at our whole school student briefings. Our school story is important and becomes a powerful tool in steps we take in building our school culture.

NAPLAN Online  

In Week 8 (13^th March to 15^th March), our Year 3 and 5 students will complete the NAPLAN online tests. NAPLAN assesses literacy and numeracy skills that students are learning through their regular school curriculum and allows parents/carers to see how their child is progressing against national proficiency standards. Students sit assessments in writing, reading, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. The questions assess content linked to the Australian Curriculum: English and Mathematics.

NAPLAN is just one aspect of a school’s assessment and reporting process. It does not replace ongoing assessments made by teachers about student performance, but it can provide teachers with additional information about students’ educational progress.

Our NAPLAN schedule will be as below: 

Wednesday 13^th March

Thursday 14^th March

Friday 15^th March

9:00 am start 

Year 3 Writing (Paper Test) 

Year 5 Writing (Online Test) 

Year 3 Reading Test (Online Test) 

Year 5 Reading Test (Online Test) 

Year 3 Numeracy Test (Online Test) 

Year 5 Numeracy Test (Online Test) 

11:00 am start  

Year 3 Language Conventions Test (Online Test) 

Year 5 Language Conventions Test (Online Test) 

Parents, students and teachers are invited to use the public demonstration tests to familiarise themselves with the type of questions and related functionalities available in the NAPLAN Online assessment. The demonstration tests cover a sample of possible questions and do not reflect the range of literacy and numeracy content or skills NAPLAN Online will assess.

Our students have now completed a practice test to familiarise themselves with the types of questions and online functionalities. Students have also been working on improving their computing skills including – use of keyboards, mouse, clicking and dragging, using drop down menus etc.  

I encourage parents to click the following links to find out more information 2024 NAPLAN information for parents and carer brochure and https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site to visit the public demonstration site.

Have a fabulous week.

Mrs Polly Goodman

Co-Principal

Prep

Woah, we are up to week six! These weeks are flying by so quickly already, it is crazy to think we are halfway through the term already. It is great to see their knowledge developing so vastly, as we go through this term. The students have been stuck into learning and are beginning to demonstrate connections between their subject areas.

In English, we have been continuing our work on discovering rhyming words, through nursery rhymes. Each student went through an assessment on ‘Down by the Bay’ and ‘Little Miss Muffet’, to which I can proudly say they excelled in! I would encourage you to have conversations with your child at home, about nursery rhymes they are learning at school. Recognising rhyming words is a tricky task but the prep students are doing incredible so far. We have also started to dive into learning about the sounds a letter can make. We are tackling one sound a week, with this week being the letter A.

In Math, we have completed our ‘Number of the day’ tasks for all numbers up to 10. The preps have shown so much growth with recognising, writing and counting numbers. We will continue to build on their knowledge of numbers to ten, by progressing into counting strategies and using materials to sort, sequence and finding out the missing number. We have also started learning about patterns. We created our own pattern paper chains by choosing two colours and alternating them. These paper chains are now on display in our classroom. Feel free to stop by and have a look, it is an octopus!

As always, we have been talking about zones of regulations, feelings, emotions and behavioural choices at school. This week, we focused on encouraging the prep students to feel comfortable speaking to the teacher on eating and play duty when an issue occurs. This allows the students to get help straight away. I will always be there for students when an issue occurs but encouraging students to talk to the teacher on duty (instead of waiting until the bell has wrung and back in class), allows the students to get help when it occurs first.

As we are nearing the busy part of the term, please ensure your child has breakfast before school and a good night’s sleep. Thank you for your continued support. 6 weeks down, 4 to go!

Miss Sophie Walker

Prep Teacher

Year 1

Welcome to Week 6! I can’t believe we are officially half way through Term 1! Over the last two weeks, the Year 1’s have continued with learning classroom routines and practices these to assist us in our learning.

In Religion, we have been learning about aspects of Jewish daily life in the time of Jesus. The students have enjoyed exploring the different things that people did back then and have been very curious about why they did different things. As we have learnt about the different aspects of life from the time of Jesus, it has given students the opportunity to compare aspects of their life and discuss what is similar and different between the two.

In English, we have continued implementing our new phonics program and are starting to become very confident in the new routines and processes we have been learning. As a class, we have been focusing on manipulating sounds in words and using our knowledge of segmenting and blending to write words and even simple sentences. We have also continued working on positive interaction skills and how we use these when communicating with others. We are starting to grasp these skills and the conversations that are beginning to take place are wonderful to hear. The students have also begun learning how to recall details in texts to answer questions and summarise the story. This has been interesting and the students are starting to sequence events in the story, as well as recall who the story was about.

In Maths, we have continued our study of shapes. The class has almost wrapped up their shape unit, with us comparing different shapes and providing a justification for this comparison. We have also continued our study of numbers. As a class we have been focusing on identifying numbers as numerals and as quantities. We are beginning to look at numbers to 50 and how we can represednt these as quantities and numerals. The biggest thing we are working on is writing 2-digit numbers in the correct order and understanding the Place Value. Over the coming weeks we will be moving into data.

Miss Ellie Charlton

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Welcome to week 6. We are officially half way through term one, what a scary thought! Over the last two weeks we have been immersed in our learning. We continued to investigate the solar system and how the sun and moon rotate around the earth.

We have been learning about the Creation story and how God wants us to be stewards of his creation. We have spent time learning about the parts of creation that are important to our lives and ways we can continue to care for creation.

In Maths we have been tackling Place Value and understanding the value of numbers, including trusting the count. We spent time making our 1 and 2 digit numbers to better understand the value of each digit. We experimented with bundling stick to help us understand how numbers are made.

In English we continue to build our knowledge and skills in phonics and we are now learning about digraphs. We learnt the FLOSS rule where we double “f/l/s/z” at the end of words with short vowels and we have begun looking at words that have the –oll/-all/-ull spelling patterns. We have been using a “map it” technique to help us match our phonemes to the correct grapheme (sounds to correct letter).

We have also been looking at the Snail and the Whale by Julia Donalson, we used this wonderful quality text to then look at information texts and find out fun facts about whales.

And we have really enjoyed our swimming lessons especially the “mushroom” float :)

Miss Ailie Lewis

Year 2 Teacher

Year 3/4

Happy Week 6! Another fortnight done and dusted in the 3/4 classroom and the learning has ramped up. We are well and truly into the swing of things with students being stuck into all subject areas.

In our connected unit, we have discussed ANZAC Day. We watch videos, researched different significant symbols and songs, analyzed poems and even made ANZAC biscuits! We investigated how the symbols of Mateship and Courage are ingrained within our Australia culture and identity.

In Maths, we have continued our work with place value. We went back to basics this week with our focus being on reading and writing numbers to and beyond 10,000. We used MAB blocks to support our conceptual understanding of these numbers and how they actually look.

In English, we have dived into the world of Roald Dahl by looking at his popular book ‘Matilda’. We discussed the different characters within the text and began deconstructing sentences looking at the who, what, when and why of a sentence.

This coming week, our Year 3 students will be participating in their first NAPLAN practice. NAPLAN will be in Week 8 of this term.

For our students participating in the instrumental program, they need to be bringing their instruments to school on Tuesday to have their lesson with Mr Waples. Thank you for another fabulous fortnight, the countdown to the end of term is on!

Miss Aimee Bretherton

Year 3/4 Teacher

Year 5/6

Welcome to week 6! We have made great progress over the past fortnight in our learning, and we have had a lot of fun. Curiosity and making connections have been a driving force in 5/6 over the last week. The students have astounded me with their questions and desire to learn, so today I have collected student voice for you. I hope this gives you a sneak peak of some of the conversations that have been taking place in 5/6.

I asked the students what they have enjoyed learning about over the past fortnight and if they had any wonderings, this is what some of them said…

Claudia: I have enjoyed learning about BOMDAS and plot structure. I am wondering when I will feel confident solving harder equations. I also had fun manipulating the elements of art including, colour, texture, shape and value.

Charlie K: Why is BOMDAS the only known way to solve certain equations?

Dallas: I am wondering what PEMDAS is. I have really enjoyed learning about the order of operations and how we can fix climate change.

Charlotte: I have had fun in HASS learning about different environments and strategies to look after ecosystems.

Charlie S: I have learnt a range of division strategies and how to efficiently solve BOMDAS problems. I have learnt what climate change is and how it is getting worse and worse overtime.

Heath: I loved the part of English when we were improving our sentences and our plot structures. Today I wrote a cool story about a teleportation ring.

Henry: I enjoyed math and improving my artistic skills when drawing a fruit bowl. I also had fun getting involved in our drama performances in religion.

Natasha: I like how we did a play to tell religion stories including, Peters declaration and Jesus’ baptism.

Sterling: I enjoyed HASS and learning about the ecosystems.

Thor: I had fun in religion watching the drama performances put on to retell the bible stories.

Chloe: I loved doing the water colour painting and learning to create new textures.

Laura: I like religion and learning about God because he is good and performs miracles.

Having been so caught up in our learning this week I forgot to take pictures, so instead I have attached our latest artwork for your viewing. The students used their knowledge of shape and value to create realistic fruit bowl drawings.

Have a lovely fortnight.

Mrs Abby Kindelan

Year 5/6 Teacher

Birthdays

Swimming

Swimming lessons with Miss Maryanne at the town pool have begun. All students are expected to participate in these lessons as it is part of the HPE curriculum. If your child is unwell and not able to participate in a lesson, please write a note for the classroom teacher or phone the school office. All students need to bring their togs, towel, thongs (optional) and $1 to participate.

Class swimming days and times:

Thursdays:
Year 2: 11.45am – 12.15pm
Year 1: 12.15pm – 12.45pm
Prep: 2.15pm – 2.15pm
Fridays:
Year 3/4: 12.15pm – 12.45pm
Year 5/6: 2.15pm – 2.45pm

District and Regional Sports

Last Monday Penny Schmidt and Natasha King participated in the District Netball trials in Charleville. Penny was selected to go onto the Regional trials in St George on 11th March. Then on Friday Penny paticipated in the Regional Trials for Swimming at Miles. Penny was Age Champion and has been selected for the State Swimming Trials in Brisbane at the end of March. Congratulations to both girls.

PPF Meeting

Our first Parent Partnership Forum meeting is Tuesday 27^th February. We would love to see lots of people in attendance. Please spread the word and lock it into your calendars, 5pm!!

Tuckshop

Ms Angela Webster will be our Tuckshop convenor for this year. You can ONLY order Tuckshop on the App. Please down load the Flexischools App.

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.

Tuition Fees

School Fees for Term 1 will be sent home. Can these please be paid by Friday 15^th March 2024. 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/