Sacred Heart Primary School, Cunnamulla eNewsletter

Principal Report

It’s hard to believe that we are at the half-way mark of Term 2 for the 2024 school year. As usual, this is a busy term with many things happening. Thank you to all parents/guardians for taking the time to come and speak to teachers during Parent/Teacher interviews. We’d love to look at moving towards student led conversations where students tell parents about his/her learning and the teachers give further explanations and information. This might be a goal for our Term 4 interviews!

We finally welcomed back Miss Grace Carter this week. After many hoops to jump through we managed to get her all sorted to return to Sacred Heart. Miss Carter will be spending some time with the Yr 2 class each week and will be in and out of all of the classrooms until the end of this term as teachers begin work on the Semester One report cards.

Sadly we farewell Miss Shazma Hood who is moving to another town with her partner. Miss Hood has been a lovely addition to our staff and we wish her well in her new ventures. We have very much appreciated all of Miss Hood’s hard work, from working with students to resourcing and even driving the bus. We wish Miss Hood all the best and hope she comes back to visit us in the future. Recruiting for a replacement for this school officer position is underway.

Congratulations to Penny and Kendall for their excellent cross country running last week! Penny blitzed the field and has been selected to take part in the State Cross Country 12^th – 14^th July, a fantastic effort. Kendall also ran really well. Well done girls and thank you to parents for taking them to the Regional event in Tara.

We will have a number of visitors to our school over the next couple of weeks. This week Mrs Christine L’Strange, our Inclusion Coach, will visit on Thursday. Next week Mr Marty Savage, our SEL, will be here next Tuesday & Wednesday and Mrs Cath Kimmorely, our Education Officer will also be at school next week. Finally the SLP – Alanah Deehan and OT- Steph Sharpe will also visit Thursday week. It’s a busy place!!

You might have noticed the new fencing that is going up around the school boundary. The black pool fencing style is almost complete and the new feature fence at the front of the school will probably go up on the holidays. This big project will make our school grounds much safer and it looks so much better than the old fence that was there. We are in the process of organising some future building projects to refurbish the classrooms. We’ll share more information on this project as it gets finalised.

Have a fantastic fortnight!

Mrs Cara Haig

Co-Principal

Prep

We have reached Week 6; this term is flying by!

Over the halfway point and there’s no slowing down now. This past fortnight the preps have been working so incredibly hard, they will be well deserving of the holiday break soon.

In English, we started a reading test that creates a benchmark on their learning of letter and sound knowledge, and it is great to see their emerging proficiency in blending sounds to make words. We have continued practicing how to become fluent readers, as we have been reading correctly, quickly and showcasing expression! It has been wonderful to see the preps get so excited for reading time on the mat. We have also continued learning about our focus book ‘Ollie in the Wind’ and we have discussed the factors of windy weather conditions.

In Mathematics, we have discussed attributes that objects or events can have; including duration, length, mass and capacity. The hands-on activities to engage the students has had a significant impact on their understanding, to connect it to real-world applications.

In our superhero connected unit, we are powering through by learning more about superhero characteristics and trademark qualities.

Miss Sophie Walker

Prep Teacher

Year 1

Week 6! This term is absolutely flying by! We have begun our reading testing and will continue this over the coming weeks. I am very excited to see how the students reading has improved throughout the term. We have been practicing how to be fluent readers, which involves reading accurately, with pace and with expression. Through the use of repeated reading techniques, we have been able to develop these skills. These skills are something we will continue to work on throughout the remainder of the term and even continue throughout the rest of the year.

In English, we have continued our exploration of Informative Texts. The students were introduced to the structure of an Informative text and discussed how this can help us identify the purpose of the text. We have also begun looking at the language features that are included in Informative texts and why authors use these. We will continue exploring this in preparation for creating our own informative text.

In Maths we have continued our learning about addition and strategies we can use to help us solve problems. We have also begun exploring subtraction and strategies that help us with equations. To assist us in this process we have looked at number bonds and how partitioning one and two-digit numbers can help us with solving addition and subtraction problems. Students have also continued their exploration of patterns and have had the opportunity to continue and create a variety of different repeating patterns.

In Science we have begun exploring the needs of living things. We started with looking at what qualifies as a living thing and have moved into the needs of living things. Over the coming weeks we will be exploring how different habitats meet the needs of living things.

Please remember to send your child with labelled winter uniforms as the weather begins to cool down. I look forward to updating you in a fortnight.

Miss Ellie Charlton

Year 1 Teacher

Year 2

Welcome to Week 6! We have officially made it halfway through term 2. What a busy term it has been so far.

Last week we were very lucky to be invited by our local council to watch “The Twits” performance at the Shire Hall. We absolutely loved the show!

This fortnight we have been exploring Jewish traditions in Religion and looking at Moses and the Ten Commandments.

In Maths we have continue to build our confidence and skills in addition strategies, students have been working on simple addition problems using known strategies like doubles plus one as well as beginning to challenge themselves with more complex addition problems involving two-digit and three-digit sums.

In English we have been learning about recounts and have begun attempting to compose short recounts on familiar topics. We continue to work on becoming accurate readers, practicing reading text as a whole class using the choral and echo reading strategies.

Year 2 would also like to thank Mrs Campbell for being with us while Miss Carter was away. While we are excited that Miss Carter is coming back, we are going to miss seeing your smile every Tuesday and look forward to the next time you are in year 2.

Miss Ailie Lewis

Year 2 Teacher

Year 3/4

Another fabulous fortnight has been had again in 3/4! Students have continued working hard to consolidate their knowledge across all learning areas. Just a reminder that students need to be reading at home each night and recording this in their reading diaries. It is an expectation that this diary is returned to school each Friday to be checked. As well as this, students have their Mathletics logins that they can be completing set tasks on.

In Maths, students have continued to develop their number knowledge. Each day when we come in from lunch, the students are challenged to represent the given number in as many ways as possible. For an extra bonus, we have also been experimenting with the use of brackets in our equations. This has been an interesting addition to our lessons and some students are enjoying the extension in their thinking.

In English, we are continuing our narrative writing using the text “Flood” by Jackie French. We have been practicing extending simple sentences by adding adjectives, verbs and adverbs. We will continue working on the skill of show not tell in our writing to take our readers on a journey.

In our Connected Unit, we have begun to dive deep into a variety of different habitats. Students have so far explored the desert, the rainforest, the grassland and the polar habitats. Within each habitat, students were asked to research the animals, vegetation, water sources, weather, locations and an interesting fact related to this chosen habitat. We have also created some special crafts to go along with these habitats.

Last week, we were lucky enough to venture down to the Town Hall to see Shake and Stir’s performance of The Twits. This was very exciting especially for 3/4 as this was the first book that we read as a class at the beginning of the year. Thank you to the council and to all who made this happen, it was lots of fun!

Thank you for your continued support. Have a nice fortnight!

Miss Aimee Bretherton

Year 3/4 Teacher

Year 5/6

Welcome to week 6! The 5/6 students have been incredibly busy over the past fortnight with both learning and extra-curricular activities.

In English, students have been diving into the world of procedural texts. They’ve been researching, writing, and practicing procedures related to their upcoming survival expedition.

Our math classes have been buzzing with activity! Students have been mastering the art of locating points on a Cartesian plane. They have applied their Cartesian knowledge to map out a route for their survival expedition. Daily number talks have also enabled students to hone their skills in using the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).

The desert has been a fascinating topic in science. Students have explored how plants and animals adapt to survive in this harsh environment. Last week, they conducted an experiment to replicate the cooling process observed in animals with large ears. Through reflection, they discovered how large ears help to regulate temperature without excessive water loss.

Effective teamwork skills and emotional management has been the focus in health classes. Students have learnt strategies to stay in the “green zone” when communicating their needs.

In religion studies, students delved into the lives of the prophets and their unwavering faith. The story of Samuel was last week’s focus.

Alongside their academic pursuits, students have participated in reading tests. It has been lovely to see significant improvements in fluency. Additionally, students enjoyed an outing to see “The Twits” performance at the Shire Hall. Laughter and excitement filled the air as they watched Mr and Mrs Twit come to life on stage.

I hope you all have a wonderful fortnight.

Mrs Abby Kindelan

Year 5/6 Teacher

Class Awards

Birthdays

Sacred Heart Choir

Choir will take place every Wednesday morning at 8am to 8:30am in the Year 1 classroom. All students are welcome. We have decided to have a 3-week trial period where the students may come and go. If your child wishes to stick with choir after those three weeks, it will be expected that they attend rehearsals on a regular basis. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Mrs Abby Kindelan and Miss Ellie Charlton

Year 5/6 Teacher and Year 1 Teacher

Dance

School SZapp

The school has the SZapp available for down loading. This app is great for finding out what is happening at school. The newsletter goes directly to the app and notifications come straight from school. The instructions are as follows.

Uniform Policy

The school uniform represents the pride we have for our children and our school. A smart, neat and user-friendly uniform encourages the children to take pride in their appearance and in the school. The school uniform requirements:

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.

Hair: Children’s hair must be neat and tidy. If hair is below the collar it needs to be tied back with appropriate white or green accessories. It is expected that hairstyles reflect the code of dress required by the school. The colouring of hair and unusual hairstyles are not acceptable.

Tuition Fees

Term 2 Fees have been sent home, can these please be paid by Friday 14th June 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/

Our Schools Student Protection Contacts are:

Miss Ailie Lewis (APRE)
Mrs Carolyn Crick (Administration Officer)
Mr Jesse Kupper (School Guidance Counsellor)
Mrs Cara Haig (Co-Principal)
Mrs Pollyanna Goodman (Co-Principal)

Tuckshop

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.