AROUND THE SCHOOL
The Year 6 students participated in two days of training last week to prepare them for their role as Peer Support Leaders. They were divided into groups and participated in a range of activities focusing on:
- leadership skills
- relationships with others
- their role and responsibilities
- the structure of the peer support session
- understanding how groups work
- strategies to lead a group
- the facilitation of some activities
"Peer Support training has been one of the most useful things I have ever done. It has taught me how to deal with challenging scenarios, it has shown me how to understand people’s feelings and how to help them learn and grow. Peer Support has really shown me the meaning of respect and equity. The skills I have learnt will help me all throughout life. I’m really excited to begin Peer Support, I’m excited to help others learn new skills and for myself to learn as well. With all the skills and knowledge I have learnt with the Peer Support training, I hope that I help other students become aware of their actions and responsibilities towards others and encourage them to be the best that they can be".
By Sascha K
By learning the skills of leadership, they will be able to build positive relationships across the school and community.
This week our students will commence our Peer Support Program with Session 1 Feeling safe -Being me! Starting this week, we will talk to students about their strengths and their resilience. We will discuss positive relationships or friendships and what to do if they experience harmful and hurtful behaviours. Our Peer Leaders have been trained and have planned their session using the materials we have from Peer Support Australia that are specially designed for student led sessions. Our Supervising/Class Teachers will prepare students, supervise sessions and check understanding at the end of the session.
This Friday's session includes activities for the members of the group to get to know each other by using a range of social skill interactions that promote diversity and engagement in a sensitive yet productive manner. It also establishes a safe learning environment where the peer group feel able to join in, share and contribute to developing a sense of belonging, to better protect themselves from the effects of bullying. Find your safe place.
Peer Support Australia provides reading and resources specifically for parents.
Visit www.peersupport.edu.au and use the parent tab
NAPLAN will occur in our school between 12 and 22 May 2020 for students in Years 3 & 5.
NAPLAN Online is a more engaging assessment that adjusts questions to each student’s achievement level. It also delivers more precise results to schools and parents more quickly.
NAPLAN provides valuable information to schools and parents about literacy and numeracy achievement. It supports school improvement processes by enabling teachers to monitor student progress over time and to identify areas of strength and development.
All eligible students are encouraged and supported to participate in NAPLAN testing. Visit www.nap.edu.au to see interactive versions of the test and for more information.
There will be a practice NAPLAN test, to familarize students with the platform and test our IT systems on the 23rd March. Information about the test and IT requirements will be sent home shortly.
Albert Einstein famously once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
With this idea in mind the Sacred Heart Sustainability Leaders are looking to the community for help! The children are collecting 10c containers which they sort, bag and label ready to be taken to the nearest "Return It" collection point.
Sacred Heart is looking to begin a roster were families would volunteer themselves to pick up our bags of containers and drop them to their nearest collection point (Follow this link to find yours https://actcds.com.au/return-points/). We are hoping that there are enough families’ volunteers to put each family for once a term.
The bags with be gathered and labelled ready for collection every Friday by our Sustainability Leaders. They will then be placed outside the bike cage ready for volunteers to simply be picked up and take to their closest ‘Return It’ pick up point.
The money that the school makes from this initiative will go directly towards student lead sustainability projects and equipment.
If your family is willing to help please email the front office with your name contact details and “Mr Green” aka Mr Fox with put together a roster for families.
As a wise man one said, “A community that recycles together, stays together!” (Fox, Aaron. 2020. I had a Sustainable Dream!)
Our Scholastic Book Fair is on next week. There are some wonderful books for all ages.
Book Fair Open Times:
Tuesday 3rd March 8:30am-9:00am
3:00pm-4:15pm
Wednesday 4th 8:30am-9:00am
3:00pm-4:15pm
Thursday 5th 8:30am-9:00am
During open times, you may purchase in person by cash, EFTPOS or credit card. A percentage of the Book Fair proceeds will support new books for our library. Come and visit our Library and Book Fair, hope to see you there!
BOOK MORNINGS
It was wonderful to see many parents are carers who came and spent the morning with their child/children in the Library. The library will be open each Thursday morning’s between 8:30am – 9:00am. We hope to see you soon.
Sacred Heart ‘Reading Café’
Our library this week was transformed into a Reading Café where students in Stage 2 and 3 took part in a book tasting.
The book tasting allowed students to try books of different genres that they may not normally pick up to read.
Students chose a table and had five minutes to taste a book. When the time was up they wrote a quick review of the book. Second course (new platter or books) was then served followed by dessert (also a new platter of books).
Swimming Carnival
Congratulations and thank you to Mrs Stumbles, Mr Mitchell and Mrs Iles for the organisation of our fabulous swimming carnival on Friday. We also thank the staff for their exceptional teamwork and energy. We could not have done with out the help of our generous parent volunteers who were able to join us on the day. Thank you all so much. The children had a wonderful day.
