Dear parents and carers,

We continue to develop practises of gratitude at SHPS as we focus on this term's virtue.

“Always have an attitude of gratitude."

Stirling K. Brown

Staff Leave

Shari Cooper, Josie Borgia and Tracey Kane are currently on leave. Tash Barrenger (Mrs B) will be supporting Lisa Davis in the office whilst Aaron Fox and Samantha Peake are managing the library. We would really appreciate some help with either the canteen or clothing pool if you are familiar with the processes and available. Please contact the front office if you can help.

COVID - 19

We thank all of our families for your vigilance in keeping our community safe by monitoring for symptoms and contacting the school in a timely manner to inform us when there has been a positive result. It is also good to hear the families are using the RAT kits in ways that suit their family routines. We believe that from some of the information coming back to us from families, that if a child has symptoms but returns a negative RAT result, that you should consider getting a PCR test to confirm.

RAT kits will continue to be sent home to families until the end of Week 8. This extension was announced by ACT Government this week. We will send a message via SZapp with information around the number of weeks that are contained in the next envelope we send home. We anticipate continuing to send home RATs on a Monday..

SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAM

YMCA is currently assessing the possibility of running a holiday program at SHPS. They seek expressions of interest  immediately from families in our community and the surrounding area. Please ensure you have filled in the form if you are interested in your child attending, either in a part or full-time capacity. 

Autumn 2022 Vacation Care EOI

COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING

Thank you to the members of the community who were able to join us at our Community Council meeting. 

COMMUNITY COUNCIL for 2022

During the AGM elections were held for positions on the Council for 2022.

We congratulate the following on their appointment to the executive positions on this year’s Community Council:

Catherine Woods - President

Jac Hrast - Deputy Chair

Elsa Hietbrink - Secretary

Danielle Hartnett -  Parent rep coordinator

POSITIONS that remain VACANT

We still need a Treasurer and Fete Representative

If you feel you would like to find out more about these roles and what they involve please contact the front office.

If you think you know someone who you feel would be suited for these roles, have a chat with them.  

BYOD Program

Following up a question raised at this week’s Community Council meeting in regard to our BYOD program. 

The BYOD program at SHPS is for Apple iPads only as:

• We are only able to support one type of device and CE only offers support for these devices 
• SHPS does not have the capacity to know the wide variety of devices available
• One type makes it easier for sharing and collaborating
• The device needs to be easily compatible with the GOOGLE platform 

We chose Apple initially because of the large number of quality learning apps that were available. 

Take care and keep safe

Wellbeing and Parenting Ideas

At Sacred Heart we subscribe to Parenting Ideas. This is part of our caring for the wellbeing of all members of our community, under our ‘Be You’ banner. We will routinely include links to the Insights articles and parent webinars (often free with our subscription) which contain tips and guides to share the wisdom for raising great kids.

At any point in time, parents and carers can search the Parenting Ideas blog for helpful tips on a range of topics. Parenting Ideas website here

The latest Insight article is full of wonderful tips to build working relationships with teachers. View it Here.  A further resource to navigate how to do things at Sacred Heart are the flowcharts on the parent tab of our website Click here.  These flowcharts were developed by our parent and teacher BeYou Action Team and have proven to be a useful tool over the years. 

School Website and SZapp

A huge thank you to the parents who have let us know the school calendar on our schoolzine platforms was not working. The latest update to the platform resulted in the link being broken. 

It takes a team to ensure all technology works seamlessly everyday. Parents are a vital part of that team. If you do see outdated information or broken links on our communication platforms please do let us know via an email to the office.

SZapp Notifications

A few people have commented that SZapp notifications are not happening. The communication appears in your feed, but the buttons or sounds do not announce it. We have checked with technical support. They advise the following steps to try:

• ​​Have you updated your FEED settings for new classes in 2022? To do this go to the MANAGE tab and select the classes you wish to have notifications from.
• Are your notification permissions in the phone settings and SZapp enabled? Check these in the MANAGE tab and in your phone settings.
• Can you log out and back in? Contact Sacred Heart Office if you have forgotten our school SZapp code.
• Please try un-installing and re-installing SZapp. 

NAPLAN

Students in Years 3 and 5 will sit the NAPLAN tests between 10-20th May. Teachers will ensure that students are familiar with the platform and question types. We will have a practice test on March 24th, which will be our chance to check that all student devices and the school network are technically ready.

Please avoid booking appointments during this testing period. We will be sending home instructions for preparing ipads shortly. There will also be detailed information about how we can support all learners to confidently complete the test.

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.

Emergency Contact Details

Please ensure that the emergency contact details for your family are correct. Do we have current parent contact details? If we can’t contact parents, who else can we phone? If you think your details are incorrect please contact the office.

Emergencies at School

It is that time of year again, when we need to practice what would happen if we had an emergency at school. Teachers will be practising evacuation and lockdown drills with the children. Next week we will have a whole school drill as well. 

We are attaching our summary page of what parents and carers are to do if there is an emergency at school. Please take the time to read the first page now and then file the document somewhere safe. We do not link it to the website as to lessen risk.

emergency_summary_for_parents_2022.pdf  

 School Policies

Catholic Education Canberra and Goulburn is now writing policy documents which guide processes in all catholic schools. These overarching policies replace many of our previous local policies. Parents and Carers can access the policies on the parents tab of the Catholic Education Website click here. 

Road Safety Reminders

We have two school crossings on Hodgson St. In the interest of safety and being great role models for young people, we ask parents and students to make use of these, rather than cross at other places along Hodgson St.

Murphy St park-and-pickup and our school drive-through are very busy at 3.15pm. Teachers are on duty in these areas until 3.30pm. To alleviate congestion and make it safer for everyone please consider arriving a few minutes later than 3.15pm. Just let your child know if you plan to do this!

Yours faithfully,

• MHOC 2022 First Reconciliation Session 2 will be on 23 February, and Session 3 will be on 2 March.  Both start at 6:30pm and will be held in the Church.  
• Unfortunately, at this time our Youth Group activities are being postponed until further notice.

Position Vacant: Parish Office Coordinator – Sacred Heart Church.

Part-time, 2 days per week during school terms, 9am to 3pm.  12 month contract - option to extend. 

General office administration & coordination & administration of the sacramental programs.

Applications close Friday 25 February with a start date in March.

Email for a duty statement: attention Melanie Kerr Office Manager.

Private Piano Tutition

Places for 2022 have now become available.

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

Congratulations to the following students celebrating their birthday this week 

Albert W, Adrian R.