This weekend we celebrate the end of the liturgical year with the Feast of Christ the King. In Sunday’s readings over the last few weeks, there has been a focus on God’s generous gift of grace and love. Grace is abundant and freely given (Rohr, 2008 p. 156). It is up to us to freely accept it and flourish in God’s love.

God of generosity and love, give me a grateful spirit so that I can be joyful in Your gifts, growing in industry and wisdom. As we come to the end of the liturgical year, and soon to the end of our school year, thank you for …(list in your heart those things you are particularly grateful for).

At this time of unrest and a time when war brings sadness and destruction to parts of our world, we ask for peaceful hearts and peaceful relationships so that Your Spirit can be more present. May we share Your grace and love with all we meet. We ask this through Jesus, Your Son. Amen

We Congratulate Mr Aaron Fox on his recent World Teacher’s Day Award 

Aaron has been effectively leading our Professional Learning Community to transform teaching and learning at Sacred Heart. He works collaboratively and provides feedback to develop a curriculum scope and sequence, that is knowledge rich, purposeful, and connected. Through the links teachers can embed best practice and research based pedagogy. He epitomises the extraordinary within the ordinary in all his daily interactions. On World Teachers’ Day, it is our honour to nominate Aaron for recognition and celebration of his outstanding contributions to the field of education

A short video of all the teachers who have been nominated by their school

COVID 19 advice 

Following the advice of ACT and NSW Health, we ask that students who test positive for COVID-19, or have COVID-related symptoms, remain at home until symptoms have ceased.

Staff moves for 2024

We are sad to announce that Mr Jason French, Mr Dillon Beltrame and Mrs Michelle Staff will be leaving us at the end of 2023.

Jason has been successful in his application to become a member of the staff at St Jude’s Holder, Dillon is extending his stay in Queensland and Michelle has been successful in her appointment to Holy Spirit Nicholls.

We congratulate Mr Brendan Mitchell on his permanent appointment as Coordinator at St Jude's Holder.

We wish them every blessing in their future endeavours.

Reports 

Teachers are currently preparing end of year reports to communicate to parents. These reports will have grades and a general comment to help inform parents of their child’s learning. I am aware that many parents have taken the opportunity to speak with teachers so interviews will be held only as needed. Reports will be uploaded through COMPASS on Friday 1st December.   

Take care and keep safe

We held a very successful open meeting on Thursday 9th November. We continued our discussion of the school’s plans and initiatives in the areas of Enrolment Challenges, ‘Tell them from me’ parent and student survey feedback, and Learning Initiatives. We brainstormed which school communications are having the most success and endorsed the End-of-Year Event Calendar. We finished by welcoming our new principal, Mr David Austin and mixing & mingling with parents of children starting kinder in 2024. 

A very successful night. We look forward to seeing even more parents and carers at our open meetings in 2024

The Cancer Council says: Be SunSmart!

• Slip on a shirt
• Slop on sunscreen
• Slap on a hat
• Seek shade
• Slide on some sunglasses

Use a combination of these sun protection measures outside when the UV Index is 3 or above. This week the UV Index has been at 10 or above - the maximum!

Fact: Australians generally apply too little sunscreen. This means they usually get less than half the protection stated on the product label. Children usually require approximately 1⁄2  teaspoon on each extremity.

Sun Safety Policy: We require students to wear a school hat when playing outside or to seek shade. Hats can be purchased via Qkr! Please ensure you put a name on your child’s hat..

Every year the Sacred Heart community support the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal with donations of food for Christmas Hampers. 

The Stages have been allocated the following items:

Playgroup – Spreads, tinned fruit and muesli bars

Kindergarten – sweet biscuits, cereal, long life milk

Stage 1 – Chips, sweets/lollies, Christmas cakes

Stage 2 – Soft drinks, cordials, Christmas puddings

Stage 3 – Dried pasta, pasta sauce, tea and coffee, milo

The Space Squad program is run by the Y Canberra Region as a holiday and vacation care for primary school children aged 5-12 years. It is designed to ignite and fuel that spark of passion for space and STEM-based careers, robotics, engineering and astronomy. The program will be on late January 2024.

Please email Katie Imbriano for more information.

https://ymcacanberra.org.au/school-aged-care-programs/space-squad/

The Y will be operating on the Pupil Free day, Friday 15th December, 8am-6pm. The theme for the day will be Christmas.

A very special ceremony to commemorate Remembrance Day was held in our parish gathering place. Our student leaders and defence families capably led the whole school in our prayers of remembering and peace. 

‘Lest we forget’.

On Monday 20^th November, students in Stage 3 participated in an interactive incursion brought to Sacred Heart by the creative team at Questacon. We explored a fictional cyber security threat involving a site containing endangered species, and built prototypes using Lego to prepare for passive and active breaches! Our design process was highly collaborative, where all students were happily contributing inventive ideas in teams of 4-6. Thank you to the wonderful team at Questacon for this opportunity to extend future real-life technological skills to the leaders of tomorrow!

What a special evening to farewell a very special lady. Mrs Staines has taught in, and been principal of, a number of schools in Canberra. Friends and colleagues joined the staff of Sacred Heart to celebrate in style.

Beach to Bush is a very popular primary school aged surf education program that offers students in regional areas of NSW an introduction to surf lifesaving, focusing on beach and surf safety along with being safe around dams and inland waterways.

Students from regional communities are often less familiar with the potential dangers of the surf, our program aims to reach those children before they head to the coast with their families.

Congratulations to the following students celebrating their birthday 

Isara W, William M.

The Christmas/Festive season is fast approaching, and along with it is the additional Christmas/Festive preparation expenses, not to mention the bills that will start rolling in come the New Year!

Care continues to facilitate the ACT Government’s Rent Relief program for those who rent privately in the ACT.  Eligible renters can apply for the one off grant of 4 weeks rent up to a maximum of $2,500.

Please note: The current turn around for applications is 2-3 weeks, but could increase depending on the volume of applications received.

For more information, eligibility criteria and application form head to our website – www.carefcs.org/rent-relief-scheme

Care will be closed for Christmas from Friday 22nd December 2023 reopening Tuesday 2nd January 2024