Dear Community,

A week ago, we celebrated Ash Wednesday, and we are now well into the season of Lent. In some ways, Lent is the most famous of all the church’s seasons - people seem to know the most about Lent. It lasts for 40 days, counting from the First Sunday of Lent through to Holy Thursday. Lent is a serious time and has many traditions. We notice the colour purple in our churches and frequently hear the call to pray, to fast, and to give alms. ‘Alms’ means giving to people in need.

During Lent, I encourage all students and their families to try to become more prayerful, to make our lives simpler and to share what we have with those who are in need. Each class has a ‘Project Compassion’ box where loose change can be given and money given to those in need.

Stage 3 Camp

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week all Year 5/6 students will attend camp in Sydney. I will join them, along with Mr Aaron Fox, Mrs Katie Imbriano, Mrs Amy Kelly and Mr Ben Sweeney. The itinerary is jam-packed: Sydney Cricket Ground tour, Mary MacKillop Place visit, Taronga Zoo, St Mary’s Cathedral, Australian National Maritime Museum, Hyde Park Barracks, The Rocks and Chinese Gardens. We are looking forward to this educational experience and I am personally looking forward to getting to know our student leaders more. I am extremely grateful to the staff who will spend three days and two nights away from their families to spend 24/7 with these students. It is a big commitment - no overtime as a teacher!

Community Council Open Meeting

We will have a Community Council Open Meeting next Thursday 29^th February, commencing at 6:30 pm. You are all most welcome.

In faith and partnership,

David Austin

Principal

Compass Notifications

Please refer to Compass for the following notifications:

• Sickness Reminder
• Athletics Carnival
• Headlice Information
• 2024 Student Residential Address Collection

School fees should be issued via email from CE next week. Your BPAY details will be listed at the bottom of the fee statement. Payments can be made weekly, fortnightly, monthly, or in full by the 16^th March. If you are experiencing financial difficulties, you can apply for a school fee concession. Forms are available from the front office. Applications are strictly confidential.

Building Fund Opt-In

Families are reminded that you need to Opt-In to pay the schools Building Fund annually. An email will go out to all debtors after family statements are issued for Term 1. The building fund is vital to the maintenance and upkeep of our school facilities. Please note that the building fund is tax deductable.

You will be sent an email from donotreply-accounts@cg.catholic.edu.au. This is an authentic CECG email address and is not SPAM.

It will be sent to both parents and take the result chosen by the first parent. This can be changed by the school manually after this if needed.

Each family will be requested to either select Yes or No regarding their intention to contribute.

Congratulations to Sacred Heart students Felix and Rex who were welcomed into the Catholic Church through the Sacrament of Baptism last weekend.

Lord, thank you for the precious gift of Baptism, where we can declare our love and passion for you. 

Lord, we ask for your goodness and blessings to be poured out on Felix and Rex. We pray that you work deeply within their hearts and souls to renew and refresh them each day.

Athletics Carnival - 6^th March

Please check compass for the permission for the carnival. If you are able to help on the day, make sure you fill out the volunteer questions. 

Changes to Awards Assembly for Friday 1^st March

Sacred Heart will be welcoming some players from the GWS Giants to our school on Friday 1^st March as part of their school visit program. They are visiting our school from 10:30-11:15am. To make the most of this visit, we will be changing our awards assembly to this time. On Tuesday afternoon/Wednesday morning a push will be sent out through Compass to advise of those children who will be receiving awards for the week, we are doing it earlier to give enough time to parents who wish to attend the assembly.

Students are also encouraged to wear any Fan gear of the Giants for the day.

Raising Star Tennis Academy

Final call for enrolments for students wishing to do tennis lessons at lunch time through Raising Star Tennis academy. Please email Laura Stumbles. 

If your child is unwell, is displaying flu-like symptoms or has head lice, please keep them home from school. 

We encourage healthy practices at school by reminding children to wash their hands and to have a drink bottle at hand to stay hydrated during the day. Every classroom has hand sanitiser and sunscreen available. It is our policy to have longer hair tied back.

We welcome packets of tissues, hand sanitiser and antibacterial wipes to be donated to your child’s classroom to assist in maintaining a healthier environment.

All parents and carers are invited to our first Community Council meeting for 2024, in our library at 6pm on Thursday 29 February.

During this first meeting we will be adopting the new structure for Catholic School’s Community Councils. We will be electing new members and discussing directions and agendas for the 2024 school year.

Please save the date for our future CC Open Meetings - 30/5, 22/8 & 14/11 (Week 5 each term) at 6.30pm.

Planning is underway for our bi-annual community event and major fundraiser - Our Twilight Fair. We will confirm the October date shortly! The lovely and experienced Katarina Doyle has volunteered to be our Fair Coordinator this year. 

If you’d like to help out, no matter how small, please email  SHPSFairCommittee@outlook.com  

What we would like to know is:

• Are you interested in joining our Fair committee?
• Could you think about making a corporate donation for prizes and/or financial support?
• Can you start propagating plants? 
• Do you have a suggestion of a stall you’d like to be part of?
• Do you know a business who would like to be a private stall at the Fair?
• Or anything you want to bring to the table - now’s the time to do it! 

All parents / carers and ideas welcome!

Kat Doyle (Fair Coordinator)   Kerry Wode (Committee member - staff)

Would you like to help at Sacred Heart, although you are unable to help during the school day? Do you have a gift of organising? This is your chance. We are looking for new class parent representatives for 2024.  

2023 was a year of reviving some of the events that had to be cancelled because of COVID. We were well and truly back on track with events including the Colour Fun Run, Mother’s Day breakfast, Father’s Day Breakfast, and Christmas Carols. A heartfelt message of thanks goes to those wonderful parents who volunteered to be our 2023 class parent representatives and assisted in seeking volunteers to help with our school activities.

We still need a parent representative for the following classes in 2024:1 Red, 1 White, 2 Red, 2 White, 3 White, 5 White, 6 Red. Your role will be to assist your child’s teacher by being a point of contact for general information for other parents from your child’s class. You may wish to set up a group chat with your class family to relay information or seek assistance for upcoming events. Your role is to foster communication with your class family and perhaps occasionally offer to arrange a get-together e.g. a park play once a term. This will particularly assist those families who may be new to the school.

If you are interested in finding out more information, please contact Vanessa Miller on Vanessa.miller@cg.catholic.edu.au or enquire at the office. 

Last Friday we held our Opening School Mass. Our school captains and leaders were blessed and presented with their leadership badges.

What a beautiful morning it was on Friday to have breakfast with the community. Thank you for joining us. Thank you to the parent volunteers and staff for the yummy food.

Do we have a future Australian Idol in our Karaoke groups!