Dear Community,

Today, we celebrate the Feast of Saint Mary MacKillop, Australia’s first canonised saint. Saint Mary MacKillop dedicated her life to the education and care of the poor, founding the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Her legacy of compassion, resilience, and unwavering faith continues to inspire us. As we reflect on her contributions, let us remember her words: "Never see a need without doing something about it." May we all strive to follow her example daily, fostering a spirit of service and kindness within our school and broader community.

Next week, we will celebrate the Feast of the Assumption, a significant event in our liturgical calendar. To honour this Holy Day of Obligation, we will hold a whole school Mass on Thursday, 15th August, at 9:30am in the Church. We warmly invite all parents, family members, and friends to join us in this special celebration as we come together in prayer and reflection. This feast commemorates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, reminding us of her purity and devotion.

We look forward to sharing this sacred occasion with our entire school community.

Bullying No Way! Week

Next week, we are proud to take a proactive stance against bullying as we participate in Bullying No Way Week. This demonstrates our unwavering commitment to creating a school environment where everyone feels they belong. We will engage in various activities throughout the week to promote kindness, respect, and inclusion. Our school leaders will remind students at morning assembly, display posters, and each class will complete a 30-40-minute lesson focused on anti-bullying themes, culminating in a group artwork to display. These artworks will be showcased at the water station for everyone to see.

We look forward to a week of unity and positive action as we work together to make Sacred Heart a place where every student feels safe, valued, and respected.

TELL THEM FROM ME (TTFM) SURVEY

In the coming weeks, we will invite students, teachers, and parents to provide feedback on their experience of our school using an online survey. The surveys are an essential part of our school evaluation and planning process.

We invite you to complete the Tell Them From Me (TTFM) Partners in Learning survey. We value the role of parents and carers within our school community and would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to improve further student learning and well-being at Sacred Heart Primary School. 

The survey is anonymous and will take approximately 20 minutes to complete. You can access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using the URL below: http://tellthemfromme.com/rftms

As a new principal, I would greatly value your feedback. Please make this a priority one day in the next few weeks. In fact, jump on now!

Special visitors

We were thrilled that Sacred Heart Primary School hosted a special event today as part of the Parliament in Schools program. The Honourable Milton Dick MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives, visited Sacred Heart to engage with our Year 5 and 6 students about federation, democracy, and the workings of the Australian Parliament. We even ended up on TV- check out Sky News!

This program offers our students a unique opportunity to hear directly from the Speaker and our local member, David Smith MP, Government Whip and Federal Member for Bean. They shared insights on what a typical day looks like both in their electorate and during sitting weeks at Parliament House. This firsthand experience was invaluable for our students, giving them a deeper understanding of the democratic processes that shape our nation.

A big thank you to The Honourable Milton Dick MP and David Smith MP for visiting our school.

Are your deets up to date??

I want to remind all parents and guardians to ensure that your contact details on Compass are up-to-date. We must have current information, including your address, work number, email, and other contact details, to ensure effective communication between the school and families.

Recently, we have encountered some difficulties in reaching parents due to outdated information. Keeping your details current allows us to contact you promptly in case of emergencies, important announcements, and other essential matters.

Please take a few moments to review and update your information on Compass. Thank you!

School Uniform

As we progress through the school year, I want to remind everyone of the importance of adhering to our school uniform policy. Being part of Sacred Heart means adhering to the correct uniform. It makes it very difficult on staff when students continually (and often deliberately) do not follow the uniform policy at school. When you send your child to Sacred Heart, you also choose to send them in uniform, which is an integral part of our ethos. The Sacred Heart uniform policy (on our website) reinforces pride in students' appearance, instils recognition of themselves as an integral part of the school community, and assists in developing pride in representing their school.  It promotes equality, belonging, and discipline among our students.

Recently, we have observed some issues with adherence to the uniform guidelines, including hair not being tied up, wearing non-uniform shoes instead of black school shoes, using nail polish and non-natural hair colours, and wearing earrings that do not conform to our policy.

We kindly ask all parents and students to review and comply with the school uniform requirements. Of course, if you have any concerns with adhering to our policy, please don’t hesitate to contact me so I can support you.

Your co-operation in uniform matters is appreciated.

Hats back on please!!

As we enter August, it's time for our students to start wearing their hats again following the ACT Cancer Council guidelines. The return of hats is crucial to protecting our children from the harmful effects of ultraviolet (UV) radiation.

Even during the cooler months, UV levels can be high enough to cause skin damage. Wearing hats helps shield our students from these harmful rays, reducing the risk of skin cancer and promoting healthy sun safety habits. All students must bring and wear their hats during outdoor activities, including recess and lunch.

These can be purchased from the Front Office if you need new ones. Thank you.

In faith and partnership,

David Austin

Principal

Compass Notifications

Please refer to Compass for the following notifications:

• Hats Back On Starting Week 3
• Warm Milo this Friday Morning

Our Term 3 Ride or Walk to school morning, Friday 9^th August, Week 3.

Please organise walking/riding to school this day. Ways to do this could be to communicate/connect via The Sacred Heart Parents and Carers Facebook page or utilise other parent networks you have (you may wish to set up a whats app to organise daily or weekly walking to school days). Please find attached our usual meeting points (without teachers) so parents can meet there and send their children on their way to school. This may help to organise future riding/walking mornings and if some parents are able to walk with the group, they can talk about how to get to school safely with the children.

As usual, we will have fresh fruit, music and a raffle draw when students arrive at school.

We hope this continues building confidence and independence for our Sacred Heart Students, enabling them to nurture their hearts, minds and spirits.

What a wonderful day we all had celebrating our Olympians by dressing in green and gold and having a mini Olympics that was run by the year 6 students.