Learing Assets - Thinkers

Thinkers stay on task, persisting even when the learning challenges them. They are flexible, exploring different ways to achieve a goal and adapting to circumstances. They are open-minded to consider other points of view and to compromise. Developing these asses helps us to make sense of the of signs, symbols and events around us.

‘We can think logically, creatively and reflectively. We think about how we use our thinking and have different strategies for making our thinking visible to others. We remain open-minded and know that our thinking changes over time’. (K. Murdoch ‘Power of Inquiry’ p98)

Examples of times when we may teach the assets of being a thinker may include:

• Staying focused
• Thinking of and sharing a question
• Thinking about the potential consequences of actions
• Thinking back over our learning and identifying ways to improve
• Considering how beliefs and culture can influence peoples’ thinking
• Planning ahead and thinking through a task before we begin it
• Applying feedback

Kinder and Stage 1 will usually only explore being ‘persistent’. Stage 2 and 3 will develop language about all three – persistent, flexible, open-minded.

School Calendar Update

The format of the school calendar on SZapp has been changed to fix the display errors. Please check it out and let us know if there are further problems. You should be able to view the details of future events and save events to your personal calendars.

Yours faithfully,

Kerry Wode 

Assistant Principal

Cancelation of Event

Please note that the Literacy and Numeracy nights that were previously advertised have been cancelled and an alternative method for sharing will come out at a later date.

Religious Co-ordinator 

Ash Wednesday and Lent

Yesterday the school community attended Mass for Ash Wednesday, receiving ashes on their forehead. This marks the start of Lent, one of the most celebrated and revered seasons in the Catholic Church. Lent is a time to prepare for the renewal of life in the Resurrection, where we are called to purify and renew ourselves spiritually.

A Prayer For Lent

Lord, please guide me this Lent,

remind me to pray to You,

To thank You, to love You, to hear from You

each and every day.

Amen

Caritas Australia Project Compassion 2020

This week the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, which also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allow Caritas Australia, The Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice.

We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. Sacred Heart and Mary Help of Christians Parish will be supporting Project Compassion throughout Lent and we invite all families to join in. Students will receive a Project Compassion box and there will also be one available in every classroom. These boxes can be filled throughout Lent and then returned to school for collection.

Parish News

Lent in our Parish

Stations of the Cross booklets - are available at the back of the Church. Please leave them in the Church after private or group devotion.

Parish led Stations of the Cross Thursday mornings after 8.30am Mass.

Lenten Groups - Fr Adrian will be leading a Lenten Group on Fridays after the 9.30am Mass – everyone welcome to attend, please rsvp to wodensouth@cg.org.au.

Do you want to fast this Lent?

Suggestions from Pope Francis

Fast from hurting words and say kind words.

Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.

Fast from anger and be filled with patience.

Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.

Fast from worries and trust in God.

Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.

Fast from pressures and be prayerful.

Fast from bitterness and fill your hearts with joy.

Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others

Fast from grudges and be reconciled.

Fast from words so you can be silent so you can listen.

Community Council Connections

Welcome class of 2020! We are pleased to announce the members of the 2020 Community Council Executive, elected at the AGM. All 2019 members were re-elected, with the addition of Catherine W to provide valuable support to Sharon Poole as joint Parent Rep Co-ordinator.

• Chair – Sarah L, mum to Samantha in Year 6, fourth (and final!) year on the Council.
• Deputy Chair – Catherine W, mum to Logan in Year 5 and Riley in Year 1, second year on the Council.
• Treasurer - John B, dad to Tom in Year 3 and Murray in Kinder, fourth year on the Council
• Secretary - Jac H, mum to Elliot in Year 2 and Meredith who is 5, third year on the Council.
• Parent Rep Co-ordinator -Sharon P, mum to Lachie in Year 1, second year on the Council.
• Joint Parent Rep Co-ordinator- Catherine W, mum to Alby in Kindergarten.
• 50th Anniversary sub-committee chair -Josie L, mum to Selena in Year 6 and Natasha in Year 3, second year on the Council.
• Parish representative – Fr Richard
• Staff representative - Brendan Mitchell, Teacher 3/4 White.
• Assistant Principal and ‘Be You’ Co-ordinator – Kerry Wode. Classroom Support Teacher. Fourth year as SHPS Assistant Principal.  
• Principal – Anne Staines, ninth year as SHPS Principal.

We open into 2020 with the following key target areas: 

1. Voice of the Students: we were joined by Belle Reinstadler, School Captain, as the voice of the students. Belle summarised the hectic start of the year for students. Bathrooms- the CEO will be approached to fund the painting of the bathroom doors, leaving the budget available for the decorations and decals. Wonderful Wednesdays - the student idea to have an integrated all-years lunch one day a week was granted. This will start in week 8/9, allowing the coming weeks for children in the younger years to adjust to their surroundings and new friends.
2. Sacred Heart turns 50: 2020 is our 50^th Anniversary year, this is an important year for our school and the 50^th Anniversary committee are working very hard to ensure all of our current school and wider committee can be part of the celebration.  The dates for the planned activities are on SZapp and the website. Be sure to sign up to the dedicated Facebook group. 
3. K-6 Complete: The sub-committee will be moving forward this year with ways to promote the school as a K-6 complete education.  Look out for updates throughout the year. 
4. Parent Reps: Classroom communication is key to strengthening the network across the school to give a louder voice on engagement and activities impacting our school community.  Please contact the front office if you are interested in becoming a parent rep for your child’s class. Many classes need a Rep, and we need four Year 5 parents for Stage 3.
5. New in 2020!: Book mornings started this Thursday in the library from 8:30am, children are encouraged to ‘bring their adult’ in discovering books together (and yes you can borrow!). We are also working with YMCA for a holiday program option. We are looking at funding grants to support our courtyard rejuvenation project.

If you have anything you would like to raise for the attention of the Council you can email the front office or ask a question in our Parents and Carers Facebook group or chat to a Council Exec member.

Sarah Lloyd | Catherine W | John B |Jac H | Sharon P | Catherine W| Josie L |

Fr Richard | Anne Staines | Kerry Wode | Brendan Mitchell

Defibrillator

The school has purchased a defibrillator for both the school and the Church. It has been installed on the back wall in the Church.

Drive Through 

Drive through moves a lot faster if we can see the name plate displayed on your viser. If you don't have a name plate and use drive through please email the office with your child's surname and class and we will have one made up for you.

Childrens Asthma Education Service

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 3^rd March     8:30am-9:00am

3:00pm-4:15pm

Wednesday 4^th           8:30am-9:00am

                                    3:00pm-4:15pm

Thursday 5^th                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.

Congratulations to the following students celebrating their Birthday 

Kazuo M and Hope O.

An Evening with Dr Justin Coulson, Merici College 2 March 6.30pm

Dr Justin Coulson, one of Australia’s most respected parenting authors and speakers, will be visiting Merici College on Monday 2 March. As a psychologist, and a father of six girls, he will be sharing his insights into what is really going on in the minds of our teenage daughters, how are they feeling and how we can stay connected with them. He will also be talking about his new book, Miss-Connection. Justin’s presentation will be held in the Merici auditorium from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, $5.00 per person. Please follow the link https://www.trybooking.com/BINLZ for bookings. We warmly invite our Merici families, as well as our wider community to come along.

Community Sports

Eastlake Football Club Little Dees Kingston https://shpspearce.schoolzineplus.com/_download/media/1476/eastlake_football_club_little_dees_kingston.jpg

Eastlake Football Club Junior Registration https://shpspearce.schoolzineplus.com/_download/media/1478/eastlake_football_club_little_dees_kingston.jpg

Eastlake Football Club Registration Day https://shpspearce.schoolzineplus.com/_download/media/1479/eastlake_football_club_little_dees_kingston.jpg

Hockey ACT Come and Try

Hockey ACT Come and Try 202.60 KB

Deanne Dance

Deanne Dance 286.42 KB