Our community has felt the love this week, after the death of Anne Staines' husband on the weekend. I thank families for responding to the school communications over the long weekend – the children were prepared and so supportive of staff on Tuesday. The many messages and offers of support have shown us how blessed our community truly is.

Martyn’s funeral is being held next Tuesday 8^th June at 11am in Kaleen. A great number of our staff will attend. All classes will be covered either by a known or visiting teacher until 12.45pm on Tuesday. Class teachers will speak to each child, but we advise parents that it will not be classes as normal on Tuesday.

School Satisfaction Survey

We ask parents to please complete our school satisfaction survey. We sent information via SZapp yesterday and have linked it below again for ease of access. There is an option to change the language the survey is written in to be more inclusive of our multi-language community.

The surveys are an important part of our whole school evaluation and planning process. The surveys in 2021 are being hosted on a different platform from previous years and as such are quite different. The questions asked are used across a number of schools, including Yr7-12, so please ignore those that may apply more to a high school setting.

Link to Parent Survey 

The survey is open now and closes on the 9^th of June.

Information about the survey and permission for students in Years 4, 5 and 6.

Survey letter link

Arriving Late to School to be signed in

Arriving at school before the morning assembly makes for a smooth start to the day for children and teachers. If your family does happen to get caught up on a particular morning, parents must bring them to the office to be signed in. With the new attendance system teachers mark the rolls straight away at 9.00am. The office staff then mark any variation in attendance during the day.

Uniform

Our students are looking resplendent in their winter uniforms. I extend my thanks to families for checking the policy and dressing your children in the correct items and colours.

Yours faithfully,

Our parish offers our sincere condolences to Anne Staines, our Sacred Heart Primary School principal, on the death of her husband Martyn.

May dear Martyn rest in peace and rise in glory.

Common Sense strategies for raising girls

Sacred Heart Feast Day Friday 11th June

The school will be celebrating the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday 11th June. The students will attend mass and participate in a range of activities that will create an awareness, understanding and appreciation of our environment. Pope Francis' second encyclical Laudato Si' (Praised Be You) is a document about caring for our world and the current ecological crisis we are facing. He calls us all to ‘care for our common home’.

Sacred Heart has been successful in its application for a community Floriade planting program. This will be one of the wonderful service activities during our Sacred Heart Feast Day. We will be demonstrating how we can connect to others in our community through meaningful action. Keep an eye on the garden out the front of the school over the next few weeks.

 Sacred Heart would like to thank Bunnings for donating materials to help us create our mini Floriade. The school would also like to thank Jarrod, Lachlan and Isla’s dad, who will be donating his time and resources to help make this project possible.

Sacred Heart Feast Day is on Friday 11^th June. All children are asked to wear their sports uniform on this day.

A special recess treat has been organised by Mrs Kane and can be ordered for $4.00 on QKR under “Tuckdays”. Orders close Monday 7^th June.

End of May spells Hats Off Day

Yes, it is that time of the year again! The end of May is when we start to witness UV levels dropping off in Canberra to levels that are considered low (under 3) for part, if not most, of the day. It is also that time of the year when confusion sets in around sun protection recommendations in ACT school settings.

To keep things simple and consistent for ACT primary schools and early childhood services, many years ago Cancer Council ACT coined the phrase End Of May is Hats Off Day to assist these busy settings with their ‘hats on’ (hats off) behaviour.

So, in keeping with the End of May is Hats Off Day tune, all Canberra primary school students (and teachers) can leave their hats off for the months of June and July due to low (under 3) daily UV levels each day in the ACT.

The End of May spells Hats Off Day for ACT primary schools, for a few months anyway because the Beginning of August is Hats On Again For All Of Us as UV levels start to rise again in Canberra putting sensible sun protection behaviour back on the radar.

Read more about UV exposure and the healthy balance for Vitamin D benefits here.

Session 4

Last week in Peer Support the children practised developing their strengths. The aim of the activities was to help the children become more resilient and optimistic. You may wish to ask your child to share the strengths they identified during last week’s session.

Congratulations to Ellison (Stage 3) for winning the school Rostrum final. We look forward to chearing her on at the next local level of Rostrum in July.

Playgroup

Last week playgroup visited the Stage 3 Science Exhibit. Some of our students were able to demonstrate to playgroup how their project worked.

Regional Cross Country

This Wednesday some of our students represented Sacred Heart at the South-Weston cross country. The children had a fantastic day. We would like to congratulate Olivia G who placed first in her age group.

Confirmation

The students who received the Sacrament of Confirmation were presented with their certificates this week.

Congratulations to the following students celebrating their birthday this week 

Ashton B, Lachlan H, Aiden H,

Finn H.