Welcome Back!

Another new year and lots of new opportunities and challenges for our wonderful community. It has been a huge start to our 2023 academic school year and we are excited about the possibilities for learning and living at Sacred Heart.

Over the first three days of the school year 27, 30, 31 Jan our staff spent many hours learning about and preparing for teaching according to the Catholic Education Catalyst program. On Monday we traveled to Canberra with over 2300 other teaching staff listened to industry leaders and experts talk about the value of different teaching practices and methods. It was a fabulous opportunity to learn about current trends and best practice methods. We will spend time over the year reshaping these ideas to fit and suit our school.

We welcomed all our students back on Wednesday and there was a lot of excitement and a few nerves across the school. It was so lovely to see 39 beautiful Kinder students and many more across the school community. We also welcomed new staff; Ms Margaret Chapman who will be our new Music teacher, Mrs Jodie McPherson who will be in the secondary teaching HSIE and Maths and Mr Jack Niddrie who will take responsibility for Stage 2N. We are so blessed and grateful to have a school filled and staffed with such amazing people. 2023 is promising to be a fantastic year.

There has been lots of information that has been sent home during this first week and many may have reached saturation point. We are trying to ensure that everyone has all the information that they need to be across their child/rens’ learning. If at any time you are unsure about any details please do not hesitate to contact the school on 69422612 and we will strive to answer all your questions. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a silly question.

Over the holidays our financial processes were rolled over into a new system called TechOne. There are many many differences and we are quickly learning the differences and procedures that govern the new system. Please be patient as we manage the transformation and work out how best to support our families. BPay is the option for maintaining a regular payment plan and we no longer accept Direct debits. If you had a direct debit in previous years please note that you will need to adjust your payment plan to a recurring direct debit. Payment will also now be possible through COMPASS pay and many of the new events have COMPASS pay options if you would like to pay remotely and online. All permission notes and information will be managed through the COMPASS portal and we will slowly be weaning off paper copies of notes and information. SeeSaw will still be a source of truth for the Infants families and a lot of information relevant only to Infants students will be placed there as well.

In coming weeks you will receive information about the upcoming Information Sessions for different classes and years. We invite all parents to attend these sessions to learn about the expectations and plans for their children this year.

The Annual Swimming Carnival is planned for next Wednesday 8 February (if the weather is kind to us)! All students from years 3-10 are expected to attend and be involved in some way. Students who can swim 50m from year 2 and are 8 years old and above are also invited. This is always a wonderful community day and we hope to see many parents and families down at the pool to cheer on their students or to help on timekeeping. Please contact the school if you are available to help.

On 17 February we will be hosting the inaugural Canberra Goulburn Beach Volleyball Carnival and hope to see between 500 and 800 students from across the region take part. A very enthusiastic committee is working hard to make it a successful venture and establish it as an annual sporting event for the Archdiocese and surrounding regions. Today a note was forwarded on COMPASS requesting donation of food and drink items to support our P & F’s food stalls. If you are able to provide packets of lollies or drinks or bacon and eggs then we would gratefully receive any donations asap. We are also in desperate need of volunteers to help man the stalls. Please contact any member of the P & F or the Front Office if you are available to help.

The 2023 Student Residential Address Collection information was also sent out today. Please read carefully around your rights and responsibilities around the collection of addressing. It outlines the purpose of the collection and the use and disclosure of personal information. Please contact the Front Office if you are concerned about anything.

Today we inducted our new 2023 School Leaders and it was a lovely celebration to mark the start of the school year. Thank you to Mrs Maxwell for organising a thoughtful and special welcoming liturgy. Our new leaders are very excited about the opportunity and the challenges of leading the student body. We look forward to the contributions they will make to our community.

This year we will work to be the kind of school where we strive to be kind all the time!

Remember, if you have to chose between being extraordinary or kind, be extraordinarily kind.

God Bless,