Dear Families

As we fondly look back on the recent Mother's Day celebration, our hearts are filled with joy and gratitude for the wonderful day we shared together. It was a day brimming with love, laughter, and heartfelt connections as we honoured the remarkable mothers and significant others who shape our lives with their unconditional love and support.

Our Mother's Day festivities began with a prayer service in classrooms to offer our gratitude to God for the gift of motherhood. Through heartfelt prayers and reflections, we recognised the profound impact that mothers and significant others have on our lives and asked for blessings upon them as they continue their journey of love and sacrifice.

Following the prayer service, each classroom buzzed with excitement as our students engaged in special Mother's Day activities. From handmade cards, manicures, hairstyle stations, crafts, poems and songs, our children poured their creativity and love into expressing their appreciation. It was heart-warming to witness the joy and enthusiasm on children’s faces as they eagerly presented their gifts and shared stories of love and gratitude.

One of the most touching aspects of the day was seeing the genuine connections forged between students and our visitors. These precious moments served as a reminder of the importance of cherishing and nurturing the relationships that bring us love and joy.

As we reflect on the beauty of Mother's Day, we are reminded of the timeless wisdom found in the words of Proverbs 31:28: ‘Her children rise up and call her blessed.’ Indeed, the love and devotion of mothers and significant others are a source of inspiration and strength for us all. Their tireless efforts, selfless sacrifices, and unwavering love shape the foundation of our families and our school community.

This week, we were privileged to welcome new and existing families to our Kinder information session. It was great to spend time reflecting on what makes our school special. Sharing our Vision, Mission, and Values certainly provoked us all to think deeply about what we do at Sacred Heart and why our families want to be a part of our community.

Thank you for your continued support, yours in partnership

Charlene Best
Principal

Daily Reviews

As part of our Insight journey, teachers are learning about research-based strategies based on Barak Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction.

Rosenshine’s first principle of instruction explains the importance of Daily Reviews. This is where teachers begin a lesson by reviewing previous learning. Although starting a lesson with the learning intention and success criteria can have its benefits, the importance of reviewing previously learnt material needs to be prioritised.

Dedicating a short period of time at the beginning of each lesson to reviewing and evaluating previously covered knowledge will help students perform better academically. This principle essentially relates to the concept of working memory. As our cognitive load is quite small, if we don’t review previous learning, then the effort of trying to remember old information will get in the way of learning new information.

Research suggests that asking students to consistently recall and reflect on topics that they have learned throughout the year by reviewing understanding has several benefits: 

• It helps them make connections between new and old knowledge;
• It increases the likelihood of knowledge being transferred into their long-term memory (which also makes it easier to learn new things);
• It provides a foundation for future learning if it prompts feedback;
• It is reliable under pressure (which makes it easier to remember information in test conditions).

It has been wonderful seeing our teachers conducting Daily Reviews as we walk through classrooms and seeing the students actively engaged in responding.

References: 

Principles of Instruction - Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know - Barak Rosenshine

https://www.innerdrive.co.uk/blog/rosenshines-first-principle-of-instruction/

Some of our students and their families were involved in Ulverstone's first Limitless Learning project launched in the Circulation Space at Hive Tasmania. This was a collaboration between staff at Hive, the Peter Underwood Centre at the University of Tasmania and, of course, students and families from our school.

The aim was to create activities for children to engage with the exhibits in the Ulverstone Museum at Hive, such as a 'Get ready to bumble' museum trail and an 'International Morse Code Challenge.

From Finn Wilkinson:

My time with the limitless learning project has been super amazing. I love how we all got to work together and share our ideas so that we could merge them together to create an enjoyable experience for people of all ages to use and have a great time. I feel that in adding activities to the museum, we have, in a sense, made it more interesting for children when they arrive. In conclusion, I believe that me, Charlotte, Eddy, Nathan, James, Emilia and Hugo have made a big difference to the Hive Museum, and I hope other people can speak up and make their ideas heard.

Make sure you pop into the Hive to check out their amazing work!

Last week Sacred Heart welcomed Louis to our school and to 5/6 Kangaroos.

In English, 5/6 Dingoes have been working through their first novel study unit, War Horse. This unit has included vocabulary development, sentence-level writing and explaining the steps to write a narrative text.

This week students have been working on their own narrative to complete this unit. 

The Sacred Heart School Cross Country carnival will be held on Wednesday, 29th May 2024. 

Spectators are more than welcome, however please note the top oval will be closed to parking until the Prep and Kinder races, just after 2pm, as the course includes the entire school grounds, including the top oval. Race times and more information can be found on the links below:

Please note that enrolments for Children's University 2024 have now closed.

There will be an after-school meeting in the Link area on Tuesday, May 21st, from 3:00 to 3:30 pm, for students enrolled in Children's University. This will provide Belinda from Utas with an opportunity to say hi, share some details about using the portal, and answer any questions about the CU program. It would be great to see both continuing and new families at this gathering.

Your CU in-school team for this year is Mrs Justine Hingston and Mrs Hannah White supported by Miss Davis and Mrs Lane. This team will be the school contacts for all things CU. Belinda will be overseeing all portal activities and ensuring children receive the time for their efforts in their passports. Please keep in mind that this year’s team are newcomers to CU, and we are all working together to get a system in place that will work best for the children. We have considerable time before graduation to get hours logged. Parents are welcome to email Belinda directly for any specific inquiries they may have.

We will run passport check-in days throughout the year. We will gather passports and transfer hours accumulated from the portal and learning destination visits. Children should get their passports back the following day. We hope to run one on 21 May, so please remind your children to bring passports along to school that day. We will do another check in towards the end of term.

Thank you to CU students and parents for your patience as the school team re-establishs the program this year.

This week Prep to Grade 6 have been undertaking Fire Safety Training with Firefighter Craig Machen.

Craig also presented Principal Charlene Best and Sacred Heart with a certificate on behalf of the Tasmanian Fire Service and School Fire Educators, for the school's support of the the School Fire Education Program over the last 30 years. 

Compass Notifications:

Please make sure you are reading any Compass/Email communication from the school. This ensures effective communication. 

Brixhibition is on again!