-
-
(03) 5421 1200
-
This week’s prayer focuses on tomorrow as a significant day for the Sisters of Mercy globally as the anniversary of the death of Venerable Catherine McAuley in 1841. It is a day where Mercy schools and ministries come together to reflect on her profound legacy and that of the thousands of Sisters of Mercy since then.
Tomorrow also sees Remembrance Day (or Armistice Day) commemorated across Australia. At many small and large ceremonies across this country, the sacrifices of men and women in wars and conflicts past as well as those serving currently in Australia’s armed forces will be recognised and reflected upon. A short Remembrance Day service was held this morning in classes at Sacred Heart College with student leaders representing the schools at local services tomorrow.
Parent Involvement – College Advisory Council and College Finance Committee
Two important groups that support the operations of Sacred Heart College are the College Advisory Council and the College Finance Committee. I am looking for additional members for each committee with the departure of some longstanding members. A summary of the responsibilities of each group (as detailed by Mercy Education) is included below:
- The College Advisory Council provides a forum for discussion and discernment, where parent voice and community perspective are available to inform and support the decisions made by the principal where students’ wellbeing and outcomes are paramount.
- The Finance Committee is responsible for the oversight of and summary reporting to College Advisory Council of the following aspects of school finances: financial performance of the College; policy matters relating to finance or capital works; recommendations on the annual budget.
I would welcome expressions of interest for either group from interested parents with appointments at the discretion of the Principal. Membership of each group is normally for two year cycles with two or three cycles preferred.
Interested parents are invited to email the Principal’s Assistant, Loretta Hanns (lhanns@shckyneton.catholic.edu.au).
Transition to Parent Purchase of Student Devices
Early next week, parents of Year 7 & 10 2024 students will receive details on accessing the school portal to arrange purchase of student devices. The information to be distributed will include help-lines where needed as well as finance options.
Student Activities
As the end of the school year approaches, a number of significant activities are worth recognising:
- Year 10 & 11 students are commencing their end of year subject examinations with their end of year awards assembly being held on Tuesday 21 November. Unit 1 - 4 Step Up classes begin on the following day.
- After a Covid-enforced hiatus, a group of Sacred Heart College students and staff depart for Japan next weekend. The trip includes a range of language and cultural experiences as well as a visit to our sister school, Ibarakinishi High School. We wish all safe travels.
- Last week saw the culmination of the College’s Instrumental Music Program with the annual Music Leaders’ Concert. Congratulations to all students who performed on the night and special thanks to the wonderful team of instrumental music teachers who support them each week.
Yours in Mercy,
Dr Darren Egberts
Principal
Congratulations to these students on being selected as members of the SHC Senior School Cabinet for 2024. We look forward to watching you take on these positions of leadership and develop these roles across the school year.
| Senior College Captains 2024 | |
|---|---|
|
College Captains |
Isabella McBride Imogen Sparrow Stephanie Waddington |
|
Faith Captain |
Grace Hedrick |
|
Academic Captain |
Ruby Davidson |
|
Applied Learning Captain |
Mackenzie Shaw & D’Elle Edmonds |
|
Culture Captain |
Rose Sud |
|
Mercy Justice Captain |
D’Arcy Egberts |
|
Sports Captain |
Angelique Doherty & Georgia Freeman |
|
Student Wellbeing Captain |
Charli Pelham & Otis Smith |
|
Sustainability Captain |
Frida Foerster & Olive Raggatt |
|
The Arts Captain |
Dylan Bunn & Iona Kerry |
The warm weather is finally arriving, and while having lovely sunny days is great for our overall sense of wellbeing it can, however, bring on other factors that are not so great – sunburn and hay fever/asthma. At Sacred Heart College, we have a sun awareness approach to remaining safe in the sun. The College has a sun appropriate hat on the uniform list, and students are encouraged to use the shaded areas of the grounds when the weather gets hot. Each building has sunscreen which is freely available for students to use, and the temperature/UV factor is visible as the Cloud and Sun icon on the right of the SIMON frontpage. This recommends when sun protection should be used.
Starting next week, a new addition to our Daily Messages will be a daily Pollen Count indicator. Thunderstorm Asthma is now a regular concern, and with over a hundred registered asthmatics and countless hay fever sufferers, some prior warning of those very extreme days would be very useful. For those who suffer on these days, decisions can then be made as to whether it would be safer to remain home rather than risk leaving the house. These choices are entirely up to each individual family.
Sunscreen Dispensers - Jalna Holmes, Health Centre Coordinator
Sunscreen dispensers have recently been installed across all Year Level areas of the College.
Students are encouraged to 'slop' on some sunscreen prior to heading out into the yard during their recess and lunch breaks.
The College also have a Bucket Hat/Cap available through the Uniform Shop should you wish to purchase one for your child.
As a new approach in 2023 0ur Year 9 Reflection Day took place over two dates on Thursday 9 November and Friday 10 November. On these days our Year 9s spent time with guest presenters from Jesuit Social Services, McAuley Services and Young Mercy Links. These presentations, and the class workshops that accompanied them, invited our Year 9s to develop hearts of hospitality in response to the issues of homelessness and housing insecurity. Our care for the homeless is neither incidental nor accidental. It goes to the very core of our faith as a Mercy community. The Christian story has always been a story of homelessness and hospitality. In the Hebrew scriptures, we hear the repeated declaration that we must welcome the stranger, and take care of the lost. From our Jewish heritage, we learn that ‘Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and will be repaid in full’ (Proverbs 19:17). And in the Gospels, we hear Jesus declare that he has ‘no place to lay his head’, as his radical vulnerability promotes radical hospitality.
Threaded through our time together was the following wisdom from the prophet Isaiah, which was shared with our Year 9s as part of their liturgy:
“Shout out, do not hold back!
Lift up your voice like a trumpet!
Is it not your calling to share your bread with the hungry?
And to bring the homeless poor into your house?
When you see those in need, share with them,
And do not turn yourself away from your brothers and sisters.”
(Isaiah 58:1,7)
As part of the event, we also launched a new social outreach initiative, with a group of Year 9s choosing to take part in our inaugural ‘McAuley Sleepout’. The sleepout took place as an act of solidarity with those experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity, and also served as a fundraising activity for McAuley Services. All participants in the sleepout are to be commended for the wisdom and insight they have gained from this experience.
As the year ramps up to a crescendo, our hallowed Music Department has been busy at work making copious amounts of well-crafted music from so many young musos!
Our Year 10 Music Recital Evening at the Riddells Creek Hotel was a resounding success. The eleven Year 10 students were brimming not only with enthusiasm, but with a strong level of musicianship, aural and technical maturity.
Tonight’s performance contributes towards the students’ learning in a number of facets, and to a number of assessment outcomes within the Year 10 Music-Making curriculum. Students were each required to organize, rehearse and perform two pieces: an accompanied piece and an ensemble piece. The other aspect of assessment was their contribution to a printed program, by means of creating a personal profile, outlining their accomplishments and personality as a developing musician. The students looked magnificent in their formal attire and treated the audience to a huge variety of pieces, including a Metallica/Leo Sayer mashup.
The following day, Ms Helen Duggan and I were privileged to facilitate approximately 50 auditions for SHC Music Scholarships. This included students in Years 7 – 11 and a significant number of grade 6 students joining our Sacred Heart Music community in 2024! The standard of excitement, playing and attitude were all high. The challenge was deciding who the scholarships will be awarded to – there were so many incredibly worthy applicants! Scholarship recipients will be announced at the College’s Awards Ceremony on 6 December, following our Year 7-9 End Of Year Mass.
Last week’s Music Leaders’ Concert was hosted by our 2023 Music Leaders – Kayla Hogbin and Billy Barclay. The evening was a resounding success and featured a plethora of ensembles and solo acts, with 50 students performing repertoire ranging from Antonio Carlos Jobim to ABBA, Billy Thorpe to Beatles, Primus to Charlie Parker and Sade to Stevie Wonder! The night was supported by our wonderful Friends Of the Music Program (FOMP), and raffle prizes generously donated by Fed, Major Toms and The Macedon Ranges Music Festival. At this event, we announced our incoming Music Leaders for 2024, Lachie Hyatt and Amelia Walsh – very worthy recipients of this honour, following Kayla and Billy’s good work.
We are also accepting enrolments for the Instrumental Music Program in 2024. If you would like to apply, please do so online at https://tinyurl.com/shcmusic2024. Please note that all students currently enrolled in to learn an instrument are required to have a parent/guardian re-enrol them for next year through this link. Enrolments from 2023 do not automatically roll over into next year.
At Sacred Heart College, we value the partnerships formed between families, the College and Community. Our intention is to support parents/carers/guardians while raising awareness of the benefits of engaging in their child’s education. Studies have shown that a family’s engagement has a direct, positive impact on a child’s learning success.
The aim of the Sacred Heart College’s Parent Engagement Partnership is to strengthen the collaboration between school, families and the broader community, by providing Professional Learning through quality presenters on a variety of current educational topics. These opportunities can provide parents with knowledge, strategies and skills to support their child.
Parent Engagement is one of the best strategies to create a positive learning environment for all students, where home and school come together as a team. When families are engaged in their children’s school lives, students have the home support they need to develop a lifelong love of learning.
As a result, we believe that this partnership can create a more effective network of support for our students, harnessing the full capacity of the community to support student learning and enhance student outcomes in all facets of their lives.
Year 11 Homeless Project
On Thursday 5 October, Kate from Cobaw & Sunbury Community Health came to speak to our Year 11 Personal Development Skills class to talk about homelessness in the Macedon Ranges.
If you search the meaning of the word ‘homeless’, you will get a definition that looks something like this- (of a person) without a home, and therefore typically living on the streets. We learned that this is not the case at all. If a person sleeps in their car, lives in severely overcrowded accommodation or is even couch surfing, they are considered homeless. This is called 'hidden homelessness' because even though it is more common than rough sleeping (sleeping on the street) it is often misunderstood and goes unnoticed. The last Census (2021) recorded that 30,660 Victorians were without sustainable housing.
Sunbury & Cobaw Community Health helped assisted 155 adults and 25 youth clients throughout the Macedon Ranges in the last financial year. The towns that suffer the most among the adults (over 25) are Kyneton, Woodend and Gisborne, with Kyneton having 32 clients. The two towns with youth aged (under 25) most affected are Kyneton and Woodend, with Kyneton having 6 clients from that age group.
Government housing has a lot of stigma around it. Many people think that the people in public housing are given an easy way out, but that is not the truth at all. If you apply yourself to get public housing it will take 25-30 years. If Sunbury & Cobaw Community Health refers you, it will still take around four years. If you are lucky enough to get a house, you still must pay rent.
So, how can we help those in need in our own community?
“We learn through change and change through learning” – this means that by raising awareness of the issue in our own backyard, we can start a movement to make things better.
In our class, we have been doing a range of things. Our plan was to create some things that would make those in need feel valued and seen. We decided to make affirmation colouring sheets (for the children who visit Cobaw), affirmation posters (that will be displayed in the Cobaw offices), and also affirmation cards to give a positive statement to anyone who needs one. We also brought some Woolworths gift cards for food shopping.
How can you help? Some things you can do is volunteer at a not-for-profit organisation and support people who are experiencing homelessness.
Lenni McCarthy (Year 11)
Mobile Muster
This Term, as part of our new VCE Vocational Major Unit 1/2 course, we had to look at community cohesion, and how our actions have an impact on the world around us. Following our trip to Melbourne Zoo, where we learned a bout stakeholders and how we could become involved in helping our planet. We then chose activities that could, in some small way, make a difference.
Lenni and Ava chose to collect mobile devices around the school community to donate. Here is a photo of them with some of the devices donated.
Our Year 9 History cohort immersed themselves in a WWI incursion on Wednesday, October 25. History Up Close curated an extensive collection of primary source artifacts, offering students hands-on exploration. This incursion became a platform for classes to discern and analyse diverse historical perspectives, focusing on propaganda, attitudes towards war, soldier compensation and pay, food, and the uniforms and weapons utilised by both Australians and their adversaries.
Through these primary sources, classes gained insight into the harsh realities of trench warfare, providing a window into the lived experiences of that challenging time. Discussions extended to the key aspects of World War I and the distinctive Australian wartime narrative. The incursion left a lasting impact on many, proving to be both engaging and educational. The timing of the incursion felt especially fitting as it was held close to Remembrance Day.
Thank you to History Up Close and all Year 9 students for actively participating in the insightful discussions and activities.
Over the last two weekends Hailey Stubbs and Sarah Fitzpatrick of Year 9, and Tyler Fynch of Year 7, competed at the Victorian All Schools Championships at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park. Congratulations on these brilliant performances.
Weekend one
Sarah - U16 2000m steeple - 2nd 7:41.96
Tyler - U14 1500m - 6th 4:30.29
Weekend two
Hailey - U16 Hammer - 1st 45.20m
Sarah - U16 800m - 7th 2:24.70
Tyler - U14 3000m - 6th 9:42.62
Hailey and Sarah have qualified for the Australian Nationals held in Perth next month, representing SHC and Victoria. Good luck!
As the year draws closer towards the end, it’s good to reflect on the amazing things that we’ve done this year in the Arts Department.
Our recent plays ‘The Real Inspector Hound’ and ‘Where in the World is Frank Sparrow?’, the Year 10 Music Recital Evening and last week’s Music Leaders Concert and many, many other events which have been enjoyed by so many parents and students in the Sacred Heart community.
Below in the slideshow, we’ve included a smattering of images from Visual Communication and Design and Art, as well as a number of photos from Life Drawing, and the recent VCE Exhibition!
Il était une fois
This year, our Year 9 French students continued the tradition of each writing a fairytale in French and creating a book with their stories. The challenges of creative writing in English are obvious, but to write an engaging story, using a language that is still foreign to you, is on another level.
The brief was to write a story in French, using language learned in class and not using online translators. Our students rose to the challenge and wrote a variety of stories including zombie snails, witches, dragons, lizards, dragonflies and fairies. They are quite rightly proud of their accomplishments and we are proud of them too!
Abigail Bradbury
