-
-
(03) 5421 1200
-
This week’s prayer highlights the 2024 College theme, “Called to Act for Justice” and its biblical roots as a call by the ancient prophet Micah. Notwithstanding the age of the text, its message remains contemporary challenging us as members of a Christian community to give witness to the pillars of Catholic social teaching – the preferential option for the poor, subsidiarity, dignity of the human person, care for God’s creation, etc.
A busy and memorable week
With the start of the school year, Sacred Heart College has been abuzz with a significant number of activities and events for students, staff and families. Key amongst these were:
Last Friday, the whole school community celebrated together for our Beginning of Year Mass. The celebration was led by Fr Declan and Fr Wahid and included the blessing of the College’s new artwork, “Mercy”. We were especially privileged to have the artwork’s painter, Aimee McCarthy, present with Aimee explaining the significance of the many aspects to the school community.
Last Wednesday, the school enjoyed warm weather and a cooling breeze at the Sunbury Swimming Pool for our annual school Swimming Carnival. Congratulations to all students and staff who took part on the day whether to win a race or simply to earn valuable points for their house.
Thanks to the hundreds of parents and families who joined us last week for the Meet the Teacher evenings. These nights provided a great opportunity for parents and carers to meet homeroom teachers – the first port of call for families wanting to communicate with the school. The Year 10 – 12 evening included opportunities for parents and students to attend a variety of workshops that explored the pathways and resources for senior students at SHC.
Last Thursday provided the opportunity for the whole College to gather and celebrate the achievements of the 2023 Year 12 cohort. Students who achieved excellence across VCE and VCE-VM studies were recognised including the 2023 Sacred Heart College Dux (Cai Rowland) and Dux Proximus (Nate Ryan).
Last week included the commencement of the important Church season of Lent. Recognising this, all staff and students were privileged to take part in a brief but deeply reflective Ash Wednesday liturgy in the College’s beautiful Chapel.
This week, the College’s camps program commenced with Year 7A and 7B travelling to Kinglake from Monday – Wednesday. This will be the first of four weeks of camps involving students from Year 7, 8, and 12 as well as a number involved with Outdoor Education.
Staffing News
Following Simon Costello’s resignation, the College welcomes Mr Nic Melaisis into the College community. Nic is joining the College staff after many years in schools including Catherine McAuley College Bendigo, The Islamic College of Victoria and Overnewton Anglican College. Nic will be teaching Humanities, Religious Education and VCE History.
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).
Employment Opportunities - Currently there are teaching positions available, please follow this link.
Bereavements - Your prayers are asked for the Andrews family on the passing of Keith Andrews, grandfather of Pippa 7E. Our thoughts are with you at this sad time.
Yours in Mercy
Dr Darren Egberts
Principal
Swimming Carnival
It has been a busy fortnight since the last Newsletter. Thank you to Damien Zanic and all the staff involved in running the College Swimming Sports Carnival held on 14 February. Although there was a cool breeze on the day, there were large numbers of students participating in the events, all earning points for their Houses. There was a great atmosphere and the Sports Leaders and House Captains did a wonderful job getting their Houses involved.
Meet the Homeroom Teacher Evenings
Our Annual Year 8 and 9 meet the Homeroom Teacher event was held on Thursday 15 February. It was really nice to see so many parents making the most of the opportunity to get to know the teachers. Year 10, 11 & 12 parents also had an opportunity to attend a series of workshops to learn more about the different aspects of VCE, VCE VM and also pathways to the world of work. Thank you to all the staff who have been involved in making these events a success. We hope it is a valuable experience for parents to connect with the College and the experience of their young people.
Launch of the SRC
Applications opened this week for students interested in being selected as part of our new Student Representative Council. There is an opportunity for one student per homeroom to become an SRC Leader. SRC takes the place of Class Captains and will involve greater responsibilities and opportunities to engage in leadership building events, such as the Macedon Ranges Youth Summit. SRC Leaders will also meet with the College Captains and Heads of School, once a term to engage in a forum of discussion about student issues and concerns. College Captains will use this information to support the initiatives of the College Cabinet in our Leadership meetings. This forum will take place during lunch at a time nominated by the Heads of School. Students who are interested in participating in the SRC can learn more about the application process by reading the article in Student Notices on SIMON. Applications must be submitted before Tuesday 27 February.
Uniform
It was particularly impressive to see all our students in their best uniforms on photo day yesterday.
As always happens over the holiday months, our young people have grown so much taller! A general reminder for to families to check the hemlines of the dresses and alter as required. Full details regarding uniform requirements can be found in the Uniform Brochure provided below.
Assistance Dogs
New parents may not be aware that we have a student in our community who has an Assistance Dog. All students across the College will receive instruction on how to treat Assistance Dogs in their Homeroom on Monday morning. The link belwo provides information regarding the treatment of Assistance Dogs and we would encourage you to have a conversation with your young people on the proper treatment of Assistance Dogs in schools.
If your child’s asthma and/or allergies are triggered by dog hair, and you have any concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact Jalna Holmes, Health Centre Coordinator at the College on 5421 1200.
Parent Engagement Evening
Finally, coming up on 7 March we have the first of our regular Parent Engagement Events featuring guest speaker Susan McLean of CyberSafety Solutions. Susan is one of Australia's foremost experts in the area of cybersafety and was a member of the Victorian Police Force for 27 Years. Our young people the challenges of navigating the social media and cyberbullying space every day. It can significantly impact relationships and learning. I would strongly recommend parents to attend this free event for insights on the issues and some practical tips on what you can do to help your young people. More information is provided below.
The beginning of our new school year was celebrated with prayer and song at our Opening College Mass on Friday 16 February. We were blessed with the presence of Fr Wahid and Fr Declan, who celebrated Mass with us and offered us blessings for the year ahead. We were also grateful for Aimee McCartney’s presence at our Mass. Aimee is a Taungurung, Wotjobaluk, Wemba Wemba and Boon Wurrung artist, and is the creator of the painting “Mercy” which features in our new Quambi signage.
Our Opening Mass was followed by a special blessing ceremony for this new signage, where we reflected on the name given to the stadium where our Masses and other community events are held. When first built in 1981, the name ‘Quambi’ was chosen for the stadium. At that time, the word ‘Quambi’ was thought to mean “Mercy” in one of the languages of the Palawa people from lutruwita. The desire that sat at the heart of this naming process is easy to guess at. With good will and thoughtful intentions, ‘Quambi’ was chosen as a name to honour the long history of First Nations occupancy on the land, and in recognition that the song of Mercy has been sung in all languages, across all times. Today, we continue to use the name ‘Quambi’, in recognition that the spirit of Mercy has spread through this land since the time of the Dreaming. With the blessing of our new ‘Quambi’ signage, we celebrate the ongoing story of the land and its First People, from whom we have much to learn about the wisdom of Mercy.
Last Thursday provided the opportunity for the whole College to gather and celebrate the achievements of the 2023 Year 12 cohort. Students who achieved excellence across VCE and VCE-VM studies were recognised including the 2023 Sacred Heart College Dux
(Cai Rowland) and Dux Proximus (Nate Ryan). A variety of community sponsored awards were presented, and we were also very proud to have eight of our students receive the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Awards Booklet - Celebrating the success of our 2023 students
What a start to the year it has been. Junior School has been buzzing with activity. Here's a brief overview:
Year 7 Transition Program
Big thanks are due to our awesome Year 7 teachers, with special recognition to Ms Boorman, our Year Level Leader, for orchestrating the smooth implementation of our new week-long transition program. The recent excursion to Splash serves as a notable highlight, bolstered by the exemplary support provided by our Year 9 Peer Support Leaders.
Meet the Homeroom Teacher Nights
A sincere thank you to all parents and students who attended the Year 8 and 9 Meet the Homeroom Teacher night last Thursday 15 February. Your participation underscored the significance of fostering robust partnerships between home and school, an essential component of our educational ethos. We genuinely enjoy putting faces to names and having a good chat.
Year 7 Camp
As we speak, our Year 7 students are immersed in the adventures of their Kinglake camp. That is where I am writing to you from and I can report an atmosphere of enthusiasm, excitement and camaraderie. I'm forecasting some very tired students arriving home on Wednesday afternoon.
Year 8 Camp
The Year 8 Camp is fast approaching, commencing Monday 4 March. Information was sent via PAM to parents this week. Students will receive camp information in next week's Year Level Assembly on Thursday 29 February.
Upcoming Events:
- Camp awaits 7C, 7D, 7E, 7F, and 7G next week.
- Year 7 Reflection Days begin next week, providing students with invaluable moments of introspection and personal development.
- Year 8 Camp.
- Year 7 Commissioning Mass, a significant milestone marking the formal induction of our Year 7 students into our school community.
- Year 9 Lunchtime Sports will commence in two weeks' time.
Senior School Workshop Evening
Monday 12 February was the first on-site Senior School Workshop evening. After an introduction in the theatre, a series of 30 minute workshops were presented in Dwyer. The rationale for the workshops is to “Help your young person to plan for transition” by providing an opportunity for parents/carers and guardians gain an understanding of the different aspects associated with Senior School, such as: VCAA Special Arrangements, VCE/VCE-VM, Study Scores and ATAR, VETs and Careers programs for Year 10 and Year 12.
The Senior Pathways Team would like to thank those who attended the evening. Based on the feedback, 96% of people felt they learned something from the workshops they attended and would be able to support their young person through the Senior School. We will use the feedback to continue to improve the workshops provided next year. The PowerPoints and summary sheets for the workshops are accessible via PAM.
Senior School Goal Setting
Next week all Senior School students will set their goals for 2024. Students will set three goals, an academic goal, a Mercy Value goal and a personal goal. This year, students will submit their goals in SIMON. This will allow students to access their goals and reflect on their progress as the Semester progresses.
Smith Family: student2student reading program
Each Year, our year 11 students have an opportunity to live their Mercy Value of Service by participating in the Smith Family student2student reading program. The program makes a significant difference to the readers. Last year Victorian s2s readers improved their reading age on average by 1 year and 2 months, and overall.
Use the link to find out more about the program: s2s reading program
Any Year 11 students who is interested in the program can submit their name to register for this worthwhile program: Smith Family: student2student reading program
Lenten liturgy
Over the course of a day, each of our students gathered in the College chapel, the spiritual heart of our community, to take part in our Lenten liturgy.
In this liturgy, students were invited to embrace the simple prayer that our Lenten journey might draw us closer in our relationship with God’s great love, and attune our spirits to more readily recognise this love reflected in each other's faces.
Our liturgies also encouraged students to take on board Pope Francis’ wisdom, that Lent is both a time to remember, and a time of saying “no”:
A time of remembering that all people, across our vast world, are our brothers and sisters.
A time of saying “no” to a culture of exclusion and to an economy that exploits the most vulnerable.
A time of remembering God’s mercy and love, that never tires of forgiving us and always gives us the chance to begin anew.
A time of saying “no” to everything that isolates us, encloses us and paralyzes us.
Blessed with the sign of the cross and marked with ash, our community now enters into our Lenten journey emboldened by the knowledge that we walk shoulder to shoulder with each other, in our shared commitment to serve as agents of justice, and to live as people of Mercy.
NAPLAN 2024 at Sacred Heart College
Sacred Heart College Year 7 and Year 9 students will be participating in the NAPLAN testing schedule from Wednesday 13 March to Monday 25 March.
All students are required to have their laptops fully charged and plug-in listening devices, VCAA regulations prohibit the use of blue-tooth devices - either mice or listening devices.
Students will have practice prior to the formal schedule beginning on the Wednesday 13 March. Students who do not have plug-in listening devices will be provided with one and this cost will be billed to the school account for each family. Students will keep the plug in listening device.
All tests will be conducted in Homerooms under examination conditions.
Click on the link below to go to the VCAA website for information for the upcoming On-Line NAPLAN assessments Parent Information for NAPLAN
If you and your student are wishing to become familiar with the NAPLAN online platform that will be used, please go to the public demonstration site at: https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site:
The testing sessions are conducted online and will be done according to the following schedule:
Date |
Period 1 |
Period 2 |
Period 3 |
Period 4 |
13/03/2024 |
Year 7 Writing 42M |
Year 9 Writing 42M |
||
14/03/2024 |
Assembly |
Year 9 Reading 65M |
||
15/03/2024 |
Year 7 Reading 65M |
Year 9 Language Conventions 45M |
Catch-up |
|
18/03/2024 |
Catch up |
|||
19/03/2024 |
Year 7 Language Conventions 45M |
|||
20/03/2024 |
Year 7 Numeracy 65M |
Year 9 Numeracy 65M |
||
21/03/2024 |
Catch-up |
Catch-up |
||
22/03/2024 |
Catch-up |
This year our school Swimming Carnival fell on Valentine’s day, Wednesday 14 February. We headed off to the Sunbury Aquatic Centre, and the Year 12s, in full costume, were first to walk through the gates. They were ready to soak the rest of the school with their water guns. We had many creative ideas from a group of Steve Irwin’s and their crocs, to Minions, and Bananas in Pyjamas .
Year 7s were the first in the water for their first ever high school Swimming Carnival! Over the course of the day, there were an amazing five records broken. Trea Harkin broke the Year 11 Female freestyle and backstroke, and Dylan Campbell-Quigley broke the Year 10 Male breaststroke, backstroke and butterfly! A massive congratulations to them both, we look forward to seeing what they can do in future years!
The day really showed us that even if you didn’t win a race, or preferred to cheer on the sidelines, everyone’s participation and encouragement made the day fun. McAuley proved again that they were the best with another win, making them back to back champions, closely followed by Chisholm who placed second. We want to give a big thank you to all the teachers for helping out on the day, it can’t run without all the people behind the scenes and the effort they put into the day. We hope the Year 12s enjoyed their last swim together and are ready to go even bigger for our Athletics Carnival. We hope everyone had a great fun day, and are so excited for Athletics Carnival!
Due to the Year 7 Commissioning Mass on Monday 4 March, canteen service will operate as per the following:
Recess: Normal Service
Lunch: Online orders only, with limited menu (collection of orders at the start of lunch as usual)
Atrium Area closed for function to set up
Welcome back to school for a big new year!
Our Music Department has started the year off with performances from literally the first day, with our College Pianist, Stella Egberts, performing at the whole school assembly. This was shortly followed by Inertia, a band comprising our Year 8 students – Jack Keniry, Oscar Lawrence, Tessa Smith, Charlie Tracey and Baz Wozniak) performing Deborah Conway’s 'It’s Only The Beginning” at our VCE Awards Assembly last week, to the entire school. We then had approximately 40 young musicians beautifully leading the congregation at Friday’s Beginning of Year mass. As you can imagine, it was an enormous start to 2024!
Instrumental lessons have begun, and we currently have well over 100 music lessons happening each week, under the expert instruction of our nine Instrumental Teachers.
I thoroughly recommend that students enrol to learn a musical instrument, especially those in junior years. Learning an instrument has huge benefits to a student’s academic, social and organisational skills, as well as promoting positive mental health! Each year, we see a direct correlation between those students who learn a musical instrument, and those student who are recognised for academic excellence at our Awards Assemblies. Plus, it’s a really fun thing to do!
If a student would like to enrol to learn an instrument, parents should complete the enrolment form at www.tinyurl.com/shcmusic2024.
We welcome Mr Peter Campion to our Instrumental Music staff, teaching drum kit. Sadly, we bid a truly fond farewell to Mr Adam Orlando, after 20 years of teaching guitar at Sacred Heart. Adam has made an enormous impact on hundreds of young guitarists, improving their musicianship, wellbeing and passion for music!
I would like to warmly invite all members of the community to a FOMP (Friends Of the Music Program) Meeting at 7pm Thursday 14 March, in the Music classroom to discuss how best to support the Music department through assisting with logistics of upcoming events. New members are always very welcome! Please email me (tcarrick@shckyneton.catholic.edu.au) if you would like more information or to RSVP.
If you have any questions about the Instrumental Music Program, please contact me at the College.
An enthusiastic, large group of Year 9 & 10 girls arrived to compete in the Mickleham Division of Volleyball at Epping Sports Centre. Their first game was against Mount Ridley Secondary College. The girls dug deep and were competitive but were defeated by the overpowering opposition. There was a lot of practice and some great advice from the kind referee before they went into their second game against Edgars Creek Secondary College. It was a close game with some impressive rallies that went into the third set, however, Edgars Creek won by the slimmest of margins. Congratulations to Lara C, Callee S, Maise S, Nic N, Grace M, Renae O, Chayenne M, Anna E, Siera B, Bridget E, Abbey D, Keeley D & Audrey M for their tenacity and hard work.
National Youth Science Forum Canberra 2024 (NYSF) - or, STEM, Connections, and the best experience of my life!
From 5 to 13 January, I was lucky enough to attend the Canberra session of the National Youth Science Forum (NYSF), along with 249 other students from all around Australia. Hosted by the Australian National University, assisted by Rotary Australia, the NYSF is a Nationwide program dedicated to fueling the interests of Year 12 students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. We attended incredibly cool activities such as a Codebreaking Class at the Australian Signals Directory, as well as visiting the Mount Stromlo Observatory and seeing a life-sized replica of the Mars Rover, Curiosity.
Highlights of the program included:
- Live conferencing with scientific experts who were on-site at the Large Hadron Collider.
- Living on campus at ANU and making close friendships that will last me for life.
- Undertaking workshops and lectures by specialists in their own fields, and getting valuable insights into the world of science as a career.
I’ve always been interested in the topic of STEM, and being able to attend a camp with like minded people was a dream come true. It has particularly ignited my passion to pursue a career in research in either Engineering or Biology, and I would like to thank both Sacred Heart College and the Rotary Club of Kyneton for sponsoring my attendance, and my teachers for encouraging me. If you are scientifically minded, and in Year 11 this year, I strongly recommend you investigate and apply for this incredible program.
For more information, visit the NYSF website at https://www.nysf.edu.au/
The College recommends downloading and using the SIMON Everywhere App. It delivers PAM accessibility with an easy login using existing PAM credentials, plus the ability for parents to communicate directly with teachers, and for the College to communicate directly with families. Please click on the link for instructions on how to set up and use your SIMON Everywhere App.
School Fees 2024
School Fee Payment Plan
If you have not returned your School Fee Payment Plan for 2024, please return ASAP or contact
accountsreceivable@shckyneton.catholic.edu.au.
Early Payment of School Fees Discount
If school fees are paid in full by 28/2/24, you will receive an early payment discount of $200.00 per student.
CSEF Applications & Discount
If you are a current Health Care Card holder you may be eligible for the $250.00 from the Camps Sport & Excursion Fund (CSEF) per child.
Should your application be successful the college will match the $250.00. This will entitle you to a credit of $500.00 per child of your family account.
