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(03) 5421 1200
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Today’s prayer calls to mind the important liturgical events this weekend associated with Palm Sunday where the Church remembers and celebrates the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Yet, at that stage, all who greeted and celebrated Jesus were ignorant of the source of Jesus’ authority and what lay ahead in the week to come. Only Jesus himself knew that the Reign of God was to come through the Passion, Death and Resurrection of the Easter Triduum.
Next week, all students and staff will celebrate the impending Easter Triduum through year level liturgies in the Mary Moloney Theatre.
Young People and Social Media
Recent weeks have seen a number of serious issues amongst members of the Sacred Heart College community and social media sites. There is no doubt that the world of young people is very different to a generation ago when young people at home could only communicate via telephone or other even slower types of media. Social media allows instant communication at a scale and complexity beyond our imagination even a decade ago but this capacity continues to present enormous challenges for students, schools, parents and society.
In recent days, senior College leaders have spoken directly to students at various year levels about a number of extremely concerning social media posts on sites such as TikTok and SnapChat. These are posts that involve and have been distributed by members of the College community and are themselves completely counter to our Mercy values of compassion, respect, justice, hospitality, courage and service.
Creation and distribution of illegal social media content is subject to state and federal laws and can lead to charges being laid by police against adults and, in some cases, young adults.
Sacred Heart College is committed to educating young people about the opportunities and challenges presented by social media and will continue this with a number of guest speakers presenting to students and staff next term. We also hope to be able to offer additional parent workshops on these issues.
Parents seeking further information, support or guidance on cybersafety and social media are encourage to visit the Federal Government’s excellent website, https://www.esafety.gov.au/ which includes advice for families, schools and young people.
End of Term Arrangements
Arrangements for the end of term 1 and the start of term 2:
- All students will finish classes on Wednesday 27 March at 3.25pm
- Thursday 28 March will be a student-free day with the last session of Student Progress Interviews occurring from 9.00am – 1.00pm
- Term 2 commences on Monday 15 April
A reminder to all families that there will be no classes on Thursday 25 April (ANZAC Day) and Friday 26 April (Staff Professional Learning Day).
France Immersion Trip
As most of the Sacred Heart College community slept early Sunday morning, a group of twenty students and staff gathered at Tullamarine Airport three hours ahead of their scheduled departure for Europe at 6.15am. As the College’s first group of French language students to travel to France and to our sister school Notre Dame du Roc in La Roche-Sur-Yon after the global pandemic, it is very exciting to be able to fully renew our relationship with our French colleagues.
Students and staff will enjoy 16 days in Paris, the Loire Valley and, most importantly, in the homes of host families from Notre Dame du Roc. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the staff accompanying the tour as well as the Head of Languages, Ms Kim Twilley as overseas trip such as this one require significant planning and work.
Bereavement - Your prayers are asked for the Cairns family who are mourning the loss of Ian Rowe, uncle of Ryder Year 7. Our thoughts are with you all at this sad time.
Yours in Mercy,
Dr Darren Egberts
Principal
Student Progress Interviews
The Student Progress Interviews (SPIs) are now open for bookings through PAM. They are conducted through Teams and the booking contains the link for your meeting.
Interviews take place from 5 – 7 pm on both Monday 25 March and Wednesday 27 March, and from 9 am – 1 pm on Thursday 28 March.
If you cannot meet with all of the teachers, then please remember that contact can be made at any time, not just when the SPIs are conducted.
The following teachers will either be on leave or are accompanying our students on the France trip next week, so will not be available for any interviews:
- Debra McNaughton
- Haley Galloway
- Damien Zanic
- Terry Carrick
- Christina Shennan
- Cecile Slootjes
- Anthony Diamond
Interim Reports
Term One Interim Reports will be available to view from midday on Monday 25 March, but don't forget that you can check on your students' progress at any time through PAM.
Holiday work for senior students
Term One is short with lots happening. We encourage students to find time to rest during the holidays so that they are ready for Term Two, however Senior students will have work to complete during the holidays so that momentum in their learning is not lost. The expectations should be stated on either the subject’s Google Classroom or as a Classwork Task in Learning Areas.
SHC Office Hours over the Term Break
Tuesday 2 April 8:30am to 4:00pm
Friday 12 April 8:30am to 4:00pm
Any queries outside these hours please ring 5421 1200 and leave a message.
Last day for Uniform Shop - Term 1 2024
Tuesday 26 March 2024
(Uniform Shop will be closed on Thursday 28 March - Student Free Day)
St Patrick’s Day Mass
On Friday 15 March, our College Captains Stephanie, Isabella, and Imogen, along with our Faith Captain, Grace, attended the St Patrick’s Day Mass at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne. The Mass, led by Archbishop Peter Comensoli, featured beautiful hymns and was attended by 2000 students and teachers. It was an incredible experience to share this event in such a sacred space, reflecting the unity and faith of our wider catholic school community.
Invitation to complete parent survey
Sacred Heart College will be participating in the ECSI (Enhancing Catholic School Identity) research project this year. This project is centred on collecting feedback from students, staff and families regarding how our identity as a Catholic community is viewed and understood.
Hearing the feedback from a range of families is valuable to us, and we encourage you to consider completing the survey. All responses are anonymous and personal data is treated confidentially in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.
If you would be happy to complete the survey, please add your name and details to this Google Form. Further instructions will then be sent to you. All survey respondents will go into a draw to win a set of Gold Class movie tickets.
Senior School Pastoral Day
Year 10 and 11 took a step away from the lessons to be involved in our first Pastoral Day yesterday. They consisted of workshops run by an organisation called Tomorrow Man and Tomorrow Women. For Year 10, Tomorrow Man take part in ‘Breaking the Man Code’, which explores the impact of rigid masculine gender stereotypes and expectations. They were provided with a variety of tools and skills to build stronger connections between one another. While Year 10 Tomorrow Women were involved in 'Her Code' exploring the narrow, and at times unrealistic expectations women feel today, often limiting young women through the 'pressure to be perfect.'
The Year 11 Tomorrow Man session was ‘History of Man’, where students learned about the historic evolution of humans. Understanding how to identify the positive and negative traits that men have carried for years, and which have shaped them. For Year 11 Tomorrow Women, ‘Her Story’ explored the impactful historical stories, movements, and female role models that have shaped the current environment for women. They engaged in self-reflection, identifying pivotal moments, environments, and relationships that have informed their personal journey.
The second session of the Pastoral Day we welcomed Daniel, a guest presenter who shared the highs and lows of moving away from everything he knew in Uganda to live in Australia. His settlement journey is compelling and honest. Daniel is not only an engaging presenter, he is also a talented musician, performing a number of his own songs. In both session with Daniel, Year 10 and 11 gained a deeper appreciation for the life and privilege they have from living in the Macedon Ranges.
I would like to thank all students for their participation, engagement and open mindset for both sessions. This allowed students to grow as individuals and build stronger relationships. I would also like to thank Mr Sam Weir for the work he put into the planning and organisation of the day. Student reflections will be in next week's final Newsletter for the Term.
Senior School Goal Setting
With the release of the interim reports next week, students will be able to reflect on their progress towards their Semester One goals. Students will be able to complete their reflection on SIMON up to the end of week 2 of Term 2. This is a very quick and simple process that should not take more than 15 minutes.
As part of the VCE VM PDS (Personal Development Skills) course, students are required to plan, implement and evaluate an activity to improve health and wellbeing. Zane Steel and Thomas Sharpe developed a Year 7 lunchtime basketball competition to run over two weeks. They have organised everything from promotion, tournament schedule’s, refereeing, booking venues, getting feedback from students, and even developed a website to share the results.
Both Zane and Tom have demonstrated excellent planning, initiative and flexibility to get their project up and running. The aim was to improve physical health and wellbeing, but after the first session they realised that their project also improved social and mental health for their participants.
The VCE VM curriculum is designed to give students hands on opportunities to learn important life skills. There are many more projects underway and in the pipeline, so stay tuned for further updates from our Year 11 VCE VM students.
Nicholas Melaisis
Nic is an experienced teacher of History, Geography, Politics and Legal Studies. He comes to us with a breadth of experience from a range of different educational systems, most recently Overnewton Anglican Community College in Keilor. Nic has been an educational leader in both Teaching and Learning and Student Wellbeing. During his twenty years of teaching experience, he has presented at professional association conferences, contributed to textbooks, and worked as a VCE examination assessor.
Starting at Sacred Heart in week 7 this term, Nic has taken on Geography class for 7A, 7F & 7G, and 7A Homeroom. He is also teaching VCE Unit 1 History this semester.
We welcome Nic to our College community and look forward to getting to know him better in the years to come.
Nicholas Melaisis
Online Live Video Exchange with Shodon Junior High School, Amami Japan
On Thursday 7 March, the Year 9 Japanese language students were fortunate enough to have an online live exchange with the 1st Year Junior High School students (Year 7) from Shodon Junior High School. It was quite special as the school is located on Amami Islands and the whole population of the school from Grade 1 to Grade 9 is just 19 students!
Sacred Heart students started the conversation with saying their name and age in Japanese, and then in English, and then the Shodon students reciprocated. Our students had been studying the past tense and what they did on the weekends and/or holidays. Students talked about going to the beach and other various activities, as well as describing what it was like.
Shodon students then asked in English about our favourite foods, anime and the like. Both the Japanese students and Australian students were quite nervous speaking in their native language, let alone the language they were learning. However, they soon became confident at just having a go. The activity was supposed to take about 15 minutes but ended up taking 45 minutes as the students were having such a ball just laughing and communicating and being able to put the language they learned in the classroom into real-life situations.
We hope to continue this online exchange this year and beyond. We are also looking forward to the students from our sister school, Ibaraki Nishi High School visiting Sacred Heart College, in August. We can then again engage in enriched conversations in both Japanese and English, and make life-long friendships.
Mickleham Division Swimming
Tuesday 12 March saw over 30 students selected from the House Swimming Carnival represent the school in the Mickleham Division Swim Meet. Five schools participated on the day providing some very good competition, with quite a number of close races deciding first and second place. Our relay teams proved the strongest competition, with Sacred Heart winning all relay races they competed in!
Students who finished first in events will now go onto the Northern Metropolitan Region event on Wednesday 27 March at Watermarc in Greensborough.
Congratulations to all the swimmers who represented SHC. A big thank you to Mr Walker & Ms Chilton for their help and support on the day.
Final results:
Hume Grammar - 1908 points
SHC - 1640 points
Kyneton Secondary College- 714 points
Hume Grammar (Donnybrook) - 684 points
Craigieburn Secondary School - 160 points
Intermediate Tennis
Congratulations to all students who represented the school on Thursday 7 March at the Intermediate Tennis in Mickleham. Sets were played first to four games in both doubles and singles. The matches were tight all day against some very good opposition, but in the end wasn’t enough to get us through to the next round. Thanks to Mr De Grandi for his help on the day and well done to all the boys who played some great tennis.
Victorian State Track and Field Championships
Congratulations to three of our students who competed recently at the Victorian State Track and Field Championships, held at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park.
Tyler Fynch Year 8
U15 1500m 1st, 4:31.96 State champion U15 3000m 2nd 9:17.87 PB
Sarah Fitzpatrick Year 10
U17 2000M Steeple 2nd 7:35.76
U17 800M 11th 2:24.57
Hailey Stubbs Year 10
U17 Hammer 1st 44.75 metres State Champion
These students will be representing Victoria at the Australian Track and Field nationals held in Adelaide next month.
Congratulations and Good Luck these students.
Year 9 Food Technology
The Year 9 Food Technology classes have been studying healthy cooking and meals that represent the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. Recently they completed a design brief where they investigated poke bowls (sometimes referred to as Buddha bowls, nourishing bowls or salad bowls). Students had an opportunity to independently cook a poke bowl of their choice. Their poke bowls were well presented, colourful and incorporated the 5 food groups displayed in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating. They all looked super tasty too.
Count Her In
On Friday 8 March, the Catherine McAuley Library joined the global community in celebrating International Women's Day. This year's theme, 'Count Her In: Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress', resonated with our commitment of fostering equality and empowerment within our school community.
Throughout the day, students and staff engaged in various activities aimed at recognising and honouring the achievements of women worldwide. We kicked off the festivities with a live stream from the UN event, providing valuable insights into the challenges and triumphs facing women around the globe. In addition, our 'Who Am I'? quiz sparked lively discussions, as students learned about influential women from diverse fields such as science, literature, and activism.
Congratulations to Patrick Sutton, Ellie Norman, Claire Byham and Coen Cursio-Brundle for correctly identifying these inspiring women. At our appreciation station, students had the opportunity to express their gratitude by writing cards to the inspirational women in their lives.
Thanks to everyone who got involved, visited the Library and used the opportunity to talk about the challenges facing, and the achievements of, women worldwide.
Year 9 Self Defence
Since early March the Year 9s have been learning skills associated with Self Defence. This started with discussions about ‘knowing your surroundings’ and being aware of situations you may be exposed to. Always remembering that the most important part of Self Defence is avoiding any conflict in the first place.
The students have picked up many defensive skills and are being practically tested in their final session of the term, which will highlight what they have learned.
Michelle & Kathryn from Macedon Ranges Taekwondo & Self Defence have done a wonderful job with our Year 9s, and we thank them very much for their efforts.
Students were asked to have a conversation with their parents/guardians about what they believe is the most important response to an attack, how to be aware of what is happening around them, ask if they ever been worried about a situation or place they have been in the past, and if they have personally been in a difficult situation or maybe someone they know has been ‘approached or assaulted’. These conversations, although may be a bit confrontational, are aimed to promote awareness and provide learning opportunities. These conversations offer the following outcomes;
- Get the kids talking with parents which raises awareness around self defence, avoiding situations and how parents can help support them. Reiterating that self defence is 90% awareness and 10% fighting back. Remembering that ‘fighting back’ isn’t always a physical confrontation, it could be in the form of ‘yelling’ and gaining other people’s attention to support you.
- That if they did need to fight back anything past stopping the initial threat could potentially see them being charged with assault and what their parents’ thoughts are on this. Both Kathryn and Michelle have said their personal belief is to fight back to save yourself regardless. We would rather pick up kids from the police station from appropriately defending themselves, not the hospital or worse.
- A lot of students (people in general) think it won’t happen to them (hopefully it never does), but better to be aware than dismissive. Being from a rural area/being a good person etc doesn’t stop an attack - sometimes it’s just that you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Year 7 Physical Education
I would like to congratulate the Year 7s who have started the year so well in HPE lessons. Everyone is keen and eager to get involved in all activities. We started the year with some initiative games, followed by Volleyball, Cricket and some Athletics events to finish the term.
I am sure they are looking forward to next term’s activities which are Athletics, Orienteering, Jui Jitsu, Netball and minor games. Have a lovely Easter break everyone.
It is always an exciting time when the first year Hospitality students receive their chef uniforms and full knife kits. The students wait with great anticipation to receive these essential items for the Hospitality classes.
This certainly was not the first cook for the year, but the first one in their full chef uniform. The kitchen was buzzing with excitement as the students admired each other in the uniforms and having their own knife kits to hand, certainly made the students look very professional. The students continue to wear their uniform and take responsibility for their own knife kits, which are kept safely in the kitchens until the end of the two year course, when they are then able to take them home.
The students have been studying a unit on cooking methods, and on this occasion they made Quiche Lorraine. Learning different cooking methods and cooking techniques, they were required to make their own pastry, and weigh and prepare all ingredients required to make the quiche.
The happy faces and display of delicious quiches shows what a great success the cook was.
A highlight was when one of the students played us a song called ‘Quiche Lorraine’ by B52’s. Well worth listening to!
Gastroenteritis
There have been several reported cases of Gastro within the College community and our local community. Gastro is highly contagious, so if your child is unwell with possible gastro symptoms, please don’t send them to school. If your child presents to First Aid with any gastro symptoms, you will be notified to collect your child. Please help us to stop the spread of Gastro at the College. Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Jalna Holmes, Health Centre Coordinator on 5421 1200.
Immunisation Program
Year 7 and Year 10 secondary school students can receive free immunisations as part of the National Immunisation Program.
Vaccines given as part of the Secondary School Immunisation Program are delivered in school settings by nurse immunisers from local council immunisation providers.
Students in Year 7 (or aged 12 to 13) receive the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine and the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) combined vaccine. Year 7 students at Sacred Heart College, will receive their vaccinations on Monday 29 April 2024.
Students in Year 10 (or aged 14 to 16) receive the Meningococcal ACWY vaccine. Year 10 students at Sacred Heart College, will receive their vaccine on Thursday 18 April 2024.
Parents and Carers can say no to the offer of free, secondary school-based immunisations for their child. If you wish to do so, you should decline your consent online via the link below.
To provide your consent response (yes or no) to the year 7 vaccines, please click here https://portal.cirv.vic.gov.au...
To provide your consent response (yes or no) to the year 10 vaccines, please click here https://portal.cirv.vic.gov.au...
If you have any questions that are not answered by the information provided with the consent link, contact your GP or your local council immunisation service.
Learn more: https://www.betterhealth.vic.g...
Alternatively, you can contact Jalna Holmes, Health Centre Coordinator on 54211 200.
