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