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(03) 5421 1200
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The last seven days have seen three significant Sacred Heart College events come to fruition:
Year 12 Graduation Dinner: The Sacred Heart College Class of 2023 celebrated the successful conclusion of their secondary education with Graduation Dinner. The excellent evening provided the opportunity to congratulate each of the graduating students, as well as thanking their parents, families and teachers for their efforts.
Japan Study Tour: After four years of pandemic restrictions, the first overseas Language Immersion departed for Japan last Sunday with 19 students and staff travelling to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. The trip will include a range of important cultural sites as well as a visit to our sister school in Ibaraki.
Year 10 & 11 Awards: We celebrated the achievements of our Year 10 and 11 students on Tuesday with the End of Year Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to all the recipients and good luck in your studies in 2024.
Parent Purchase of Device Transition
A reminder to prospective 2024 Year 7 & 10 parents that all correspondence regarding the change to the provision of laptops can be found in the Documentation for Families section of the Parent Access Module on SIMON (Year 9 Communication). I have included some additional information/clarification below:
- Are parents required to use the external finance company (Latitude Finance) to finance the purchase? Parents are free to finance the purchase through Learning with Technologies (LWT) in any way they choose. There is no requirement at all to use Latitude.
- Why has the College not gone with the BYOD model of provision? Other schools that have chosen this model have experienced challenges for IT teams supporting a breadth of devices; issues with a school’s IT network being subject to compromise; and problems with incorrect or missing software on externally sourced devices.
- What options are there for families who will find the purchase cost a problem? Please contact the College’s Business Manager (Matthew Shaw – mshaw@shckyneton.catholic.edu.au); the College is very willing to support families who may find the purchase challenging.
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).
End of Year Arrangements
The arrangements for students are as follows:
- Thursday 30 November – Tuesday 5 December
Year 7 & 9 Exams
Year 11 & 12 2023 Step Up classes continue - Tuesday 5 December Final Day
Year 10 & 11 students - Wednesday 6 December End of Year Mass and Year 7 – 9 Awards Ceremony
Final Day for all students
Yours in Mercy
Dr Darren Egberts
Principal
We celebrated the achievements of our Year 10 and 11 students on Tuesday with the End of Year Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to all the recipients and good luck in your studies in 2024. Please click to open the Awards Booklet.
On Friday night the Class of 2023 celebrated their final College event, their Graduation Dinner. It was a fantastic night for students, staff, family and friends, wrapping up their educational journey at SHC. We congratulate these students on all they have achieved and wish them well for the future.
After a Covid-enforced hiatus, a group of Sacred Heart College students and staff departed for Japan last weekend. The trip includes a range of language and cultural experiences, as well as a visit to our sister school, Ibaraki Nishi High School. The photos that we have received so far show the students are having a wonderful time, immersed in such a different culture. We wish all safe travels.
Over two days in November, each Year 8 Home Group took time to pause and reflect on their year. This special time of contemplation began with input from Daniel Kanani, who shared his life experiences with all Year 8s through storytelling and song. Listening to Daniel’s experiences growing up in Uganda, and his later travels and adventures in Australia, was a highlight for many students, and Daniel’s contagious spirit of joy was appreciated by all.
Other elements of the reflection days involved time spent in heartfelt conversations about the nature of compassion, crafting time capsule letters to be opened in future years, and taking part in a liturgy at the church of Our Lady of the Rosary. We hope that all Year 8s feel nourished by the opportunity to grow deeper into their identity as a young person of Mercy.
With most of our Music events having already happened this year, we’re nearing the finish line but haven’t quite reached it yet.
Whilst our senior Music students have completed their examinations and are now in the throes of the VCE Step Up program, our Year 7 and 8 Music students are practising their little hearts out. Each of the classes is putting the final touches to various songs (Catch My Disease, Seven Nation Army, T.N.T. and Sunshine Of Your Love) before we produce an audio recording of them. They’re moving mountains - there is some fantastic musicianship coming out of those classes.
We are also in the process of rehearsing for the Senior and Junior End-Of-Year liturgies and masses, where we are bringing some exciting new pieces to freshen up our liturgical repertoire. Again, the students have shown their dedication and musicianship to helping make these celebrations even more special by their musical contributions.
Instrumental Music lessons finish this week, so no more lessons will take place until 2024.
Please note, though, that we are accepting enrolments for the Instrumental Music Program for 2024. If you would like to apply, please do so online at https://tinyurl.com/shcmusic2024. Please note that all students currently enrolled 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.
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)
Last term, our Year 9 gaming students made arcade style games using GameMaker, and this term they have created their own virtual reality games using the CoSpaces software program. Some students worked on this individually and others worked in pairs. Actions and events were programmed using the CoBlocks feature of the program, which is a block-based programming language. We then uploaded these games to our ClassVR virtual reality portal where students could play each other games and give peer feedback.
Peer Support Training Day was a great success with 53 students engaging in a program designed to challenge their leadership capability, problem solving techniques and collaborative skills. The day started with shared reflections on the qualities of leadership, followed by some workshopping responses to potential scenarios that they might face in a Year 7 classroom. After the break collaborative skills were tested as students worked together to construct the towers with spaghetti and masking tape, that could hold the weight of a marshmallow. While the team that crafted the tallest tower got bragging rights, it was through the group reflection after the task that students noted success wasn’t actually about the tower at all, but about the way they worked together, listened to each other, made plans and solved problems. The final part of the training program involved groups of 4 learning a new game and then leading the whole group through the activity. This section of the day really tested students planning, collaboration and communication skills as they got some experience 'managing' a class while delivering a learning activity.
It was such a difficult task to select the final 35 peer support leaders. All the students involved in the training day were engaged, willing and a testament to the leadership capacity in the current Year 8 cohort.
I would like to thank all the students who took part in the day, and I would also encourage all of them to continue to take up any future leadership opportunities.
Students in Year 7 French class were busy this week in the kitchen, baking crepes for their topic 'Food'. They had so much fun making them and even more fun decorating and eating their creations! A real highlight to the year.
Australian Dressage Championships - Miranda Byrne Year 7
Miranda Byrne achieved wonderful results back in August to qualify for the Australian Equestrian Championships, which were held recently in Rosebud, Victoria. This was the first time that Miranda had competed at this high level. She has been riding for about eight years, but has only been competing with her horse ‘Teddy’ for approximately 12 months. The Championships attracted international riders and competitors from all over Australia. Miranda competed in the Under 14 age group and finished mid field which was a huge achievement. Miranda believes this was a fabulous learning experience. We wish her all the best for her future equestrian events!
Juli is a new student to Sacred Heart College and arrived from Guatemala in May this year. She has been learning English and last week I accompanied her on an excursion into Kyneton and then cooked a meal together.
This is an article that Juli wrote about this experience. Ms Viv Penney
Our Experience Cooking Tortillas
On Friday we cooked chicken tortillas, guacamole, and tomato salsa. We went shopping in Kyneton to buy the ingredients. We went to Woolworths supermarket and to Watts Fresh.
At Watts Fresh, we bought fruit and vegetables such as tomatoes, onions, garlic, mango, apricot, passionfruit, lime and avocado, and coriander which is Cilantro in Spanish. At Woolworths we bought minced chicken, a tin of black beans, adobo chipotle sauce and tortillas.
At Sacred Heart, we cooked in the Frayne kitchen. We cooked the finely chopped onion and garlic. Then we cooked the chicken and added the fiery, hot adobo sauce. This made it delicious.
We chopped the ripe tomatoes, onion and coriander and added oil and seasoning to make the salsa.
For the guacamole, we mashed the avocado and added some onion and coriander and spices. A squeeze of lime made it taste very fresh.
We enjoyed a fabulous meal of tortillas and had a lovely day.
Fatima Julissa Aguilar Ramirez (Juli Aguilar) and Mrs Penney
