Dear Sacred Heart School families,
Last night, members of our community joined together for our Annual Community Meeting. It was a privilege to be able to share the achievements and growth that we have enjoyed in 2024.
I've included excerpts from the Principal's report below that highlight the amazing community we are a part of.
ACM Principal's Report
Good evening parents, staff, volunteers, School Advisory Council, Parents and Friends, and all members of Sacred Heart School Community. It's hard to believe we are coming to the end of 2024. After an eventful year, we now look back the blessings and opportunities we have shared as a Catholic school community.
We said a sad farewell to Fr John Daly this year. In the short time I knew Fr John, he was a joyful and active presence in the school. He arrived during a turbulent time in our Parish's history, and gently guided our Church to reconciliation and healing. His homilies were always engaging and insightful and left the congregation with food for thought. It was fitting that Fr John’s last Mass was confirming our Year 6 students in the Sacrament of Confirmation. While I will miss Fr John's quick wit, words of wisdom and banter, I'm sure Nicole and Cassandra will agree the office is much, much quieter.
In Fr John's place, we welcomed Fr Stephen Gorddard from St Mary's, Kalgoorlie, who made an immediate impact in our community. Within 5 minutes, he was kneeling with the Pre-Primary students showing flecks of gold from the open-pit mine and handing out Rosary beads collected to our Year 3 students. Using Kung Fu Panda, Hotel Transylvania and even soccer superstars, such as Messi and Ronaldo, Fr Stephen has remarkably engaged our students and lead our community in faith and virtue. We look forward to a continued strong relationship between our school and parish.
Our carnivals this year have been very successful. Starting with the icy waters of Bilgoman, our faction swimming carnival saw a beautiful day greet our students with Jacoby Faction triumphing as victors. Our Cross Country took us to Mundaring Golf Course for our senior students, as our junior students ran their hearts out around our school oval to the cheers of older siblings. In Athletics, O'Connor Faction were too strong throughout the day, as our little oval turned into the Olympic Stadium. The introduction of Championship medals saw our top-performing students recognised for their achievements and again, these events are not possible without the significant assistance of our parent volunteers. On more than one occasion, Mr Ralph told me he was having to turn parents away as all volunteer positions were filled.
Our inter-school sporting accolades were limited this year, bearing in mind, that due to lower numbers in our older years, many of our younger students are asked to run and swim in higher year levels to fill spots. Charlie Elmore racing and winning against Year 5s in the inter-school swimming carnival, and Frankie Butcher against Year 6 competitors twice her height, were particular highlights. The Lightning Carnival did see our soccer team take out the overall shield for the first time in 12 years. A stunning 3-0 win over Mary's Mount laying the foundation for future success.
Our Year 3 and 5 students sat there NAPLAN assessments this year and all were completed successfully. While the media tends to take a dim view of NAPLAN, it does provide us with valuable student data as to what areas of learning require greater focus or support. Our results this year were as expected, thereabouts the national average, and we have spent time in the second half of this year analysing our NAPLAN and PAT data, with the aim of whole-school academic improvement. One of our key goals next year will be to develop a range of teaching and learning practices that extend our middle group of learners. These in-class extension opportunities provide students with stimulus to stretch their capabilities and showcase their learning at a higher level.
We have worked closely with School Support Consultant, Jacki Tucker, this year, and, in 2025, we will be exploring how data informed teaching and learning impacts student academic growth at a classroom level. In 2025, we will also be collaborating closely with St Joseph's, Northam, and Sacred Heart, Goomalling, in reviewing assessments and SCSA’s judging standards. We also look forward to early childhood road trips in a bid to expand our horizons and explore best practices within our system.
Our Excursions this year included trips to the Brownes Dairy Factory, the WA Aquarium, Outback Splash, the WA Museum, and more, all rich learning experiences for our students. Our students have participated in a variety of extension opportunities led by Assistant Principal, Mr Fyfe. The WA ClueDunnit competition, Maths Olympiad, HaveSumFun, the Australian Maths Competition, inter-school Chess, and numerous individual and group sessions have all pushed our students to excel in their academic abilities.
Our lunchtime clubs have provided an enriching and exciting learning experience this year. From sewing, craft, chess, Lego, and robotics, to drawing, ukelele, choir, running and book club, our students have been spoilt with opportunities to engage, to collaborate, to explore, to persist, to persevere, and thrive. I would particularly like to thank our staff for offering their time and talents in coordinating these experiences for our students. The smiles and excitement on our students faces have been evident.
Our relationship with our feeder high schools Mazenod College, St Brigid's College and La Salle College has been strengthened this year. The Year 4 La Sallian Experience Day gave our students a taste of what lies ahead for high school, and how little our Year 4 students looked compared to the domineering Year 12s. Our Year 6 students also visited La Salle to see their band perform and next year they will visit Mazenod to see their school Musical. Our 2025 Faction Swimming Carnival has run into some scheduling issues with Bilgoman, and will most likely be held at St Brigid's College, Lesmurdie, instead. While it is a little bit further to travel, I'm sure our students will enjoy the heated indoor pools available and parents will get to see the facilitates on offer at St Brigid's. Our Learning Journey and Open Night saw principals of these Colleges visit Sacred Heart to meet with families and share their schools vision and mission, we look forward to further collaboration between our schools as our relationship grows.
The true heroes of this school are those that sit among you. The staff at Sacred Heart are what makes this place unique and special. I am in the privileged position to seeing first-hand the lengths they go in caring for our students. Early mornings, late nights, weekends and more. They have welcomed me, forgiven me as I've found my way as a first-year principal, allowed my many mistakes, and willingly jumped on board with our new initiatives this year. It is an honour to work among dedicated professionals and I look forward to the journey ahead.
I would like to thank Mrs Leree Gauci, Ms Anne Tran and Ms Madi Scott, who transition into the next chapter of their lives away from Sacred Heart. As a staff, we will give them a proper send off in Week 10, but all have played a key role in our community for the past years. We hope this is not goodbye forever and we pray God will continue to bless you in your new pathways.
To conclude, I'll finish with some words we have said often this year, but are at the core of everything we are about:
Oh, Sacred Heart of Jesus
We place our trust in you
Help us to love simply
Travel lightly
And open our hearts to all
Amen,
and thank you
Mark Tenney
Principal
One important way we can prepare for Christmas is by thinking of others in our community who need our assistance. Thank you to those who have donated gifts and hamper items for the St Vincent de Paul Christmas Appeal. We have had an amazing response this year and these items will go a long way to help make Christmas a celebration for those in need.
Many thanks again to Deena Pruyn for coordinating the appeal.
Sporting Schools
The Australian Sports Commission (ASC)and Federation University are conducting a study to understand the costs associated with delivering and participating in community sport. To gather valuable insights, we would like to invite parents to complete a short online survey about their total expenses related to sports participation.
The results of this project will be used to make recommendations to inform the ASC sport policies and strategies to minimise the cost of playing sport. The survey closes at 5pm (AEST) on Tuesday 31 December 2024.
Old Dogs outlast the Young Pups – Hills Night Hockey
In a bid to further secure top spot in the highly contested Hills Hockey B-Grade Men’s Ladder, the effervescent Sacred Heart Attacks took the pitch facing the strongly fancied ‘Hamstrings’. Upon arrival, spectators were shocked to find a raft of new and much younger players had been parachuted into the Hamstrings team. Perhaps, the reputation of the Heart Attacks had struck fear in the opposition, and so the epic match would unfold, as the youth and agility of the Hamstrings faced the strength and experience of the Heart Attacks.
The game begun swiftly with teenager, A. Ustin, leaping upon a stray pass to give the Heart Attacks a 1-0 lead. Having only just received his L-Plates earlier that day, Ustin then doubled the lead proving he wasn’t just in the team to bring the average age down to 56. Ex-Columbian Calisthenics Coach, Felipe, then took a leaf from Ustin’s high school textbook and burst down the line to score after another assist from the ever-faithful M. Boxall, despite it being well past his bedtime.
As expected, the legs the Heart Attacks started to tire after the 3-minute mark and the Hamstrings started to capitalise. Some quick interplay left highly-capped goalkeeper and treasurer of Mundaring, C. Symcox, powerless to prevent a return goal. Complaints about having smoke in his eyes was heard from the 200-strong crowd in the bleachers. Another quick goal from the Hamstrings put the Heart Attacks on the back foot and there were real concerns that the team might not last until halftime.
C. Morrison, fuelled by car-park conflict, urged the team to lift in his halftime speech and, like all good paramedics, they responded. The dream pairing of B. Mirco and C. Mason, proved to be a constant thorn in the Hamstring attack, as the second half saw each team score a goal apiece. Although missing key safety supervisor, D. Gaynor, the aging Heart Attacks befuddled the youth of the Hamstrings, the game ending in a 5-3 win for the Heart attacks. The shock of the match was the ending of an infamous goal-streak from L. Owers. Club mascot Colin Johnston was heard mumbling: “This may be the beginning of a long drought for young Mr Owers, I hope Leroy will be ok”.
With P. Cripps suffering from osteoporosis, the Sacred Heart Attacks now look ahead to their final game of the year next week before a well-earned Christmas reprieve to rest weary bones, organise physio visits, purchase massage chairs, order fisio cream, relax in the sauna, replace hips, and apply deep heat, in preparation for the run home.
Mass Times:
Saturday: 8:30am and 6:00pm (Vigil)
Sunday: 7:30am (Chidlow) and 9:30am (Mundaring)
Tuesday: 8:30am
Wednesday: 9:00am
Thursday: 8:30am
Friday: 8:30am
Reconciliation
Mundaring: Saturday 9.00am
Chidlow: First Wednesday of the Month: 12pm to 1pm
Parish Priest: Fr Stephen Gorddard
Telephone: 0431908630
Email: mundaring@perthcatholic.org.au
Pastoral Care Coordinator: Deacon Paul Reid (0455 818 718)