Dear Parents and Carers,

A warm welcome back to Term Two. I hope staff, students, and families have found time to reset and recharge, ready for another term.
Please remember to regularly check the school calendar, newsletters, and our bulletin board for upcoming events. If you are not receiving updates via the Compass app, do not hesitate to contact our administration team. Communication is vital, and we are committed to providing information in a timely manner to help families stay organised and informed.

As a Catholic school community, we are deeply saddened by the passing of Pope Francis. His gentle spirit, courageous leadership, and profound love for all people touched hearts around the world, including our own. Throughout his time as our Holy Father, Pope Francis guided us with humility and wisdom, constantly calling us toward a more compassionate, just, and caring way of living.

One of his most powerful teachings was shared through his ‘Encyclical’ Laudato Si’ “, Praise be to you, my Lord”, his heartfelt letter to the world on caring for our common home. Studying Laudato Si’ deepened my understanding of the vital connection between caring for our planet and caring for one another. It reminds us that environmental stewardship is not just about protecting nature—it is about protecting people, especially the most vulnerable. This powerful document broadened my perspective on how everything is interconnected: our choices, our consumption, our treatment of others, and our relationship with creation. It inspired me to live more consciously, act more compassionately, and lead with an even greater sense of responsibility toward both humanity and the Earth we share.

Pope Francis taught that the Earth is God's gift to us—full of beauty, life, and wonder—and that we each have a responsibility to protect it, not only for ourselves but for future generations. His love for people and creation was rooted in his deep faith and the belief that every person is made in God's image. He showed us that even small acts of kindness, gratitude, and care can make a difference in healing our world.

As we mourn the loss of Pope Francis, we are also called to remember and live out the powerful messages he left behind. In our homes, our schools, and our daily lives, we can continue his legacy by nurturing our children with the values he held dear: love, compassion, humility, and stewardship of the earth.
May we honour Pope Francis by walking gently on the earth, carrying gratitude in our hearts and hope in our hands, for the sake of our children and for generations to come.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and may perpetual light shine upon him.

A reminder to our 2026 Kinder parents: our Kinder Information Night will be held on Wednesday, May 14th, beginning at 5:30 pm. We look forward to welcoming new and existing families and children into our school community. It's a special time for us to share who we are and showcase our beautiful place and space. I consider it a privilege to work in partnership with families in the formation and education of their special little people.

Charlene Best

Principal

Literacy in Focus

Staff Professional Learning

At the end of Term 1, Mrs Johnstone led teaching staff through a review of our Literacy practices, including the content and delivery of The Literacy Block and Writing Instruction.

It is our aim that our Literacy Blocks are structured to provide:

- balanced, engaging, and targeted instruction

- support for students in developing reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills

- integration of skills as much as possible

Mrs Johnstone used The Writing Revolution, by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler, to explore Writing instruction. The Writing Revolution is based on The 6 Principles of the Hochman Method including:

-the need for explicit instruction, beginning in the early grades

-sentences are the building blocks of all writing

-writing should be embedded in the content of the whole curriculum

-curriculum content drives the rigor of writing activities

-grammar is best taught in the context of student writing

-planning and revising are the most important writing phases

Intervention Programs

Did you know that at Sacred Heart, we offer a range of Literacy intervention programs that complement our core teaching practices?

These include:

Language Lift - explicitly teaches oral language skills to small groups of students (multilit.com)

MiniLit Sage - targets word recognition or decoding skills, to develop the second key strand of literacy development, language comprehension (multilit.com)

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons -  a step-by-step program that introduces children to the reading process. Designed to work on a one-on-one basis with students in need of structured assistance (dsf.net.au)

Switch It - focuses on letter-sound knowledge, phonemic segmentation, phonemic manipulation, early decoding and spelling skills (readingsimplified.com)

SoundCheck - an early phonological awareness program designed to develop listening, rhyming, and sound manipulation skills that are essential for learning to read and spell.

We warmly welcome Tommi Davidson and his family to our SHU community.

As part of our PBS and celebrating success, staff look to catch our students actioning our school values of being Compassionate - Honest - Inclusive - Grateful - Sustainable.

Congratulations to our Heart Reward recipients:-

• Lucy, Alex, Winston, Madi, Ryan, Aaliyah, Oliver, Carter & Esther

As a reward for their kind gestures, these students enjoyed an afternoon surprise with Mrs Best and Ms Richards.

Congratulations to our Grade 5 & 6 girls who competed in the NW Basketball Tournament at the end of Term 1. The team made the Grand Final and were runners-up to Penguin District School. Thank you to Soph Ray for refereeing and Ashlee Austbo for coaching.

Playing in the Playground After School:

Please, parents, ensure you supervise your children after school hours while on the school grounds. It is important that we continue to work together to ensure that our expectations for behaviour align with our PBS Matrix and that we model appropriate adult behaviour. 

Uniform:

Please be aware that Uniform collection days will be Tuesday's and Thursdays only.

Thank you for your support.

Medical Condition Updates:

If students have updated Medical conditions could parents please notify the school office by sending an email to shu@catholic.tas.edu.au stating 'Update regarding students Medical Condition' as its imperative that the school is aware of a medical condition that your child may have.

End of Day collection changes:

Please advise the office by phone or by emailing by 2.15pm of any change to pick up arrangements for your child . Thank you for your support.

Please see the updated policies from Catholic Education Tasmania Guidelines and Policies via this link.

Sacred Heart staff value the partnerships between home and school; effective communication is important to us. Please see below the expectations for using our platforms and communication channels. 

Please remember that our hard-working staff have the right to disconnect and will respond to communication within their hours of work.

CAR PARK INFORMATION AND SAFETY

School community safety is of paramount importance to us and we have systems in place to reduce the risk of accidents happening and it is our combined responsibility to ensure these procedures are followed for the safety of all.

Signage is to be followed around the school on Buttons Avenue as well as in Tucker Street. Parking or Standing is not permitted in the turning circle of Tucker Street. Parking is not permitted in the bus stop area in front of the school hall on Buttons Avenue. Please ensure if you are using the Top Oval area for parking that you are meeting your children at the gate to accompany them to your vehicle. Students should not be walking amongst the cars without adequate supervision. 

Using the Car Park Safely

The car park is one way and has lines marked yellow for parking bays, crossing, walkways and also to indicate no parking. The stop signs ask you to stop and give way to pedestrians crossing in the car park, please strictly adhere to this. Students are taught to always stop and look before crossing and we ask that you also provide this message regularly.

The area that is pictured to the left is not a drop off or collection zone. If vehicles are stopped here, it means that the flow of traffic is affected with the potential of traffic overflowing onto Buttons Avenue which then causes safety issues.

Please ensure you are modelling and providing the message to your children to not walk behind parked cars and to use the yellow marked walkways to the crossing and entrance gate.

When waiting to park or exiting the car park, please ensure you are driving with caution, especially when reversing.

It is also expected that if you access school via Buttons Avenue and need to cross the road that the school crossing is used.

Should you have any concerns regarding our car park, please email our school office shu@catholic.tas.edu.au