Welcome back to all our students, staff, and families. We hope that the holidays were a safe and enjoyable time for everyone. The term ahead sees lots happening in the learning spaces as well as some school community events. One of those special events, which has been absent for the past couple of years due to COVID, is our Grandparents Day liturgy.  This will be held on Friday 22th July at 10am. Please make sure you mark it in your diaries.

We will be having a school closure day on Monday 1st of August.  The focus of this day is to continue developing and enhancing our whole school pedagogical approach in both literacy and numeracy.

Towards the end of the term and during the holidays there have been numerous incidents brought to my attention around our student’s use of social media (in particular our senior students). Please make yourself aware of the apps and posts your children are posting. Many of the apps students are using require them to be 13 years old! Many students assume that because video and texts are "Snaps" (as they are called), disappear in just a few seconds and the app is totally harmless. However, photos, videos and texts can be saved as screenshots. This is worrisome for parents as you have no control over what comes across your child’s screen or what they are sending at any given moment. We urged all parents to use the ABC of cyber safety management and to attempt at least one of the strategies, or all three to be most effective. 

• Control ACCESS 

• Set BOUNDARIES 

• Openly COMMUNICATE

Thank you to all those families who have either paid their school fees in full or who have arranged a structured timetable of payments so the debt is covered by the end of the year. I would urge all families to make consistent contributions so that the debt does not get to a stage where it becomes difficult to pay off.

Have a wonderful week everyone

Arn

Stronger Standards, safer children

Victoria’s Child Safe Standards are a set of mandatory requirements to protect children and young people from harm and abuse.

The Child Safe Standards (the Standards) commenced in Victoria in January 2016. After six years, we have seen how the Standards improve safety for children and young people.

The new Child Safe Standards

There are now 11 Standards, which include new requirements such as:

•  involving families and communities in organisations’ efforts to keep children and young people safe
•  a greater focus on safety for Aboriginal children and young people
•  managing the risk of child abuse in online environments.

Sacred Heart Primary celebrates cultural diversity and inclusion through our FIRE Carrier Program and Galnya Garden.

The aim of the FIRE (Friends Igniting Reconciliation through Education) Carrier Project is to promote respect, fairness and inclusion for Aboriginal people. The FIRE Carrier project promotes enculturation and reconciliation in Sandhurst schools. 

FIRE carriers are students and teachers that share a passion for learning about Aboriginal culture and history and are committed to sharing this knowledge and promoting reconciliation within and beyond the school community. To be a  FIRE Carrier is to exercise an important leadership role at Sacred Heart Primary Yarrawonga.

Galnya Garden - Galnya is a Yorta Yorta word meaning honesty, goodness, happiness and beauty. Our Galyna Garden is a sacred outdoor learning environment where we can gather and celebrate the connectedness of our Aboriginal heritage and our Catholic identity. Since 2010 we have invited local Aboriginal elders into the school to share their stories and have conversations with our students.

During these times the students created artwork alongside these elders representing their learnings, conversations and understandings.  Painted boards tell the story of connectedness to the local environment and mosaics that tell of the many Dreamtime stories. These are all part of the Galyna  garden surrounding the long necked turtle which is the totem of the local Yorta Yorta tribe in our area.