Week 7 Term 2 2024

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

On Friday 7^th June the staff at IHM engaged in our annual retreat day. This day is important for staff to connect with our Catholic identity and mission. This years retreat day focussed on our Immaculate Heart charism and pillar of Inclusivity. Sister Jenny Seal, Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, joined us to lead us through reflection and prayer, Father Michael celebrated mass with us on the Feast Day of the Sacred Heart and we appreciated the opportunity to prioritise our staff spiritual formation.

Reception Transition and Enrolments

Over the coming weeks we will be welcoming 14 new Reception students to IHM through our
transition program commencing on Wednesday June 19^th, then commencing in July. This number of Receptions is double our previous years intakes. This term we have had a growing number of enrolment tours and applications for future enrolments. Many new families are sharing the word of mouth from existing families, our common values and pillars, positive learning and wellbeing programs and the personalised, community approach of our small school resonate with them. We encourage existing families with siblings to register your child’s enrolment for 2025 and 2026.

Reminder - House Meeting

This Friday 14th June (9:00 - 9:30am) we will be having our next House Meeting which will be led by our House Leaders. Students are able to wear House coloured t-shirts to school on Friday.

Common Expectations Fortnightly Focus - ‘We take responsibility for our belongings’

We ask that students keep their home toys, cards, balls, fidgets at home. The school provides all of these things for students to use throughout the day, so there is no need to bring them to school. This will also assist with reducing the chances of students losing, misplacing or having special items broken or causing disruption to their learning. Students who have PPL’s and require sensory tools will have them provided by the school. Students are welcome to bring relevant Show and Share items when teachers request.

Pokemon cards are included in this as swapping, trading and the loss of precious cards was becoming challenging without adult support. Pokemon Club has been suggested as a future Hearts Club activity by students and will be included in our future termly rotation of activities.

Heart Clubs  

Teaching and Learning Highlights

How does learning connect with our real lives? Putting learning into context and making it purposeful and relevant to students is essential for engagement. Our Reception/Year 1s have been collecting data about many different questions they have posed. This week they collected data about the colour of cars in our car park and answered questions using their data. I wonder what the most popular colour of staff cars was?

Home Learning Policy

In conjunction with staff and school board we have updated the Home Learning Policy.
Please see the link and speak to your child’s teacher or leadership should you have any questions.

__files/d/17616/Home_Learning_Policy.pdf

Kind regards,

Julie Hancock
PRINCIPAL

Feast of the Sacred Heart: Friday 7^th June 2024

The Feast of the Sacred Heart is a significant day at IHM because we are inspired by the story and charism of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC). In 1951 our school began under the auspices of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (OLSH) and we continue to carry the Heart Spirituality through our five pillars - Love, Hope, Connectedness, Inclusivity and Justice.

We share the prayer below with you, taken from our Sacred Heart Parish-Hindmarsh-Findon:

God of Love

In this Centennial year, our hearts are full of gratitude for the many blessings that have enriched our Sacred Heart Community.
We give whole-hearted thanks for all who have ministered within, and contributed to,
the life of this community generously.
Jesus, you taught us how to Love, to reach out to our brothers and sisters, especially those most in need. May we always be aware of your presence in our lives and grow more deeply in kindness and compassion, humility and forgiveness.
Spirit of Love, inspire us to make a difference in our world by being God’s heart on earth, bringing hope and joy, peace and justice to God’s people and creation.
May the Sacred Heart if Jesus be everywhere loved.
Amen.

Liturgical Celebrations

We thank 3/4P and 4/5F for leading our Pentecost Mass on Wednesday 29^th May. They invited us to reflect on how we can continue to transform our hearts and minds so that we can continue to be people of the Gospel, by being the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

Thank you to our SRC’s who led our Feast of the Sacred Heart Liturgy on Wednesday 5^th June. As a whole school community, we celebrated Jesus’ ultimate love for us. A love that fills us with courage and strength so we can continue to strive to be the presence of Christ for one another.

Staff Formation Day: Friday 7^th June

The focus of our Staff Formation Day was to deepen our understanding of our Sacred Heart charism. We were so grateful to have Sr Jenny Seal facilitate our day. Sr Jenny is a Sister of the Congregation of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. We learnt more about Fr Jules Chevalier who began the order of the Missionaries and Marie Louise Hartzer who began the order of women known as the Daughters of our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Sr Jenny has been visiting our school community, you are welcome to say hello if you see her.

We take this opportunity to also thank Brighton Catholic Parish for allowing us to use their Parish Hall, and welcoming us during the 12pm Mass.

Missionary Day - St Vinnies Winter Appeal: Friday 5^th July

On Friday 5^th July, last day of Term 2 we will be raising money to assist the St Vinnies Winter Appeal. The SRC’s are currently working on a theme for the day. Soon, we will also be having a St Vinnies representative visit our school, to discuss the biggest need within our local community.

IHM Sacramental Program

Our Parish Sacramental Program has had a wonderful start. We have facilitated the first Confirmation Workshop with the candidates and their families. We had 19 families visit our school on Wednesday 5^th June from St Joseph’s Hindmarsh, St Michael’s Primary and IHM. We are working in partnership with Kathy Horan who is a Liturgical Educator. Kathy is also an experienced educator, who has worked as a teacher and leader in Catholic Schools and is also the author of our Sacramental books.

Please keep Paige (3/4P) Zara (4/5F) and Tiana (5/6L) in your prayers as they begin their sacramental preparation for Confirmation and First Holy Communion. The celebration will be on held on Sunday 18^th August at the Sacred Heart Church, Hindmarsh.

If you are interested in your child participating in the next cycle of the Sacramental Program or would like further information please email Jhovana: jfenu@ihm.catholic.edu.au

Please note that it is a requirement for children who participate in Sacramental Program to be baptised. If your child is not baptised, we encourage you to contact the Parish office on 8346 3901 or Email: shparish@shphf.com.au

NCCD: The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability

The NCCD is an Australian Government collection of data that counts school students receiving reasonable educational adjustments: an action to help a student with disability access education on the same basis as their peers.

For more information on NCCD click HERE
NCCD Information video for families click HERE

We take this opportunity to thank all our families for their trusted partnership, collaboration and involvement to ensure we are providing the adjustments that works best for their child. Please note if your child has a PPL (Personalised Plan for Learning) it needs to be returned to school signed.

Jhovana Fenu
Assistant Principal-Religious Identity and Mission/Learning Diversity
Ph: (08) 8115 7606
Email: jfenu@ihm.catholic.edu.au

Literacy - Explicit Direct Instruction

Last term, we introduced two new literacy programs, Heggerty and Playberry, to enhance our teaching through explicit instruction. Over the past 14 weeks, these programs have significantly impacted our students' learning.

Recently, Julie Hancock, Sonia Bianco, and I attended a Professional Learning Day with Principals and Leaders of Learning from all Catholic Schools in South Australia. The focus was on the Science of Reading and the benefits of a structured literacy approach. Many schools across Australia are adopting explicit instruction, showing undeniable improvements in student performance.

What is explicit instruction?

“Explicit instruction is clear, concrete, and visible teaching. Teachers explain new concepts and strategies in straightforward language, model and demonstrate skills using many examples, and provide substantial support as students practice and apply their new knowledge” (Dr. Lorraine Hammond).

“It involves systematic teaching in small steps, ensuring student understanding and active participation” (Rosenshine).

Using the Heggerty and Playberry programs, our teachers ensure that every student is engaged, thinking, and practicing skills daily, using a multi-sensory approach. Daily reviews help build automaticity through building routine, repetition and reducing cognitive load.

Does explicit instruction work?

“Research shows that explicit instruction is highly effective, backed by nearly five decades of research from various disciplines” (Hughes et al, 2017).

“Additionally, students who experience a blend of teacher-directed and inquiry-based instruction achieve the best outcomes” (Mourshed, Krawitz, and Dorn, 2017).

While explicit instruction is a key method at IHM for literacy, we also balance this approach with student-centred, problem-based, and inquiry learning approaches in other areas.

Why does my child need to repeat their learning?

Hermann Ebbinghaus was a pioneering psychologist known for his research on memory, particularly his development of the forgetting curve, which demonstrates how information is lost over time without repeated reinforcement.

Ebbinghaus himself noted, 'With any considerable number of repetitions, a suitable distribution of them over a space of time is decidedly more advantageous than the massing of them at a single time.' This underscores the critical need for regular repetition and review to reinforce new information and prevent forgetting.

As many schools move away from whole language teaching towards explicit instruction, IHM is at the forefront, ensuring our students flourish today and in the future.

Please scan the QR code to complete a parent survey on Literacy Teaching at IHM.

Catherine Hulley
LEADER OF LEARNING