As we prepare to head off for the Christmas Break, We want to take the opportunity to say "Thank you." We have so much to be grateful for as a school. We are very appreciative of everyone who has helped to make the school's Advent celebrations, large and small, possible through their dedication and many hours of work; from our Advent Pageant to the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe Prayer Service, from the Polar Express Celebration in kindergarten to the 4th Grade's Christmas caroling at The Gardens, from the 1st, 3rd, and 4th Grade service projects in support of families in need to the Shoe Liturgy, as well as all the rest. Undoubtedly we have forgotten others that should have been mentioned, to them we say, "thank you, too". All of these activities provide an opportunity for the prayer, service, and community that are at the heart of our Advent preparation for Christmas.
We are very grateful to the Bayarena family for their gift of an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that will hang at the end of the main hallway in the school starting in the new year.
We are grateful to all of our scrip sellers, stuffers, coordinators, and extra volunteers who went above and beyond this year to make sure that everyone had the opportunity to purchase scrip. We greatly appreciate Mrs. Hooper and her staff of volunteers for hosting another very successful book fair this year. We also want to thank our terrific auction team for all of their work, but especially for their highly successful online auction which just wrapped-up.
We want to thank the teachers and staff here at Sacred Heart who lead our students through all of the important activities and programs of this season and still do a great job of teaching them, too. We also want to say "thank you" to all of our parents who consistently support your children and our staff - whether it's baking cookies for a Christmas party or making a cloak for your little shepherd or just making sure that your child's homework doesn't get forgotten in the midst of it all.
May you have a Christmas filled with God's grace for you and your family and may your new year be one of faith, hope, and love.
- Mr. Burroughs and Ms. Gray.
Shoe Liturgy, December 16th 10:00am Mass - TOMORROW!
Please click here for information and special instructions about this great tradition.
Pre-Kindergarten & Kindergarten 2012-2013
We are now accepting applications for our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten programs for the 2012-13 school year. Please click on the above links for more detailed information on the application process and deadlines.
ITBS Scores
All Middle School students will receive their ITBS scores tomorrow (Friday).
After discussing the scores with Riverside Publishing, who created and administer the test, I am assured that are scores are valid and reliable. Our students, especially in the middle school grades, made such terrific growth over the course of the last year that I wanted to make certain that the scores were correct before releasing them and reporting the good news.
The terrific news is that our students are learning and our teachers are doing an outstanding job of teaching them. In every area of the test, our students are at or above standard. In most subjects they are well above grade level and are showing more than a full year of growth over the course of the last school year in some cases more than two full years of growth!
The news only gets better when we look at the CogAT scores (this test was administered this year in grades 3, 5, 7 & 8). The CogAT measures cognitive ability. The results give a predicted score for each student in every area of the test. These predicted scores can then be compared against the student's actual scores. In every grade, 3rd through 8th, in every area of the test except two (punctuation and capitalization in 3rd grade) our students as a whole outperformed their predicted scores, most often by 10-20 points. This means that our students are learning at a greater rate than their "natural" cognitive abilities can account for alone. Don't get me wrong, we have great students here at Sacred Heart School. But they are being led, taught, and supported by outstanding educators and parents who are helping them to achieve beyond expectations.
I will share more in depth about our ITBS scores over the next few issues of From the Heart and at the State of the School meeting in April. - Mr. Burroughs
Scholastic Book Fair Thanks!
