Sacred Heart School - Camden

Nothing quite like the feeling of the first day of a new year of school. A little scary, mostly exciting, and a lot of joy from getting to see all of your friends again. And nothing makes this building feel more alive than when the students are back in it, ready to learn and grow.

The 2024-25 year at Sacred Heart School has officially begun!

The first day of school is only a few short days away! Which means its time to schedule those sports physicals!

Take advantage of this FREE offering by the Villanova University School of Nursing!

For more information, please call us at 856-655-3344.

Attention incoming 8th grade parents:

CPS has been awarded the Teach STEM Classes in Nonpublic School Grant for the 2024-2025 school year!

This grant allows us to offer an Algebra I aftershool course to eligible eighth grade students. The goal is to provide the students with comprehensive Algebra I instruction that may enable them to either test into Algebra I Honors in high school or test out of Algebra I completely. The program can help give our students a strong foundation for their future academic endeavors!

If you have any questions or would like to enroll your child, please contact Yolina Owens, Executive Assistant, at (856) 966-6791 ext. 108 or [email protected].



Saint Cecilia School Pennsauken NJHoly Name School of Camden, a Catholic Partnership SchoolSt. Joseph Pro-Cathedral School, a Catholic Partnership SchoolSacred Heart School - Camden

Summer at Sacred Heart School means building maintenance, repairs, and renovations (this year we are getting new paint for the classrooms and a complete overhaul of the restrooms!).

Summer is also a busy season for enrollment. We currently have some openings in grades 1st-6th, as well as 8th grade. If you are interested in being part of the Sacred Heart School family then click this link for information and the application:

https://sacredheartschoolcamden.org/prospective-families/

And they're off!

Last night we officially launched our graduating 8th graders onto the next chapter. It's always bittersweet to see them go (especially when we have seen a lot of them grow from Kindergarten). We can't wait to see what they do from here. Congratulations to all of our, formerly, 8th grade class.

It's a lot quieter in the halls of Sacred Heart School today, because our Kindergarteners graduated on Friday! We will miss their little voices during the last week of the school year, but we can't wait to see them when they are back in September. Congrats to our Kindergarteners, and to our Montessori Program, for another successful year!

Congratulations to all of our Sacred Heart Students, as well as Ms. Banner and Ms. Colbert, for putting on a phenomenal Sponsors Night performance. All of our K-8th grade students performed in song and dance as a means of saying "Thank You!" to the sponsors that make our school running possible.

If you would like to become a sponsor yourself, please visit our Sponsors page on our website: https://sacredheartschoolcamden.org/sponsors-supporters/

And just like that, we are on Easter Break!

Before we go we wanted to thank the Sacred Heart School PTO and all of the volunteers who helped make our annual Easter Fun Day a success! The students had a great time, and it is days like these that our students will look back on fondly when they remember their time here at Sacred Heart School.

As we approach Easter Break, our 6th and 7th grades put on a prayer service to remind the whole school what this season is about. Through song and scripture they told the story of Jesus's arrest, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. It was a beautiful story to remind us of Jesus's sacrifice for us, wonderfully told.

It was an eventful and educational Black History Month here at Sacred Heart School. The students did projects on famous figures in Black History, decorated the halls, and had many discussions. The capstone of the month was a moving Black History Prayer Service put on by our 5th and 8th grade classes. Our 8th grade teacher Ms Greene had this to say about it:

"Our annual Black History program was focused on the arts. We were inspired by some of the negro spirituals like Joshua Fit the Battle and Wade in the Water. The students fitting message of hope was portrayed in their rendition of Wake Up Everybody by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes and One Love by Bob Marley.

The African and praise dances were a moving tribute to the culture. Thanks to a few special guests, the sonorous sound of the African drums filled the pews with joy. Thanks to the Camden County Police for their continued support."



📸 by Dorriane Judge

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Thursday, February 29th) we have our Sacred Heart School Science Fair and Open House from 6pm-7pm. Come out and see some awesome science projects and presentations. We will also have our Enrollment Director there to give tours and answer any admissions questions our potential new families may have.

Someone pointed out today that you can't spell valentines day without LENT. Which was fitting today at Scared Heart School as we celebrated valentines day, and we also recognized Ash Wednesday, the start of the Lenten season, by getting our ashes from Father Vince.

Along with that we celebrated our 100 days of school by dressing up as centenarians.

A busy, fun, and poignant day. "For dust you are, and to dust you shall return". And in between don't forget to Love God and your Neighbor.

Our PK-2nd grade capped off their Catholic Schools Week with a fun Sneaker Ball! They came to school in their Sunday best but with some sneakers on and they danced and played the morning away. Thank you to all of our volunteers, and special shout out to Mr. Torres for being a great MC and DJ.

Todays theme in our Catholic Schools Week celebration was Career Day! Our students came to school dressed as what they want to be when they grow up, and we also hosted volunteers who came to talk about their vocations. All kinds of careers were present, from Doctor to Nuns, Air Marshall to Accountant, and lots in between. Our students learned a lot, and we affirmed that the future of our Sacred Heart Students is bright!

Catholic Schools Week is full steam ahead! Our students have continued to work with the Florida Studio Theater to create their own plays. We also got the chance to play some Buddy Bingo, collect more canned goods for our Souper bowl, and had a huge pep rally to end our day today. The school spirit was flowing between the Red and White dress down, the events, and the CPS cheerleaders bringing the hype! The students had a blast.

On the admissions side of Catholic Schools Week, the applications for the 2024-25 school year have been rolling in. If you are interested in attending Sacred Heart School fill out the digital application here: https://sacredheartschoolcamden.org/prospective-families/

It's time for one of the biggest celebrations Sacred Heart School does during the school year! It's time for Catholic Schools week!

Next week we will be celebrating Catholic Schools week with a whole week of fun activities, themed dress downs, and lots of school spirit.

Catholic Schools week also officially kicks off our registration for the 2024-25 school year! If you are a new family interested in being part of our school submit your application at

https://sacredheartschoolcamden.org/prospective-families/

Fun fact, did you know that the 12 Days of Christmas is not just a song, but is a reference to the fact that the church celebrates the 12 days between the birth of Jesus and the Epiphany (also known as Three Kings Day). It is a celebration of the revelation of the Christ child to the Magi and their visit to Jesus.

In recognition of it being the 12th day of Christmas our Sacred Heart Students were invited to a school wide Mass in the sanctuary with Father Vince. It was a beautiful way to enter into the new year as well as re-enter the rhythms of being back together after Christmas break.

"And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." ~Luke 2:10-14

Every year we look forward to the December prayer service where the students remind, and get reminded, of the story of the birth of Jesus. This year our 6th and 1st grades put on a stellar rendition of the story, which grounded our school back into the central aspect of this holiday season.

Today is the Feast of Saint Nicholas, where we celebrate the real life bishop St. Nicholas who inspired the legends of the modern day Santa. Saint Nicholas lived in Myra (what is now present day Turkey), and had a passion for the poor and for children.

The students learned about St Nicholas and, as a fun way to celebrate, our students each left one of their shoes in the hall outside of their classrooms. Then, "St. Nick" came around with some helpers, and when the students checked on their shoes they were filled with treats!

Thanksgiving is all about friends, family, gratitude, and food. We have been blessed enough to have all of those things abundantly this week at Sacred Heart School.

Here is a peak at some of those scenes, including our turkey made from "feathers" our students wrote on describing classmates that they are thankful for and why. Our 5th-8th grade also had a combined friendsgiving with lots of food and interclass bonding. We had a wonderful prayer service as well, put on by our 2nd and 3rd grade class.

As we break to be with our own out-of-school families, we wanted take a moment to thank and express gratitude for our Sacred Heart family. Not just our students and wonderful families, but also thank you to our parish and our sponsors that make all of this possible. Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Ms. Weaks 4th graders did a little old school Thanksgiving feast planning. They scanned through the paper grocery store ads picking out what they want for their Thanksgiving feasts. Once their menus were set they created a shopping list and added up what the cost would be. A nice combination of fun, life skills, and math!

Continuing our "Discovering Catholic Schools" celebration, another thing that makes Sacred Heart School special is our communal/family feel.

We keep our class sizes small (20 for lower elementary and 25 for upper elementary and middle school) with teachers and teachers aides in the rooms. The building is also small. We take pride in this because it allows us to get to know all of the students, and for the students to get to know each other even outside their own class. The result is deeper relationship, which results in the students feeling safer and being more engaged, and overall gives a sense of school pride.

If you are interested in joining our school, we are using this celebration to open our applications for the 2024-25 school year! Applications will be processed for Catholic Schools week in February, so spots won't be offered until then, but applying early is key because our spots fill quickly: https://sacredheartschoolcamden.org/prospective-families/

This week is "Discovering Catholic Schools Week" around the country, and we want to take this week to show why Catholic education, and specifically Sacred Heart School, is so special!

So please, allow us to reintroduce ourselves. We are Sacred Heart School, and one of the first things that makes us special is that we were founded over 103 years ago!

The joyous sounds of children’s voices and footsteps have echoed in the halls of Sacred Heart School at 4th and Jasper Streets in Camden since January 19, 1920 – that was the happy day when the front doors first opened to welcome 580 students. In those days it was not unusual for there to be seventy students in each classroom. For Father John B. McCloskey, then pastor of Sacred Heart Church, the building of a brand new elementary school for the children was a central part of his dream for his parish.

These days we have a much tighter student to teacher ratio in our smaller classrooms, but the dream of a school in the Sacred Heart Parish is still going strong.

If you are interested in joining our school, we are using this celebration to open our applications for the 2024-25 school year! Applications will be processed for Catholic Schools week in February, so spots won't be offered until then, but applying early is key because our spots fill quickly: https://sacredheartschoolcamden.org/prospective-families/

Do you wish there was a way to see what assignments your child has done (and which ones are still missing)? Do you want to keep track of their grades before the parent teacher conference comes around? Well, you are in luck!

Sacred Heart School, along with the other partnership schools, uses a program called Teacherease that helps parents track their student's academic progress throughout the school year. To find out more on how to use this program well, come to the online ZOOM workshop on October 19th at 6pm (there will be a 6:30pm one for Spanish speaking families). The workshop will be quick, simple, and get you on track to being on top of your student's progress.

This week at Sacred Heart School has been Respect Week! Each day has a theme, an event, and a Phrase of the day, all designed to help our students have fun and practice respecting one another.

Yesterday was "Sock It To Bullying" where the students wore crazy socks, talked about bullying, and practiced the phrase of the day (which was "Thank You!"). On each day the teachers pick the student in their class who best exemplified the theme of the day, and those students get to spin Principal Mariani's prize wheel.

Check out our other themes of the day, and be on the look out for more photos of our students learning and practicing respect.

Today is International World Peace Day! In recognition of the day, our older students collaborated with our younger students to create a large sidewalk chalk mural on the sidewalks around our school. Their messages promoted peace, kindness, and love.