Philosophy

            Sacred Heart School has been a long-standing tradition in Manoa, providing a strong spiritual and academic education to the neighborhood children for the past 75 years.  Our purpose is to lead our students to see that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life amidst a challenging academic program.  This nature or spirit impels the school community, nourished by Word and Sacrament, to continue to grow in the likeness of Christ while searching assiduously for Truth.   Sacred Heart School is open to students from pre-school through eighth grade.  Our curriculum is directed by the guidelines of the Archdiocesan Office of Catholic Education and is enhanced by using religious and academic instructional guides authorized and distributed by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  We strive to prepare our students from a Christ-centered perspective with a solid foundation in their academic pursuits.  We believe that this combination will prepare our students to make their way successfully in this world.

            The staff at Sacred Heart demonstrates a caring and supportive environment that provides a family-like structure uniting the whole student body.  The teachers operate in friendship, cooperation, and constant support.  It is realized that they are demonstrating for the students how they (the students) are expected to interact with one another.  Recognizing that school and home must work together in support of our children, there is a constant open line of communication between parents and teachers.  Weekly family folders, parent/teacher conferences, and monthly meetings of the Home and School Association evidence this.  We offer a wide selection of extra-curricular activities thus allowing multiple intelligences to shine.  These activities include:  sports, forensics, drama, choir, as well as a strong tradition of service in the parish.

            Permeating the general studies are the tenets of our faith.  Based on our religious foundations we are able to incorporate Christian ideals regarding character and values throughout the curriculum.  Teaching techniques are geared toward developing the whole child in a challenging and stimulating atmosphere.  Instruction throughout all grades is both content-based and process-oriented.  Primary grades emphasize the teaching of the basic skills that establish the necessary academic foundation in a creative and loving environment.  Building on this necessary foundation established in the lower grades, middle and upper grades offer a constructivist approach to learning.  While continuing to develop basic skills, the upper grades place greater emphasis on critical thinking and inference skills thus challenging the students to work with material at the highest levels on Bloom’s Taxonomy; that is, through analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  Sacred Heart maintains a strong commitment to technology.  Computer use is integrated throughout curriculum areas.  As they work on projects, students confidently complete research on the Internet, download data, scan illustrations, utilize a wide variety of software, publish their writings, as well as create PowerPoint and Hyperstudio Presentations.  As a school of the 21^st Century, we prepare our students’ minds, hearts and hands to live wisely in a technologically complex and interdependent world.

            Believing that every child can learn, the faculty is most receptive to the special needs child.  Students with special needs receive the support of an Instructional Support Team and an Intermediate Unit Staff.  The special needs child is identified and referred to the Instructional Support Team.  The IST, comprised of the principal, faculty members, and Intermediate Unit Staff, along with the child’s parents and teacher, collaborate to form a plan geared toward helping that child succeed.  Each child’s needs will determine the course of action.  Necessary to a successful outcome of this course of action are continued parental involvement, teacher observation and evaluation, and regular communication between home and school.  Students who have received the designated evaluation are eligible to have the curriculum modified and grading adapted (Policy N.: CIA 610).

            Recognizing the diversity in learning styles and needs, Sacred Heart has begun to review the forms of assessment already in place and to integrate new assessment techniques.  The movement away from only traditional methods of assessment toward a more constructivist teaching and authentic assessment model will aid present and future students with diverse needs.  For the past five years, our school enrollment has decreased by an average of 10 students per year.  Conversely, parish enrollment during this same period has increased by 175 families, which account for 245 children, ages five and under.  Based on these facts, it is anticipated that our school enrollment will begin to increase steadily as this young population reaches school age.  In accordance with diocesan policy, we admit students of any race, color, national, and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities made available to all students.  The majority of our school families are from the middle-income bracket.  The financial stability of our school depends on the parish subsidy, tuition, registration and lunch fees, federal and state funds, and various fundraising efforts by the member of the Home and School Association.  These funds have allowed Sacred Heart School to update our technology, textbooks, and instructional materials in a cyclic and timely fashion.  Sacred Heart School is a vibrant contributor to an active and faith-filled parish community; therefore, we embrace the challenge to meet the diverse learning needs of our students of today and tomorrow through the integration of new assessment techniques.