Dear parents and friends,

Congratulations to the Year 5 students who last week nominated themselves for the 2024 student leadership positions and took the time to prepare their speeches. After a process of presenting speeches and voting by students and staff, we congratulate the successful students.

Congratulations to our 2024 School Captains and Vice Captains:

School Captains: Eddie Clare & Amelia Richards

Vice School Captains: Jimmy Smith, Isabella Eyles & Evie Angus

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Next week, we say farewell to the following Holy Cross staff and students:

Firstly, to our Year 6 students. It is always with mixed emotions that we say goodbye to the leaders of our school as they take the next steps in their learning journey at high school. These students have embodied our vision to learn, live and love and now are ready to take all they learned into the next chapter of their lives. We are proud of them and they will be missed. We will celebrate their farewell on Thursday at the End of Year Mass and Yr 6 Graduation ceremony.

Secondly, we will say farewell to Mrs Tami Hennock. Mrs Hennock has been successful in gaining a teaching position at St Paul’s Catholic Primary School, Albion Park in 2024. Tami has taught at Holy Cross for the past three years and we are very grateful for the commitment and care she has shown our community during this time. We wish Tami every success at St Paul’s. A recruitment process for a classroom teacher has commenced this week.

And finally, we farewell Miss Costello. We wish Emily all the best as she begins her Religious Education Coordinator role at St John’s the Evangelist, Campbelltown in 2024. Emily has contributed greatly to our school’s faith and religious education growth and development through facilitating liturgies, masses and prayer opportunities, not to mention coordinating our infamous Book Week parade. She will be greatly missed.

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As this is our final newsletter for the year, I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to the entire Holy Cross, Helensburgh community for their constant support over the past four years. My time leading this very special community has been life giving. I do not take for granted the trust that this community has shown me and I appreciate that together we have been able to work in genuine partnership to develop the faith, learning and wellbeing of our students.

I would also like to thank the staff for their constant support and for their commitment to providing quality education. To Mr Miranda for ensuring our school grounds are immaculate and safe, to our office staff for the welcome and care they show our community each day and for maintaining the day to day runnings of the school and to our school support officers and teachers who are committed to learning alongside students in the classroom and playground each day. I would like to make a special mention to the Leadership Team and Father Paul for their counsel and support over the past four years.

Thank you and I wish you all a healthy, safe and blessed Christmas.

Kaylene Duffin
Principal

2023 ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN Update

Goal 1 

Improve students’ relationship with Jesus through the values of compassion, justice, hope and integrity.

• We are confident that over this year, we have achieved this goal. Our staff and student perception data along with our Religious Literacy Assessment data (conducted by Year 4 students) and Learning Walk data provide us with this confidence.
• Highlights of our work towards this goal include:

• prioritising staff professional learning sessions, and exploring diverse teaching styles that delivered engaging Religious Education lessons with specific focus on understanding scripture 
• Focusing on teaching with the Bible and developing understanding of the context of the Gospels
• Developing an understanding of four Catholic values: hope, compassion, justice and integrity

Goal 2 

By the end of 2023, all students will have increased their confidence and engagement in Mathematics so that all students achieve growth.

• We are confident that over this year, we have achieved this goal. Our staff and student perception data indicate improved confidence and our NAPLAN, PAT data and classroom assessments indicated growth for students in Mathematics.
• Highlights of our work towards this goal include:

• Implementing the K-2 Revised Mathematics syllabus
• Developing teacher understanding of teaching Place Value
• Using the Place Value Assessment Tool to identify starting points for learning and tracking learning growth
• Exploring ‘thinking classroom’ research