Holy Cross Catholic Parish Primary School Helensburgh
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1 McMillan Street
Helensburgh NSW 2508
Subscribe: https://hchdow.schoolzineplus.com/subscribe

Email: info@hchdow.catholic.edu.au
Phone: 02 4294 1588

PRINCIPAL'S NEWS

Dear Parents and Friends,

Whilst we were sad to have to postpone our Athletics Carnival last Thursday, we were certainly blessed with the weather holding out for our Mothers’ Day celebrations on Friday morning, even the sunshine made an appearance! 

The measure of a strong and caring community is the way in which it gathers together to celebrate significant events and milestones, and last Friday was definitely another wonderful example of just how giving, prayerful, thoughtful and genuinely happy we are at Holy Cross! I particularly thank our staff who planned and prepared for the Mothers’ Day Liturgy, the special gifts made for their students’ mums, the exciting activities during the open classrooms, and also gave their time and service from early in the morning during the breakfast. We appreciate and thank our P&F, especially Lisa Faulkner, who organised the Mothers’ Day Gift Stall, and the four fabulous dads, (Matt, Anthony, Shannon and Lee) who ran the stall with such enthusiasm and delight!

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We can’t fit all of the lovely photos here , but check out our facebook page for more photos of the morning and the link to this video of all the wonderful photos you sent in.

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Congratulations to this year's The Mothers’s Day Raffle winners: 

Hunter - Year 2 

Eoin - Kindergarten

Patti  - Year 4

Amelia - Year 6

Samantha - Year 2

Term 2 Monday Morning Prayer 8:50-9am - We warmly welcome you, our parents, to join us every Monday morning on the bottom playground (undercroft area) as we gather to start the week and pray together. 

Parish Masses - As a parish catholic school, we seek to enable opportunities for our community to encounter the mass. Each term, our classes attend a weekday parish mash, as well as whole school masses for important Feast days. Parents are always welcome to attend. 

  • Friday 24th May - K-6 Mass for Mary Help of Christians @ 9:15am
  • Thursday 30th May - Year 2, 3 and 4 @ 9am Parish Mass
  • Friday 7th June - K-6 Mass for Feast of the Sacred Heart @ 9:15am
  • Thursday 20th June - Year 1 and 6 @ 9am Parish Mass
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Sunday Parish Mass - Families are of course always welcomed to attend the Holy Cross Parish Sunday Masses. On Sunday 2nd June, all Kinder and Year 5 families are invited to celebrate mass. Some of our students and their parents will be invited to read a universal prayer or one of the readings or bring the offertory forward. We hope to see many Kindergarten and Year 5 students and their families there. All families are welcome of course!

TELL THEM FROM ME SURVEY- CLOSING DATE FRIDAY 24th MAY

This term all schools in Wollongong diocese will survey the voice of parents, staff and students in Years 4-6 via the 'Tell Them From Me' survey. The survey will provide important feedback which continues to inform our work in designing improvement priorities that are responsive to the needs of our school community. We greatly value the role of parents and carers within our school community and would greatly appreciate your feedback. The information you provide will be used to maintain our commitment to working together in partnership to further improve student learning and wellbeing at Holy Cross Catholic Primary School.

You are able to access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using this URL LINK : http://tellthemfromme.com/hch2024

We would appreciate parents completing the survey by Friday 24 May, 2024.

2024 ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN PROGRESS

Goal 3: Excellence in Teaching: In 2024, we will develop alignment between curriculum teaching, learning and assessment in English and Mathematics.

  • Our K-2 teachers have all engaged in collaborative conversation meetings to clarify practices and to identify effective assessment tools in the teaching of reading in their English block. As a result, teachers have added decodable readers to their small group instruction time, matching their teaching sequence of phonics. 
  • All teaching staff engaged with our Mathematics Staff Development Day in Week 10, developing a deeper understanding of the content areas of the revised 3-6 Mathematics syllabus and refining scope and sequences. Our K-2 teachers designed pre and post assessments for the area of Data, and our primary teachers worked with a CEDoW Education officer to develop understandings in the programming process known as Understanding by Design (UBD). 
  • In the first few weeks, as part of a ½ day professional release to work with our Instructional Coach, teachers further developed and programmed with a focus on a unit on Data.  As a result, teachers are now using the UBD cycle to design pre assessments, analysing what their students know, which then informs their planning and selection of teaching content and strategies for the unit of Data being taught. This cycle of professional learning and collaborative planning will be repeated for another content area in Mathematics
  • All teaching staff engaged with our English Staff Development Day this term, developing their understanding of all focus areas in the revised 3-6 English Syllabus, with a deeper dive into two focus areas
    • Understanding and responding to Literature : How quality literature texts are carefully selected and effectively used to build student understandings of textual concepts such as character, narrative, perspective, genre, theme or imagery. As a result, teachers will be adding to their repertoire of teaching knowledge, and updating their scope and sequence and teaching units to ensure that the stage expected textual concepts are taught using a wide variety and exposure to quality literature. 
    • Reading Fluency : examining the research, outcomes and content, as well as a wide range of effective teaching strategies. As a result, teachers will trial and implement two or three fluency teaching strategies in their English teaching block this term. 

Goal 1: Living Our Catholic Identity: In 2024, we will revise our school’s Vision and Mission. 

  • We have commenced a review process this week with staff, facilitated by one of theCEDoW Catholic Life, Education and Mission Team. Mrs Turton has written a little more on this. More soon on how the students, parents and our Parish will contribute to this.

Next Newsletter: HELPFUL CURRICULUM GUIDES FOR PARENTS 

 Professional Learning

Research tells us that the quality of the teacher is the greatest in-school influence on student achievement. Therefore high quality professional learning for teachers must be a priority to ensure improved teacher practice that leads to improved student growth. Recent professional learning undertaken or other professional commitments by our staff this past fortnight includes:

Date

Event

Staff

Weeks 1-3

Collaborative Planning 

This is a ½ day release for each class teacher to work with our Instructional Coach and Leadership Team, to continue professional learning, planning and programming, and assessment design in the area of Mathematics.





All staff

Leadership Team

1st May

External Professional Learning- Spelling and Morphology

Mrs Turton

2nd & 3rd May

Walking Together to Bridge the Gap CEDoW Conference

Mrs Jennett

7th May

Personalised Planning Meetings 

Mrs Sprod and Mrs Mitrevski

8th May

Leadership Team- Curriculum 

CEDoW Principal Meeting

Leadership Team

Mrs Colussi

14th May

Instructional Coach CEDoW Day

Mrs Baker

15th May

CEDoW Clergy & Principal Day

Mrs Jennett (for Mrs Colussi)

NEXT STAFF DEVELOPMENT DAY (PUPIL FREE DAY) is FRIDAY 5th JULY.

Every Blessing,

Milena Colussi

Principal