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Dear parents and friends,
We warmly welcome our new families whose children began in Kindergarten last week. In choosing Holy Cross, we are honoured that you have entrusted us with the privilege of teaching your children over the coming years. Together in partnership with you as their first educators, we now join you to nurture their growth and enable many opportunities for them to thrive in their faith, learning and wellbeing. Our 2024 Kindergarten students have enjoyed a very smooth transition into ‘big school’, beautifully supported by their Year 5 Buddies, Mrs McEntee, Mrs Timmins and Mrs Baker. It is delightful to see happy smiling faces, their readiness and excitement each day! We know that our students will make special connections with new friends, and feel a sense of belonging in our Holy Cross community.
In 2023, staff, students, staff and parents were given the opportunity to provide feedback about the strengths and areas of growth for the school through the School Cyclic Inquiry process. This feedback was used by staff and in consultation with the Catholic Education Office, providing us with priorities for the faith, learning and wellbeing growth of our students moving forward. The Cyclic Inquiry recommendations further informed our School Strategic Improvement Plan 2024-2027, with three Priority Areas :
Living Our Catholic Identity: By 2027 our community will deepen their knowledge of the Catholic faith and appreciate the meaningful role it can play in our lives today.
In 2024, we will revise our school’s Vision and Mission.
Student Centred Learning and Wellbeing; By 2027 students are agents of their own learning and wellbeing.
In 2024, we will develop a shared understanding of what student voice and agency is.
Excellence in Teaching: By 2027 all students will be engaged, challenged and have maximised their learning growth.
In 2024, we will develop alignment between curriculum teaching, learning and assessment in English and Mathematics.
Our progress towards these goals in 2024 will be shared with our parents and wider community throughout the year.
Thank you to all parents and carers for your ongoing support of our school.
Holy Cross P&F Family Fun Day - Saturday 2 March 10am-2pm
Plans are finalised, letters sent out, call outs for donations and rosters for the day made! Our hardworking P&F and Family Fun Day organising committee have everything ready to go for what will be yet another fabulous day for our community. Your support through time on the day and donations is very much a huge part of the successful day of family, friends, fun and fundraising that this event has been for many years. I can’t wait to be part of the day with you all.
Recently I was reading some of our school’s history. Did you know that the Fun day has been held in March for more than 50 years? It’s been called a Boree, fete and in recent times, Family Fun Day. Here are snippets I found:
Source: Holy Cross Parish Primary, Centenary 1900-2000
Come along and be a part of this amazing tradition!
Every blessing,
Milena Colussi
Principal
The Liturgical Season of Lent
This week, we held our Ash Wednesday Mass as we entered into the liturgical season
of Lent. Thank you to Fr. Paul for celebrating a beautiful Mass with our school and parish community. The ashes that we received on our foreheads are a reminder for us: “To turn away from sin and be faithful to God’s word”. Lent also provides us with a window to look at ourselves to see how we can become better followers of Christ. The temptations of Jesus represent the major temptations of each of us. Resisting temptation is not easy, but in Jesus we have a companion who knows the challenges that confront us. The three traditional practices of Lent are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. A commitment to these practices during Lent leads to an awareness of God and conversion of the heart. Many Catholics spend time pondering what they could give up during Lent. Here are some other ideas to consider:
10 Things to Do During Lent Besides Giving Something up:
- Each day, tell your child something that makes them unique
- Volunteer
- Go to a weekday Mass
- Say three nice things to your husband or wife, siblings, parents, colleagues and kids daily.
- Be kind
- Donate things you don’t need to charity
- Replace 30 minutes of TV/computer/phone time with 30 minutes of prayer/quiet time
- Don’t complain
- Don’t buy anything that you don’t need
- Donate to Project Compassion
Our Year 6 students received their ashes at a special prayer service with Mrs Jennett and Mrs Colussi at camp.
Beginning of School Year Mass
Next Thursday, 22 February at 9:15am, you are invited to gather together as a school and parish community to mark the beginning of the 2024 school year with the celebration of Mass.
Directly following the Mass we will commission our 2024 School and Vice captains.There will also be a special blessing from our new Kinder students. We hope you will be able to join us for the special celebration.
Project Compassion
On Tuesday Mrs Colussi, myself and our school captains, attended the Diocesan Launch of Caritas’ Project Compassion at Rosemeadow. It was a wonderful experience to share Mass with representatives from all of the Wollongong Diocese Schools. It highlighted for us the very important work of Caritas. For further information on Project Compassion, please visit (www.caritas.org.au). The students will be learning about the great initiatives of Caritas in class and we will encourage them to share these stories with you at home. Each class has a Project Compassion box on their prayer space and the students are encouraged to donate, maybe even by giving up a treat for themselves and instead choosing to donate the money to this worthy cause. Bishop Brian spoke at the Caritas launch about not just “putting money in a box,” but rather to learn about the impact and way that the money is used to help people around the world.
In Peace,
Mrs Debbie Turton
Religious Education Coordinator
An Invitation to Sunday Mass
Holy Cross Parish would like to extend a warm invitation to all our beloved school families to join us for Mass on Sunday mornings at 8:30am.
Attending Mass as a family is not only a wonderful opportunity to strengthen and nurture our faith but also a chance to deepen the bonds that unite us as a parish, school and a wider community.
Some things you may not know:
- Sunday Mass goes for one hour, 8:30 - 9:30am.
- We regularly gather for morning tea and a catch up afterwards.
- Every second week we have a children's liturgy which enables our kids to build some great friendships and learn about their faith.
We look forward to welcoming you and your family at our next Mass as we come together to celebrate the gift of faith and the joy of community.
HOMEWORK REVIEW
As part of a comprehensive and balanced curriculum at Holy Cross Catholic Primary School, homework has been seen as one way of supporting and fostering life-long learning and connecting families with the learning of their children. The setting of homework needs to take into consideration the need for students to have a balanced lifestyle. This includes sufficient time for family, sport, recreational and cultural pursuits. Generally, homework provides students with opportunities to practise skills, review content and deepen understanding of concepts learned at school. Homework and practice can also help students to develop self-regulation processes such as time management and study skills.
As part of this year’s Meet and Greet sessions, we have asked parents to complete a “Getting to Know your Child” form, which also included the opportunity to comment on Homework. We will collate your feedback in the coming weeks. Along with teacher feedback, and some student feedback, this will inform an update of our school’s Homework Policy and practices.
Research around homework is varied and not particularly conclusive, providing us with a range of views and evidence about its impact and effectiveness. For example
Homework or “home learning”
- can serve as a valuable tool for skill development and reinforcement for some children
- can have more positive effects for certain groups of students. Some studies have shown that older students gain more academic benefits than do younger students, perhaps due to their less effective study habits and greater distractibility 9 (Cooper, 1989; Hoover-Dempsey et al. 2001; Leone and Richards 1989)
- can have “non-academic” benefits, for example, learning responsibility, managing time, growing study habits, and perseverance to finish a task (Cooper, Robinson and Patall 2006; Corno and Xu 2004)
- that, if it is too much, may lesson its effectiveness. Research on the amount of time recommended is limited, but primary students appear to benefit from smaller amounts (less than 1 hour a night)
An Australian case study of young children’s experiences of homework (Farrell & Danby, 2015) found that participating children were very proactive with their homework and their parents had little to no involvement in that process. The children viewed homework as a part of their daily routine, which is suggestive of the roles of parents and teachers in facilitating the children’s perceptions of homework.
John Hattie’s (2009) synthesis of five meta-analyses on primary and secondary homework (161 global studies) are detailed within the Australasian Research Summary for secondary homework. Sixty-five percent of studies found positive effects, while 35 percent had no effect. Overall, the effect size for homework across primary and secondary was 0.29 but not significant. (Souce: Evidence for Learning- Homework: A summary of the research evidence on homework in the Australasian context)
Enrolment for 2024
Enrolments for Kindergarten 2025 are now open. If you have a child attending
Kindergarten next year or you know of anyone who is thinking of enrolling their child, please encourage them to attend our Open School Twilight event on Tuesday 27 February, 4pm-5:30pm. This is an opportunity for families to visit the school, meet the staff and enjoy some hospitality, including a sausage sizzle!
Enrolment is now online, and can be accessed via our school website.
Term Dates Allocated Pupil Free Days 2024
All schools in 2024 will have eight Staff Development Days (Pupil Free Days). These days are provided to assist staff in the implementation of new curriculum and our school improvement priorities. Please find below these dates, as well as term dates (Please note: we have one Pupil Free Day remaining that we have not yet allocated)
Term 1, 2024
- Pupil Free Day- 30 January (Tuesday)
- 31 January - First Day of school Years 1-6 ( Wednesday)
- Pupil Free Day- 2 April - (Tuesday after Easter weekend)
- 12 April- Last day of Term 1 (Friday)
Term 2, 2024
- Pupil Free Day- 29 April (Monday)
- 30 April - First day of Term 2 (Tuesday)
- Pupil Free Day- 11 June ( Tuesday, after King’s birthday Long Weekend)
- 5 July - Last day of Term 2 (Friday)
Term 3, 2024
- Pupil Free Day- 22 July (Monday)
- 23 July First day of Term 3 (Tuesday)
- Pupil Free Day - TBC
- 27 September - Last day of Term 3 (Friday)
Term 4, 2024
- 14 October - First day of Term 4 (Monday)
- 18 December - Last day of Term 4 (Wednesday)
- Pupil Free Day - 19 December (Thursday)
- Pupil Free Day - 20 December (Friday)
Assemblies, Term 1
Tuesday 20 February at 2:30pm - Year 4 Sharing Learning
Tuesday 5 March at 2:30pm - Principal Awards
Tuesday 19 March at 2:30pm - TBC Sharing Learning
Tuesday 9 April at 2:30pm - Principal Awards
Whole School Sport Carnival Dates 2024
Please find below a reminder of these dates, they are on the Parent Calendar.
Cross Country - Wednesday 6 March @ Rex Jackson Oval, K-6 (please note change of date to previous communication)
Athletics Carnival - Thursday 9 May at Beaton Park, Wollongong, K-6
Swimming Carnival - in Term 4 Date to be confirmed
Punctuality and Attendance
School attendance is an important indicator of academic and social achievement. Just
one day a fortnight away from school equates to 4 weeks of school missed a year. The impact of consistent late arrivals or early departures has similar effects. Every minute counts, every minute lost can lead to gaps in students’ learning, confidence and socialisation.
Please note that the law requires us to inform you of our concerns around attendance. If a student has a number of unexplained absences or falls below appropriate levels of attendance, you will be informed. This will allow us to work together to improve attendance levels.
Consider these figures:
Absences...
|
If your child misses…. |
That equals... |
Which is... |
And over 13 years of schooling that’s ... |
|
1 day per fortnight |
20 days per year |
4 weeks per year |
Nearly 1 ½ years |
|
1 day per week |
40 days per year |
8 weeks per year |
Over 2 ½ years |
|
2 days per week |
80 days per year |
16 weeks per year |
Over 5 years |
Lateness…
|
They are only missing just... |
That equals... |
Which is... |
And over 13 years of schooling that’s ... |
|
10 mins per day (arriving at 9am) |
50 mins per week |
Nearly 1 ½ weeks per year |
Nearly ½ a year |
|
20 mins per day (arriving at 9:10am) |
1hr 40 mins p/w |
Over 2 ½ weeks per year |
Nearly 1 year |
|
30 mins per day (arriving at 9:20am) |
Half a day p/w |
4 weeks per year |
Nearly 1 ½ years |
Entering Student Absences on Compass
If your child is absent due to sick leave or a medical appointment, please inform the school by phoning, emailing or logging the absence onto the Compass via the Parent Portal. For any other leave, including Travel, permission must be sought from the Principal prior to the leave. Permission is sought by filling out the Student Leave forms available from the school office. Once this leave has been approved, the school will place the leave on Compass - therefore parents should not use the ‘Travel’ option on the Compass Parent Portal. Thank you for your cooperation with this.
Traffic Reminders
We appreciate your vigilance when driving and parking on MacMillan Street during student ‘drop off’ and ‘pick up’.
A few reminders:
- No Parking Zone - each school morning between 8.30am and 9.30am
- Bus Zone - each morning 8.00am - 9.30am and
each afternoon 2.30pm - 4.00pm
Travel Pass for Students
Premier Charters has advised the following important information regarding students travelling to and from school using an Opal Card:
- School students are required to have a valid School Opal Card or travel pass for the commencement of school in January 2024.
- As of Monday 12th February all students without a valid School Opal card or Child/Youth Opal card, will be referred back to the school by the bus driver
- Parents and students are reminded to plan ahead and make sure their child knows which service/s to use and has a valid travel pass to travel.
Apply for a school travel pass or opal card: https://transportnsw.info/school-travel-apply
Students using School Opal cards are also reminded that they must tap on and tap off in line with the Student code of conduct https://transportnsw.info/student-code-conduct and Opal terms of use https://transportnsw.info/tickets-opal/opal/opal-terms-of-use
NCCD
The Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD) takes place every year. All schools in Australia must collect information about students with disability. The NCCD is a collection that counts:
- the number of school students receiving an adjustment or ‘help’ due to disability
- the level of adjustment they are receiving to access education on the same basis as other students.
The 2024 NCCD process has commenced. Further information is attached for your information.
Fact Sheet PDF is attached below
https://www.nccd.edu.au/sites/default/files/nccd_parent_fact_sheet_english_0.pdf
Gardening Club
World's Greatest Shave - Macie Cotton Year 6
Administration Reminders
- Student Belongings - Please ensure all student belongings are clearly labeled and check to ensure the label has not fadded
- Please provide spoons or forks if needed for lunch
2024 Representative Swimming Squad
P & F Annual General Meeting
2024 AGM 19 February 6.30pm
School Library
ALL WELCOME
Family Fun Day
The Family Fun Day is fast approaching - only 16 days to go!
