Dear Parents and Friends,

This week, and over the next few days, we find ourselves in the most important time of our Catholic faith. It’s like a “grand final” in a way. Holy Week and the Easter Triduum are the way in which, through the liturgy of these three days, we as a Church remember that Christ suffered and died, but that he also came to life. The Triduum is the celebration of the Church’s salvation through Christ. 

'Triduum' is a Latin term (meaning three days) used by the Catholic Church to denote the three days that trace the final days of Jesus' life, his death, and his resurrection from the dead. The Easter Triduum begins with the evening Mass of the Lord's Supper and ends after evening prayers at sunset on Easter Day. The meaning of the Easter Triduum: Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday.

I wish all of our staff, students and families every Easter blessing. May the hope and saving grace of Jesus’ resurrection be yours. 

Prioritising the core work of teaching

This year’s CEDoW Education Mass provided an opportunity to formally launch the system’s collaboratively developed understanding of the Core Work of Teaching, by our Director of Schools Peter Hill.

This describes the five elements central to the work of teaching in a CEDoW school and is a critical prerequisite to delivering on the outcomes in our Lighting the Way focus area: System support for the core work of teaching. Click here to view the full core work of teaching document.

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 fortnight includes:

Staff Update

After a repeated recruitment process, I am pleased to be able to inform you that we have appointed a teacher for Year 5, for the remainder of this 2024 school year. Mrs Louise Sprod has commenced at Holy Cross this week, and we warmly welcome her to our community. She is looking forward to settling in and getting to know our fabulous Year 5 students.

NAPLAN 2024

Congratulations to all of our Year 3 and 5 students who sat NAPLAN this year in the past two weeks. We are extremely proud of you for showing a calm, positive and confident approach. 

We thank Mr Bõdy and Mrs Jennett for the coordination of NAPLAN, and to Mrs Rowles, Mrs Barbuto, Mrs Sevenoaks, Mrs Baker and Mrs Mitrevski for their support of the Year 3 and Year 5 classes this year.

Proud of our students!

I encourage you to read this week’s Student Learning Spotlight, Captain’s Corner, and Library Warriors sections. These are wonderful opportunities for our students to find their voice and show us their passions, interests, engagement with their faith and proudly share their learning achievements. I am so very proud of the way in which our students, in many different ways, engage with real world issues, and are able to talk and write about these confidently. We love bringing their voice to you, so look out for these and more every fortnight! Enjoy!

Every Blessing,

Milena Colussi
Principal

Holy Week and Easter

This week we, as the Catholic Church, acknowledge and commemorate the events of Holy Week. Holy week closes the 40 day period of Lent. It is the most important week in the Church's year. It begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Saturday evening, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. 

Palm Sunday marks Jesus' royal entry into Jerusalem. The Easter Triduum is the liturgical name for the three days ending Lent and leading into Easter; Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The Easter Triduum marks the most significant events of Holy Week. Holy Thursday celebrates the event of the Lord's Last Supper. Jesus showed the apostles the meaning of the commandment to love one another by washing their feet and he revealed the depth of his love for humankind by giving us his own body and blood as displayed by the breaking and sharing of bread and wine. 

On Good Friday Christians remember the suffering and death endured by Jesus in order that sins be forgiven. Usually Christians commemorate this event by attending the Stations of the Cross and the 3pm Good Friday ceremonies at Church. The Saturday of the Easter Triduum is a day of quiet reflection and prayerful anticipation, for the resurrection. At the Easter Vigil Mass (Saturday night) and on Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples on a number of occasions. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he commissioned his disciples to preach the Good News throughout the world. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples to give them strength and guidance.

Harmony Day

On Thursday last week, the students celebrated Harmony Day with a touch of orange with their uniforms. They were engaged in some activities in class focussed on inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone.

Project Compassion

Last Friday we had a mufti day for Project Compassion. Students have been learning about all of the wonderful work of Caritas Australia during Lent. Thank you for all of your donations. It would be fantastic if you could please return all project compassion boxes and donations to school by the end of Week 10. Again our thanks, I look forward to sharing our donation total with you.

May your personal journey during the events of Holy Week and the Easter Season continue to strengthen your faith, trust and love for our God. 

Wishing you a happy and holy Easter,

Mrs Debbie Turton 
Religious Education Coordinator

WEN Team Report

Young people demand change.
They wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future, without thinking of the environmental crisis and the sufferings of the excluded. Laudato Si’ n13 

On the 20th March, Lee, Adelaide, Florence and Ally, from Year 5 attended the Primary Student WEN  Day at St Paul’s Albion Park.

The Wollongong Environment Network (WEN) is an initiative of the Catholic Education Office that aims to support school communities to respond to  Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’ and implement environmental stewardship and sustainability in their schools.

Caring for Our Common Home

In Laudato Si’, Pope Francis has addressed all people throughout the world to care for our common home, calling us all to “cooperate as instruments of God for the care of creation” and to have an ecological conversion.

Day’s Events

The day started with the gathering of over 120 Years 5 or 6 students from across the Wollongong Diocese. We had made our name tags for the day from recycled materials. We shared a prayer and a very special Acknowledgement of Country. 

We listened to the words of Pope Francis in his letter, Laudato Si, where he reminds us that all of Creation is a gift from God. Pope Francis’ message to us is, “We are taking more than our fair share of resources and we must look after each other and care for our Common Home.”

Keynote Presentation – Pip Kiernan  Clean Up Australia 

Pip’s father, Ian Kiernan, was circumnavigating the world, he became sad and angry when he saw how polluted the ocean was with plastic waste. In 1989, when he returned to Australia, he rallied his friends to clean up Sydney Harbour with him. He was amazed when 40,000 people turned up to help! The next year he started a Foundation called Clean up Australia and today over 1,000,000 people participate every year Australia wide.

Pip’s main message to us was, the success of Clean Up Australia shows that we as individuals CAN make a difference.

We also heard from Greta Thunberg, who at the age of 15 became an Environmental Activist. Her message to us was,

Remember, you are never too small to make a difference.

Our school was invited to present some of our work supporting Laudato Si. We wrote and prepared a slide show of all the Environmental Initiatives at our school, including Gardening Club, equipment for Gardening Club, worm farms and FOGO, reducing Canteen waste,  co-mingled recycling, nude lunches, Environmental Class of the Week trophy and Raffles for Earth.

ECO ACTIVITIES

We made a bag using our old t-shirts by only cutting and tying, no sewing. This was a lot of fun and  a good idea for a class to do   .

This was one of the 5 R’s. The 5 r’s are: REFUSE, REDUCE, REUSE, REPURPOSE, RECYCLE!

We wrote an environmental prayer together and this is displayed at the end of our Report. In the afternoon we discussed the Good Green Stories shared by the 4 other presenting schools. We were inspired by their stories and we are now even more motivated to do more GREEN initiatives at Holy Cross. 

We decided on the following initiatives that we could introduce at Holy Cross:

1. THE BRING IT BACK PROGRAM, where we collect used school supplies, like textas and pens, and an adult takes them to OFFICE WORKS for recycling.
2. SIGNAGE for our Garden beds made with the 3D printer, eg. Sight and Touch, Touch, Taste, Smell.

In the Commissioning Ritual, we were presented with our WEN badges and we made a pledge to work as Environmental Ambassadors at our school. We also wrote  this  prayer that we will pray at any  Environment  days or events at school.

HOLY CROSS ENVIRONMENT PRAYER

Creator God,

You have given us the trees that surround us and give us life.

You have given us the plants that sustain us.

You have given us the animals and birds that bring us joy.

We thank you for all of creation that you have given to us.

Help us to keep trying to do the best we can to care for our common home.

AMEN

Year 5 newly commissioned Eco-Ambassadors:Lee Adelaide, Florence and Alessandra.

Stay tuned for more Green Initiatives coming to Holy Cross.

Thank you for your support in caring for our common home,

Mrs.L.Barbuto and The Primary Student WEN Team.

Enrolment for 2025

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 contact the school, or commence an application. Enrolment is now online, and can be accessed via our school website. 

School Website

Holy Cross Facebook

If you have not yet followed us, please do! We aim to post photos of student learning and events. We also post a “Next Week at Holy Cross” weekly diary of reminders. 

https://www.facebook.com/holycross.helensburgh

Term 2 Dates

All dates can be found on the school website via the Parent Calendar. Further dates will be shared by the end of this term, and on the Parent online Calendar. 

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the 2nd Pupil Free Day in Term 2 (11 June) will need to be moved. We will inform you of the new date in the next newsletter.

Key Term 2 dates include:

Monday 29 April - PUPIL FREE DAY

Tuesday 30 April - students first day of Term 2

Wednesday 1 May- ANZAC Day service …….Parents and friends welcome.

Tuesday 7 May - Diocesan Cross Country Carnival

Thursday 9 May - School Athletics Carnival @ Beaton Park, Wollongong

Friday 10 May - Mother’s Day celebrations

Thursday 24 May - Mary Help of Christians - Whole school mass

Tuesday 11 June - PUPIL FREE DAY    CHANGE OF DATE TBC

Friday 5 July- NAIDOC Week celebrations. Last day of Term 2.

ASSEMBLIES

Term 1

Our last Assembly for Term 1 will be on Tuesday 9 April at 2:30pm- Principal Awards (Students receiving these will be communicated to parents by Monday 8 April)

Term 2

Our fortnightly school assemblies during Term 2 will be held on Monday afternoons at 2.35pm. 

Week 2 - Monday 6 May

Week 4 - Monday 20 May (Year 6 Sharing)

Week 6 - Monday 3 June (Principal Awards)

Week 8 - Monday 17 June (Kindergarten Sharing)

Week 10 - Monday 1 July (Principal Awards)

Uniform

The change from wearing Summer uniform to Winter uniform officially begins in Week 3, Term 2, Monday 13 May. Up until this date, there will be a transition period whereby students have the option of wearing either summer or winter uniform as appropriate for the weather.  

Please Note:

½ zip polar fleece jumper with school logo can be worn under School Jacket or under Sports Jacket on cold days or by itself with the Winter or Summer uniform.

The Chrism Mass

World's greatest Shave

Library News

Congratulations Holy Cross Students - We're in the top 10!!!

The 2023 Diocese borrowing statistics, collated by our CEO, have been announced and our little school has achieved an outstanding result. Our borrowing stats are as follows:

Library Borrowing – 8^th overall
SORA Borrowing – 9^th overall
Total Borrowing – 9^th overall

Considering we are the 5^th smallest school out of 29 Primary Schools in our Diocese, our students should be really proud of their efforts. I believe these stats show our students commitment to borrowing which has been shown to help foster a love of reading. WELL DONE HOLY CROSS!

Scholastic Book Club - Issue 2 still Open

There’s still time to get your order in. These orders are due by Friday, 29 March 2024.

How to order:

* jump online to order: https://bookclubs.scholastic.com.au/

* if your order is a gift, you can nominate it online as ‘gift’.

* once the orders arrive, all parents are given a courtesy call.

PLEASE NOTE: all orders are done online, the school does not collect cash or cheques.

Book Coverers Update

A HUGE ‘thank you’ to all the parents and grandparents who responded to the call to cover the decoders for our infants – the task is now done.

LIBRARY WARRIORS

An Interview With…Keira (Year 5)

Note from Mrs Murray: Keira has been a Library Warrior since it started in 2022 and has never missed a Friday. Keira has shown herself to be highly committed to the organisation of her collection and is a valued member of our team.

What section are you responsible for?

Popular Fiction and Popular Fiction series.

What is your favourite book?

 I love Smile by Raina Telgemeier.

What do you love about being a Library Warrior?

Helping Mrs Murray with all the books.

What is your favourite Library task?

Finding all the doubles and giving them to Mrs Murray.

(Note: This collection has become overcrowded and finding doubles is important to make room for new titles.)

Happy reading everyone!

Sue Murray
Library Coordinator

Lunchtime Clubs – What Is Kpop Club?

By Mrs Murray

Every Friday at Lunch 1, I coordinate Kpop Club.

K-pop, short for Korean popular music, is a form of popular music originating in South Korea as part of South Korean culture. It consists mainly of boy bands (think BTS) and girl bands (think Blackpink) and is known for their catchy songs and intricate dance moves. This club was originally initiated by one of our students, Lee, who expressed an interest in Kpop back in 2021 and asked me if we could play some songs at Lunch 1. Songs were trialled, students started turning up and Kpop Club was born.

Kpop Club, like all our lunchtime clubs, is voluntary and provides a safe, inclusive space for anyone who wants to participate. The club offers dancing experiences that range from free-form, relay and follow along (think Zumba style) – with lots of student requests that we always run out of time to play them all!

With anywhere between 10 to 30 students attending throughout Lunch 1, there is a lot of laughter and fun with friendships being formed across the K-6 grades – but don’t take that from me! Here's what some of our regular Kpop Club-ers have to say…

“I love Kpop Club because I get to dance and you can sometimes choose your own songs.” – Zoe

“The thing I like about Kpop Club is we get to dance. My favourite is Catch Me by TVXQ.” – Dominic

“We like dancing with our friends. We have lots of fun.” - Arie & Noa

“I love Kpop Club because it has a wide variety of songs to listen to and everyone gets a chance to choose a song.” - Lee

Amended_Term_1_Menu_2024_(1).pdf

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On the 26th of March, the whole school went to a presentation from a Cleanaway educator in the library about how we can reduce waste at Holy Cross. We learnt about the three R’s reduce, reuse and recycle, and about logos on the back of products, and what items went in appropriate bins.

We learnt:

• about what goes in the red bins including soft plastics, food waste, paper, food wrappers, coffee cups, straws and cutlery

• about landfill including digging a huge hole, putting the rubbish in and covering it up, the gases that come out like carbon dioxide and methane. They use pipes to get rid of the gases and create it into electricity
• that in Australia we will be running out of room for landfill in the next 10 years.

We interviewed some students from each class. Here are some of the things that the students learnt: 

Evie and Eddie

Binwise (WEN TEAM REPORT)

In response to Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’, we are called Ecological Conversion and to Care for our Common Home. 

At Holy Cross,we are continually striving to improve and further develop and streamline a school-wide waste management system that is sustainable and part of everyday practice. Education and communication to students, staff and wider school community about the various environmental actions within the daily routine of the school is always promoted on a regular basis.The whole school is aware of and follows these actions. Environmental activities are being managed effectively and sustainably. 

Holy Cross  also:

• conducts whole school waste audits to raise awareness of what waste is currently being generated and recycled.
• promotes Waste Free Lunches  across the school community to reduce the amount of packaging generated.

On the 26th March, Holy Cross participated in a CLEANAWAY incursion called Binwise to further support our ecological conversion. This Green initiative was funded by our recently acquired CEO Environmental Grant. As well as providing for an educational program, the grant funds will cover the cost of our newly purchased co-mingled bins.

Our Environmental Project Title for 2024 is called Co-mingled Recycling: Streamlining Waste Management at Holy Cross Helensburgh. It ties in with our SEMP II  2023 -2026  Action Plans. 

This project  addresses the areas listed through education and hands on activities: Holy Cross’ need to reduce the School’s Ecological Footprint

through the introduction of the following: REMONDIS Co-Mingled Recycling, battery recycling, greening of canteen, monitoring of energy and Waste Free Lunch Days.  

Our presenter shared slides all about reducing, reusing, recycling. He explained how some of our waste is sorted by machines called Trommels and how some people also use the word refusing. Numerous explanations were given on how to use the new bins correctly. We highlighted what could and could not be placed into our new recycling bins. We also participated in some recycling bin sorting activities and quizzes. Some takeaway points were to use reusable keep cups, recycle more, avoid excess plastic packaging where possible, buy bulk packets of food/snacks instead of multipacks, compost food scraps and to use the correct recycling bins at all times.

Summary -  So where to from now?

Our aim at Holy Cross is to reduce the amount of wrapping and packaging generated

by the school community and to encourage more environmentally friendly options for catering at school events and functions.  We will strive to Include a monitoring of energy and encourage more awareness across the school community of sustainable practices.

Stay tuned for more Green Initiatives coming to Holy Cross.

Thank you for your support in caring for our common home,

Mrs.L.Barbuto and The Primary Student WEN  Team.

Year 6: Jake, Elise,and Year 5 newly commissioned Eco-Ambassadors:Lee Adelaide, Florence and Alessandra.

Photo Competition

The Photography competition held at our annual Holy Cross School Fun Day this year was the best one yet.  We received around 50 entries submitted from the students here at Holy Cross from Kindergarten to year 6, and we definitely have some extremely talented photographers amongst us indeed. From nature and landscape images to portraits and pets, the subjects and techniques shown to create these works of art were fantastic. It was truly a challenge for the teachers to choose the top 10 to judge for the competition due to the high quality and creativeness of the photos. Thank you to all the children who entered.  

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Photography Competition.

Infants/Junior competition - 1st place winner was Max Bloomfield with "Float"

Primary/Senior competition - 1st place winner was Zara Buckley with "Kelly about to peck"

The winners received an achievement certificate and a winners cash prize presented on the day of $30 each.

This year also saw the introduction of the Principal's Choice Award. Mrs Milena Colussi chose two special entries that she admired, and let me tell you - this was a difficult choice due to the photos being of such high calibre. I was very impressed indeed. This year's winners were Maggie Carolan (Yr3) - with "from darkness to light", and Amos Leydon (Yr6) with "Mushroom".

All Finalists and winners received their certificates at the last assembly. Well done all.

Illawarra/Shoalhaven Information for parents if a child is discharged from hospital

Communicating with Schools After Your Child / Young Person’s Hospital or Emergency Department Visit. 

If your child or young person visit an Illawarra – Shoalhaven Emergency Department you may receive an “Emergency Department Post Card”. This card encourages parents / carers

to contact the school. This is part of Health and Education’s ongoing commitment to the well-being and safety of students. Even if you haven’t received a Post Card it is important you let a school know about the visit. Contacting the school enables you and the student to be involved in developing any plan needed.

If you can, before leaving the hospital ask for a written note or medical certificate outlining any necessary information for your child's teacher/s and school staff.

What do schools need to know?

• Brief Description: What happened and when?
• Current Health Status: How the student is feeling, and any immediate health concerns.
• Medical Advice: Any specific recommendations or restrictions, including care and safety plans.
• If medications are required to be given at school, please provide a letter outlining the details (e.g.medicine type, dosage, times etc) which is signed by your treating doctor.
• Follow up: Any referrals made by the hospital or recommendations for follow up appointments e.g.GP or psychologist.
• Return to School: A timeline of your child's expected return to school. In most cases your child will be able to return to school the following day, however parents should consult with the school first, to ensure that the school is aware of the current health concerns and can ensure the safety of your child.

The school, in consultation with families, can put in place adjustments to support children and young people's wellbeing, physical health and academic learning. Working with the schools on this will help maintain a safe and supportive environment for all students.

How to let schools know.

• Phone or visit the school's main office and ask to speak to the Principal or an Executive team member (i.e. Assistant Principal, Wellbeing / Pastoral Coordinator, School Counsellor or Year Coordinator) about returning to school after a student being discharged from hospital.
• The school may discuss your child's needs with you over the phone or if necessary, invite you to a meeting at the school.
• Provide the school with documents provided by the hospital such as written notes, a discharge summary or a medical certificate outlining the necessary information for your child.

Please be assured that all information will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and sensitivity.