Dear Parents and Friends of Holy Cross,

HOLY CROSS FETE

In my first year as Principal in 2024, I was utterly amazed at the extraordinary work of our P&F in organising and preparing for the annual Holy Cross Fete! In most schools, including ones I have led in a previous diocese, the running of an annual Fete would be impossible. This is absolutely a credit to the well coordinated, strong communication, and dedicated hours given by our P&F ,and Fete committees, and the parents behind the scenes.  Here at Holy Cross ths mammoth work put in by the P&F and parent volunteers is recognised and so highly valued. 

We do STILL however, require a number of volunteers across all class stalls. Every cent of the funds raised end up back to the school with a wide range of resources purchased for your children. It is one of our community’s highlights for the year! So, please, even for ½ hr in what may be a busy schedule of family, sporting and other commitments, say YES! Yes to being a volunteer, by placing your name on the roster outside the office every morning and afternoon, drop in or call the office.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE 9:40am

We will open our Fete at 9:45am, with Acknowledgement of Country,  a short song and movement from each stage (K-2, Years 3 & 4 and Years 5 & 6),and a local dance school performance  before the FETE starts officially at 10am. We ask that parents have their child at school by 9:40am, on the TOP COLA, just before we commence the performances.

ENROLMENTS FOR 2026 ARE OPEN

Last Monday afternoon, many of our Year Six students served as wonderful and passionate tour guides for parents and their child visiting our school. I know that their enthusiasm and love of Holy Cross will have convinced them to enrol to come to school in 2026 for Kindergarten. Thank you Year Six!

The online application form will be accessible from the home page of our school website. https://www.hchdow.catholic.edu.au/enrol/

THE PLACE OF TEACHER PROFESSIONALISM

Our school’s Annual Improvement Plan’s impact on improving students’ faith, learning and wellbeing is highly dependent upon the ongoing professional learning and capacity building of our staff. 

Community of Practice (COP)

Last year, four one stream school principals came together to explore ways in which we could work together for the benefit of providing professional learning opportunities for our teachers which enable them to connect with other same year level teachers, and at the same time meeting similar school improvement goals around assessment, moderation and consistent teacher judgement. Yesterday, our staff joined together for a Twilight session with the staff of St Michael’s Thirroul, St Brigid’s Gwynneville and St Patrick’s Port Kembla til 6pm. We were fortunate to have Pr Jim Toglonini, Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment  University of Sydney present for our staff. Our Staff Development Day (11th April 2025- last day of Term 1) will continue this important professional learning.

The professional learning opportunities and official events that staff have engaged with the last two weeks: 

Principal_10.pdf

May the peace of Christ be with you,

Milena Colussi

Principal

COMMUNITY OUTREACH CLOSE TO HOME

In his capacity as a Surf Lifesaving NSW volunteer, Mr Body has been deployed this week, to assist with emergency services to the current flood zones resulting from Ex Tropical Cyclone Alfred in Northern NSW. This Community Service work is a great example of people in our community who are called to respond to a need beyond our community. 

Mr Body and the SLSNSW team he is with are responding to communities in Yamba, Lismore, Byron Bay and Wollongbar, with 1200 points of contact with those in need on Wednesday alone between emergency services and community.

ICAS results and certificates

All assessments will be conducted online, at school. The dates Holy Cross will complete the assessments are in the table below. Your child’s ICAS certificates will be delivered to school. Once we have received them, we will present them to your child to bring home. The back of the certificate will show your child’s ICAS results and the login details, “TAP ID and Pin”. - Use these to enter the Results Portal here.

Privacy collection statement
The following information is a privacy notification about how your child’s data is kept private and secure.

ICAS Assessment is owned by Janison Solutions Pty Ltd (We, Us, Our). To deliver assessment products, Janison will require your child’s School to obtain your consent to provide Janison with certain personal information of students. Janison will collect, store, use, disclose and otherwise deal with such personal information in accordance with its privacy policy (below). We are aware of our responsibility to protect personal information related to children and students from being disclosed when we deliver an ICAS Assessments product. Unless you, as the child’s legal guardian consents, we will not:

• collect any personal information or data of children other than the information we need for the successful completion of an assessment, test, or exam.
• transfer any personal information we obtain from a child in the delivery of assessments and tests to any jurisdiction outside of Australia.
• share any personal information relating to children with any third parties (except for those third parties necessary for us to carry out our Services or provide our Products e.g., medal engraving).
• use any personal information or data relating to children for marketing purposes.
  You can view our full privacy policy at https://www.janison.com/privacy-policy/.
  We may retain personal information and data relevant to a child for their future purposes or for research purposes by Janison for the duration of the school life cycle of the child. However, if you or your child at any time wish to have their personal information or data removed from our systems, they or you may opt out by simply contacting our Privacy Officer at privacy@janison.com or by contacting icasassessments@janison.com.
  We are excited to be offering ICAS to our students this year and look forward to celebrating their achievements. Please do not hesitate to contact the school office if you have any questions.

Kind regards,

Mr Lindsay Burns
Assistant Principal

Thank you for your generous donations and continued support of Project Compassion. Caritas Australia’s annual fundraiser raises funds for the world’s poorest communities. This week in our classes we focussed on the story of 13-year-old Toefuata'iga (Toy-foo-ah-tah-ing-ah), a student in the Upolu region of Samoa, experienced water scarcity at her school. The absence of a reliable and hygienic water supply has not only affected students’ education but also impacted their health. Despite being surrounded by water, many Samoans struggle with consistent access to clean drinking water, and resort to relying on rainwater or neighbours who have access to a water pipeline. Through the help of Project Compassion Caritas worked to provide a water tank so that the school had access to clean water for the students to drink at school. With your support, Caritas Australia provides practical solutions for communities like Toefuata’iga’s, ensuring clean water and education are not just dreams but realities. 

First Reconciliation - Dates for Workshops

Next Thursday evening our Year Three students will continue the sacramental journey for their Reconciliation. Over the next few weeks as they prepare we will keep these students in our prayers as they learn the importance of acknowledging errors but that God’s love is always there for us. 

Journey with Jesus: We Walk the Way of the Cross 

On Tuesday 8 April at 11:45am (Under the top COLA) you are warmly invited to journey through the Stations of the Cross led by our Years 4, 5 and 6 students.

The Stations of the Cross, also known as the Via Crucis, is a deeply significant and cherished Catholic devotion that invites the faithful to journey alongside Jesus in his final hours. This practice not only commemorates the events of Good Friday but also serves as a profound means of reflection on the suffering and sacrifice of Christ. Particularly during Lent, the Stations of the Cross provide an opportunity for us to meditate on the passion of Jesus, fostering a deeper understanding of His love and the redemptive nature of His suffering.

In this season of Lent, let us take a moment to think about fasting…with some guidance from Pope Francis…

Award Assemblies

Our school assemblies in Term 1 will be held fortnightly on Monday afternoons beginning at 2:30pm. Any change to the time will be communicated to parents via Compass. 

• Wk 9: Monday 24 March- Class Awards, Year 6 Class sharing and leader badges presented (Sport house leaders, SRC & Mini Vinnies Leaders and team)
• Wk 11: Monday 7 April- Principal Awards
  

IMPORTANT DATES

HOLY CROSS P&F FETE- Saturday 15th March

2025 SCHOOL PHOTOS - Monday 7th April (week 11) - Full Summer uniform. 

PUPIL FREE DAY  - Friday 11 April 2025.

Whole School Sport Carnival Dates 2025

Please find below a reminder of these dates, they are also on the Parent Calendar.

Cross Country - NEW DATE- Wednesday 19 March @ Rex Jackson Oval, K-6 (K & 1 til midday)

Athletics Carnival - Thursday, 29 May Barden Ridge K-6

Swimming Carnival - Friday 5th December

CROSS COUNTRY UPDATE- NEW DATE!

The new date for our annual whole school Cross Country is now on Wednesday 19th March, at Rex Jackson Oval. Details and permission requests have already been re-shared shared via COMPASS, for parents to update for this new date. 

Volunteers- we also need oir wonderful volunteers to re confirm their availability, equally, if you can now help out on this new date, let us know. 

Transport: Students will walk to and from the oval departing school promptly at 9:15am and depart the oval at approximately 1:30pm. Parents who wish to take their child home at this dismissal time (not earlier) will need to wait and then sign out their child after the last event. 

Kindergarten and Year 1 will return to school from midday, after a morning of running their race, house cheers, lunch and some ball games (time allowing). 

Wear: Students wear their full sports uniform including their school hat. They may wear a t- shirt in their house colour.

Bring: A small back pack with their Crunch and Sip, morning tea, lunch, plenty of water, and sunscreen.  

Supervision: All class teachers and School Support Officers

Parents are welcome to come along and watch. Please note that students are

Premier’s Reading Challenge 2025 – WE HAVE OUR FIRST PRC CHAMPS!

With the Challenge only being open for a few weeks, we already have our first three champions! Congratulations to:

Lee Kelleway – Year 6

Zeike Allen – Year 6

Zoe Cain – Year 5

Just a reminder of the requirements…

K-2: 30 books – teachers read Challenge books to students and reading records are entered by me.

Year 3-6: 20 books – students complete and enter their own reading records. Each student records their own Reading Log where they enter ALL books they read – this includes: Library books (both school and public Library), books from home, and books their teachers read to them. At the end of Term 2, there is a dedicated Library lesson on entering their Reading Logs – parents are not required to do this as it will be done at school.

The Challenge ends Friday, 22 August 2025.

***Stay tuned to see who completes the Challenge next!***

SCHOLASTIC BOOK CLUB ISSUE 2 NOW OPEN

At Holy Cross, we promote the Scholastic Book Club - Book Club is a great way for parents to provide their children with popular literature in a variety of genres which aids in encouraging children to read. And they also make great gifts!

Book Club Issue 2 catalogues have been sent home. These orders are due by 28 March 2025.

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.

An Interview With…Zoe (Year 5)

 Note from Mrs Murray: Zoe has been a Library Warrior since it started in 2022 and has never missed a Friday. She collects books in the morning before school and gives up her Lunch 2 to put books away. Zoe knows every section and is invaluable in teaching our new warriors how to know where to put the books. She is definitely one of my ‘Library Legends’.

 What section are you responsible for?

All sections, especially Senior Fiction.

(Zoe co-shares this section with Dom)

 What is your favourite book?

 The Wings Of Fire series.

 What do you love about being a Library Warrior?

EVERYTHING!

 What is your favourite Library task?

Putting the books away.

Happy reading everyone!

Sue Murray

Library Coordinator

The Holy Cross Parish Bulletin is emailed to our families via COMPASS, but it is easily accessible on the Parish website: https://www.helensburghcatholic.org.au/bulletins

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. 

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.

Can You Identify Signs That Your Child Might Need Support?
It’s natural for children to show some changes in behaviour when they're tired after a busy school day or feeling anxious before an important sports event. However, parents should be mindful if their child’s behaviour shifts noticeably from their usual self for a prolonged period, especially if the cause of this change isn't clear.

Signs that something may be going on emotionally for your child:
• If your child is normally very talkative and open, but they start to become quiet, not
wanting to talk and withdrawn from activities they use to enjoy.
• If your child has started to show new behaviours of lashing out such as slamming
doors, boundary pushing, appearing frustrated, and not able to express how they
feel and explain their emotions.
• If your child may be experiencing difficulties sleeping and eating because they are
feeling worried, anxious, or depressed.
• If your child has difficulties making friends or has become avoidant with their friends.

When it comes to your child, trust your instincts regarding their behaviour and emotions. If you notice that your child isn't quite acting like themselves, don't hesitate to reach out to the school staff. They can work together with the school counsellor to support your child's well-being and ensure they receive the help they may need.

Meet the School Counsellor
Hello everyone! My name is Sara, and I’m the school counsellor at Holy Cross Primary, partnering with Catholic Care. I hold a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work from the University of Wollongong and have extensive experience working with the NDIS, supporting both physical and mental health needs.

I am deeply passionate about ensuring that young people have a positive and fulfilling experience at school. I understand that children may face academic challenges, personal struggles, issues with peer relationships, or feelings of worry and anxiety. My approach is to provide a compassionate, non-judgmental space
where I can help them explore their emotions, identify underlying concerns, and work together to find practical solutions.

Please reach out to any of the staff members at school for a referral form if you would like your child to receive support.

Sara Ljuboja
School Counsellor