Dear Parents and Carers,

This week we celebrated Catholic Schools Week. This week has always been an opportunity to gather as a community in prayer and to share in our students’ learning. In the past, we have been used to BBQs, classroom visits and whole school masses. Once again, this year, we have had to change these usual celebrations due to COVID restrictions. Without our family’s presence, we continued to celebrate our distinct Catholic heritage with liturgies, classroom learning and a picnic. 

The opportunity to embrace our catholicity and celebrate what makes us special began on  Monday with a truly beautiful liturgy. During this Liturgy we unveiled our school’s history captured in a visual display at the front entrance to our school. This amazing display has been two years in the making and is the result of the passion and hard work of Mrs Bernadette Baker and Mrs Lucia Barbuto. Our staff and students celebrated our school’s history during stage liturgies where we prayed and gave thanks for those who haved paved the way over the past 100 years to make Holy Cross the school it is today. 

For our staff and students, this display will be the first thing we see as we arrive at school and the last thing we see as we leave. This will be a constant reminder of our school’s Josephite charism and ensure its relevance for us today.

Unveiling this visual representation of our history coincided with celebrating 200 years of Catholic schooling in Australia.

Honouring Our Past. Embracing Our Future

We extend our sincere gratitude to Mrs Bernie Baker and Mrs Lucia Barbuto for bringing this representation to fruition. Thank you also to Miss Costello for her tireless efforts this week in making Catholic Schools Week special for our students. Also thank you to our Year 6 Leaders of Learning for designing and producing this imovie to share our new signage with our community.  

Mrs Kaylene Duffin
Principal

ENROLMENT FORMS FOR 2022

Enrolment forms are now available at the

school office for Kindergarten 2022

Enrolment forms are due to the school office by Thursday, 1 April, 2021

What Makes Holy Cross a Special Catholic School

Beautiful gardens, trees taller than buildings. At Holy Cross, we get to experience amazing gardens which is why we are a great school. Let me tell you more about our gardens and gardening club. There is “taste and sniff” where you get to eat different types of fresh foods, this teaches kids to try new things. We can also plant seeds and watch them grow. Every Thursday at Lunch kids can get involved with Mrs Murray and Rod planting, watering and maintaining our awesome veggie patch. So come get your hand in some mulch today at Holy Cross Helensburgh and remember our gardens make us great. - By Ruby Year Five

Communicating with Teachers

Parents are encouraged to make contact with their child’s teacher at any time throughout the year. Please contact your child’s teacher through the school office rather than through Seesaw. Office staff will inform teachers of parents’ requests. Thank you for your cooperation with this.

Staff Professional Learning

Research tells us that teacher quality has the greatest in school impact on student achievement. Therefore, quality professional learning must be a high priority. At Holy Cross, our teachers and support staff attend varied professional learning courses that are relevant to the strategic direction of our school. We are conscious that some of this professional learning occurs throughout the school day and that classes are taught by a casual teacher on these occasions. Class teachers always plan the learning for casual teachers and provide a summary of the needs of the class.

In each newsletter this year, the professional learning courses staff have attended over the past fortnight will be acknowledged.

18 February, Lamplighters Spirituality

Mis Facci & Mrs Caradmone

22 February, Diverse Learning Needs Network Meeting

Mrs Jennett & Mrs Mitrevski

24 February, Learning in Leadership

Mrs Jennett 

25 February, Principal and Instructional Coach Conference

Mrs Duffin & Mrs N Baker

22 February, Diverse Learning Needs Network Meeting

Mrs Jennett & Mrs Mitrevski

School Assembly

Our next School Assembly will be held on Wednesday, 10 March at 2.30pm.

Zoom code: https://dowcatholic.zoom.us/j/96898077701

Congratulations, Ruby

Congratulations to Ruby in Year 4 who competed at the Junior State Cup for Touch Football in Wagga for the Cronulla Sharks last weekend.

Her u/10 team were undefeated all weekend and only let in 1 try against them during the whole tournament. Ruby has trained hard for this tournament which showed in her determination and teamwork. Ruby and her team are the NSW State Champs for the 3rd year running. 

Congatulations, Eddie

We are so proud of Eddie who competed in the State Nipper Titles in the Inclusion Events at Swansea Belmont last weekend. Eddie won a gold medal in the board race and two bronze medals in surf swim race and flags. 

Eddie combated huge surf conditions showing courage and skill. 

Positive Behaviours for Learning (PB4L) Focus and House Reward

This term we have introduced a whole school reward system based on our four House Colours and our PB4L Focus. Currently the PB4L Focus is Be Responsible and next week this focus will change to Be Respectful. 

South Coast Swimming Trials

Athletic Carnival

Canteen

The help would be much appreciated.

Joanne Donovan, Canteen Manager

Holy_Cross_School_Canteen_Menu.pdf

Holy_Cross_School_Canteen_Menu _pdf 237.67 KB

 

Gardening Club

Year 4 – An UnBEElievable Introduction

Over the last fortnight Year 4 have had an explosion of information regarding this incredible creature! We BEEgan our discovery in Week 4 learning some key facts like how many types there are, where they live, what they eat etc.  Week 5 was all about what makes these busy creatures happy and our students researched a particular flower that attracts them. Then it was all about creativity with some very accurate drawings of the researched flower which will be displayed in class.

Lunchtime Gardening Club – Why Are There So Many Weeds!

After so much rain and no activity since the end of last year in The Patch, the weeds (mainly grass) have taken up residence in our raised garden beds. Unfortunately the rain stopped us getting out into the garden in Week 4 but that did not mean we were unproductive – our group assembled in the Library, and after a short meeting, decided that there was only one priority – WEED ATTACK!!! Our students decided to attack two garden beds at a time, clearing them of all the grass as well as any vegetables and herbs that have finished. Then our Leaders did some peer teaching in how to read the back of a packet of seeds so they could decide what to plant. Week 5 saw the plan go into action with lots of a competition to see ‘who could get the longest piece of grass’. With some freshly grown strawberries as the prize (they were ‘discovered’ under some grass in the Berry Garden), competition was fierce! Although Keira ended up being our Weed Attack winner for Week 5 (congratulations Keira), everyone had worked super hard. And in Gardening Club, we love to reward hard work, so all our students enjoyed a forage from what produce was available – the ‘spicy’ plant (chives), french sorrel, mint, rosemary, fennel as well as picking our edible flowers of calendula and lavender. 

Stay tuned for what we get up to next.

Sue Murray, Gardening Club Coordinator

UNIFORM SHOP

Next Date

Monday, 8 March

8.45am - 9.30am

All second hand items - $5.00

New hats, caps, library bags and school bags
also available

(CASH ONLY)

Term Dates - 2021 

• Term 1 – Wednesday 27 January - Thursday 1 April
• Term 2 – Monday 19 April - Friday 25 June
• Term 3 – Monday 12 July - Friday 17 September
• Term 4 – Tuesday 5 October - Friday 17 December
  
  

Confirmed Pupil Free Dates - 2021

Term 2 - Monday, 19 April

Term 4 - Thursday & Friday, 16 & 17 December