Dear Parents,

Today we recognise World Support Staff Day, and in particular give thanks for the amazing School Support Officers at Holy Cross. We are truly blessed to have such caring, compassionate, flexible and hard working staff who support our students and teachers every day. Their wisdom, initiative and willingness to take on every task that comes their way helps make our school the vibrant, supportive and quality school that it is.

Our teaching staff provided a special Morning Tea today to show our appreciation to our colleagues, however our students have said it best in this video. Thank you to the Leaders of Learning for putting this together.

Mrs Kaylene Duffin
Principal

The Ascension

Forty days after Jesus' Resurrection is a special day called The Ascension where Jesus makes his entry into Heaven. Here is a brief summary from the Gospel of Luke: 

"Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus brings His earthly ministry to a close by appearing to His disciples at the Mount of Olives. During this appearance he gives his final instructions to his disciples. After speaking, Jesus is taken up by a cloud into heaven. Two angels are present at the Ascension and speak with the disciples, telling them Jesus will return the same way he left."

The Ascension is a meaningful celebration for us because it tells us about Jesus and His entry into heaven. Ten days after the Ascension is Pentecost which marks the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the church!

First Holy Communion

First Holy Communion Mass - Sunday 20 June 10am 

Reconciliation - 15 Minute timeslots

Monday, 24 May 3.15pm - 6pm

Wednesday, 26 May 3.15 - 6pm

Monday, 31 May 3.15 - 6pm

Wednesday, 2 June 3.15pm - 6pm

Contact the Parish Office regarding First Holy Communion and Reconciliation on

Ph:  4294 1009, if unattended please leave a voice message.

Staff 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 staff professional learning:

3 & 4 May - Principal’s Retreat

Mrs Duffin

5 & 6 May - Courage To Be Spiritual Retreat

Mrs Barbuto

6 & 7 May - AEDC Data Collection

Mrs Cardamone

7 May - Learning In Leadership

Mrs Jennett

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 affects. 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. 

Sometimes being late is beyond our control. However, it is important to teach children some of the things that hasten the morning routine, e.g. packing their bag the night before, ensuring that all parts of their uniform are ready the night before or getting up half an hour earlier in the morning.

SORA - Opportunity for Parents to Learn About our Online Library

SORA is our online digital Library where students may borrow books electronically. Last Friday, Jim Gallagher from CEDoW provided our students with support in accessing SORA as well as booking books from our school Library online.  

We are providing workshops for parents on how to use SORA to borrow digital books. These workshops will run for 20 mins and will be offered just before our Assembly in Week 6 and just after our Assembly: Monday 24 May 8.30am - 8.50am and 9.30am-9.50am. Parents are required to bring a device to download the SORA app and to access their child’s account. 

Reporting Timeline - Years 1 -6

Towards the end of Term 2, Year 1-6 students will receive their Semester 1 Reports. The Semester 1 Report, will demonstrate student’s academic achievement in relation to what they have learnt in Term 1 and Term 2. Reports will be released via Compass on Thursday 17 June, Week 9. This will be followed by Parent/Teacher Interviews in Week 10. There will be one late night of interviews on Tuesday 22 June. Interview bookings will be released closer to the date. 

Assemblies

This term our Assemblies are being held on a Monday at 9am in Weeks 6, 8 and 10. Parents are welcome to attend Assemblies to be held on the top COLA.

CatholicCare National Families Week Webinar Series

To celebrate National Families Week CatholicCare is running a five-part webinar series to celebrate family and make the most out of family life. Each webinar will have a different focus. 

Family Resilience

Understand what a resilient person and family looks like, and how you can build resilience within yourself and your family.

Family Values

Understand what values are and why they are important. By identifying our family values we can better understand and connect.

Family Connection

With our lives so busy we can struggle to keep connections within our family, learn why connection is important and how to sustain or build family connections

Family Self-Care

Learn why self-care is so important and how looking after ourselves, has a flow-on effect on the whole family.

Family Mindfulness

Learn what mindfulness is and the benefits it provides, not just for ourselves, but also the benefit it has on our family.

See the link here to register:

https://dowcatholic.zoom.us/webinar/register/6016202622065/WN_GZrZMh1VQJaNNlkTsRaBOA

Uniform

Canteen

Gardening Club

Year 2 – The Material World 

Week 2 was our planning session with Mrs Rowles and Mrs Hennock and we will be investigating ‘How Materials Change’ for Stage 1’s Science and Technology Unit. We will be working with Year 2 from Week 3-6 and Year 1 from Week 7-10. Week 3 started with a Volcano experiment where Year 2 hypothesised and investigated what would happen when everyday materials were mixed together. We also potted beans seeds which will be observed and documented over the next few weeks.

Lunchtime Gardening Club 

Unfortunately, due to the deluge of rain in Week 3, Gardening Club could not go ahead. However, there is some planning in the pipeline for a very exciting project that our Gardening Club will be involved in starting in Week 4…watch this space to find out what it is!

Stay tuned to see what we get up to next.

Sue Murray, GC Coordinator

School Term Dates - 2021 

• Term 3 – Monday 12 July - Thursday 16 September  (Friday 17 September is a pupil free day)

• Term 4 – Tuesday 5 October - Wednesday 15 December (Thursday 16 & Friday 17 December are pupil free days)
  
  

Confirmed Pupil Free Dates - 2021

Term 3 - Friday, 17 September

Term 4 - Thursday & Friday, 16 & 17 December