Dear Parents

Last Sunday, our Year 1 & Year 2 students helped lead the liturgy at Sunday Mass. This joyous celebration was even more significant with several of our students being baptised directly after mass. The sense of community and seeing so many of our students and their families coming together to pray together filled me with a sense of pride. A big thank you to all of our families and staff who attended and congratulations to our newly baptised students.

At this Mass on Sunday the parish in conjunction with our school launched the Vinnies Winter Appeal. Each class are asked to bring in food items which will be collected by our Year 6 Leaders and handed on to our local chapter of St Vincent de Paul and they will be distributed to community members who are not as fortunate to have the gifts we enjoy on a day to day basis. Please see Miss Costello’s news later in the newsletter for more details.

Principal Appraisal

As you are aware the Catholic Education Office will conduct a formal Principal
Appraisal in June. A part of the process is a Panel Review, which will be occurring on Wednesday, 19 June 2019. The Panel is comprised of an external Educational Consultant, a peer Principal and a CEDoW Leadership member. On this day the Parish Priest, members of staff, students and a parent representative group (approximately 12 parents) will meet with the panel. If you would like to be included in the parent group interview which will be scheduled for approximately 40 minutes please complete the tear off section on the note sent home on Wednesday with your child and return to the school office as soon as possible.

Pentecost Mass and Morning Tea

All parents and friends are warmly invited to attend Mass to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost on Tuesday 11 June, 9.15am. All students from Kinder to Year 6 will attend Mass together on this day. Morning tea will be served in the school library directly after Mass.

Semester One Reports and Interviews

Student Reports for Terms 1 & 2 will available on Friday 21 June. These reports will hopefully give you an understanding of how your children are progressing at school, areas that they have achieved in and areas where improvement may be made. Parent Teacher Interviews will take place on Monday 24 June and Wednesday 26 June from 2pm – 6pm. These interviews will be booked using the COMPASS portal and have opened for bookings from Monday 3 June. There have been some issues with COMPASS and I realise that at times the portal has been unavailable, however it is now up and running and open for bookings.

P&F Meeting

The next P&F meeting will take place in the school library on Wednesday 12 June, 7.00pm. Come along and support the parent body, have your say on how fundraising funds are to be spent and hear all about what is going on in the school community.

Social Media Policy

Catholic Education Diocese of Wollongong (CEDoW) has released a Social Media Policy and a Social Media Statement that include Social Media Standards when using social media in relation to CEDoW or any of its school communities.

The Social Media Policy and Social Media Statement set an expectation that users of social media respect the dignity of all people at all times. Users are also expected not to promote perspectives contrary to the Catholic faith, and not publicly criticise or bring into disrepute CEDoW or any of its school communities.

The Social Media Policy outlines the expectation that schools use social media in valid educational contexts to support student learning and wellbeing. It also outlines expectations for all in the school community when using social media in the context of CEDoW or any of its school communities.

The Social Media Policy and Statement can be found at -

Mr Brendan Dickinson
Principal

Vinnies Winter Appeal

Pentecost Mass

Sunday June 9 is Pentecost Sunday. It was at Pentecost that the disciples experienced the Holy Spirit for the first time. On Tuesday, 11 June at 9:15am, everyone is invited to our whole school Mass to share in this celebration.

First Holy Communion

On Sunday, 23 June at 8:30am during the Parish Mass Year 3 students will receive the sacrament of First Holy Communion.  We ask that you keep these students in your prayers as they prepare for this special occasion.

Miss Emily Costello, Religious Education Coordinator

Technology and iPad devices are used effectively and discriminately at Holy Cross. They provide a unique and powerful opportunity to enhance student learning and we thank parents for their ongoing support and management of our digital citizens.

Technology is introduced and supported from Kindergarten with 81 devices available for these young students (K-2) to begin their cyber journey with safety and opportunities in developing appropriate IT skills. Holy Cross now operates a BYO 1:1 iPad program for all students from Year 3 to Year 6. This allows 4 years of developing information technology skills along with cyber safety and digital citizenship. We want our students to be using the iPad and technology in the most appropriate manner.

It is timely that we remind our school community that we are all responsible hosts of technology and that there are several critical user agreements that we have in place at school. These agreements help provide a safe environment for technology use at school and home. Some of these include;

• Students must not go to other Apps without permission
• iPads are not to be used before or after school, during recess, lunch or on buses
• The SPB4L Minor/Major behaviour matrix applies for repeated and inappropriate use of an iPad. (see below for details) This can result in iPads being removed from use for a set time as determined by the school
• Parents are to contact the school office for all messages and not use device Apps (Messenger, Messages, etc) for communicating to students
• Many Apps have an age usage criteria to be acknowledged. These include Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Musical.ly and Skype etc. In most cases you must be of high school age. (13 Years)
• Users do not use another device that is not their own without permission by the owner

Should you require any clarification or further information please contact the school. We appreciate your support and are enjoying providing a 21st Century learning environment of which devices like the iPads are a big part.

Mr Jeff Bõdy
Middle Leader