Dear parents and friends of Holy Cross,

I would like to extend a warm welcome to you for the 2023 school year. In particular, I welcome our new families whose students will begin Kindergarten on Tuesday 7 February and hope you will enjoy being a valued member of our Holy Cross community. 

We value the strong partnerships we have with our families and look forward to working with you to ensure Holy Cross provides a supportive and welcoming environment with rich learning opportunities that will allow your children to improve in their learning and grow in their faith. 

Thank you in advance for ensuring your children are prepared for the year ahead. We look very forward to welcoming our Year 1 - 6 students on Tuesday, 31 January and our Kindergarten students on 7 February 2023.

God Bless,

Kaylene Duffin

Creative Arts Lessons

We welcome Mrs Zoe Van Akker to our school community who will teach Creative Arts. Creative Arts is a mandated NESA Key Learning Area and includes a combination of Visual Arts, Dance, Drama and Music outcomes. Mrs Van Akker is an experienced Creative Arts teacher, and in consultation with class teachers, will teach a combination of Music, Drama and Visual Arts to our students throughout the year. 

This term, Mrs Van Akker will teach the following classes:

Years 2 3, 4 - Music and Drama

Years 5 & 6 - Visual Arts

Student requirements 2023

Kindergarten

Food Allergies at School

We have a number of students who are severely allergic to certain foods. To ensure all students are kept safe, we ask that you DO NOT send any of the following food items to school with your child:

• Any foods with nuts - this includes, but is not limited to, any bars that contain nuts, nutella, peanut butter. 
• Whole eggs
• Fish products

Sending in Treats to Celebrate Birthdays

Some families choose to send in a small treat for their child’s classmates to celebrate their child’s birthday. If parents choose to send in a small treat to share with classmates, we ask that these be limited to Freddo Frogs or Snake lollies only.

Welcome School Mass & Presentation of Year 6 Leadership Badges

All parents and friends are invited to join us at this special mass in the Church on Thursday 16 February at 9.00am.

Parent - Teacher Meet and Greets

Working in partnership with parents in support of their child’s learning, wellbeing and faith development is a great privilege. Building strong relationships between teachers and parents is vital and at Holy Cross, we offer Meet and Greet meetings to begin the development of this relationship.  

Meet and Greet appointments will be offered during Week 4. Further information via Compass will be sent out in the coming weeks. 

Assemblies

Our school assemblies in Term 1 will be held fortnightly on Tuesday mornings beginning at 8.50am. Any change to the time will be communicated to parents via Compass. Our first school assembly for Term 1 will be held on Tuesday 14 February at 8.50am on the top cola.

Newsletters 2023

Newsletters will be published fortnightly on Thursdays. This is our formal mode of communication and I strongly encourage all parents to read these newsletters.

School Website - https://www.hchdow.catholic.edu.au/

Our Holy Cross School website includes great information for families, including:

• All Newsletters, current and archived
• Key Dates via the Parent Calendar
• Enrolment packages
• Policies
• Cyber Safety information

2023 School Photos

School photos will be held on Wednesday 22nd March 2023 (Term 1, Week 9)

Parent Calendar and School Dates

All pertinent school dates and events can be viewed on our School Website under the News and Events tab https://www.hchdow.catholic.edu.au/news-and-events/

Please click on View More Upcoming Events to see further events.

To view the 2023 School Calendar, please click on View Our School Calendar under the Upcoming Events section. From here, events can be added to your own calendar.

Term 1 2023 Important Dates

*School Assemblies Fortnightly Even Weeks Tuesday Mornings 8:50am - First Assembly 14 Feb

P&F Annual General Meeting

We are so fortunate to have such strong parent support at Holy Cross. Our Parents and Friends (P&F) body are a significant voice for our students and families who work with the school for the betterment of our students. P&F meetings are held each term. In Term 1 each year, our first P&F meeting is the AGM. This will be held on Wednesday, 22 February upstairs at the Helensburgh Pub at 7pm. We encourage all parents to come along.