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Dear Parents and Friends,
In this final newsletter for the term, I would like to acknowledge the quality learning experiences and community events that have been a feature of our school year to date. Thank you to each of our hardworking teachers and support staff for their commitment to working in partnership with our parents to benefit everyone and to our parent body for all of their support this term.
The 2024 enrolment period is well underway. It is always a pleasure to meet with prospective families at our Twilight Open Day and school tours as we discuss their reasons for wishing to enrol their child at Holy Cross. A common theme amongst parents is the strong reputation of our school within the wider community. Parents who have a child beginning in Kindergarten next year are asked to ensure they finalise their enrolment application in the first week of Term 2. 2024 enrolment interviews will be held mid Term 2.
Term 2 will see our school engage in the School Cyclic Inquiry (SCI) process as part of our Diocesan Continuous Catholic School Improvement. The purpose of this process, which usually occurs every four years, is to work in partnership with the broader school community and System to:
- Celebrate improvement (faith, learning, and wellbeing) at our school community over the past four years
- Engage in an authentic review involving all stakeholders (Parish, students, staff, and parents) to identify strategic priorities for the next four years.
An important step within this process is to capture the voice of students, parents, and Parish. Early in Term 2, parents, staff and students in Years 4-6 will have the opportunity to share their thoughts via the 'Tell Them From Me' survey. The survey will provide important information to support us in designing improvement priorities that are responsive to the needs of our school community. Further information regarding our School Cyclic Inquiry will be shared with parents next term.
Wishing each of our families a very happy and holy Easter. May everyone stay safe during the holiday period and be blessed with God’s grace and gladness as we encounter the resurrection of Jesus.
LIGHTING THE WAY 23+
In last fortnight’s newsletter, I began sharing the focus areas that underpin the Diocesan new strategic plan, Lighting the Way 23+ by sharing the focus area, Formation In The Catholic Tradition. Please find an outline of the focus area Student Learning and Wellbeing.
Student Learning and Wellbeing
The aim of this focus area is to ensure the holistic growth of students is optimised by taking an integrated approach to learning and wellbeing, including proactively supporting students to build resilience, confidence and self-efficacy.
Outcomes and Indicators of Improvement
Students are engaged, safe and well, and have confidence in their ability to navigate challenges
Progress towards this outcome will be measured by:
- The proportion of students achieving 95% attendance
- Students’ social, institutional, and intellectual engagement
- Students’ self-reporting of their sense of resilience and self-efficacy
- The rate of graduates and school leavers accessing higher education, training or work
Schools are providing high quality pedagogy that supports all students to grow in their learning and achieve their academic best
Progress towards this outcome will be measured by:
- Students’ progressive learning growth
- Students achieving expected growth in each of the NAPLAN domains in Years 5, 7 and 9
- The achievement of Bands 5 and 6 in each HSC course
- HSC students’ comparative learning gain
Lighting the Way 23+ is a strategic plan that Holy Cross is very much aligned with. It will continue to provide guidance and direction for us as we move into the future always with the belief that every student is capable of improving in their learning and wellbeing while growing in their faith.
2023 ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN Update
Goal 1 Improve students’ relationship with Jesus through the values of compassion, justice, hope and integrity.
- Co-Teaching Cycle facilitated in Year 6 with the Learning Intention: We are learning to engage deeply with scripture, John 10: 10-14, so that we can make a meanful link between scripture, Catholic values and our lives today.
Goal 2 By the end of 2023, all students will have increased their confidence and engagement in Mathematics so that all students achieve growth
- The Numeracy leading team - Mrs Baker, Mr Body and Mrs McEntee - finalised our strategic plan for the year and conducted a Learning Walk to evaluate the current impact of numeracy teaching
- Collaboratively planning with staff of St Michael’s, Thirroul and CEDoW professional officer, to plan our upcoming Staff Professional Development Day on Monday 24 April, 2023. This day will focus on developing ‘Thinking Classrooms’ through effective pedagogical practices and developing knowledge and understanding of the revised NSW Mathematics Syllabus
Thank you for your ongoing support,
Kaylene Duffin
Project Compassion to Support the work of Caritas
Over the Lenten period Holy Cross has supported the work of Caritas through Project Compassion. Last week we celebrated ‘mission’ in action with a mufti day where students dressed as someone who inspires them. It was amazing to see just how bright our future is. Thank you for your generous donations, from this day and Project Compassion boxes we raised over $700. This money will go towards supporting the work of project compassion to make sure all people can have a bright future.
Additionally on the day our Year Six Leaders of Faith developed activities for all classes to participate in to explore how our donations help others. Thank you Year Six Leaders of Faith for your work for this day.
Holy Week and Easter
This week we, as the Catholic Church, acknowledge and commemorate the events of Holy Week. Holy week closes the 40 day period of Lent. It is the most important week in the Church's year. It begins on Palm Sunday and ends on Easter Saturday evening, when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Palm Sunday marks Jesus' royal entry into Jerusalem. The Easter Triduum is the liturgical name for the three days ending Lent and leading into Easter; Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The Easter Triduum marks the most significant events of Holy Week. Holy Thursday celebrates the event of the Lord's Last Supper. Jesus showed the apostles the meaning of the commandment to love one another by washing their feet and he revealed the depth of his love for humankind by giving us his own body and blood as displayed by the breaking and sharing of bread and wine. On Good Friday Christians remember the suffering and death endured by Jesus in order that sins be forgiven. Usually Christians commemorate this event by attending the Stations of the Cross and the 3pm Good Friday ceremonies at Church. The Saturday of the Easter Triduum is a day of quiet reflection and prayerful anticipation, for the resurrection. At the Easter Vigil Mass (Saturday night) and on Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples on a number of occasions. Before Jesus ascended into heaven he commissioned his disciples to preach the Good News throughout the world. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples to give them strength and guidance.
Today we are called to be Jesus' disciples, filled with the Holy Spirit, spreading this Good News to all through our everyday actions and words. During this Holy Week and as we enter Easter I encourage you to reflect on how you spread the Good News.
I would also like to wish the Holy Cross Community a very happy and holy Easter. May your faith be strengthened and you feel Jesus’ love.
Have you ever considered having your child Baptised?
If your child is not Baptised and you have been considering this or you would like to find out more about the process, please don’t hesitate to contact a member of the leadership team via the school office for a chat, we would love to hear from you.
Recent 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 professional learning undertaken by our staff this fortnight includes"
27 March 2023
Numeracy Planning Day - Mrs N Baker, Mr Body & Mrs McEntee
29 March 2023
K-2 Revised Syllabus Professional Learning - Mrs Jennett, Mrs McEntee, Miss Facci, Mrs Hennock
31 March 2023
Apple Coach Network Meeting - Mr Body
31 March 2023
AP Network Meeting - Mrs Jennett
3 April and 4 April 2023
Open To Learning Professional Learning Course - Mrs Duffin, Mrs Jennett, Mrs N Baker, Mr Body & Miss Costello
GARDEN UPDATE
The change from wearing Summer uniform to Winter uniform officially begins in Week 4, Term 2, Monday 15 May. Up until this date, there will be a transition period whereby students have the option of wearing either summer or winter uniform as appropriate for the weather.
Please Note:
½ zip polar fleece jumper with school logo can be worn under School Jacket or under Sports Jacket on cold days or by itself with the Winter or Summer uniform.
ENROLMENTS
We are currently accepting enrolments for 2024. If your son/daughter will be starting school next year, please collect an enrolment form from the school office or download one from our school website. If you know of anyone who is interested in enrolling their child, please advise them to contact our school office.
https://www.hchdow.catholic.edu.au/
ANZAC DAY SERVICE
The Helensburgh RSL Sub-Branch has extended an invitation to our Holy Cross community to attend this year’s ANZAC Day Dawn Service on Tuesday 25 April 2023 at 5.45am. The venue is The Memorial at Charles Harper Park Helensburgh. Our Yr 6 School Captains will be laying a wreath on behalf of our community.
We will acknowledge ANZAC Day as a school community with a service on Wednesday 26 April at 2.40pm.
ASSEMBLIES
Our fortnightly school assemblies during Term 2 will be held on Wednesday afternoons at 2.35pm.
Week 2 - Wednesday 3 May
Week 4 - Wednesday 17 May
Week 6 - Wednesday 31 May (Principal Awards & Stage 2 Sharing)
Week 8 - Wednesday 14 June
Week 10 - Wednesday 28 June (Principal Awards & Kindergarten Sharing)
TERM 2 DATES
All dates can be found on the school website via the Parent Calendar. Key Term 2 dates include:
Monday 24 April - PUPIL FREE DAY
Wednesday 26 April - students first day of Term 2, ANZAC Day service at 2.30pm
Thursday 27 April - Whole school Easter Mass. Parents and friends welcome.
Tuesday 2 May - Diocesan Cross Country Carnival
Thursday 4 May - School Athletics Carnival @ Beaton Park, Wollongong
Friday 12 May - Mother’s Day celebrations
Wednesday 17 May - Year 1 Excursion
Thursday 8 June - Year 2 Excursion
Tuesday 20 June - Netball Gala Day
Thursday 22 June - P&F Disco
Friday 30 June - NAIDOC Week celebrations. Last day of Term 2
NEW BOOKS ARE NOW AVAILABLE…
Late last year, our wonderful P&F allocated funds to purchase books for our students. This enabled our Library to purchase books that our students were interested in (which encourages reading) as well as books that our teacher’s felt would support the curriculum. This generous donation enabled me to purchase a wide variety of texts that covered all age groups – Fiction, Non-Fiction, Graphic Novels, etc. Many were requested by our students via the “Student Wish List” – a list which enables our students to let me know what interests them or any books they would recommend our Library have.
The first offerings were showcased to our students over the last two weeks which created an enormous amount of excitement – if the book was requested through the Wish List, our process is that the first student that requests it, gets to borrow it first. Some of these titles include:
The International Cook Book For Kids (Non Fiction)
Kingdom Hearts 3.1 (Graphic Novel - manga)
The Canterwood Crest series (Senior Fiction)
Once again, I would like to express my sincere thanks to the P&F for supporting our Library - our students definitely appreciate the new titles which in turn encourages reading – which can only be a good thing!
Stayed tuned for more titles…
BOOK COVERING THANKS
Just wanted to say a HUGE “thank you” to those of you who took up the call to cover books. This term we have had a large amount of covering to do – over 900 readers, the P&F donation mentioned above, etc. Although we still have more to do, thank you to all who were able to assist.
LIBRARY WARRIOR
Introducing…Zoe (Year 3)
What section are you responsible for?
The red Junior Non Fiction books and then I go to the chapter books – whoever needs help.
What is your favourite book?
The Ninja Kids series
What do you love about being a Library Warrior?
That I can help others put away books and that I get to hang out with Mrs Murray at lunchtimes.
What is your favourite Library task?
Sorting the Junior Non Fiction books.
Happy reading everyone!
Sue Murray
Library Coordinator
MacKillop AFL Trial
Congratulations to Oliver and Tom (Yr 6) who represented the Wollongong Diocese at the MacKillop Trials in Wagga last week. Although they were not selected in the MacKillop team, both boys played a very high level of AFL and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We are very proud of you.
MacKillop Swimming Trials
Congratulations to Eddie (Yr 5) who represented MacKillop at the recent Swimming Championships at Homebush. Eddie came away with four medals from four events!
First place - 100m Freestyle
Second place - 50m Freestyle
Second place - 50m BreastrokeThird place - 50m Backstroke
Eddie represented MacKillop yesterday and today at the NSWCPS Swimming Championships. We will share his results on our Facebook page!
So proud of you, Eddie!!
Holy Cross Girls Rock the gymnastics comp at the Treetops gym
Congratulations to Vida, Nevra and Elsa who scored silver medals at last weekend’s gymnastics competition at Treetops Gym and to Indigo and Airlie who secured bronze medals across four apparatus, beam, floor, vault and bars!
Awesome effort girls!
