Holy Cross School Miramar eNewsletter

Final Principal's Piece

We have nearly arrived! Our journey through 2023 is coming to an end. I hope you enjoy our very full and rich newsletter that showcases all the amazing learning opportunities that classes have taken a hold of in this last busy term. Maybe grab a coffee, sit back and enjoy!

As so often happens, getting the right people in the right places can take time and this year is no exception! As we go into 2024 all classes have teachers and staffing is finally set.

Room 11- Lucy Wooles (AP) begins in this class. Kirsten Puddick will take over once Lucy is on maternity leave. Lyn Hough will be teaching on Tuesdays to provide release to Kirsten and Lucy. Brenda O’Hare continues to take maths with our New Entrant/ Year 1 students. Malisha Patel is our TLA in this space.

Room 8- Virgina Blewman will be teaching a Year 2/ 3 class Monday-Thursday with Patsy Wooles covering Fridays. Karin Graham (TLA) will be providing support during the week.

Room 7- We are excited to have Simone Meech with us permanently and congratulate her on her appointment. She will be teaching a second Year 2/ 3 class with Katheen O’Connor (TLA)

Room 5- Clare James will begin the year with our Year 5/ 6 students. We are grateful to have Clare on board for the start of 2024.

Room 3- This is a shared teaching space for our Year 4/ 5 students with Sonya Talbot teaching Tuesday to Thursday and Lyn Hough taking Monday and Friday.

Room 2- Ben Gittos will be teaching our Year 6/ 7 students.

Room 1- Christina Petris will be with us for terms 1 and 2 with Eleanor Stefanidis covering release for Christina on Tuesdays. Ethel Renata will be back in Term 3 and 4.

Pam Caldwall is our specialist teacher who supports our ORRS funded students and their classroom teachers. She will also cover Classroom release across the school one day a week.

Eleanor Stefanidis will also be covering Classroom release across the school as well one day a week.

Brenda O’Hare continues to provide wonderful support through our Reading Recovery Program.

Lyn Hough will be DP and SENCO.

Tala Moemai is principal.

Our office staff are Debs Paget, Leanne Chote and Suzanne Dawe. Sopie Wooles continues on as Librarian. Kate Caseley, Skyla Sims and Suzanne Archer make up the rest of our TLA team. Olivia and Aleksandra continue to provide GTT support on Tuesday.

We say a sad farewell to Nik Solia, Ameera Yokhanna and Marie Anstiss. These three people have been a part of our school for many years in teaching and support roles. They have served our tamariki faithfully and have been loved and respected on staff. We thank them for their service to Holy Cross School and wish them well in the future.

We also farewell the Year 8s of 2023 who have stepped up with grace and maturity especially in the second half of this year to lead and serve our school well. It is always a bittersweet but we are excited to see the wonderful people they will become.

Finally a big thank you to you all for your support as I have filled the Acting Principal position. Every day it has been a privilege to carry the role amidst a welcoming, friendly, caring and dedicated community- staff, whānau and tamariki. Have a wonderful family filled Christmas and a restful break over the holidays. We will see most of you back in 2024 for our whānau conferences on Thursday 1st and Friday 2nd of February.

Christmas Picnic/ Liturgy

The season of Advent is a very special time of the year. It's a time where we begin to wrap up our busy lives, whether it is learning or working, and focus on more important things like family and for some recovering from a busy year as well as preparing for Christmas. I asked a few our of students about what Christmas meant to them they replied:

We celebrate the time of Jesus birth.
Christmas means to me how our Saviour Jesus was born.
Christmas means spending time with family.

Last week we celebrated the Birth of Jesus last week. We started with a beautiful picnic together as a school community. Then the students retold the nativity story, singing christmas carols. It was such a beautiful event and it was great to see our tamariki reflecting and sharing the story. Well done to our tamariki!

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Room 5 End of Year summary

WOW! What a wonderful learning journey Room 5 has experienced! Our tamariki have learnt a lot about their own personal journey, touched on the historical journey of Aotearoa and explored the life's journey of some of our church saints. We finally ended our journey by looking towards the future, in particular transportation. Room 5- I am one very proud teacher. You have worked extremely hard with your learning and I wish you and your family a merry blessed Christmas.

Mr Sa

Room 1

Room_1_Newsletter_Term_4_2023.pdf

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Room 3

Christmas Greetings Everyone

The students of Room 3 have had a very busy and productive year of learning, and I am incredibly proud of what each and every one of them has achieved in 2023. The year started with a hiss and a roar with several sporting events and activities including Run and Become, Movin' March and our Athletics P.E Rotation, which all occurred in Term 1. Term 2 marked the start of our swimming programme at WRAC, which was highly successful. During 2023 we have had focus on journeys and the students have learned about the historical journeys of Aotearoa. This learning included a trip to Te Papa and a visit from a renowned expert on NZ History. Term 3 focused on our school production based on Journeys. Room 3 did an amazing job of conveying the journeys of our servicemen and servicewomen during WW1 and WW2. The students also learned Maths or Pāngarau through a Te Ao Maori lens when looking at Measurement. Students measured the length of objects using traditional Maori measuring units and compared these measures to metric measures. During Term 4 the students did a mini inquiry about Rugby coinciding with the 2023 Rugby World Cup before returning to the theme of journey's by looking at transport.

Garden to Table has run throughout the year and the students have been constantly learning more about cooking, nutrition, chemistry, growing, harvesting, biology and earth science during these sessions. Lots of hands on measurement and literacy has taken place at this time.

We have also focused on a particular culture / country represented in our class each week since the start of Term 3. The students have all really enjoyed the different cultural foods our families have brought in to share and the presentations that have accompanied these culinary delights during the year. A big thank you to all the families who have shared their culture with us in this way.

It has been really satisfying to see all the students develop and grow academically, socially and spiritually this year. Every child can be proud of the progress he / she has made. Thank you for your support over 2023. I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy 2024.

Ben Gittos

Room 2

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Room 6

Room_6_term_4_newsletter.pdf

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Room 7 had a fantastic term 4!

We enjoyed being outside as much as we could.

Everyone LOVED learning about Africa and our trip to the zoo.

Basketball and relay games in P.E.

Dance lessons

In our Africa unit we learned about African animals, art and food.

We all had a great time when Mulu came with home made Injera which are Teff pancakes with 3 different curries.

We made musical instruments inspired by African drums.

The diso was a huge hit with our tamariki and we saw some great dance moves.

We finished the year off with a trip to the zoo to see Afican animals in action.

We learned all about the Nativity Story and enjoyed the Christrmas liturgy.

We had a fun Karate lesson with Pam.

Class of 2023

Merry Christmas everyone from Room 7.

German Christmas tradition of baking butter cookies.

Room 11

We have had a fantastic final term, studying African nations and the Christmas story. We started the term with a focus on reviewing our school production.

We have enjoyed welcoming new friends into our class throughout the term.

A big thank you to our Room 11 whānau for your support throughout the year. It is much appreciated!

Please enjoy some photos from our recent trip to the zoo! This was part of our study on African animals.

Our Kahmaia won the "Kaitiakitanga Award" for being a exeptional example of caring for our school grounds, people and the environment.

Congratulations!

a

Important information about your Packs to Store order

We've teamed up with Warehouse Stationery for our 2024 stationery requirements, and we're happy to let you know that your packs will be ready to purchase from 15^th January 2024. You'll have the flexibility to purchase instore or online, with delivery and click and collect options available. Click the link to find your stationery pack and enjoy getting school ready!

Type in:

and follow the prompts.

FloorBall

On Tuesdays we play floorball at the Akau Tangi Sports Center. We play against other schools like Haitaitai and Upper Hutt. Teams are made up of 5 players on the court. The aim is to try and hit the ball with a stick that looks like a hockey stick, into the goal. Players have to stay at least 4 steps away from their goal . We were doing very well at the start of the season but now facing harder teams. And even though we find it hard to play them we are still having lots of fun, particularly when we score. Our coach is Krzysztof and we would like to say thank you for coaching us. Can't wait till we play again!

From Nora, Hope, Maia, Dreya, Sophie, Amelia, Ishaani

Futsal

On Monday after school, we play futsal at the Akau Tangi Sports Center. We play against lots of different schools. We have 8 teams playing in different grades of the futsal competition. There are 5 players on the court with one being the goalie. The aim of the game is to kick the soccer ball into the opposition's goal area. My team has done very well this season and we have improved out of sight!

I'd like to say thank you to my teammates and for the adults who gave up their time to coach and supervise us. Without you we wouldn't have had a good time. I look forward to playing this game next time!

From Anna.

The last of the Birthday's for 2023! Wishing the following students a very Happy Birthday: Thinbeth, Serena, Conor, Barnaby, Nora, Angelina (Angel), Mila and Reef.

Letter from the BOT- Please check your email for an end of year letter from Paresh Patel, our Chairperson of the Holy Cross, Board of Trustees.

End_of_year_newsletter_update_2023.pdf

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On Wednesday 7th February Tala will be welcomed into the role fo Principal with a Whole School Powhiri at 9.30am. We would like to extend an invitation to you all to attend and honour Tala as he makes this step. Our Powhiri will be followed by kai- morning tea. Please txt the school if you are planning to come for catering purposes. 021 08850566.

WHAT: Learning Conferences - 30 minute individual meeting time

WHEN: Thursday 1st February 2024 9:00am- 4.30pm

Friday 2nd February 2024 9:00am -4.30pm

WHO: You and your child

WHY: We believe these Learning Conferences will be extremely valuable for both families and teachers.

The purpose of the conferences is to offer you, your child and your child’s teacher an opportunity to start the year having met and discussed:

Your ideas about areas of strength and interest
Possible areas of challenge or concern for your child in their learning; behaviour or social/emotional needs
Class routines and expectations
Initial goal ideas for the first term
Shared expectations
Any other topics that will assist a positive start to the year.

We will also use this time to update any forms, permission slips and emergency contacts.

These dates are counted as term dates therefore we are expecting every child to attend a Learning Conference on one of these days. Children who do not attend a Learning Conference will be marked absent for both days.

Full classes will resume on Wednesday 7th February 2024 at the normal time of 8:45am.

WHAT TO DO :

Go to https://hcsmiramar.schoolzineplus.com/view-session/4, login with your email address, click add new student, enter your child's name and follow the prompts.

SCH_InfoForParents_3_.pdf

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Inspire_Photography_School_Packages_3_.pdf

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Whole school photos will be on Tuesday 20th February 2024 - mark your calendars.

This is a change of date from previously mentioned.

Today in the garden my group the Cool Cucumbers did some exciting and interesting activities. We had four stations. The first station was a garden quiz, and you had to guess the names of some herbs and garden tools. Stuti Cailin and I were in a group and started off with station 1. The next station was station 2 and we had to rip up cardboard and put it into the bucket that said carbon. The same with the stems and herbs but in the bucket that said nitrogen!

Station 3 was called: did you eat dirt for breakfast?

For an example let's say you had eggs on toast, now where did the egg come from? It came out of a chicken! Then what do chickens eat? They eat wheat and… SUNFLOWER SEEDS! Now wheat and sunflowers grow out of the dirt. So technically you ate dirt for breakfast.

Station 4 the last station was sowing seeds!!!

Stuti Cailin and I Planted Strawberry Corn, Black Hollyhock and Merigold Coco. (deep orange)

(By Anira)

Today in the kitchen my group, the green beans, were making Durum wheat pasta. We did some exciting things. 1. We needed our ingredients. Firstly we got the flour, salt and water. We put 1 cup of flour in and a pinch of salt. When that was finished we put a few quarters of water when we thought we needed it. After that we mixed for about 5 to 15 minutes. Then when we thought it was ready we mixed it with our own hands!

After kneading the dough we rolled it into a worm. When we thought the worm was skinny enough we cut them into tiny pieces and made them look like pasta. The other group was cutting some vegetables! But they were only cutting one thing, which was sage. The sage went with the Durum wheat pasta!

After that we cut the tiny pieces then we put them into a boiling pot of water and the pot was SPLASHING out with WATER! Then we ate it, it was very outstanding and I can't wait to make it again.

(By Reef)

BIGAIR GYMS popular December Drop & Shop Holiday Programme is back, running Mon 18^th – Wed 20th December 2023! Full day and half day sessions are available. This is a wonderful opportunity for kids to keep active, while you get those final pre-Christmas preparations done! BIGAIR GYMS January Holiday Programme is also running Mon 8^th – 26^th Jan 2024. Bookings are open online now at www.bigairgym.co.nz

Please contact us with any inquiries:

Bigair Gym Owhiro Bay: ph. 383 8779, e. wgtn@bigairgym.co.nz at 14 Landfill Road, Owhiro Bay.

Bigair Gym Tawa: ph. 232 3508, e. office@bigairgym.co.nz at 10b Surrey Street, Tawa.