Message from the Principal - Week 9, Term 1.

Kia ora e te whānau, 

Stepping into the principal role, I knew that things would be hectic and that I would be living in a world of learning new things daily just like our kids and staff. Normally, we look at what our tamariki have been learning in our newsletters. Today, I want to show what our staff have been learning to better the education of our students. 

This term, our lovely staff have been a part of some personal development (PD) training with Sarah Thomas. We have focused on two key things (in teacher talk these things are): 

1. Creating Culturally Sustaining Practices (CSP) through Relational Based Learning (RBL) pedagogies and
2. Understanding and using student feedback and feed forward to identify how we can elevate our teaching. 

So what does this mean? It means that our teachers are learning to do two important things in their class: 

1. Create strong relationships with our students so we can teach them in their world. 
2. We need to listen to our students to see if how we are teaching works. 

Throughout the term the teachers have been putting the theory into practice by using learning walls. A learning wall is a place that children can clearly see; 

• What they are learning now, 
• What the next step is in their learning, 
• Examples of their learning and important things they need to know. 

Throughout the year, teachers will refine their practices and learn how to set up learning walls for different areas of the curriculum. Well done to our kaiako (teachers) for giving this a go and continuing to strengthen their practice. Here are some of the learning walls.

Over the next five days we get the chance to rest, reflect and enjoy time with our families. Please take this time to enjoy lots of family time, relaxation and reflection. For me specifically, I get to prepare for the coming of a new pēpē (baby). Lucy and I would like to say a big thank you to all the families, staff and students that check in regularly to see how we are going and for the wonderful presents too. We will make sure we keep the community updated on the baby news. 

Ngā mihi nui, 

Tala

Mōrena team, 

From The Parents' Group

Room 3 Hikoi around Seatoun

On our field trip, we did lots of things. First, we split up into our car groups and we drove to Churchill Park. The parent helpers were Kathy, Esher, Sophie, Dharmistha, Lyn, Sonya and Remon. Then we went to a spot and had morning tea. After that, we had a little play. Then we went into our walking groups. We listened to the sound of the waves splashing onto Kirikiri-Tatangi. Then, we went to this really high place, where we labelled Te Aroaro-o-Kupe, Te Au a Tane, Oruaiti Pā, Matiu Island, Mokopuna Island, Mākaro Island and Kirikiri-Tatangi. The really high place was called Oruaiti Pā. Then, we walked to Breaker Bay beach where Esher talked about seaweed. Then, we walked all the way back to Churchill Park. We had another play and we ate some ice blocks. Finally, we got into our car groups and drove back to Holy Cross. By Rory

Room 7 

Room 7 has been learning about the history of Holy Cross School and The Past and Present of Miramar.

On 11th March we went on a walk through Miramar to visit places of historical significance.

Some of the places we learned about were St Aidan's Church, Holy Cross Church, New World, Gasworks and the Cutting.

We particularly focused on how the Roxy Cinema changed over time. It was purpose built as The Capitol Theatre in 1928 to screen silent films, repurposed in the 60s as a shopping centre and in 2011 renovated to house the current cinema.

We compared old photos with the present buildings and landmarks and learned how to read a map. The children were quite impressed when they walked through The Cutting, which was constructed in the 1900s.

Room 11

Room 11 have been learning all about the story of Easter and the order of events in Holy Week.  We have used art to help think about the story and today we acted out the Last Supper. 

Room 8

We continue to be proud of the students in Room 8. They make very good decisions during the school day, follow our classroom rules and put in their best efforts when working. The children have been very reverent during our Holy Week learning and celebrations. Here are some photos of the shared writing the children completed. Sometimes we also have older children in helping us, which is great. Enjoy!

We have been really dialling up our perseverance and problem solving skills at Bonobo this term.  Not to mention amazing  team work.  All tamariki have been trying new things and developing resilience around new  challenges. Each week we are impressed by the can do attitude from our tamariki, they’re embodying the Holy Cross Value of Yes and it is wonderful to see. In case you’re wondering we can assure you, from personal experience, that the platform is really high, the tamariki make it look very easy!!

Take a crazy carnival weekend on Cuba Street, add a bunch of people playing the ukulele, include some tamariki who can keep the beat and sing a tune and what do you get? Uke a Dupa! What a fun event that 12 wonderful tamariki made it to from Room 3 on Sunday. We sang, we paraded and we danced till we dropped and we just might do it again next year!

Thanks to whānau who supported us and made a great live audience and the NZ ukulele trust for making the event happen. 

Swimming for middle and junior classes will start in the first week of term 2 on Friday 3rd May 2024.

Children will need to bring to school their togs,towel, goggles if needed in a bag each Friday.

The junior classes Room 7, 8 and 11 will swim from 12.30- 1.30pm and the middle classes Room 3 and 5 will swim from 1.30-2.30pm. The children will be transported to and from the pool by bus.

Senior students Room 1 and 2 will swim in Term 3.  

Today in the kitchen we made Green Fritters. The gardeners harvested green leaves and herbs and put them in the woven harakeke kono (containers) to take to the kitchen.

In our class, we are working on descriptive vocabulary. We practiced naming nouns and adding adjectives. See some of our sentences below.

Jessica and Charlotte were cleaning the dirty dishes in the sink. By Thinbeth

I found white butterfly eggs on baby plants. By Cleo

Me and Niki and Nitya were chopping green herbs on wooden chopping boards. By Aarav

I pulled out green herbs carefully. By Avery

Me and Thinbeth and Jessica used measuring cups for the flour and milk. By Nyakua

Nitya was vacuuming the dirty floor. By Jessica

Me and Charlotte were mixing the gluten-free fritters fast. By Larkham

We scraped off the white eggs. By Gabby.

I ate the juicy apple. By Niki

We each had to collect one leafy silverbeet plant. By Rory

Celebrating their Birthday over the next couple of weeks, are the following students: 

Cleo, Olani and Angelia. 

Have a wonderful day celebrating your special day. 

As you may be aware the Government has introduced regulations that require all state schools to put in place school rules regarding the use of phones. The regulations require that schools must ensure students do not use or access a phone while they are attending school, including during lunch time and breaks. 

International research indicates that phones in schools are not conducive for learning and for student wellbeing. Therefore, these regulations have been put in place to ensure that the learning of all students is maximised, while minimising any potential for distraction and cyber-bullying. We understand that phones may need to be used before and after school times and will allow them to be at school for this purpose only.

Our approach remains the same as it has been and will be included in our SchoolDocs procedures and policies. All phones are collected by the classroom teacher and taken to the office, phones are returned to classrooms at the end of the day. In the event of an emergency and evacuation, the office staff will take all student phones with them.

If students do not hand in their phones and this is discovered, parents will be contacted and will need to collect the phone from school. 

We ask parents/caregivers to speak to their child about these rules and reinforce the expectations of the school.  Thank you. 

Order Subway Online 

From next Term, online ordering will be available for Friday Subway lunches. Orders must be placed no later than 9am Friday, same day as delivery

Once you have set up an account, you are able to save your order for quick and easy ordering.

Cash payments can still be taken by the office should this be your preference.

Lunches will continue to be delivered by 12:30pm

Online Subway pricing

4 inch Subway (Ham, Beef, Vege, Turkey) $4.50

4 inch Subway (Chicken) $5.00

6 inch Subway (Ham) $6.60

6 inch Subway (Beef and Turkey) $7.30

6 inch Subway (Vege) $5.50

6 inch Subway (Chicken strips) $7.50

If you have any questions please email the psg at psg@hcm.school.nz.

Very simply, criteria for eligibility is Low Income (Community Services Card) and tamariki in the whare.  I don't check CSC's, if a family believe they are low incomed and are reaching out for support then we'll see them.  If it's a family home but have moko frequently stay, as long they're low incomed, CSC then we can visit too.