Message from the Principal - Week 2, Term 4.

Kia ora e te whānau, 

I hope your whānau enjoyed some quality time together over the Term 3 holidays. I managed to spend time with Atarangi, Lucy, and Ella in Waikawa, where our main priorities were eating, sleeping, swimming, going for daily walks, and completing a 1000-piece puzzle! It’s been lovely seeing lots of smiling faces back at school, and we kicked off the term with some fun events like dance parties, superhero dress-ups, and a sports afternoon to wrap up the week. In this newsletter, I’ll be sharing updates on what’s coming up and what we’re working on this term.

Staffing

It is with sadness that I announce Skylah has handed in her resignation, with her last day being Thursday, 31st October. Skylah, thank you for all your hard work and contributions to Holy Cross—you will be dearly missed. We know you are signing up to train as a teacher, and it’s clear you have a special gift for working with children and guiding their learning. Your initiative and dedication will undoubtedly make you an amazing teacher. We wish you all the best in this exciting new chapter!
"Fa‘amanuia le Atua i ou ala" (May God bless your path).

2025 Class Placements and Staffing

In Week 2, we will begin discussions regarding student and teacher placements for 2025.  

As part of our planning, we are currently seeking two fixed-term teachers and one permanent teacher:

• The fixed-term positions will cover for Lucy (extending her maternity leave) and Ben (taking refreshment leave). Lucy and Ben, we’ll miss you both and look forward to welcoming you back in 2026!
• The permanent tagged position will fill Mr Sa’s role moving forward.

Interviews for these positions will take place during Weeks 4 and 5, and I will provide more updates as staffing decisions are made and 2025 plans come together.

Teacher Only Day – Friday’s Focus

During Friday’s Teacher Only Day, we’ll be working on the following:

1. Professional Development in Maths

There are lots of changes in curriculum with the Ministry of Education (MoE) and Sarah Thomas will guide us in breaking down the draft Maths Curriculum provided by the Ministry. She will also walk us through the process of evaluating the free resources available to schools in 2025. As a school we will see what fits us best and have some exciting new resources across the school. If you’d like to explore these resources in advance, you can access them here:
Ministry of Education – Maths Resources.

2. Vision for 2025

The second focus of the day will be setting our vision for 2025. This includes:

• Exploring the theme for the year,
• Defining how we will work together as a team moving forward,
• Reflecting on our motivations as teachers and aligning them with our shared vision for the school. 

This will help us ensure that our goals and values are clear and in sync with the learning environment we want to build at Holy Cross.

Tikanga / Kawa Working Group at Holy Cross

One of the initiatives connected to our strategic plan is to develop a kawa specific to our kura that honours our Mana Whenua, Te Ātiawa.

Things to consider and discuss include:

• How we acknowledge our kawa and tikanga on a daily basis
• What this looks like at the student level
• How we apply these principles during big events such as pōwhiri, Mass, and Graduation

If you are interested in being part of this working group, please reach out to me via email. We’d love to have you involved in shaping this important kaupapa.

Week 3: Board of Trustees Meeting – Staffing and Budget Discussions

Next week, the Board of Trustees (BoT) will meet, and I will present staffing options and budgets for 2025. I want to acknowledge and thank the staff for their incredible ideas and feedback as we navigate these changes. Your support has been invaluable, especially with this being my first time handling these processes. I appreciate everyone’s patience, flexibility, and honesty as we work through the complexities of next year’s planning. Any changes agreed to will be communicated with the community in a timely manner. 

Events in Term 4

We are in the process of organising and finalising dates for important events such as graduation, Masses (including the end-of-year Mass), class trips, and whole-school trips. We’ve got lots of exciting activities planned, and we’ll send out notices as soon as the Safety Operation Plans (SOPs) are completed. Watch this space for more updates!

Ngā mihi nui, 

Tala Moemai

The month of October is dedicated to the Holy Rosary. October includes the liturgical feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated on 7 October.

At HCS we have been learning the prayers of the Rosary and have been reflecting about Jesus’ life in our classes, on our individual levels.

Praying the Rosary

1. Make the Sign of the Cross.
2. Holding the Crucifix, say the Apostles' Creed.
3. On the first bead, say an Our Father.
4. Say one Hail Mary on each of the next three beads.
5. Say the Glory Be
6. For each of the five decades, announce the Mystery (perhaps followed by a brief reading from Scripture) then say the Our Father.
7. While holding each of the ten beads of the decade, say ten Hail Marys while meditating on the Mystery. Then say a Glory Be.
8. After saying the five decades, say the Hail, Holy Queen.
9. Conclude the Rosary with the Sign of the Cross.

Looking ahead, in the coming weeks HCS will be learning about Saints, what it means to be holy and our own personal call to holiness, as modelled by Jesus. We will also be honouring, remembering and praying for all who passed away.

Senior Syndicate (Rm 1 & Rm 2) Term Four Learning Focus

• Overarching Concept - Kaitiakitanga: Te Moana - connections across all NZ curriculum areas as outlined.

Learning Areas:

• Religious Education: Religious Education:
  Exploring Holiness through items, objects, icons, and acts through a research inquiry: What makes something holy? What does this mean? What does the Bible tell us? Weeks 6-10: Focus on the holiness of the birth of Jesus Christ and our Christmas Liturgy.
• Writing: Students will focus on report writing, personal narrative, debating (Rm 2), poetry, and prayer. Year 8 students will focus on memoir writing in preparation for graduation.
• Reading: Connecting prior knowledge and new information to draw conclusions, ask questions, guide research, and connect across different genres.
• Mathematics: Statistics – Presenting data through various graphs, asking meaningful questions, understanding data implications, and exploring different ways to record data.
• Health & PE: Skipping coordination, fitness, and Eastern Zone athletics (students who have qualified).
• Te reo Māori: Introductions, simple sentences of location, and te reo kupu related to Te Moana.
• Leadership: Rm 1 will continue developing leadership and akō skills through our Tuakana-teina Programme, working with Rm 11 and Miramar Central Kindergarten. Service Leadership includes supporting liturgies, pōwhiri, hall set up, whole-school prayers, a food fair, and other areas of our kura, such as caring for the bikes (Rm 2). How can we be kaitiaki of our moana?
• Technology at Mt Cook School. Year 7 & 8 students will experience learning and utilising skills in woodwork, cooking, electronics and robotics.
• Rm 2, Year 6 students will continue with their Garden to Table programme run on Tuesday afternoons.

Inquiry Learning: Mountain to Sea Wellington Education Programme

This programme includes two school visits and two snorkelling experiences. On Friday, 22 November 2024, students will learn how to snorkel with MTS educators at WRAC (Kilbirnie pool) and participate in a beach day, exploring rocky pools and snorkelling. It is part of the MTS environmental and leadership initiative, aligning with our inquiry into kaitiakitanga and the ecosystems of Te Moana.  

Year 8 Graduation: Year 8 students will prepare items and writing for graduation, held from 6 pm to 8 pm in the School Hall on Wednesday, December 18th, 2024. 

Term 4 Overview Middle syndicate

This term our focus is Te Moana - The Sea. We are looking at different aspects of the sea across different curriculum areas. 

In Maths we are learning about Geometry - Space and Position, currently focused on translation, rotation, reflection, symmetry and tessellation. We will switch to Measurement - Volume, Mass and Capacity later this term. 

In reading we are looking at reading for literary experiences as well as play reading and performing. We are linking our writing to this and writing our own plays and critiquing others written by classmates. 

Our R.E learning this term is looking at Identifying and describing the ways that Mary and Joseph responded to God’s grace and how we can grow in understanding that we can pray at home with our whānau, and we can pray at home with our family and ourselves while also writing Christmas prayers.

We will link our Art and Te Reo Maori learning to the theme of Moana and our PE focus is on Cricket and Athletics with Eastern Zone Athletics in Week 3.

We hope to organise a trip later in the term and will let you know details later when confirmed.

Practicing our Cricket skills in Week 1:

Junior Syndicate

This term, our topics are: Diwali, Flower Power (looking at plants) and The Journey (the Christmas Story). In maths we are learning about measurement and algebra and symmetry.  In RE, we are continuing our learning around God - images, prayer, God’s love, holiness and the Good news - Stories about Jesus. In PE, we will be looking at improving our small ball skills.

Our first week has seen us enjoying a dance party, partaking in a fun sports afternoon, learning some cricket skills from experts from the Eastern Suburbs Cricket Club, and continuing our music with Emily 

Enjoy some photos!!

HOLY CROSS SCHOOL TERM DATES 2025 

Inspire Photography will be taking our school photos in 2025. Please mark your calendars Friday 21st March 2025.

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To the following students who are celebrating their Birthday, have an awesome day.

Anira, Aria, Avery & Jerome.