Message from the Principal - Week 10, Term 4.

Kia ora e te whānau,

This newsletter draws the year to a close and with it, a few results, reports and goodbyes I would like to share with our community. First, I would like to show you the improvements we have made in our learning this year. 

End of year - Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJ’s)

As you read your child’s report, you will notice that our teachers provide an overall teacher judgment reflecting their progress. Below, I have included a comparison of our mid-year results versus our end-of-year results. The green arrows indicate the positive progress made over the past two terms, highlighting areas where our efforts have been successful. Conversely, the red arrows point to areas where improvement is still needed, guiding our focus for continued growth. I am proud of the progress our students have achieved and I am committed to supporting them further in their learning journey.

Here is a quick breakdown of the results from the end of year reports.

Reading: 

• 82% of students above or at the standard. 
• 5% increase of students working at or above the standard. 
• 9% decrease of students working below the standard. 
• 4% increase of student reading well below the standard. 

Writing: 

• 77% of students above or at the standard
• 6% increase from term 2 OTJ’s
• An increase in students well below the standard. 
• 3% increase of students writing above the standard.  

Maths: 

• 81% of students above or at the standard. 
• 4% increase from the middle of the year. 
• 75% are at the standard in mathematics. 
• Almost 20% are below the standard. 

Overall Data: 

• 80% of students above or at the standard.
• 20% of students below or well below the standard. 
• A 5% increase of students performing at or above the standard. 
• A 5% decrease of students working below the standard. 
• 108 students “At” or “Above” - Mid Year
• 138 students At” or “Above” - End of Year

Next, we have the breakdown of results for our Māori, Pasifika, and Middle Eastern students. Our Māori and Pasifika students have shown an increase across all areas of the curriculum since the mid-year point. A particular highlight for our Pasifika cohort is that there are no students in the “well below” category. For our Māori students, 13% are achieving “above” the standard in reading and writing, which is an excellent achievement. Our Middle Eastern students have also shown some positive results, and we are actively working alongside their families to support students currently in the “below” category to reach the “at” standard.

These results reflect the progress we are making as a school and our ongoing commitment to supporting all students in their learning journey.

2024 Annual Implementation Plan

This year marked my first experience writing an annual implementation plan, and the process has been both insightful and humbling. One of the key lessons I’ve learned is that the purpose of the plan is to demonstrate how I am working to achieve our strategic goals each year.

As a result, I’ve included a breakdown of this year’s goals, the targets we set for each, and whether those targets were met. This reflection has provided valuable insights into our progress and areas for growth. Looking ahead, I will base next year’s annual plan on the reflections and learnings from this year. It will focus on addressing what still needs to be done to fully implement the rest of our strategic plan.

Goal 1: Kotahitanga/Community

Goal 2: Ako/Learning

Goal 3: Whakaako/Teaching

Farewell: As we come to the end of my first year as principal, I want to thank you all for your support, dedication, and faith in our school community. It has been a year of growth and blessings, and I am humbled to serve as your principal. On Wednesday night, I was equally humbled to celebrate the graduation of our year 8 students and before I sign off, I wish them all the best with their transition to college. My parting piece of advice to them was to live our values and look for opportunities to try new things because they may find new passions and paths to follow. Ka whiti mai te rā!

I would also like to take this opportunity to say thank you and farewell to; 

• Kirsten Puddick - Thank you Kirstern for creating a safe and warm space for new room 11 students.  You have filled some big shoes this year and it has been lovely watching your class thrive; 
• Suzanne Archer - Fa’afetai for all the love and awhi you have shown our ORS students this year, especially Olani. I will miss your visits to my office with an excited Olani who loves talking about Atarangi. 
• Vicky Holben - Ngā mihi nui for supporting Holy Cross school as a TLA but also a kaiako this year. You have a drive and passion for teaching that is contagious. Keep up the good work and good luck with your teaching journey
• Ben Gittos - You’re not leaving us, but a year is a long time! We wish you well with your refreshment leave. I will miss your big booming laugh, constant positive approach to life and our reflective chats. Have a great 2025. 

Final words: Our Catholic character calls us to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, to love, serve, and grow together as a whānau. This year, I have been inspired by how our school values—Whānau, Aroha, and YES!—have been lived out in everything we do. Together, we have nurtured a community that is inclusive, kind, and courageous. I am immensely proud of how our tamariki have embraced these values too. .

Please stay safe over the holidays and remember to look after those around you. Together, let us carry the spirit of Whānau, Aroha and YES! into the new year.

Manuia le Kerisimasi, Meri Kirihimete and God bless, 

Ngā mihi nui, 

Tala Moemai

At our Christmas Carol Liturgy we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s gift to the world. We are grateful for the many gifts from God to us in 2024: Some of us started school for the first time and we all remember the relaxing holidays. There were lots of celebrations like Easter, the Holy Cross Hāngi at Matariki and the Food Fair. 

We also experienced challenging times like losing family members and friends. We remember the gift of having had them in our lives. 

This Christmas let’s think about how we can bring the Gift of Jesus Christ to others.  

These Christmas prayers were read out by our students: 

• Love: Loving God, help us to show patience, to stay calm and forgive others, even if they have been mean to us.
• Peace: We pray for peace in the world and an end to all wars. We pray for all refugees and migrants that had to leave their home countries. May they find some peace in New Zealand. We pray for peace and harmony in our families over Christmas and the holidays. 
• Joy: God of Joy, help us to be kind to everyone and bring others joy. Help us to be helpful, inclusive, welcoming, caring, forgiving and give others our time and undivided attention.
• Hope: God of Hope, help us to be generous this advent, with our time to listen to others, and to take time to play with each other, not on devices. Help us to be generous so that we may donate money, toys, clothes or food to the many charities asking for help this advent.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays. May your days be filled with love and cheer!

Signing off from our HCS Year 8s, Class of 2024.

Closing words from Marilyn Graham-Mika Year 8 Leaver's Speech presented at graduation.

Wow! It has been a very busy year this year! 

The theme of Kaitiakitanga has been woven through all we have done this year. We have visited the Community Prison Gardens in Miramar, we have investigated the local history of the Miramar and Seatoun area and have seen the local flora and fauna of Zealandia when focusing on Ngahere - the Forest and will be visiting the beach at Worser Bay as the final PB4L reward tying in with our Moana focus in term 4. 

We have had many sporting opportunities this year with Pedal Ready cycling, weekly biking sessions, swimming at Kilbirnie pool, touch rugby, soccer and cricket coaching sessions. There have been weekly sports games in touch, futsal, netball, mini polo, floorball and basketball through the year as well as many opportunities to attend Eastern Zone events. 

We have been busy in our weekly Garden to Table sessions, helping to plant the garden and a pollinator pathway garden. Produce form the garden has been used in the kitchen weekly where we are developing solid knife skills!

We have been lucky enough to have weekly music sessions with Emily where we experimented with ukulele and recorder playing. We have become confident using technology to aid our learning and have enjoyed the opportunity to use chromebooks in our learning, In RE we have looked at the lives of Saints and how they inspire us as well as how to pray the Rosary. 

We have become more confident in our ability as learners and have improved our self management skills while managing to have fun along the way! Looking forward to a break then back into it in  2025. Have a lovely Christmas and we’ll see you all next year!

Room 5

In room 7 we learned about the Nativity, the early life of Jesus and wrote prayers for Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. We also learned about the life cycle of (bean) plants, parts of a flower and native plants of New Zealand. A highlight was our trip to the Botanic Garden.

It was inspiring when the Wellington Lions’ NPC Trophy came to HCM.

It was a great, fun-filled year with lots of learning and exploring new things. I wish everyone happy holidays! Simone Meech

Room 11 is finishing the year by looking back at the wonderful times we have had and the creations we have made.  It has been fun to sort out the artwork to send home and tamariki have enjoyed remembering the different topics we have covered.

We had a fun day out at the botanical garden where we sketched, played and explored. 

It was exciting for everyone to visit their new classrooms this week and to connect with their teachers for next year.  It was lovely to hear that children have been chatting with their new teachers at break times and are ready and happy to move up the school.

As we finish the year with more fun at the beach and in class, Room 11 wishes everyone a Meri Kirihimete.  Thank you to all whānau for your support throughout the year.

Holy Cross School Term Dates for 2025 has slightly changed. Please NOTE the Teacher only day is now on Friday 30th May. Please see attached. 

Reflections on the Sports Day - By Ezira (Room 3)

My favourite thing to do this year was the colour day. They all have a special meaning to each colour. I was in green. I did a tug of war representing green. In tug of war we won but only lost once. Then when all the sports were done they told us the winning team, it was...GREEN. All the green people were sooooooo happy. I enjoyed the tug of war obviously. I liked it because it was sooooooo fun and funny. Me and Ceydeaz laughed at the people that fell because they fell funny. 

A BIG shout out to the Holy Cross Parents' Group for contributing $3000 to our student class stationery lists for 2025. For 2025 the following stationery items will be covered; glue sticks, whiteboard markers, coloured pencils, pencils, rulers, pencil sharpeners, erasers, crayons (shared class item) and journal bags. This is fantastic as it will help keep the overall costs down to all our families.

Stationery Class Lists for 2025

All families should have received their Stationery Class List for 2025 with their child's school report which was sent home on Monday 9th December. If you didn't receive your child's stationery list please let the office know.

Attached is the Stationery Class Lists for 2025.

How does this all work?

Option 1:

Listed are the steps for you to order on line:

1. www.warehousestationery

2. Select - Lists (top right hand side)

3. Shop School Lists

4. Search for your school

5. Find school

6. School year

7. Search

Option 2:

You can shop at your local Warehouse Stationery in Lyall Bay, and the team there will be happy to assist you with any items on the list. Please advise them it is Holy Cross School as they will credit points to the school.

Please see attached the lunch menu and prices for Vietnameezy school lunches which will be starting next year on Wednesday 5th february 2025, cash only at this stage which is to be paid at the office before 8.45am 

Envelopes will be provided to place order (similar to how Subway works). 

For all those students celebrating their Birthday around Christmas and over the Christmas School holidays, have a beautiful and fun loving day.