We wait in joyful hope!

Today we begin the season of  Advent. Sunday's gospel reminds us that Advent is about more than our preparation for the Church’s celebration of Christ’s birth at Christmas. Advent is also about preparing ourselves for Christ’s return in glory at the end of time and Jesus reminded his disciples that we must also stay alert and watchful. Our faithfulness to God, through the good times as well as the difficult times, shows us to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man.  As we prepare to welcome Jesus again this Christmas, we pray; open our hearts to be filled with joy and a deepening desire to humbly serve others.

On Wednesday 2nd December 2020, we invite you to join us for our Chrsitmas liturgy and celebration.

Weather permitting our cultural group will be performing at 5.30pm on the otdoor stage. We will then go in to the school hall for our special Christmas liturgy at approx 6pm.

Students are to wear their school uniform or their cultural clothing. Please advise the office if your child will be wearing cultural dress at this event.

At the back of the hall you will see we have flags representing all of the countries of origin of our families. 

Thank you to Matthew Blair and Jimmy Stokes for working so hard to put up all the flags, they look very impressive. 

The Power of Gratitude.

Last Friday we held a special morning tea to thank the many individuals, groups and agencies that support our school. We were delighted to welcome more than sixty people who were able to be present at this event. 

Eight of our student leaders spoke on behalf of the school thanking and recognising the efforts of the following: 

Our Catholic Community

Our Staff

Our Parent Community

Helping Agencies

Wider Learning Community

Wider Community

Garden to Table Community

I would like to congratulate these fine, young leaders for the manner in which they took on this important task; they delivered their messages confidently, with sincerity, on behalf of us all.

Powerful Learning Programmes and Opportunities

As you read through this newsletter you will see some of the many incredible learning opportunities that are provided for our tamariki here at Holy Cross School.

The amazing Garden to Table programme which provides rich, authentic learning for our tamariki.

Year 7 -8 technology provides a variety of fantastic learning opportunities for our older students. Today you will see photographs from the food technology class. We will share photographs of aspects of the technology curriculum.

Arohanui Strings provide incredible learning opportunity for our students.  We have a group of truly passionate professionals, including members of the NZSO as well as other internationally renowned musicians who gift their time and expertise to support our young students. 

Sports Funday :  Over the past two weeks we have provided all students with the opportunity to enjoy a fun day at the ASB Sports Centre. Students participated in a variety of activities providing personal challenge as well as opportunities to work as part of a team.

Epro8: Interschool science and engineering competition.  This term a number of our students took part in a series of competitions from which two of our teams were selected to participate in regional competition.  This is the first year we have been part of Epro8 and we are extremely proud of the wonderful team work and strategising utilised by our students. 

I invite us all, throughout the coming week to recognise and acknowledge the many blessings we receive, let’s find ways to say, "Thank you", many times throughout each day.  

Holy Cross School

Te Rotokura

2 Athens Street, Miramar, Wellington 6022

Telephone: 3887189, Fax: 3882181

Email: administration @hcm.school.nz

Website: www.hcm.school.nz

26 November 2020

Kia ora koutou

We are getting close to the end of the school year, and what a year it has been. COVID-19 has put a great deal of pressure on our community but together, we have risen to the challenge.

I want to thank you once more, for all you have done to keep yourselves, your whānau and our community as safe as possible. Through reinforcing good hand hygiene, cough and sneeze etiquette, staying away if sick and seeking medical advice, we have kept operating safely, and our tamariki and rangatahi have, importantly, continued to learn.

I also extend a specific thank you to all those in our community who have worked in health services and on the frontline to support New Zealand’s defence against COVID-19. They and their families and whānau have sacrificed so much to contribute to our own safety and to support the return home for more than 70,000 New Zealanders.

You may not be aware of the extent of the work our frontline community do to keep us all safe including regularly being tested, constantly monitoring for symptoms, keeping a close track of their movements, maintaining physical distancing and holding off hugging loved ones when they get home until they have had a shower and changed clothes.

COVID-19 remains a tricky virus and on the very rare occasion a frontline worker has become infected, the system has kicked into place. Through this vigilance and the health system response, we get to enjoy the relative freedom of Alert Level 1.

I am sure you will join me in giving a special thank you to those individuals for all they have done for us; we are indeed blessed.

Ngā mihi

Celeste Hastings

Principal

On return from our fabulous day at the Discovery Garden, students were invited to share their learning by creating a movie in Scratch. This involves creating code for everything you see and hear in this scratch project plus there is a quiz at the end you can do!

Every Tuesday the Year 7 and 8 students travel by bus to Mt Cook School to take part in technology sessions.

These sessions include cooking, sewing,wood and metal work and film production.

Please see below photos of the students and what they are creating this week in the kitchen. Next week we will post some more photos.

Garden Report by Maggie
Today we had a competition for who could do the best job in their part of the garden. I picked carrots and broad beans and weeded my little garden and put the weeds in the compost. Meisha watered the radishes, Jonathan showed us what rust looks like and Shaan and Ting cut up the weeds so the worms and microbes could eat them. We harvested broad beans, coriander carrots, broccoli and parsley for the kitchen.

Kitchen Report by Lily
Today in the kitchen we made Vegetable Pulao with Naan Bread and yoghurt with Aleksandra. Something I thought went well was the Naan bread because it was easy to make, tasty and it has butter to make it yum and sweet so ENJOY!

We were also very lucky to have two fabulous helpers today - Justine and Rhonda - thank you so much for your help today!

On Wednesday 18th November Ashley, Laura, Hemish and Cooper from room 5 went to Queen Margaret College to compete in the semi finals of Epro 8.

There were 4 challenges with extensions to each one. One of the challenges was to construct a swing that could swing a 1kg object 2 metres into the air. Although the tasks were very challenging, we persevered as a team and managed to complete 2 tasks.

Now that we know what is involved we hope to improve for next time.

We are once again collecting on behalf of St Vincent de Pauls, food, essential items, gifts and treats for Christmas boxes to go to local families in need.

Please send to the school office, non perishable food items, luxury goods and treats that would be a special treat for a family. We are collecting items now until the 14th December 2020.

Your help and support is very much appreciated and we know that this is a great way for us to help those who need a little extra support over the coming Christmas period.

Congratulations to Meila, Atarah, Nadège and Mahé who all have new additions to their families. 

We look forward to welcoming your beautiful new family members when they visit us at Holy Cross School.