‘Achieving More Than We Ever Dreamed Possible’ 

Kia ora Holy Cross Whānau

A very warm welcome to the 2021 school year and a special welcome to staff, students and families new to our school community. We extend a warm welcome to Father Bill Warwick, our new parish priest.  Last week Father Bill attended our first day liturgy and informed the students that he is a past pupil of our school. Father Bill we are delighted to welcome you back!

Last week 93% of families were able to attend our learning conferences which has helped staff get to know your child(ren) and whānau at a much deeper level. 

We felt priviliged to hear beautiful stories of how you chose your child's name, the meaning of your family name and some of the special, inpsirational people who are part of your families.   

Throughout the year we look forward to learning much more as we develop our understanding and appreciation of, The Gifts That Surround Us:  

The gift of self        The gift of whānau, place, environment    The gift of Faith,’Church’, 

    My Story                         Our Story                                         THE Story

The idea of Gift sitting above the Stories lends itself to the choices we make; at our beginning of year liturgy, I spoke with our students about opening the gifts, sharing the gifts… about the choices we make in relation to these gifts.

These gifts are taonga/ treasures... 

What an exciting and enriching time lies before us... We look forward to sharing and celebrating in a joyful manner- stories, photographs and examples of what the Gifts that Surround us. 

Staff Organisation 2021

At Holy Cross we have two syndicates: Marcellin and McAuley.  The syndicate names recognise the leaders of the two founding orders associated with our school; the Marist Brothers and the Mercy Sisters.  

We are indeed blessed to have such a committed team of professionals who care deeply about our students.

This year there are three teaching teams within the school

Year 0-2      Rooms 12,11,7

Corrie Skells, Lyn Hough, Julianne Stroombergen, Lucy Wooles,

Brenda O'Hare, Virginia Blewman, Patsy Wooles                                                                                                         

Year 3-6  (Rooms 6, 5 and 3)

Jeannine Winton, Nik Solia, Tim Carson, Eleanor Stefanidis                                          

Year 7-8    (Rooms 1 and 2)

Tala Moemai , Genevieve Krefft                                                                                

Part time teachers we have a number of valued part time teachers who carry out particular duties and provide release throughout the school.

Our part time teachers are: Brenda O'Hare, Ethel Renata, Patsy Wooles, Julianne Stroombergen and Eleanor Stefanidis.

Marie Anstiss is employed by Kimi Ora School who provide support for students with additional learning needs.

We are very fortunate to have a brilliant team of support staff who work alongside our  teachers to support students and programmes of learning.

Student support: Kate Caseley, Karin Graham, Jo Harvell, Vicky Holben, Kathleen O’Connor, Malisha Patel, Ameera Yokhanna

Learning Support:  Holy Cross School supports English Language Assistants and Teacher Aide training to implement  the Think- Talk- Create programme in junior classes.

The Board also support the Garden to Table Programme at Holy Cross School.  Olivia Boyd -Garden Coordinator and Aleksandra Alagh Kitchen Coordinator. 

Leadership Team: Celeste Hastings:Principal; Lyn Hough: Deputy Principal, Marcellin Syndicate leader, Special Education Needs Coordinator (SENCO); Tim Carson: Assistant Principal, McAuley Syndicate leader; Nik Solia: Director of religious Studies (DRS)

Administration Team : Leanne Chote (Office Manager), Suzanne Dawe (Finance), Deb Paget (Office Support), Kirsten Puddick (Librarian)

Grounds and Buildings: Jimmy Stokes ( Caretaker); Crest Clean Salen & Joshleen Narayan (Cleaners)

I am very much looking forward to the year ahead, focussing on and bringing to life the wonderful strategic plan we have set; working with you, our community for benefit of  our beautiful children, our precious tamariki.

May God bless and guide us all,

Celeste Hastings

‘Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’ 

Psalm 119: 105

I would like to share with you, the reflection prayed by our staff on the first of our teacher only days. This prayer will be our guide and will be referred to constantly throughout the year.   

"Today we gather, refreshed and renewed; a community committed to caring for our precious tamariki - their whānau, each other and the world in which we live.

Each time we step into Holy Cross School may we pause to remember we are stepping onto Holy Ground.   May our hearts and minds be open to hear your word and our eyes be open to the gifts that surround us. May others come to know you through us- our words and actions.  Fill us with your spirit as we begin this new school year". 

This prayer was reinforced during the week when staff from all of the Catholic schools and colleges in Wellington gathered for our annual Comissioning Mass, concelebrated by Cardinal John, Archbishop Paul and a number of other priests from the diocese. 

In his homily, Cardinal John referred to Pope Francis’ message for the World Day of Peace (1st January) based on the theme “A Culture of Care is a Path to Peace”.

'There can be no peace in our world without a culture of care. There can be no peace in our schools or in the homes of our students come from without a culture of care.'

At Holy Cross School and in our homes may all of our actions and interactions foster and develop a culture of care.

School Start Time

Our school day starts at 8:45am.  Students are welcome from 8:20am onwards- prior to this staff work to set up for the day;  please be respectful of this.

Food and Drink 

When we are hydrated and eat nourishing food our ability to think and learn significantly improves.

Please support your child to pack healthy food choices only in their lunchboxes.  We have been most impressed with the effort many of you are going put in to limit plastic packaging and will share some creative and helpful examples.  

Water is provided as the only drink option at school. We will continue to share information about the benefits of water but for now, the phrase for us all to remember is,

"Think To Drink- Drink to Think"

Birthdays

At Holy Cross we love to acknowledge and celebrate birthdays!  In class we work to ensure it is a special day for your child and in our newsletters we mention those who have had birthdays or have them coming up.

Invitations: If your child is having a birthday party we ask that invitations are not distributed at school as this can be upsetting for those who are not invited.

Sweets and Cakes: Please do not send cakes and sweets to school  - this request has been made by a number of families.- Near the end of term many classes have a special shared lunch so we are curently looking at ways these might recognise those who have had birthdays during the term.

Uniform

Over the past few years we have worked really hard to provide a uniform that is practical and can be worn with pride. We appreciate the support and encouragement you provide for your child(ren) to ensure Holy Cross is well-represented both within and outside of school. All uniform items are now sold at NZ Uniforms 168 Thorndon Quay.

If your child is not wearing the correct uniform an email will be sent informing you of this, with an offer of assistance. 

No Hat No Play

All children are required to wear a plain dark blue hat at school. Bucket hats are sold at the office for $12.

Please also ensure your child applies sunscreen before coming to school in the morning. We have sunscreen in each classroom and encourage students can reapply this at morning tea or lunchtime.

Our Learning Conversation meetings were a great way to start the year and provided a way of sharing ideas and updating information.  

We strive to communicate in a timely manner and have set in place a number of ways for this to happen.  Currently we share information in the following ways:

Electronically:

Newsletter: sent electronically each week to your email 

Website        www.hcm.school.nz

School App:  Download the Holy Cross School App

Facebook :   Holy Cross School Miramar - Home

eTAP alerts  ( eTAP is our Student Management System)

School Docs - Provides information about policies and procedures at Holy Cross School :SchoolDocs - Policies and Procedures Made Easy   

Username : hcm    Password: schooldocs

Paper notices and permissions: 

We continue to work on reducing our paper use but do at times require signed permissions

Questions, Ideas, Concerns

At Holy Cross we enjoy positive support and engagement from our community. We are committed to honest, open, respectful relationships- valuing ideas,  as well as addressing questions or concerns promptly. We respect the privacy of all members of our community.  

General Reminder: For day to day matters we ask that you speak with your child’s teacher in the first instance.   

If you have a  concern relating  to another child please do not speak with that child directly but address your concerns to school staff.

We will continue to provide information about, and seek your input on, practices in place at Holy Cross School; see also the link to Schooldocs which provides further, more detailed information relating to these  areas. 

As health, safety and wellbeing filters through many different aspects of school life, I thought it might be useful to touch on a few topics under these headings to remind our families about some of the ways we safeguard health, safety and wellbeing at Holy Cross School.

Firstly I can confirm that this is our greatest priority at Holy Cross, not only for our children but our staff and families also.   If at any time you have any concerns or questions about health, safety or wellbeing or think it would be useful to discuss something relating to your child, then we welcome you making contact with your classroom teacher or myself. Conversely, if there is ever anything that happens at school that could impact on your child’s health, safety and wellbeing you can be assured we will contact you.

Coronovirus: As you know schools continue to be updated by the Ministries of Education and Health New Zealand's response to coronavirus.  We continue to promote messages around good hygiene practices, including reminders about washing hands well after visiting the bathroom and good cough etiquette.  This should also support everyone’s health particularly through the winter cold and flu season. 

Our reminders include:

• Washing hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after eating, as well as after attending the toilet
• Covering coughs and sneezes with clean tissues or with an elbow
• Putting used tissues in the bin
• Keeping your child at home if he or she is unwell.

Let's work together to keep everyone safe. 

Cyber Safety:

Our school takes very seriously cyber safety and our responsibilities to protect our children while using technology.  We have very strong filtering systems to ensure that inappropriate content is not available to our students and all classes have age-appropriate lessons around online safety and what to do should they have any concerns about anything to do with technology.  Parents may find it useful to visit Netsafe’s pages (https://www.netsafe.org.nz/advice/parenting/) for further information about online safety for children and teens.

Keeping Our Children Safe- Emergency Drills and Knowing What To Do

Throughout the term, we will be reviewing and practicing our various emergency drills including: fire, lockdown, earthquake and tsunami. 

Practicing what to do in the event of an emergency is known to have saved lives. Please  speak with your children about the fact that these drills are there to help and support us so that in the event of a genuine emergency we would know exactly what to do; this may lessen anxieties some children experience.

As part of the learning conferences we asked you check to your details to ensure we have the correct information for your child.

REMINDER: Please advise us if your details change at any time  

NOTE: Later this term we will have a full-school evacuation to the top of the Athens Street zigzag.  Parents or emergency contacts are required to collect and sign their child out.  The date and details regarding this will be sent out once confirmed. 

Escape My House: This week on the television there has been much information shared about escaping from your home in the event of an emergency. We are all urged to make a plan. For more important information and to download a plan go to https://www.escapemyhouse.co.nz/

Keeping Our Children Safe

As you may know we regularly run the Keeping Ourselves Safe (KOS) programme in our school in association with the Police.  This age-appropriate programme is run in schools throughout the country and consists of a comprehensive range of child protection resources to help students learn and apply a range of safety skills that they can use when interacting with others.  KOS was implemented at Holy Cross in 2019 and 2020 for our junior students and key messages will be reinforced again this year.  As parents and caregivers it is helpful to know about the useful resources that are available for parents on the KOS portal https://www.police.govt.nz/advice/personal-and-community-advice/school-portal/resources/successful-relationships/keeping-1.

Behaviour management is another key aspect of keeping our children safe.  We have very robust processes in place to manage and respond to student behaviour and seek to address all matters well, whether low level or more serious.  If needed, we seek advice from experts to ensure that we are doing our very best for our students.  We have clear expectations around anti-bullying and take a very firm stance around this to ensure children feel emotionally safe in the school environment.

Our physical environment is closely monitored to identify hazards so these can then be addressed quickly and properly.   We also that you advise us if you identify any hazards, it is important that we work together to keep everyone safe. 

DRIVEWAY SAFETY 

Please can we respectfully remind parents/caregivers not to park in the school driveway outside the office. It is dangerous having cars pull in and reverse out especially at drop off and pick up times. Our little people are sometimes unpredictable and we need to be extra vigilant in keeping them safe.

There is plenty of space to park in Para Street or Miramar Ave to then walk to school to drop off your child. In the afternoons the back courts are open for parents to park and pick up but please be mindful of children here too.

We also ask that when you enter or leave the school grounds you check that the gate closes behind you.

Thank you for your support, as we all work together to keep our tamariki safe.

We are pleased to advise you that our swimming lessons will take place at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre (WRAC) in Kilbirnie during Term 1. 

For students in Rooms 7, 11 & 12 (Marcellin Syndicate) lessons will be held from 2:00 - 3:00pm every Tuesday, starting 16th February.

For students in Rooms 1,2,3,5,& 6 (McAuley Syndicate) lessons will be held from 2:00 - 3:00pm every Wednesday, starting 17th February.

There will be no charge for this activity because we have opted into the Government’s school donation scheme.

Students are required to bring their swimming togs, towel and goggles (if required) to school on their swimming day. We will travel by bus, departing school at 1:30pm with lessons running from 2:00 - 3:00pm.

As the pool will be closed in Term 3 for maintenance, this was the best time slot we could get. 

Return Bus Arrangements for Rooms 7, 11 & 12

• All students will return to school at approx 3:20pm on Tuesday Afternoons.

Return Bus Arrangements for Rooms 3, 5 & 6

• Parents / Caregivers may choose to pick up their child from Kilbirnie Pool at 3:05pm or from school at approx 3:20pm on Wednesday afternoons

Return Bus Arrangements for Rooms 1 & 2

• We ask all students in Rooms 1 & 2 to make their own arrangements to get home once dismissed from the pool. This we believe provides an authentic opportunity for students to develop independence, in preparation for college. If this is going to be a challenge we will work with you to find a solution.

A swimming permission form for McAuley Syndicate was sent to the email address that was checked at the learning conversations at the start of the year. If you have not received the swimming permission form, please email tim.carson@hcm.school.nz or please see the office for a paper version on the form. (Marcellin syndicate forms were provided at the learning conversations).

HELPERS WANTED

If you are comfortable being in the water up to your waist for 20 minutes for a fun activity for the Beach Education Day (24/25 February) - WE NEED YOU! please contact the school office.

Year 7 and 8 immunisation forms were handed out to students this week.

Please return the consent forms by Monday 15th February at the latest. Thank you