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- Principal's Message
- Catholic character
- Fitness Challenge
- Casual or sport clothes can be worn on Friday-Gold coin support for CARITAS please
- Winter Uniform Term 2
- School Photos Friday 7th May 2021
- IOL Room 7
- IOL- Room 11
- IOL -Room 12
- Room 3,5,6
- Room 3,5,6
- Year 7 & 8
- Congratulations
- Happy Birthday
- PSG fundraiser Entertainment Book
- Community Notices
Our 2021 theme, The Gifts That Surrpound Us- My Story, Our Story, The Story is one that you will see reflected in all classrooms throughout the school.
A strong sense of self, of acceptance of who we are called to be, alongside a deep respect for all those we meet and a nurturing of faith continues to focus our actions.
This term we have had a focus on 'My Story', getting to know each child as a learner as well as learning more about your beautiful families. We began the term with learning conversations right at the start of the year and have been built on these throughout the term. Our tamariki look forward to your classroom visits on Thursday, to celebrate some of their learning with you; you will be very proud of their achievements!
Farewell and Thanks
At the end of term we farewell and say thank you to two very special members of our school community Tim Carson and Nik Solia. Tomorrow we will come together to celebrate and acknowledge their time with us. Both of these very humble teachers have contributed so much to Holy Cross School.
Tim and Nik, on a personal note I thank each of you for giving so generously of your many gifts and talents. It has been a pleasure to see you both grow in your confidence and capabilities.
We wish you well for the future and pray for God's continued blessings on you both.
Remember, if you are free between 11:30am and 12:30pm we would love you to join us in the hall.
Staffing News and Welcome
Next term we look forward to welcoming Clare James to our staff. Clare has been appointed to a fixed term teacher position. She will be the Room 3 class teacher till the end of the school year.
Clare is an experienced teacher with particular strengths in IT and music.
Eleanor Stefanidis will continue to work in the school providing class room release time for staff in the McAuley syndicate.
We have recently appointed 2 new members to our support staff team. We welcome Kate Jackson and Isitokia Paasi to our team, great to have you onboard!
'Happiness is about belonging'
"Without community there can be no real individual fulfilment. People need people. It takes a village to raise a child. Nothing can replace the sense of belonging, in city or country, when you feel part of your environment - knowing the neighbours, supporting your team, campaigning for a good cause, sharing responsibility for the local environment, canvassing for a new leader. When Louis Armstrong saw 'friends shaking hands, saying "how do you do"' he believed they were really saying 'I love you'.
A happier life cannot be ordered online. In a sense it is all so ordinary. It silently happens when you are doing other things - taking time to encourage a fearful soul, raising money for people with disabilities, trying to alleviate the burden of poverty, comforting a distressed neighbour." Daniel O'Leary
"I do not know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have learned how to serve. This is the only worthwhile life." Albert Scheitzer
- I invite us all to pause and reflect upon these powerful words.
Welcome to our Holy Trinity Parish Community.
Congratulations to Mila and Reef and their little brother and Rome who received the sacrament of baptism last Friday 9th April in the school hall.
On June 2, the Eastern Zone Cross Country is to be held. We encourage all students who are interested in participating in this event to take up the challenge to train during the term break. The event is to be held at Scots College, so head on down there and practice running around the field. Focus on pacing yourself so that you keep up a strong, steady pace!
On Friday we will send home a record sheet for students to record the number of minutes they are active each day. Please return these to Corrie at the beginning of term 2 for some special acknowledgements.
A reminder that students are required to wear winter uniform from Term 2. The photos below show winter uniform options.
Please note regulation sport shorts are to be worn by students for fitness and PE.
We encourage all students to wear our uniform with pride.
Term 1 in Room 7 has been busy and fun-filled. We have completed work on our school-wide focus of My Story, Our Story and The Story – each child completing a Tapa Cloth with their stories included in these.
We have also completed our IOL topics for Term 1 – in which we re-enacted the story of the Last Supper and Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane,during our work on Holy Week.
Enjoy our photos!!
Room 12 are definitely looking forward to a holiday after a wonderfully busy term! We began the term learning how to be in a class together and sharing our story- where we had come from, what books we liked and lots of other things about ourselves. We made paper people to display this.
Mini beasts invaded our lives when we did our IOL (Intensive Oral Language) topic- we had a great time looking for minibeasts in the garden and doing lots of talking and writing about them.
Do you know about our Holy Cross Way? We can show Aroha (love, care and kindness), Whanau (work and play cooperatively together like a family) and say Yes! to opportunities to learn new things.
We practiced the Holy Cross way this term during our times of play based learning and also during a special playtime where we tried out some games together with the rest of the school.
We finished the term with a focus on Holy week and God’s story about Jesus dying on the cross- a special sacrifice. We learnt about the events that happened leading up to that time and had our own experience of the last supper where we had a special time sharing bread and juice together.
We are looking forward to welcoming our mums and dads in on Thursday to see our fabulous learning tapa- a wonderful record of our learning this term.
I wonder what we will discover in term 2?
Art Gallery Trip
At the end of this term, Rooms 3,5 & 6 journeyed into the city to explore the mural 'Ngā Kakano / The Seeds' by Johnson Witehira that wraps around the outside edge of Civic Square.
Our expert guides, Helen and Claire helped us decode the Māori motifs and characters on the mural and students learned about how they connect to our local stories. After this, students learned how to stencil and make a screen print inspired by the mural in the City Art Gallery.
This was a perfect way to end our pepeha unit where students have been sharing their stories, taonga and special places they are connected to.
Room 3 - Shared Writing Task
I Wonder: How healthy is the soil at Holy Cross?
Prediction: Room 3 predicted that the soil in the garden would be healthier than the soil in the playground
Equipment: Two pairs of cotton underwear exactly the same and a shovel
Method:
- We buried the underwear in December 2020 in the Garden to Table garden and underneath the grass in the playground
- In March 2021 we dug the undies up to see how much they have been decomposed by the microbes in the soil.
This picture was taken when we buried the undies in December 2020
Results
Here are the undies when we dug them out in March 2021.
Conclusion
We were all very surprised that all that was left on both sets of undies was the elastic. We concluded that the soil in the garden and in the playground is very healthy for both sets of underwear to completely decompose. We learnt that this is because of the good microbes in the soil. We also learnt that there are more microbes in 1 teaspoon of soil than there are people on earth !!
Thank you Olivia and Aleksandra for another amazing term in the Garden - we are so lucky to have you.
Caritas Lenten Unit: A New Way Forward
Our unit this term explored themes connected to lent - journey, companionship, treasure, choices and reflection. Each week we looked at a gospel study to honour our call to servant leadership and prepare ourselves to open our hearts to Christ. We also explored each of these themes with case studies, investigating some of the good work Caritas does to support developing countries all over the world!
As part of this unit, we have explored the conflict between Israel and Palestine, developed a deeper understanding of the challenges Cambodia has faced due to Pol Pot’s regime, explored how to value each others’ taonga (treasures) - including understanding the effects of Climate Change on Pacific treasures, discussed how to make positive choices, and more recently - learnt how to use ‘what, so what, now what’ and reflected on the refugee experience. Have a look at this extract from one of the arguments we wrote to convince NZ to increase our refugee quota!
“First of all, we always think of our wants, not considering those who are in need. We spend so much money and buy new things. Yes, that is great, but sometimes we’re selfish and ignorant. We have all probably watched the news, as it continues to show those who are in deeper and harder situations. We watch, we feel bad, then do nothing. They need our help and love. Many had sacrificed many things like their homes, their treasures, and money to survive. We can’t continue to watch, then live our normal lives.”
- Tsion Medhane
“Not only do we want the refugees to come to NZ to be safe they will also enrich our lives. For example, Rez Gardi came to New Zealand after 9 years in a refugee camp with 6 other refugee families living in the same tent. Rez was a refugee and she won the best young New Zealander of the year award. She is an example of the gifts and talents our refugees could bring to NZ. That means refugees do enrich our lives and that's why we should let them in!”
- Albert Thompson
“Did you know that the number of refugees in the world is 80 million. 80 million people who have to live in war. 80 million people who have to leave their home. 80 million people who have to live in a tent. New Zealand, we need to let more refugees into our country.”
- Flynn McKinstry
He Waka Eke Noa Trip
‘He waka eke noa’ is a Māori whakatauki which means we are all paddling the same waka - we are all in this together. The leadership skills we aimed to foster on this day were around team-work and cooperation. We developed them through our team building games, art projects and for Rm 1, during their waka trip! Sadly for Room 2, the weather just wouldn’t cooperate, so we are going to be paddling our waka in term 4.
This trip also has links to wider lessons around pepeha/honouring Māori language, and our year long focus of ‘My Story, Our Story, The Story’ - engaging with the stories of ourselves, our community and our faith. Room 1 & 2 have been learning about their individual and whanau Pepeha. They have learnt about their tīpuna and how they are connected to their ancestors overseas and in New Zealand. Whilst they were concentrating on “My Story” the teachers decided to share some of “Our Story” with them by taking them on a waka ama trip and learning about our local waka and maunga (mountain).
During this trip, students were able to see what it was like to paddle in a waka as it was the main form of transport for Maori to travel around the coastlines and from island to island. Room 1 students went through the protocols of using waka like saying karakia before their sailings and using some Maori waiata to keep their paddling in time.
To connect to the mana whenua or people of the land, we hiked to the top of Mt Victoria which is also known as Matairangi or “Tangi Te Keo”. Some brave room 2 students recited their pepeha and both classes sat and listened to the story of “Ngake and Whaitaitai”. Lots of students have listed Matairangi as their maunga so it was nice for them to be up there and walk a part of their pepeha whilst understanding how the maunga got its name.
Welcome Olani to Holy Cross School - we hope you are having fun and making new friends!
Kia ora primary caregivers,
My name is Zara Molijn and I am a Masters student in Public Policy at the Victoria University of Wellington. The Wellington City Council want to better understand what is holding years 0 through 8 children back from walking, biking, scootering and/or skating to and from school.
To be able to gain this type of insight, we need your help!
We are asking that just one primary caregiver per household fills out an anonymous 5 - 10 minute survey.
The survey will be open for 2 weeks. Thus, from midnight on the 27th of April we will no longer be accepting responses.
Follow this link to the Survey: http://vuw.qualtrics.
Your response will provide us with valuable insights that will help inform how we can make active school travel safe and easy.
Your response is anonymous therefore we will not be able to identify you. Additionally, all results will be presented at an aggregate level meaning schools will not be individually identifiable.
As a thank you for your participation, completed surveys that state a child's school will be entered into a prize draw where the school can win 1 of the 3 sports equipment prize packs. The more parents from the school that complete the survey, the more chances the school will have to win. The equipment in these prize packs has been kindly donated by the Wellington Community Sports Bank. The winners for these prize packs will be drawn by a random number generator in mid-May, 2021.
If you have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me at molijnzara@myvuw.ac.nz
We appreciate your time and thank you in advance.
Ngā mihi nui,
Zara Molijn
BLITZ NETBALL
basicsfirst.BLITZNETBALL@gmail.com or phone/text: 021 024 056 86
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