Next Wednesday we look forward to coming together to acknowledge our Year 8  leavers, to celebrate our wonderful community and to prepare for Christmas by revisiting the Christmas Story.

Due to the success of our touch rugby teams who are now competing in the finals we will not be having a performance from our cultural group and will start the Christmas liturgy at 6:00pm.

Each year we invite students to wear cultural dress to share and celebrate this important aspect of their culture.  This year one of our parents has kindly offered to take photographs of students in their cultural dress earlier in the day. These photographs will be given to families as a Christmas gift.

Please advise us if your child will be wearing cultural dress; if so he or she will need to bring these special clothes to school on Wednesday.

We look forward to another special celebration.

The Season of Advent- Te Wā o te Aweneti.

This Sunday is the first day of Advent. Advent is a special time when we wait for the coming of Jesus. The word Advent comes from the Latin 'adventus' which means 'arrival' or 'coming'. Advent marks the beginning of the Christian year. It is the four weeks before Christmas. This is the Church's New Year's Day!

There is something special about the Advent Season. In Church you will notice a change in  colours,  and will hear stories about promise, salvation and waiting in a new way.

The reverse Advent Calendar

Advent calendars which count down the days to Christmas have become increasingly commercialized, they  often involve Chocolate treats, -not the Jesus Story.

This year we want to work together to bring back that sense of the Sacred, the sense of waiting for Jesus who challenges us to be missionary, to reach out for others.

Let’s work together in a ‘different’ way to count-down the days until Christmas.

Instead of the ‘classical’  receiving of chocolates or treats in the Advent calendar  let’s give  gifts to those in need.  

Each class will  have a special basket or container in their classroom; the staff will also have one in the staffroom. We invite children and staff to place items to be gifted to others in their class’  container;  these items will then be passed on to the St Vincent de Paul Society and Salvation Army to distribute to this in need.

Giving might also involve practical  gifts e.g., offering to help someone in need, visiting someone who is unwell or lonely, making cards or offering prayers for others.

This is a real and powerful way to show children that Christmas is also about giving.

4,3,2,1, count the weeks until Jesus comes!

Each week we add another light.

Our hope for Jesus growing bright.

We pray, we share, we do our part,

To welcome Jesus to our heart!

We were very lucky this week to spend time at Ultimate Care Maupuia rest home and Rita Angus retirement village, spending time with the elderly in our community. The students sang songs and thoroughly enjoyed their experience.

On Tuesday Room 5 visited Maupuia and the students played games- ten pin bowling and morning excercises with the residents.

On Wednesday Room 3 had the pleasure of joining in with the singing and ukelele sessions and Room 6 did drawing and art activities with the residents of the rest home.

The senior students walked to Rita Angus, when there they performed songs and were able to build connections with the residents. We are looking forward to doing this on a regular basis next year. 

Gardener of the day was Ledayna, Maggie and Sophia were her assistants in the garden. Sophia is visitng us from Germany.

"We are cutting the grass at the edge of the bed, we are having a competition to have the cleanest vegetable patch with no weeds and we had teams- Sophia and Maggie won and Mikey and Charles did too, they won 2 little plants to take home".

Chef of the day was Vianna and Parina and they made corn and herb fritters. The ingredients were flour, milk, eggs,herbs from the garden, mint and corn. We stirred the mixture and Aleece pan fried the fritters. We thought the fritters looked like pan cakes.

Student Writing

"Today in the kitchen we made Strawberry and Rhubarb Muffins. Something I think we can do better is to read the ingredients carefully because there were some reading mistakes and I even noticed a spelling mistake in the ingredients! Something I think we can add to the recipe for next time is blueberries. We halved the class and group and made three separate batches of the muffins. It was fun. 

Nicolas Benyamin

Room 3 Year 6

Today in the garden we harvested strawberries and rhubarb. We all got really wet because Jimmy put sprinklers in the garden to water the plants faster.

We trimmed around the garden beds, potted tomatoes and cape gooseberries and did tons of weeding. We also mowed around the garden beds with a hand mower.

Xanthe Dickie Room 3 Yr 5

Congratulations to our students who attended the Wellington Athletics Interzone at Newtown Park on Tuesday. You represented Holy Cross School with great passion and truly "Let Your Lights Shine".

Please enjoy some action photos from the event. 

Holy Cross School has been offered 40 places for students aged 8-12 years and a guardian (18 years old or above) to take part in a 6.5km course in the Round the Bays event on Sunday 16th February 2020.

This is a fun event which you could skip, run or dance your way to the finish line.

There will be lots of support to be race fit and even a shuttle bus to get Frank Kitts Park on the day!

If your child is interested please email susie.sumner@hcm.school.nz and let us know if your child needs help to find a guardian to run with.