Maths

This week we take a peak at maths which is a focus for professional development this year at Holy Cross. We are able to access this support through the Ministry of Education Professional Development program and have a contract with an organisation called Cognition led by Louise Miller. We met Louise last year when Ethel and Ben took part in a short term focus on Maths. This year we are using maths as the subject to develop our skills in teaching in a culturally responsive way. 

So what is culturally responsive? This is a way of teaching that recognises that all students learn differently. These differences are connected to language, family structure, background and cultural identity. Some of the new learning we will do as teachers will be to look at ways of learning maths that involve developing our tamairki’s mathematical thinking through discussion and explanation. There is a strong element of problem solving but also building on the basics of what tamariki already know about maths. 

Louise is beginning her work with us by gathering  voice- what do Holy Cross ākonga/students think about maths? How do Holy Cross kaiako/ teachers see themselves as maths teachers? Louise will join us next Wednesday at our Celebration of Learning where she will be looking to gather some  information about whānau maths aspirations and understandings too. We can use this information as a way to guide what we focus on as we improve what we do to encourage deeper learning and understanding in our maths programs. 

When we look at the data we have gathered over the last 3 years using the PaCT tool in maths (see my first newsletter this year for an explanation of what this is) our achievement in maths is going well. It will be exciting to activate stronger connections for our tamariki in this subject and to see higher engagement in class lessons as we look to be more culturally responsive in maths. 

Maths achievement over time %

Baptism.

This Friday we have seven wonderful students who will be receiving the Sacrament of Baptism. For the past couple of weeks the children have done a fantastic job learning about how Baptism is a way of being invited into the Catholic Church family, how the ritual of Baptism was introduced, and symbols that are used in the sacrament. Father Bill has met with the parents and discussed their role in their child’s faith journey.

 The sacrament will take place in the hall where they will be supported by their family, their god parents, and their class peers. The Baptism will be led by Fr Bill. 

Here are some of the comments our wonderful students said about Baptism:

• I learnt that God is Love (Enzo, Cattleya, Dreius)

• I learnt that John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin and that he didn’t want to baptise Jesus because he knew that He was the Son of God (Isabella).

• John the Baptist wore camel hair as part of his clothes (Millie)

• I learnt that Baptism is a way of welcoming people into a church family (Angel).   

We congratulate Millie, Angel, Brooklyn, Cattleya, Dreius, Isabella and Enzo for completing the Sacrament of Baptism. We ask God to bless each and every one of you and to guide you through your faith journey.

Holy Week.

Next week is the beginning of Holy Week. During the week, students will learn and reflect on the events leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection, beginning with Palm Sunday. Every morning there will be a special lenten focus during prayer, where students will pray for those in need, and to ask God to let their light shine which follows our Lenten theme ‘Jesus is the Light of the World’.

On Thursday we will have our Easter Liturgy. The school will retell the Stations of the Cross; the events that lead up to His crucifixion. We will also reflect on the sacrifice Jesus gave and pray for strength and guidance to live a Holy life. This will take place in our school hall at 11:30am. We warmly welcome you to come along and join us at our Liturgy.  

There are lots of changes happening in education at the moment and one is that our New Zealand Curriculum is going through a refresh. In order for teachers to have some time to spend learning about the changes that are taking place, the Ministry of Education has set a Teacher Only day to be taken at the beginning of term 2. 

We have chosen to follow many other schools and take Monday 24th April as a Teacher Only day- there will be no school on this day. Tuesday 25th is ANZAC day- there is no school on this day. Term 2 starts Wednesday 26th. We will welcome your tamariki through the gates on this day.

Ngā mihi ki a koutou - Thank you for your support with the book fair and the fabulous book character parade. The tamariki had a wonderful time with lots of dancing and fun, please enjoy the lovely photos.

A special mention to the amazing PSG team and Malisha for all the hard mahi they have put in!

This week in Garden to Table, Room 3 made Smashed Cucumber Salad.

Gardener of the Day (Esme)

Today in the garden we did a lot of things such as, making compost, watering and planting. We needed to be careful on how we treated the insects (especially the butterflies & spiders) when watering the plants. I learnt today that when you grow peas that you put three seeds together to help make the growing process stronger.

Chef of the Day (Isaiah)

Today we cut some spring onions, garlic and cucumber. When using the knife I had to be very careful. The favourite part of today for me was smashing the cucumber.

This week in Garden to Table, Room 6 made Vegetable Risotto.

Gardener of the Day

"In the garden we learnt about compost, how it stops vegetable waste going to landfill" said Ezira. We also collected seeds to plant back into the garden.

Chef of the Day

Soccer tournament

Well done to our year 3 & 4 students who are playing at the Miramar Rangers inter school football tournament. A big shout out to Ben for organising the event, our parents for supporting them and the year 8 student coaches, Hunter, James and Rueben.

This week we have the pleasure of welcoming Kiwi Golf to our school. They are running 40 minute sessions with Rooms 1, 2, 3, 6 and 8 from Monday to Thursday this week.

Last week was the last rotation of Athletics and this week we will also start training for the school cross country.