Holy Cross Community News

“Learning Together “

Parents and Caregivers,

This year, Holy Cross School will join Catholic schools across NSW and the ACT to celebrate Catholic Schools Week (CSW) from 8-14 March.

The theme for CSW 2015 is ‘Educating for Today and Tomorrow’. The theme ties in with the 50th anniversary of the Declaration on Christian Education, 'Gravissiumum Educationis.' The document recognised the continuing need for the Church to support parents in the education of their children.

Catholic Schools Week is about strengthening relationships between all those who have a stake in our schools – students, staff, families, priests, parishioners, and members of the wider community.

It is for this reason that I would like to extend an invitation to you and your family to join us to celebrate with our school and parish community Catholic Schools Week 2015. In this newsletter you will find further details.

This is an ideal opportunity to support our community and learn more about the great things that takes place in Catholic schools every day. Our school has a supportive community of teachers, parents, grandparents, carers, clergy, parishioners and support staff who work together to focus on giving students the best education possible, encouraging success, promoting discipline, supporting creativity and instilling compassion.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for all your support and I look forward to celebrating Catholic Schools Week.

Kind regards,

Marina Hardy

Principal

Address: Postal Address: Phone: Fax:

49 Meurants Lane PO Box KL 927 9629 8742 9629 8745

GLENWOOD NSW 2768 KINGS LANGLEY NSW 2147

www.hcglenwood.catholic.edu.au email: holycross@parra.catholic.edu.au

Term 1

Week 6

Tuesday 3rd March, 2015

John XXIII Mass Times Saturday Vigil 6.00pm

Sunday Masses 7.30am, 9.00am, 10.30am, 6.00pm

Weekday Masses Mon, Wed, Thurs and Sat at 9.00am

From the Executive Director – Mr Greg Whitby

Inside the March issue of Catholic Outlook

* Band of brothers on the path to priesthood * Welcome Geoff Officer – new diocesan Chief of Operations & Finance

* World Day of the Sick Mass

* Pope Francis’ strong message to Church on child protection

* Institute for Mission graduation and commissioning

* Feel-good fashion at Vinnies Rouse Hill

* News from our Catholic schools

Catholic Outlook Readership Survey - closes 10th March

Top 50 responses – $50 vouchers

Our diocesan magazine, Catholic Outlook, is conducting a readership survey for you to provide valuable feedback about the publication.

We want to know what you like about the publication.

What would you like to see more or less of?

How relevant is the editorial content?

How can we best improve Catholic Outlook?

To answer these and other questions in the 10 min survey go to: www.parra.catholic.org.au/catholicoutlook

Catholic Schools Week at Holy Cross! Holy Cross will be celebrating Catholic School’s Week through a range of events from Sunday 8th

March until Friday 13th March.

On Sunday 8th March, the school will host an open day, where prospective families are welcome to

tour our learning spaces and facilities with members of the teaching staff. Students from across the

school will be presenting a number of dances. A sausage sizzle will be available for visitors to enjoy.

Catholic Schools Week Monday Morning Prayer - Harmony Day Focus We will begin the week with a special Monday morning prayer joined by our Federal Minister Michelle Rowland, celebrating

the many cultures and countries of origin amongst our school community. With a theme of Harmony, students will be

encouraged to wear their national dress and join together in song and dance.

After morning prayer, our Year 6 students will have the opportunity to spend some time with Michelle Rowland discussing

aspects of leadership, parliament, as well as public speaking.

Learning From Around the Globe For the rest of the day our students will cycle through a range of internationally themed activities: listening to stories,

enjoying outdoor games, participating in dance as well as contributing their own written and drawn reflections to a

cumulative wall of ‘Harmony’.

“Educating for Today and Tomorrow” Throughout the week, students will turn their eyes towards the future, inspired by the theme, “Educating for Today and

Tomorrow”. Students will respond to this in many ways, planning and creating displays and videos predicting what Catholic

schools will look like in the future, responding to how focussing on Harmony today will affect our future tomorrow, as well as

drawing themselves in their future professions and reflecting on the difference they hope to make in our world.

On Thursday 12th March, the school will also participate in our annual School Cross Country Carnival.

Parish Masses Begin! Tomorrow, Year 6 will attend this year’s first Wednesday morning parish mass. Mass is in the library at 9am and all are

welcome.

Next Wednesday 11th March at 9 am Year 4 will assist in leading mass.

Lent - Project Compassion Project Compassion money boxes were distributed yesterday. During Lent we encourage students to collect small amounts

of money to contribute to Caritas who do much needed work with some of this world’s most needy communities.

NSW STATE ELECTION

Did you know? The Federal Government contributes 57.5% of the cost of educating a child in a NSW Catholic school, and the NSW Government contributes 19.7%. The remaining 22.8% comes from parents and the parish community through school fees and private fundraising. This is why funding support from Federal and State Governments must keep pace with rising education costs—to maintain education quality and to ensure a Catholic education remains affordable for all families.

Parramatta Diocesan Swimming Carnival Friday 27rd February 2015

Congratulations to all of our team members who represented Holy Cross at the Parramatta Diocesan Swimming Carnival on Friday 27th February. Every child swam their races and demonstrated our school agreements of being respectful, safe and doing their personal best throughout the day.

We would like to congratulate the following children on their individual achievements. The girls have been selected to represent the Blacktown Zone at the MacKillop Trials on Friday 20th March.

Congratulations to Talijah Tietie - 2015 Runner Up - Senior Girls and has progressed through for the following races -100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Breaststroke. Congratulations Talijah on breaking the record for the Senior Girls 50m Breaststroke. A record that has stood since 1998!

Congratulation to Elizabeth Kitcher who has progressed through for the 50m Backstroke.

Happy Birthday to the following students who

celebrated their Birthday this past week

Oliver Zammit, Jake Wynne, Isabella Panagiotopoulos, Lucas

Szymoniczek, Sienna Jackson-Poilly, Andrew Soosaipillai, Anya

Douglas, Malcolm Borg, Jade Jabson, Daniel Arakelian, Alex

Pantaleone, Angelina Warton, Marc Tepes & Pallavi Reddy

Sunday 8th March Holy Cross Open Day

Monday 9th March Harmony Day

Monday Morning Prayer led by Year 1

Michelle Rowland visiting

Thursday 12th March Cross Country

Friday 2nd April Last day of term

Monday 20th April First day of Term 2

School Fees for 2015

The term 1 fees are due to the school by 6th March

2015. Please note that all Flexible Payment Plan forms

are to be sent to Catholic Education Office by 5th March

2015. If you like to discuss your account, please contact

the school office between 8.30 am and 3.30 pm Monday

to Friday.

PBS4L UPDATE

At Holy Cross we do our Personal Best in our learning when we complete tasks the best that we can, do hard thinking, stay on task and use a range of resources.

Last week the students at Holy Cross had the opportunity to demonstrate their personal best during a visit from Mr Greg Whitby, the Executive Director of Schools. Mr Whitby visited a number of the learning spaces at Holy Cross where he engaged in the Maths learning taking place and spoke to the students and teachers about what it is like to be part of Mathematical learning experiences at Holy Cross.

During his visit to Year 1, Mr Whitby helped some of the students investigate how tall he is. They experimented with using a tape measure to measure his height, leading to Mr Whitby concluding that he is 150cm tall plus another 50cm. Using a quick mental strategy the students concluded that he was, in fact, 200cm tall.

Year 1 are going to continue to investigate measurement over the coming weeks and look forward to sharing their new learning with Mr Whitby.

CEO Consent Forms

Thank you to parents who have already returned the following CEO consent forms that were sent home to parents two weeks ago.

Consent for use of students’ image and/or work

Consent to sell raffle tickets

It is important that BOTH forms are returned to the school. Catholic Education Office requested that each family must complete these forms. We ask that you complete and return both forms by Thursday 5th March. Both forms are on our website under Parents/Notes from School/Whole School.

Child Protection – Reminder for NEW parents and those who are required to ‘UPDATE’ their

child protection

It is a Diocesan requirement that parents who volunteer at school must complete the Child Protection Module ONLINE. This training is available online at:

http://childprotection.parra.catholic.edu.au/training

and MUST be completed every two years.

All parents must have completed the above prior to helping in the classroom, sports days, excursions, uniform shop or any help around the school.