Kellie & Kate's Message

Welcome Back to a New School Year!

Dear Families,

It has been wonderful to hear the excited voices of children, staff and families filling the school again this week. Schools feel so quiet and a little unnatural over the holidays, so the buzz in classrooms, the playground, and the staffroom has been a welcome change! We’ve loved listening to holiday stories, so many children shared how much they loved spending time with their families and friends. Some of the first things they told us were about sleepovers with cousins, catching up with extended family at Christmas, and the exciting places they visited.

With the school year always so full, the break in routine and downtime are so important for children and families. We hope you all feel recharged and ready for the year ahead. 

We are incredibly grateful to the staff and families who helped prepare our school for the new year. Sue and Sue were in and out of the office over the break, collecting mail and organising supplies. Our teachers worked hard to plan for the year ahead and set up welcoming spaces for the children’s return. Seeing their excited faces on the first day was wonderful.

A huge thank you to the families who cared for our chickens and sheep over the holidays and kept our vegetable garden thriving on hot days. The sunflowers are now in full bloom! We are so appreciative of the Courtney, James, Tickner, Szostak, Ward, Gatty, and Dwyer/Piening families for their help.

We also kicked off the year with an ambitious working bee last week, topping up the soft fall in the playground and refreshing the sandpit, which was a big hit on the first day! Thank you to Paul Gatty, David Tobin, and Rhiannon Bowden for lending a hand, as well as our staff and their children Ben, Jack, Rosie, and Travis, who picked up shovels and made the job easier (and saved our backs!).

Welcome 

We extend a warm welcome to all our new children and families joining the Holy Cross community. Starting at a new school comes with many questions, and we encourage everyone to introduce themselves, we all remember what it’s like!

We warmly welcome not only our existing Prep families but also the Canteri, Cross, Damaschino, French-Wilson, Harrison, Hasan, Jones, Mazou, McAleer, O'Connell, Payne, Smetona, and Steel families to Holy Cross. Additionally, we extend a welcome to the Damaschino, McAleer, Traill, and Stephens families joining us in Years 1, 2, 3, and 5.

This term, Ash Johns will be leading Outdoor Education classes while Caitlyn is on leave. We also welcome Alita Robertson, who has joined our team as a co-educator across our classes. Both Ash and Alita have settled in beautifully, and we wish them a fantastic year ahead.

We look forward to welcoming everyone at our Welcome Picnic next Friday, straight after school. This is a wonderful opportunity for families to connect and reconnect in a relaxed setting. We especially love seeing our Prep families meet the Year 6 buddies who have been looking out for their Preps as they started school.

A flyer has gone home today, pop it on the fridge as a reminder! We know the first week back comes with lots of information, so we hope this makes it easier to keep track.

Holy Cross Behaviour Expectations: A Strong Start to the Year

At Holy Cross, our school-wide expectations based around our Ways of Working, We are Kind, Safe, Learners, guide how we work and play together. These expectations help create a positive and respectful environment where every child feels valued and supported.

As we begin the school year, consistency and routine are essential for children’s wellbeing. Clear expectations help children feel secure, build independence, and foster a strong sense of belonging. By reinforcing our behaviour expectations across all school settings, classrooms, playgrounds, shared spaces, and online, we empower our children to be kind to one another, stay safe, and engage in meaningful learning.

By working together, we can ensure a smooth and supportive start to the year, helping every child grow in confidence and thrive.

Last year our dedicated staff worked alongside Catch and Echo to develop contextually personalised behaviour expectations. To kick off our year as a staff, we unpacked, refined and finalised our expectations to develop the expectations matrix attached below:

All classes spent time this week exploring the matrix and adding notes around what each expectation looks like and sounds like in different settings.

Policies

 Please see our Learning and Teaching page for updated ICT, homework, Sun Smart and uniform policies. 

Pilgrims of Hope - Jubilee 2025

This year, the Catholic Church is celebrating the Jubilee Year of Hope, a special time dedicated to fostering renewal and faith. It’s an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the power of hope in our lives, strengthen our relationship with God, and spread kindness and compassion within our communities. Let’s embrace this year as a chance to deepen our faith and share the message of hope with others!

Thank you all for the incredible start to the year, we look forward to everything ahead in 2025!

Kellie and Kate 

All students attending Holy Cross Primary School have the right to feel safe. The care, safety and wellbeing of children and young people is a fundamental responsibility of all within our school.