Aoife's Message

Greetings Holy Cross families,

Term 2 is well underway with many events and experiences taking place. Our children have written some detailed sports reports, check out our Holy Cross happenings page in this newsletter to find out more!

With the beginning of each new term there are always things we can reflect on and refine. One of our key focus areas in the last few months has been around the Child Safety Standards which were updated by the Commission for Children and Young People in July 2022. As part of our process last year we presented an update on the standards to the School Advisory Board and to our staff. We also reflected on our philosophy of keeping our children at the centre of all that we do, therefore we decided to enter into a process to empower our children around the standards. The work began in Term 4 with Kellie McDonald and Emily Merrett working with the Student Representative Coucil (SRC) to gain student voice and put the essence of the standards into child-friendly language. Our 2023 SRC children have now completed a slideshow which they will present to all classes. This slideshow will be a working document and will be revisited regularly to edit for clarity and to ensure it meets the needs of our chidlren now, and in the future. These slides will also be added to our website next week, I encourage families to read through them together. A sample of one of the slides is below.  

As part of this process the children talked about the many people who visit our school each day. They are very aware of any adults onsite who are not usually present during the school day. We explained that visitors, including parents, always have to sign in at the office. This also keeps adults safe if there is an emergency. The children also found out that staff and parents sign a code of conduct and that this is like an agreement to treat everyone in our community with respect and dignity. As a staff we will be revisiting our code of conduct and I encourage families to read over the parent code of conduct also. It is imperative that our children know that the adults in our community work together to keep them safe. 

We have also registered our school for a series of three webinars, run by Inform & Empower. These online parent sessions will be presented by Carley McGauran, a psychologist and mum of three children. Carley ran some sessions for us last year, she is a very engaging and practical presenter. I encourage interested families to register for the first webinar, the details are below. Inform & Empower also run cyber safety sessions for our children each term. 

Wishing all of the mothers and mother figures in our community a very happy Mother's Day. May you find joy in the presence and remembrance of those you love. 

Aoife