Year 8 students return to New Norcia!

Last Thursday, several Year 8 students were selected to return to New Norcia. There, they showed several members of staff the iBook that they created during Term 3 Big Ideas and LIFE week. The iBooks were designed to answer the question, 'How can I be at my best?' Throughout the term, students investigated what it takes to be at their best. They looked at how Dom Salvado was at his best, and how we can make aspects of our life better.

At New Norcia, students completed a range of activities, and then upon their return to school, they formulated ideas of how New Norcia could offer a better experience to school groups and therefore make a higher profit.

The staff of New Norcia were very interested to hear their ideas.

Mrs Laura Billington.
Year 8 Innovator.

God Bless Us! Everyone!

The Junior School Drama Club took to the stage in their finest Christmas attire to present their end of year performance in Week 8. The classic Dickens tale 'A Christmas Carol' was brought to life by our talented Year 4-6 Drama students in the style of Reader's Theatre, a theatre format which focuses less on memorisation and more on reading with confidence, expression and character.

Addison Delauney (Year 5) carried off a grumpy, sullen and ultimately joyful Eliza Scrooge and led a talented cast:

Year 4
Lindy-Louise Papenfus (Mrs Cratchit), Ruby Briggs-Dyer (Young Cratchit), Ashni Pindolia (Narrator)

Year 5
Isabel Davies (Gentlewoman), Joshua Papenfus (Marley), Paighe Halliday (Young Cratchit), Abby Bolger (Red Faced Gentlewoman), Thomas Jacklin (Peter), Kalel Popadynec (Boy) and Ryan Andrews (Fellow)

Year 6
Kiera Perks (Niece/Narrator), Amelie Fewell (Flame), Jasmine Okello (First Ghost), Lachlan Hannaford (Fezziwig), Jesse Sokol (Bob Cratchit), Mia-Mae Vella (Second Ghost), Harry Andrews (Fellow), Mia Yeatman (Narrator), Angel Mehton (Narrator), Erin Butterworth (Narrator), Michelle Owusu (Narrator), Isabella Hughes (Narrator/Third Ghost) and Mary Zeradah Danoyo (Narrator)

Congratulations must go to all the students involved. It was a wonderful culmination of the 2018 Drama Club and a testament to the work of the staff. Thanks to Mrs Dorota Fretwell and Miss Sophie Lester for their work throughout the year. Thanks also to Middle and Senior School Students who assisted for the performance and during the rehearsal process.

The future of Drama at Holy Cross is very bright indeed. Merry Christmas!

What’s Your Passion Project? Year 7 Big Ideas Grand Finale!

On Thursday of Week 8, Year 7 Big Ideas culminated in an open exhibition of this term’s project ‘What’s Your Passion Project?’ Based loosely on the ‘Genius Hour’ concept, the Year 7 students had spent the term developing a project in response to a question or topic of particular interest to each of them. The project began with an investigation into each student’s interests, talents and learning style and followed a scaffolded process, ending in a public exhibition. 

The range of projects on offer was vast and included everything from designs for clothing in technologically advanced materials, to using animation to combat bullying, to campaigns against animal cruelty. The students were confident and articulate in explaining their projects to out guests and it was wonderful to see them receive interactive feedback from visitors of all ages. 

The Year 7 Big Ideas team heartily congratulates all the students on a wonderful effort in their final project for 2018 - we cannot wait to see what you do next year!

Mrs Emilie Lowe

Year 7 Innovator

Friends of Holy Cross Carols by Candlelight

Friends of Holy Cross Quiz Night 2018

The annual Friends of Holy Cross Quiz Night was held on Friday, 7September 2018 and was another successful event! Led by MC, Mr Ryan Shelton, it was a night full of fun, laughter, balloon popping, prize winning and of course questions and answers! Our winning team made it third time lucky after winning 3rd place in 2016, 2nd place in 2017 and taking out top honours in 2018. 

A big thank you goes out to all the generous businesses around our community for their prize donations. The Quiz Night Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank all those families and businesses that have been so generous with their donations. It is greatly appreciated! Special mention to Tidy Tom's Mowing, Bunnings, WASO, and Metropolitan Framing who have donated to our event for the past three years. A full list of the donating businesses is shown below.

Last but not least, to the committee that worked tirelessly for months to prepare this event and on the night: Sarah Dye, Jo Di Pino, Tarquin Allen, Karlee Jones, Kristy Kavanagh, Carol Wincott-Whyte, Rachael Dalglish, Aman Sandhu, Josh Francis and Michelle Francis.  

We hope to see you all again next year!

The Friends of Holy Cross

New Seats Released for 'A Christmas Carol'

Due to popularity, another 40 seats have been released for the Junior Drama Club's Reader's Theatre performance of 'A Christmas Carol' this Thursday. The classic tale will be presented as you've never seen it before with a female Scrooge and a style of Theatre which does not focus on memorisation but on expression and plenty of Christmas Magic!

Free tickets can be reserved at www.trybooking.com/406427. Book now to avoid disappointment!

Christmas Mass Times - St Helena of the Holy Cross Parish

To help with your preparations for the Seasons of Advent and Christmas please see below for the Mass times at our Parish:
Saturday, 22 December - 6pm
Sunday, 23 December - 8am, 9.30am, 5.45pm
Monday, 24 December - 7pm (Family/Children Mass) & 12midnight
Tuesday, 25 December - 8am, 9.30am, No evening mass

There will also be Christmas carols 30 minutes prior to the Christmas masses.

Just a reminder that Saturday/Sunday (22 & 23 December) are normal masses for the 4th Sunday of Advent. As Christmas falls on a Tuesday, it is timely to remind people that we are encouraged to uphold our Sunday mass obligation as well as attending a Christmas celebration.

Mr Ryan Shelton
Director of Faith

Year 6 Transition Mass

As we approach the end of the 2018 Academic Year, the Year 6 students are preparing for the Transition from Junior School to Middle School. To celebrate this milestone, the Year 6 students will be participating in a Transition Mass on Wednesday, 28 November. The Mass will be held at Saint Helena’s of the Holy Cross Catholic Church commencing at 9:30am and will be followed by a Morning Tea. Families and Friends are also invited to attend.

Mrs Kylie Day

Assistant Principal, Junior School

Visual Arts: Pre-primary - Year 2

Mrs Borg has been working with the Pre-primary to Year 2 students this term to create some amazing works of art inspired by different artists.

Vanja Basell

Assistant Principal, Junior School

Student Leadership @ Holy Cross College

Are all people capable of being leaders? Yes. Leadership is the ability to move people from one state to another; it is inherently about change. At Holy Cross College we are committed to building the leadership capacity of our student leaders in four key domains:

• Visionary capacity: transforming a vision into reality
  
• Relational capacity: connect with people
• Integrity capacity: model and embody values and beliefs
• Effectiveness capacity: demonstrate technical and managerial skills

Inspired by the words of our College Patron, St Oscar Romero to "aspire not to have more, but to be more" our newly appointed Middle School and Senior School Students participated in their annual leadership workshop on 16 & 17 November.

Commencing with a short pilgrimage from St Mary’s Cathedral to St Joseph’s Church in Subiaco. Students then journeyed to the Catholic Education Centre in Leederville where Dr Tony Curry, Director, School Improvement, and, Mr Daniel Groenewald, CEWA Leadership Consultant, shared the essential ingredients of Christian leadership.

Students returned to school and participated in a number of practical leadership activities, planning and sharing within their teams in casting vision for 2019.

The Executive Student Leadership team stayed overnight in Lyon and continued their training throughout Saturday.

Community Cabinet - Youth Roundtable

On Monday, 19 November, some of our student leaders represented the College at a Youth Roundtable with Premier Mark McGowan, Minister for Education and Training, Sue Ellery, and Minister for Housing, Veteran Issues and Youth, Peter Tinley. This was a powerful opportunity for our student leaders to join with leaders from other local schools to raise issues relevant to them.

These wonderful experiences for the student leaders have allowed them to continue to ponder their leadership capacities. We are very much looking forward to working with this team throughout 2019. We are very grateful for Ms Bond and Mr Pisano for their work in facilitating this important experience.

Mr Ryan Shelton
Director of Faith

Orientation Day

On Wednesday this week, we welcomed all new and existing students and parents for their Orientation. Students came to the College for the whole day (Year 7s) or part of the day (Junior School) where they experienced what life at Holy Cross College will be like. Parents also enjoyed the same experience through the College tours and parent sessions on offer.

Junior School students familiarised themselves with their new learning environments, met some of their teachers and began to interact with their peers.

Year 7 students focused on what senior school life will be like, acquainting themselves within the Paris building that will form their home base for classes. They sampled some of the subjects on offer at the College. This including some crazy science experiments, baking home style cookies, making clay bowls in art and finishing off with Performing Arts; where they played the ultimate Rock Paper Scissors, got to hear from students what Performing Arts is like at HCC and concluding with Just Dance, where they learnt the skill of ‘leaving embarrassment at the door’. During these fantastic mini-lessons they got to know their House Coordinators and Student Leader body.

Thank you to all the students and staff who gave up their time to act as mentors, College tour guides, crèche assistants and assisting in the many sessions for the day. We also thank the Friends of Holy Cross for their assistance with light refreshments and conversations with new and existing parents.

We look forward to all new students joining us in 2019, as they seize their opportunity to ‘live life to the full’ at the College.

Mrs Christina Davini

Assistant Deputy Principal – Inter-Relationships