NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week celebrations will be conducted across Australia during the school holidays to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life.

Holy Cross College will have a number of different activities to celebrate NAIDOC Week running at the beginning of Winter Term. Dom Rosendo Salvado, one of our College Patrons had a deep love for his Indigenous brothers and sisters. Salvado lived a life devoted to building relationships with the custodians of this great land of the Holy Spirit. 

In Autumn term we celebrated the National Sorry Day, and during the Sorry Day liturgy each member of the community completed a dot painting on stones as a symbol of moving forward with our Indigenous brothers and sisters. Now, with NAIDOC week approaching these stones have been transformed into a cross in the form of a Mandala. A mandala symbolises that life is everlasting.

The mandala cross has been created with the arrangement of the stones from the Sorry Day liturgy into 4 sections representing the compassion of each of the houses across the College towards our brothers and sisters. These stones have been placed on an earth base that was a sifting together of different sands collected from around the state celebrating the Aboriginal peoples connection to the land including locations such as, Swan River, Norseman, Toodyay, Nullarbor, and Kalgoorlie. There is also salt from Lake Tyrell in Victoria that represents the purification received through reconciliation. 

Thanks to the members of the community that worked together in producing this deeply symbolic cross to encourage us all to live life to the full. 

Catholic Primary Schools Sporting Association (CPSSA) Winter Carnival

On Thursday, 21 June Holy Cross sent three netball teams and two soccer teams, comprising of all of our Year Six students as well as a small number of Year Five students, to compete in the CPSSA Winter Carnival.  Holy Cross competed against teams from 15 other CPSSA schools and had a truly wonderful day of competition.

Team spirit and collaboration at both sports was exceptional with students cheering each other on throughout the day.  Two highlights from the soccer were when Cooper Smith scored a great goal off of the opposition keeper's nose, checked that the player was not hurt and then celebrated the goal.  Also worth mentioning was the resilience of students who after feeling anxious about participating initially, overcame their nerves and thoroughly enjoyed kicking the ball around on the soccer pitch.

The netball teams competed bravely against teams with much more experience playing as a group and came away with three wins.  The team chants, support and teamwork were impressive and everyone was able to walk away knowing they had represented Holy Cross well.

Overall, the day was a huge success with all of the students going home worn out but having had a terrific experience.  Thank you to all those involved in coaching, training, umpiring and assisting in the lead up to the carnival and on the day.

Mr Brendan Buckley

CPSSA Co-ordinator for Holy Cross College

Junior School Update

Year 4

The Year 4 students have been very busy this term, with our preparation for the celebration of First Eucharist. We were lucky enough to have Mr. Shelton take us on a visit to the Church and explore the sacred symbols and objects in there. 

We participated in a wonderful Eucharist Retreat Day with St. Helena’s Catholic Primary School and learned a lot about the ways God shows love for us through the Eucharist.

 

The Year 10 students visited us to talk about Religious Education - we were able to teach them a thing or two about the Eucharist! They were very surprised and impressed.

We have been sharing our wisdom with the Pre-primary and Year 1 students. They visited us and we read them our individual ‘Poetry Anthologies’, surprising some of them with our haiku poems where they had to guess the cryptic clues to find out the topic. That was a lot of fun!

We also mentored the Pre-primary students in using the app ‘Puppet Pals’. They needed to explain to us recounts of their morning and their learning over the term.

We’ve been exploring non-fiction texts and have worked on sharing our thoughts and ideas in Reciprocal Teaching sessions. Look at how many contributions we each made to the groups’ discussion!

Miss Kate Dunstan and Miss Deanna Russo

Year 4 Teachers

Villain School A Wicked Smash!!

The 2018 College Production of Brian D. Taylor's Villain School has wrapped with a sensational final performance on Saturday night to a packed house of family, friends, staff, students and members of the local community. The colourful spectacle was performed to over 600 people across the four shows and stands as HCC's most successful production to date.

Frank Stein (John Botha) faces off against the Invisible Man whilst Sasquatch (Jordan Reith) watches on

The process began back in October last year with the Harry Potter and Descendants inspired script selected before auditions took place in December and rehearsals commencing in February. A five month rehearsal process which included line learning, characterisation work, choreography, set and prop building, ambitious tech planning, promotion, our production camp at Swan Valley Adventure Centre and many rehearsals culminated in four stunning performances last week!

Witches Gretty (Madison Reith) and Betty (Therese Topliss) brew up some trouble

A huge congratulations to our student cast and crew: John Paul Botha, Breannah Rigoli, Abbey'Lee Quantock, Chloe Andrews, Ethan Armstrong, Iestyn Devenport, Rowan Paluszak, Finn Doust, Jordan Bailey, Madison Reith, Ashtyn Ford, Therese Topliss, Jordan Reith, Makayla Pugliese, Samantha Evans, Luke Riedel, Sam Pascoe, Gurleen Dhillon, Eva Ladyman, Bailey Fry, Nikolas Dragicevich, Olivia Feszczur, Tiara D'Lima, Samantha Cosmas, Brinda Jhaya, Bianca Scinto, Alex Smilovitis, Jasmin Baker, Letisha O'Neill, Amy Van Der Wiede, Mia Butterworth, Amelie Ladyman, Cortney Sleath, Laila Davies, Chardonnay Mitchell, Zac Smilovitis, Nhial Tap, Ephraim Makani, Pearse Topliss, Chloe Ryan, Caitlyn Scinto, Brianna Armstrong, Alanah D'Evelynes, Kamilla Kacjsca, James Evans, Darrell Chiu, Mya Ubalde, Lucas Sharp, Kerry McDonnell, Hannah Schnell, Zophia Paluszak, Anthony Menegola, Isobella McPherson, Kayla Herden and Angela Gethin.

Heidi Jekyll (Breannah Rigoli) takes the High Performance Performance Enhancer...or so she thinks

Our largest cast and crew to date put a huge amount of energy and effort in to make this show look and sound as good as it did and they are to be congratulated for their efforts and talents.

Villain School wouldn't have happened without the amazing work of the incredible staff team. A huge thank you and well done to the core staff team of Miss Georgina Pratt, Miss Sophie Lester, Mr Guy Jackson, Miss Rachel Rafferty, Miss Laura Goodwin and Mrs Colleen Azzopardi for their tireless efforts in bringing this show from a series of ideas to a fully realised spectacle.

Villain School 2018 Staff Team

Special thanks to our amazing support team who also had a huge hand in elements of the production. Mr Matt Smyth and Mr Roger Newton for set building, Mrs Kristina Croxford for her coordination of the Hospitality students and catering and Mrs Carolyn Jess, Mrs Tracy Papenfus and Mrs Jean Topliss for their work with finance and promotion.

Parents Mrs Lisa Reith and Mrs Renae O'Neill also played a major part in assisting on performance evenings.

Thank you to our sixteen Year 12 production students who have given so much of themselves to the College production culture over the years. We hope they take away some wonderful skills and memories from their time in the HCC Productions.

2018 Production Year 12's

Thanks also goes to all staff who assisted on production evenings and the members of the HCC Senior Leadership team for their support of each performance.

We are extremely proud of the final result of Villain School and now look forward to a small scale Senior School Production next year as the cogs start turning for our special 10th Anniversary Show in 2020! Until then, signing off from VILE and stay wicked!

Cast and Crew of the 2018 College Production 'Villain School' 

Mr Chris McRae

Production Director and Learning Area Coordinator (The Arts)

Opening Matinee and Evening Success!

The 2018 College Production of Villain School kicked off with a bang yesterday with two shows. The first was a matinee performance for Year 5 and 6 students from Ellen Stirling Primary School. The students and their teachers were enthralled from start to finish and were excited to learn more about the process behind the show in a short Q&A at the conclusion of the performance. The energy on-stage was electric as the cast and crew put all their efforts into bringing the loud and colourful tale to life! The matinee performance was backed up by an even better evening show during which the cast lifted to another level, capturing the audience's attention and imagination. With some amazing technical and special effects, it was a truly wicked night! Villain School is showing at Holy Cross College for two more public shows tonight (Friday 22 June) and will close tomorrow night with one final performance. Last minute tickets can be purchased at www.trybooking.com/346290

Moving and Grooving in Junior School

The Pre Primary, Year 1 and Year 2 students have been been participating in Dance this Semester and have worked with Miss Pratt on communicating with their bodies, learning about using the body in space and developing expression through movement. Each of the six classes learnt and rehearsed a short routine which gave them the chance to present what they had learned.

The Kindy students joined these six classes along with a terrific number of parents and relatives for the Junior Dance assembly this week during which each class got the chance to perform their routines for a captive audience. The Junior School Liturgical Dancers also got the opportunity to perform their routine 'The Way of the Cross' which will be presented as part of the Christian Dance category of the Catholic Schools Performing Arts Festival next term.

The students did themselves proud and a huge thanks must go to Miss Georgina Pratt for her hard work with the students over the past two terms and for organising the assembly. The future of Dance at Holy Cross College looks very bright indeed!

Mr Chris McRae
Learning Area Coordinator (The Arts)

Middle and Senior School Athletics Carnival

Last Thursday 14 June saw the Middle and Senior School Inter House Athletics Carnival take place at the College, accompanied by absolutely sensational weather.

The students particpated in the Athletics Meet style carnival with the opportunity to surpass previous personal best efforts and to represent their House’s in an attempt to gain points in the overall standings.

The student’s efforts matched the superb weather with a fantastic standard set, not only in achievment but in overall participation. The House Spirit on display as well as the level of support the students offered each other was fantastic.

At the end of the day we presented our Year Level Chamnpions and Runners Up with their medallions. These students were;

Year 7 Champions

Morgan Pires

Lopudo Opio

Year 7 Runners Up

Jasmine Barnes

Geah Kot

Year 8 Champions

Leah Frisina

Ethan Armstrong

Year 8 Runners Up

Caitlyn Minus

Riley Hardeman

Year 9 Champions

Zoe Watts

Cameron Peachey

Year 9 Runners Up

Tahlia Mbyui

Edward Gondor

Year 10 Champions

Charlotte Hirst

Luwaya David

Year 10 Runners Up

Shannon Hardingham

Manase Makani/Jayden Morse

Year 11 Champions

Amelie Ladyman

Cameron Varady

Year 11 Runners Up

Bianca Scinto

Phillip Gatulak

Year 12 Champions

Brianna Armstrong

Cian Guest

Year 12 Runners Up

Hannah Schnell

Alou Ajang

Congratulations to these students.

The final leaderboard showed a comprehensive victory to Ozanam House who filled their events excellently all day, well supported by some fantastic results across the board.

Ozanam            3547

McCormack     3196

Salvado            3077

Frayne              2850

On behalf of the Health and Physical Education Department, a heart felt thanks to the entire College staff for their efforts on the day. And also to the parents who attended as spectators. We love seeing you all at our College Carnivals.

A group of students will be selected in the inital training squad for the ACC Athletics Carnival in Term 3.

Our next Inter House Carnival is the Junior School Athletics Carnival next term. We look forward to another great day.

JULY Careers Newsletter

There is lots of great information in this months Newsletter, including :

• Which University is right for you?
• Open days
• How to write a great application for an apprenticeship 
• Events 
• Scholarships and much more

Check it out on or Website under Enrichment or use the Link !

July 2018- In Focus Careers Newsletter

VILLAIN SCHOOL IN SESSION THURSDAY

After 5 months of intensive rehearsals, a production camp and countless hours of line learning, choreography and character building, the 2018 College Production of Brian D. Taylor's 'Harry Potter' meets the 'Descendants' VILLAIN SCHOOL takes to the stage at Holy Cross College this week. Last minute tickets can be purchased from www.trybooking.com/346290 for the Thursday show with Friday and Saturday very close to sold out. Come along and witness the ways of the wicked as HCC takes a visit to VILE!

Junior School Update

Kindergarten

What a busy and fun Autumn term are having in Kindergarten! We have been learning about God’s creations including insects, animals, plants, oceans and rivers and how we can look after them. The Kindergarten students are exploring how they connect with and contribute to their world. Come and have a look in our garden at the plants we have put in to see how big they have grown. We have also learned about the lifecycle of a butterfly and were very lucky to see a real butterfly hatchling transform from its cocoon. We have also been super busy practising for our first assembly working on our counting skills in English, as well as Japanese and French. We hope you enjoyed the performance!

Mrs. Jo Borg and Mrs. Natalie Pecherczyk

Kindergarten Teachers