Week Seven Spring Term

Kindergarten

This week, the Kindergarten children got a taste of what it is like to be a Pre-Primary student during our inaugural Junior School orientation session. Miss Pritchard organised a range of challenging and exciting activities for the boys and girls where they also got to meet some new smiling faces.

Finishing off this week with the letter “Y”, we created our own yellow paint by mixing some shaving cream, yellow dye and water together. We had so much fun squishing, mixing and squelching the foam in our hands. We used the mixture to paint yellow objects on our easel. It was then discovered that we could make white paper change colour by soaking it in the “paint”, however we needed to dry the paper first before we could write on it.

We have been working very hard on our writing skills and looking at how there are lots of different sounds we can hear in words. Our recent Police visit recounts are on display in the DaVinci space, if you would like to see how clever the children are becoming at writing. These amazing boys and girls are certainly ready for lots of fun and learning in Pre-Primary next year! 

Mrs Tucker

Class Teacher

Year One

It’s all about groovy dance moves, brushing our teeth, creative writing and captivating reading this fortnight. 

During dance this fortnight we have completed our routine and have been busily practising and polishing our moves. Each week we have become stronger dances. We begin each class with a warm up where skills include jumping, hopping, skipping and running. We then move into some cardio to build our heart rate and get our muscles warm. A short dance move is then taught to introduce some new moves. We complete the warm up with some stretching. Once our body is warmed up we are ready to boogie! Our dance is to the song ‘Everything is Awesome’ from the recent LEGO movie. We hope to perform the dance at an upcoming event. A big THANK YOU needs to be given to Mrs Davini for giving up her time to teach the students this brilliant dance! 

Dental care has been captivating our attention! During Health we have learned about the importance of brushing our teeth. Did you know your first teeth are called your milk teeth? Children discovered how sugar can affect your teeth and the steps to take when brushing your teeth.

During English this week, students have been writing creatively. Poems were the focus and students wrote a repetitive poem about all the things they liked. Ideas ranged from liking watermelon, the beach, swimming, family, friends, chocolate and animals. Miss Behiels was blown away by how much effort the students put into their piece and how neat their handwriting was. 

Our book focus this fortnight was the Very Itchy Bear by Nick Bland and A Bus Called Heaven by Bob Graham. Adjectives were our grammar focus and students recreated people they knew and described them using adjectives. The Year Ones also chose another noun to describe and they presented their adjectives around a flower. We are busily working on trying to apply our adjectives to our writing to make our pieces more detailed. A Bus Called Heaven lead the students to wonder what their community would do if an abandoned bus was on their street. Students hoped it could be turned into play equipment in their local park. The story also discussed the importance of community and being friendly and caring to people around them. 

This week the students had the opportunity to spend time with their Year Two teacher Mrs Ryan. Although initially there were nerves the students came back bouncing and very excited for what 2015 holds! 

Miss Behiels

Class Teacher

Other News 

Thank you to the families who joined us for the 2015 Orientation Day on Thursday, 27 November. The children all had a marvellous time getting to know their class mates and teacher for next year. The Year Three class were treated to a video message from their teacher who is currently in the Northern Territory.

Parents are reminder of the next Junior School Assembly is on Monday, 1 December at 2.15pm in the Early Learning Centre. The Pre-Primary class will be our hosts.

The College Gratitude Mass will be held on Wednesday, 3 December in the St Helena of the Holy Cross Church. Fr Bona will be leading our liturgical celebration where the students will have the opportunity to express their gratitude for things close to them, within the College and Community, as well as internationally. The Christmas hampers will be presented to the St Vincent de Paul Society for families in the local area to assist with the Christmas time demands.

Staff will be involved in professional learning on Friday, 5 December. Families are reminded to keep their children home from school on this day.

The Junior School will be hosting a Christmas Concert on Monday, 8 December at 9.30am in the Learning Resource Centre. Families are invited to attend and join in the festivities.

Melissa Croswell
Head of Junior School
30 November 2014

A Journey Through Time: Year 12 History Artefact Excursion

                    

On Friday, 28 November, the Year 12 History students took a journey back in time as they explored the cities of Perth and Fremantle in search of artefacts from the pre-Federation decades of the 1880s and 1890s. Fuelled by the discovery of gold in Coolgardie in 1892 and Kalgoorlie in 1893, the 1890s in particular were a boom time in Western Australia, setting the colony apart from those in the east who fell into a crushing depression in the same decade. 

Along our travels, the students discovered that a wide range of the iconic buildings and infrastructure in both Perth and Fremantle had their beginnings in the last two decades of the nineteenth century, including the railway between Perth and Fremantle, the Fremantle Harbour, town hall and markets, the Palace Hotel in the city and the Anglican St. Georges Cathedral. The students also caught a glimpse of the significant amount of colonial history that lies buried beneath the urban environment of East Perth, where an astounding 10 000 people were buried at the East Perth Cementeries between 1829 and 1899. The students were taken on a tour of the existing marked grave sites and were intrigued at the stories they represented.

  

                           

                         

Students have been set the challenge to select one artefact from our travels on which to base their first inquiry task. They are endeavouring to conduct research and 'unlock' the stories of cohesion or division, social, political or economic change that lie within the stories of their artefacts. They made an excellent start to their research process at the end of our day in Perth City through accessing the range of resources available at the Battye Library.

Upon the completion of their research, the students will create a multi-modal text in which to share the stories of their artefacts and what they represent with the College community and their creations will be displayed in the new school year.

Ms Karen Taylor

Learning Area Coordinator - Humanities

30 November 2014

Year 7 & 8 Reporting

Staff are currently in reporting season for our Middle School. Reports will be published via coneqt on the last day of school. It's a timely reminder for students to be working hard right up until the end of the school year. There will still be assessments being handed in, so it's very important that students are working well and consistently at home to ensure they have the best possible report.

Anita Walmsley

Assistant Deputy Learning 

Senior School Ball

Once again we find ourselves moving into ball season and all the exciting preparation that this entails. 

Our ball in 2015 will be at Caversham House on Feburary 6. Students recieved letters last week and should be now bringing in permission slips and payment. The ticket price is $110 and tickets must be purchased by December 8. 

The ball is a fantastic evening and we look forward to another great night with our Senior School.

Anita Walmsley

Assistant Deputy Learning 

Learning Conversations

A big thank you to all parents who attended Senior School learning conversations and the parent information night held recently. These conversations and evenings are a vital part of our work in helping your child succeed at the College. At the learning conversations, students were asked to reflect on their report and also, to set goals for 2015. We hope that as they settle into Senior School, they are currently keeping these goals in mind and striving for success. 

Anita Walmsley

Assistant Deputy Learning 

College Swimming Carnival

The College 7-12 swimming carnival is taking place next week on Thursday 4 December. Parents are encouraged to come and watch and watch their children swim in what will surely be a close competition between houses!

The carnival is taking place at Bayswater Waves and will be an all day event. Students have received detailed letter for their parents which contain further details.

May the best House win!

Mr Paul Murphy
Assistant Deputy Principal
24/11/2014

College Drama Production 2015

The College is pleased to announce that the 2015 Drama production will be:

Auditions for cast and crew are currently taking place. The students and the Staff production team are working hard to present a musical version of the prduction in Autumn term of 2015.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Mr Paul Murphy

Assistant Deputy Principal

24/11/2014

Dante Alighieri Italian Speech Awards

Congratulations to the following students for their success in the Dante Alighieri Speech awards:

Jonathan Tartaglia (2nd place)
Emily Sorgiovanni (3rd Place)

A special thanks to Mrs Amatulli for her preparation of the students.

 Mr Paul Murphy
Assistant Deputy Principal
24/11/2014

Week Six Junior School Wrap-Up

Year Two

Year Two have been working hard creating their fairy tales. The students are planning, drafting, editing and producing their stories. They have written the stories in small sections and are really proud of what they are writing. There are some fantastic stories developing about candy princesses, dogs and ducks! The class is looking forward to reading the final products.  

Mathematics has involved lots of manipulation of two digit and three digit numbers. The students have ordered, written and represented the numbers using materials. Everyone is excited about learning how to use this understanding to solve two digit addition and subtraction problems. The children have shown a growth in their confidence and understanding of how numbers work. It is amazing to see!  

Mrs Ryan

Class Teacher

Pre-Primary

Have you ever wondered how Santa could know if you’re naughty or nice each year as you grow?

 

“At Christmas time, Santa sends an elf to watch and report all that you do.”

The Elf on the Shelf Written by Carol V. Aebersold and Chanda A.Bell

An elf has come to visit the Pre-Primary children. When we first spotted the Elf, she was on top of the light. We were all so surprised! We had to choose a name for her and the majority voted on calling her Twinkle. So everyday Twinkle watches the little children making good choices and then when everyone leaves school of an afternoon, she reports back to Santa. Before the children return to school, Twinkle will find a different place to hide. Aislinn said today to her friends, “I wonder where Twinkle will be tomorrow?”

In the spirit of Christmas the students have written an application to be an Elf and are initiating writing to Santa so they can post the letters in our Letter Box. The children have also started creating Christmas Baubles, which will very soon hang from the ceiling.

Our Cave is being transformed into a Barn, for a Nativity Play space. Ryan’s helpful parents have donated the hay and we will be creating a Mary and Joseph to go in the Barn. We already have a baby Jesus and Crib.

This week the children learnt how to tally data in Mathematics. It took a few practises to get it right. We tallied the preference between bananas and strawberries and basic shapes. The children are confident in sharing the data but are learning new ways of recording it.

We have started planning for our upcoming events. On the Monday, 1 December we have our Pre Primary Assembly at 2.15pm in the Early Learning Centre and our Nativity Performance at 9.30am on Monday, 8 December.

Please pop into the classroom to see Christmas come alive!

Miss Pritchard

Class Teacher

Monday 24 November

THE GREAT BOOK SALE!!

The Pre-Primary students have been busy collecting, cleaning and sorting the donated books for the GREAT BOOK SALE!

The students are selling books for bargain prices on Wednesday, 26 November in the Pre-Primary room between 8.45am - 9.30am. 

Book sales will be donated to St Vincent de Paul. 

 

Ways of Telling: Dom Salvado Bicentennial Symposium

Over Thursday and Friday of Week 5, representatives of Salvado House attended the “Ways of Telling” Bicentennial Symposium on the life and contributions of our House Patron, Dom Rosendo Salvado. The symposium was held at the State Library of Western Australia. Students attended a range of presentations by historians and other academics from different Australian universities who presented insights into the history of Dom Salvado’s life as well as the rich history of New Norcia as a mission, a school and a monastic community. 

Students and staff learnt about the life of New Norcia from a range of perspectives, including the cricket team, brass band and the instalment of the telegraph.  They were introduced to the evolution of transportation to and from the isolated New Norcia site during Salvado’s own lifetime, including the methods of transport Salvado himself experienced, including walking from New Norcia to Perth. 

The symposium was attended by Abbott John and the monks of New Norcia and the students had the rare opportunity to meet the monks informally over morning tea and lunch.  Holy Cross students and staff who attended the Camino de Santiago shared the experiences of their journey as part of the symposium and it was with pride that the students were able to discuss the College’s connections to Dom Salvado and New Norcia with interested symposium delegates.

Ms Karen Taylor

Learning Area Coordinator – Humanities

19 November 2014

The WA Police Force, Boat Design and Weaving visit the Junior School

Kindergarten

We are getting closer to the end of term, but there is still so much fun and learning happening in the Kindergarten classroom. This week we have been perfecting our fishing skills. We have been using fishing rods to catch different magnetic letters. We are getting very clever at knowing all of the names and sounds of the letters of the alphabet. During the last fortnight we have also read the story of the “Rainbow Fish” and learned the importance of sharing with our friends. We had a go at creating our own rainbow fish and then wrote the word “fish” underneath our masterpieces all by ourselves!

In Big Ideas, we have created a Harmony Tree, which is on display in the DaVinci space for everyone to see. Each day the students nominate their friends for the things they have done to make a difference. It is so wonderful to hear that there are lots of kind and caring Kindergarten and Pre-Primary children.

This week in Big Ideas, Constable Bayliss, from the Western Australian Police force came to visit us. He showed us the different tools he uses and explained how he helps to make a difference in our community. He then invited us to go and have a look at his real police car. We were super excited when we got to sit in the back seat and wave to Mrs D’Andrea on the car roof camera. The highlight of the visit, however, was seeing the flashing lights and hearing the siren!

Thank you Constable Bayliss for visiting us.

Mrs Tucker

Class Teacher

YEAR ONE

WOW half way through the term already! 

We have been designing, testing and evaluating our boats for Mr McGee this fortnight. We have investigated objects which sink and float. We then designed a boat and chose from materials like plasticine, cardboard, feathers, pop-sticks, matchsticks, paper and tape. We then tested our boats and nearly all of them SANK! We discussed what made our boats sink and then made changes to our designs. We discussed that the amount of plasticine will impact the weight and that our hulls might need to be taller. On the second round we were so pleased because more floated. We had three students take out the prizes. Patrick’s boat held 15 stones, Brody’s boat held 16 and Emilia’s held a whopping 20 stones! After we tested our boats again we evaluated our designs. We looked at our favourite part in the activity and where we would change our designs. It was such a fun activity! 

During Mathematics this fortnight we have been looking at patterns. We looked at patterns around our classroom and realised we have a mixture of number and coloured patterns. We then looked closer at our number patterns and made an assortment of different patterns and explanations about our sequences.

Art this term has been all about weaving! Last week we finished our Mexican God’s Eye that looked fabulous. The Mexican Indians made them for good luck pieces. We chose five colours of wool and carefully wove around the four sticks. It was a little tricky but we all helped each other. 

We are looking forward to sharing our class work with you all at our assembly this Monday.

Miss Behiels
Class Teacher

OTHER NEWS

Fr Bona will be celebrating the Junior School Liturgy on Tuesday, 18 November at 9.00am in the St Helena of the Holy Cross Church. Families are most welcome to join us.

An Orientation Day for classes in 2015 will be held on Thursday, 27 November. New students will join existing students to spend a morning getting to know each other and their new class teacher.

Melissa Croswell

Head of Junior School

Junior School Activities in Week 4

Pre-Primary are Ready to Learn – “Possum Magic” Mem Fox

“This week we read the Possum Magic book. In the story of Possum Magic, Grandma Possum turned Hush invisible. Hush had to eat vegemite sandwiches and other foods to make her visible again.” Ashni

The students wrote their own stories about being invisible.

They had some very interesting ideas:

Eve: “I would like to be invisible because you can sneak into your Mummy’s bedroom and play on her phone.”

Susan: “I would like to be invisible so I can sneak into my brother's room and play on the iPad.” 

Ella: “I am not allowed to wear lip gloss to school, but I could if I was invisible.”

Ruby: “I could scare my family if I was invisible.”

The students learnt about different foods from States around Australia. The students made Pavlova from Perth with Mrs Doherty as well as craft pictures to represent all of the foods. Later the students got to taste all of the foods. For some of the students, it was their first time trying Vegemite sandwiches, Minties and Pavlova.

Ava: "I liked eating the Vegemite sandwiches from Darwin."

Ruby: "I liked the Pavlova from Perth and Vegemite sandwiches from Darwin."

Jaxon and Susan: "I liked the Minties from Melbourne."

Eve: "I liked the Pavlova from Perth and Minties from Melbourne."

Ryan: "I liked the Anzac biscuits from Adelaide."

The students have also been collecting data and displaying it in a graph. They have been finding out what is the most popular Pizza topping and hair colour in Pre-Primary.

The Pre Primary’s have been learning so much!

Miss Pritchard

Class Teacher

Year Two

On Thursday we began our digital project on the creation of a fairytale. We have brainstormed all of the elements of fairytales and are now planning our own. Our project started with lots of fairytales on the floor and we got to explore them as we brainstormed discoveries. Did you know that most fairytales have the numbers Three or Seven in them as a part of their formula? When we looked at Snow White we found that her mother pricked her finger and bled three drops of blood on to her sewing! There are also three Fairy Godmothers in Sleeping Beauty!  

Our Mathematics focus has been revising what we know about number lines and place value and how this can help us with our operations. We have partitioned the numbers and made them using concrete materials, taking photos and explaining our learning for others. 

During the last two weeks we have been observing the growth of our seedlings and waiting for our silkworms to hatch. It was very exciting when one egg hatched, but then it was sad as the larvae died and we have had no others. We are experiencing the full circle of life and learning lots about creation. We have been discovering that when plants or seedlings die, they are absorbed back into the soil to become food for a new plant.

Mrs Ryan

Class Teacher

Other News

Our new Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten families were welcomed on Friday last week. The children experienced a morning of fun and learning at Holy Cross. The nature playground and painting were definitely the favourites. Parents are reminded to make a booking via PTO or administration for fitting and uniform purchases. 

New students in Pre-Primary to Year Three in 2015 will soon receive information regarding a transition morning being offered during Week Seven. 

The next Junior School Assembly is being held on Monday 17 November, hosted by Year One. We look forward to seeing you all in the ELC.

Parents are invited to attend the second Coffee and Conversation on Friday 21 November in the College Cafe. Please RSVP with administration. 

BOOK DONATIONS for the Pre-Primary Book Swap are still be collected. Books will be on sale on WEDNESDAY 26 NOVEMBER in the Pre-Primary room. All sales will be donated to the St Vincent de Paul Society. 

Melissa Croswell

Head of Junior School

10 November 2014

East Perth Football District – Girls Year 8/9 Lightning Carnival

On Thursday 6 November, a selected number of Year 8/9 students participated in the East Perth Girls AFL Football Lightning Carnival. Football is truly a game for everyone, with 12 different girls teams involved. The carnival was held at Houghton Park in Bayswater.

  

The Year 8/9 Girls Lightning Carnival involved playing local schools within the East Perth Football Club district. These schools included St Andrew’s College, Perth College, Hampton SHS, Aranmore Catholic College, John Forrest College and Ellenbrook Christian College.

Holy Cross College nominated two teams, a Year 8 and a Year 9 team, which were coached by Mrs Davini and Mrs de Courcier. The two teams played extremely well and made huge improvements from last year’s results. The Year 8s managed one win, narrowly missing out on another by one point. The Year 9s won three of their five games.  The students were passionate about their football and their skills and game play were impressive. Well done, girls.

  

Mrs Christina Davini & Mrs Fiona de Courcier

Physical Education Teachers

Senior School Information Evening

There will be an information evening for Senior School students and their parents on Wednesday 19 November. Information on Year level events and expectations will be part of the presentation.

Year 10 Session 6:00-6:45
Year 11 & 12 Session 6:45-7:30

Paul Murphy
Assistant Deputy Principal
8 November 2014

The Junior School Week 3 Overview

YEAR ONE

Busy little workers we have been this week. 

The Magic Faraway Tree has been our reading focus this fortnight. The children have loved listening to all the wild and amazing adventures the characters are going on. Our favourite chapter so far has been the Land of Topsy Turvy. We all all giggled when Joe was turned upside down for a day. We have learnt about the author Enid Blyton and looked at images of her. Students have written about their favourite part in the story and they can’t wait to find out what is behind the mysterious door in the coming chapter. 

Within Mathematics we have been looking at the terms ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’. Students developed events that would be likely and unlikely to occur. We have also been describing the duration of familiar situations. Students worked in pairs to sort and order situations according to how long they take, such as sorting the time taken to eat a biscuit, the time taken to travel to school and the time taken between their 6th and 7th birthday. 

We have continued to study the weather each day and compare Perth’s and Bali’s temperatures. Students have been learning about our four seasons as well as plant and animal behaviours during each season. This week we have also looked at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander seasons and compared our four with their six. 

During Mrs Tucker's classes on a Friday the students have been analysing the structure of plants in Science. Last week students used white roses and dye to see the way water goes through the stem of the plant to the flower petals. 

PATHS: 

In PATHS this term, Year One have looked at the uncomfortable feelings Mad or Angry. Mad and Angry are different words for the same feeling. Mad or Angry is the way we often feel when something hurts us, when we can’t do what we want to do, or when someone is mean to us. 

Miss Behiels 

Class Teacher

Kindergarten

If the College being turned into a semi-permanent home for builders wasn’t enough, the Kindergarten classroom has been turned into a construction zone too! The children have been dressed for work in their fluoro vests, safety hats and goggles ready to build some amazing masterpieces. They have been drawing and writing up their own building plans and have become site foremen, advising the other builders how many blocks are needed to build the tower or bridge. Since the students were insistent that they deserved a coffee break quite frequently during their time on site as builders, we have introduced some clocks into the area to encourage the builders to keep working to avoid building delays.

During the week we read the story, “Who sank the boat?” Some clever children were very quick to identify that there is a question mark in the title of the story and so we have been looking in many different picture books to find question marks. The students came up with many theories as to who sank the boat and were determined to create their own boat that would not sink. We investigated waterproof materials and some of the children then created a boat that would float down the channel of the water pipe in the playground. All the children were very proud that their boats survived the torrent of water that came gushing out of the pipe!

This week we were so excited when Ayla brought in some tadpoles to show the class. They were so tiny that we had to use magnifying glasses to see them up close. Some of the students have been documenting their observations through Book Creator (on the iPads), by drawing diagrams or writing some interesting words. The students were so fascinated by the story of the tadpole that we researched the lifecycle of a frog by reading a book and watching a video clip. Lilly taught us a special song about how tadpoles turn into frogs. We cannot wait to see the changes in our own tadpoles; they are already getting bigger each day.  

Mrs Tucker

Class Teacher

OTHER NEWS

The Pre-Primary and Year One families are invited to the iPad information session on Tuesday 4 November, 5:30pm - 6:30pm in the Learning Resource Centre. If you already have an iPad for your child, you are welcome to bring it along although this is not essential at this time. Information will be provided about the minimum specifications and the use of iPads in the classroom. 

Families with children enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten in 2015 are invited to attend an information session on Friday 7 November. RSVP with the administration staff.

Kindergarten 9:30am - 11:00am

Pre-Kindergarten 11:15am - 11:45am

Melissa Croswell

Head of Junior School

1 November

WACE Exams

Year 12 ATAR students start their WACE exams this week. Most exams are held at the College. WACE exams are run by the School Curriculum & Standards Authority.

Good luck to all students!

Paul Murphy
Assistant Deputy Principal
1 November 2014

Cricket Clinics - FREE TRY DAYS

WACA Cricket Clinics

The West Australian Cricket Association are holding cricket have a try days to introduce children to the game of cricket. 

If you are interested please check out one of the details below.

T20 Blast (Ages 7-8)

What: T20 Blast Free Come & Try Day

When: Friday October 31^st from 5.30pm-6.45pm

Where: Lilac Hill, West Swan Road

Who: All boys & girls aged 7-8

Head to T20Blast.com.au or contact Matt Neves on 0419 856 482 for more information

Check out the T20 Blast Hype Reel: http://www.t20blast.com.au/kids/what-is-milo-t20-blast

In2Cricket (Ages 5-6)

Please have a look at the below table and select the information that is relevant for your closest club & its FREE come and try day:

Club	Date	Time	Place	Contact
Ellenbrook	Saturday November 1st	8am-9.30am	Charlotte’s Vineyard, Brookmount Drive	Matt Neves: 0419 856 482
Swan Valley	Friday November 7th	5pm-6pm	Swan Valley Sporting Club	Matt Neves: 0419 856 482

Melissa Croswell

Head of Junior School

28 October 2014