2 June 2015

Newsletter Articles

"To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."

Anatole France

From the Principal

Parents,

It has been a busy two weeks since our last newsletter. We have had a number of visitors to our school and a variety of sporting events which our Holy Cross students have been taking part in. Teachers have also been busy gathering data for both the NCCD and AEDC and making report card preparations and continuing their professional learning as we continue developing our Positive Behaviours Framework.

During these past two weeks, I am conscious that there has been much going on in our school alongside our core business of Teaching and Learning. I have been particularly impressed by our student's attention to their class tasks. During my time in classrooms, students have been busy showing respect and care for their peers and giving good effort. I am also very proud of a number of staff and students who have taken charge during a variety of situations which have arisen in our school community over the past two weeks which have required quick thinking and sensible decision making to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our staff and students.

Our Year One area has been a particular hive of activity each morning lately, with large numbers of helpers coming in to assist with small group activities and to assist with preparations for activities in this year level. I thank the parents who are giving up their time to assist our teachers and students. Please know that your assistance is sincerely appreciated.

Many parents would be aware that during the week, the Smithfield police paid an impromptu visit to our pick up area on Wednesday afternoon and cautioned drivers who were queuing on Reed Road. It should be noted that as we also have a NO STOPPING signage in the area to the right as you enter our stop drop and go zone, the police also spoke with drivers who were queuing in this area. Can I stress that the Stop, Drop and Go zone along school the fence line where students are collected it is a pick up zone , not a waiting zone. From my ongoing observations in this area, it is obvious that when parents wait in this area for students who are NOT in the pick-up area, this is precisely why the jam up of traffic occurs. If your child is not in this area, please leave the area and either park while students are located or do a go around, this will KEEP TRAFFIC MOVING. If parents are concerned that moving on will cause stress to children, or be an inconvenience, then please take a moment to explain the process to your child so they understand you will be back, and please show some courtesy to the other drivers who are trying to enter and could get booked! Please also be respectful to staff who direct you to do this. Our traffic issues in the morning and afternoon will not improve and many parents will remain frustrated if all parents do not make a conscious effort to do their part to make this system work and show the necessary courtesy to others. We have received feedback that the signage on the right may need to be changed? Whilst a worthwhile suggestion, I believe the signage is not the real problem, it is the consistent non-compliance to it by some drivers.

I also bring your attention to a safety issue that I respectfully ask parental cooperation and attention for the safety of all. Parents with children in junior classes would know that the lovely new play equipment and the area between the prep rooms and library is often a gathering and play area each afternoon. Signage in this area stresses that the area is not actively supervised in the afternoon by school staff. I am well aware that this area provides a beautiful spot in the afternoon for many of our families to gather and meet and for students to play while parents gather. I personally think this is a wonderful community building activity. From a WPHS perspective however, I stress to parents using this area that you need to be aware that you must be actively supervising your own children if you are in this area after school hours. All school children who are on-site, must keep their shoes on and no child should be directed to wait in this area for parent pick up. All students should either meet parents at their classrooms, walk or ride directly home, or move to designated staff supervised pick-up areas. Parents are asked to remind children and personally enforce this school safety rule, so that school staff can be fully aware of any children who are not yet collected and on-site.

I thank parents for their assistance and attention with the important matters communicated this week. It is critical, that as members of this school community, all families work in collaboration and in support of school staff to ensure a safe and productive environment for all. As always, I invite comment, suggestions or possible solutions to any of our ongoing safety issues in the interests of the wellbeing of our students and staff here at Holy Cross.

Finally, parents I remind those who have not yet done so to contribute to our School Renewal Survey which will assist in guiding our next goal setting and planning phase. Please go to the link to share your views in this survey.

Enjoy your week.

Blessings

Wendy Manners
Principal – Holy Cross Catholic School

APRE News

WONDER OF LIVING PROGRAM

Early next term, staff from Natural Fertility Services, Cairns, will be coming to run our Wonder of Living program for students in Years 1-6. They will be showing movies to those levels and running puberty sessions for our Year 5 and 6 students. There will be a parent information session about this as well as one on, "How to give the talk to your child". More information will come up closer to the time. Watch this space…

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Last week I was privileged to attend the annual APRE Conference with my APRE and SEL Co-ordinator colleagues. It was a chance to explore further the new RE Curriculum schools are implementing over these 2 years. It was also an opportunity to hear from a wonderful speaker, Dr Michael Downey. He walked us through some excellent sessions entitled, "Cultivating Spirituality in the Crucible of Experience". It covered, in his words, "…how practical application of the rich treasures of our Scriptures and Tradition, nourish and sustain our journey, and incarnate our Catholic Identity". If anyone knows the writings of Thomas Merton and Parker Palmer, these were heavily quoted during these sessions. It has allowed me to personally touch base with the core business of what we do at a Catholic School.

LITURGICAL LIFE OF THE SCHOOL

Upcoming liturgies and Masses:

• Years 1 & 2 on Wednesday the 17th June at 9am
• Prep & Year 5 on Wednesday the 24th June
• NAIDOC mini liturgy on Friday the 26th June

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM

Dates for the diary:

• Confirmation- Thursday the 23rd of July 7pm, St Monica's Cathedral
• First Holy Communion- Masses over the weekend of Saturday the 25th and Sunday the 26th of July, Holy Cross Church or All Saints' Chapel
• Parent information night- Reconciliation Tues 28th of July
• First Reconciliation Tues 8th of September 12pm, Holy Cross Church

SOCIAL JUSTICE

As winter approaches, there are many people around Cairns without the resources to stay warm. The Justice Squad, in conjunction with Rosie's, will be collecting blankets and clothing this term. Please see their article below and look out for notices around the school.

WINNER

Congratulations to Mrs Melanie Emmerick, mother of Bess and Billy, who won the $50 voucher for Chill Café, Palm Cove, for completing the Enhancing Catholic Identity Surveys.

PRAYER FOCUS FOR THE WEEK

My God, you give me life. Keep my life in your hands. Jesus, you love me. Let me learn to love you.

Holy Spirit, you are my peace. Teach me to pray, teach me to love. Amen.

How can you be a sign of God's love to others this week?

Parish Mass Times

Saturday

Holy Cross, Trinity Park 6:00pm

Sunday

Sacred Heart, Freshwater 7:00am

Holy Cross, Trinity Park 8:30am

St Augustine's, Stratford 10:30am

All Saints Chapel, St Andrew's Redlynch 5:30pm

Jacinta Roberts
APRE Holy Cross
jroberts1@cns.catholic.edu.au

NOTICE TO OUR SCHOOL AND PARISH COMMUNITY

Year 6 Community Committee News

Enhancing the Holy Cross Community
Icy Poles on Sale every Tuesday – 50 cents each
All funds raised will be donated to Rosies Outreach

Justice Squad Committee News

The Justice Squad Committee in Year 6 feel strongly about caring and sharing in our community, especially for our less fortunate, particularly the homeless in Cairns. As winter is coming we feel we can show we care in our own special way.

This year the Holy Cross Justice Squad are having a warm clothing and blanket drive to collect as much as we can. We are looking for warm clothing for adults such as; T-Shirts, jumpers, coats, gloves, socks and beanies. If you have any spare items or blankets you can drop them off at the Holy Cross School office, Reed Road, Trinity Park.

We would appreciate you asking friends and neighbours too. Remember that we are fortunate so it is our duty to help those less fortunate.

Thank you for supporting our Justice Squad and community.

APA News

Holy Cross Snap Shot, Term 2

Hello again. What a fortnight, so much has happened and so much to celebrate since our last newsletter.

In a snap shot:

During Week 5 we welcomed visitors from St Augustine's and St Monica's to speak with our Year 5's as they begin to think about High School. Our Year 5's were also visited by staff from Daradgee Education Centre for a day's activities in preparation for their camp in Term 3. Our Preps were visited by 'Zoo to You' with the highlight definitely being the turtle. Week 5 also saw students from Years 4, 5 and 6 take part in peninsular trials for girls Rugby League and Cross Country, with all students representing Holy Cross proudly. Our Prep teachers were out of class completing the 'Australian Early Development Index Census', a federal education project that assists school and Prep teachers to understand the journeys of our Prep students in their first years of life, before starting school. This is an invaluable process to best transition our youngest students to school.

The week ended with a special guest at our whole school assembly. The Hon. Warren Entsch MP Member for Leichardt also joined us to celebrate the achievements and contributions of our student leaders for 2015. He presented certificates and letters for students to keep as part of their portfolio's as well as speaking to all students on assembly to praise and stress the importance of student leadership.

Undoubtedly the biggest event of Week 5 was Holy Cross' participation in the Far North Queensland Schools Futsal Championships. This year, Holy Cross was represented by a record 10 teams; U8 boys, Two U9 Boys, Two U10 Boys teams, U11 Boys, U13 Boys, U10 Girls and Two U13 Girls teams. It was a highly competitive event with great sportsmanship demonstrated by our Holy Cross students and all thoroughly enjoying their time. Congratulations to all teams for a great effort with special mention to our U8 Boys, U 10 Boys U 11 Boys on winning their respective competitions and our U10 Girls and U13 Girls who just missed out on making the finals with close games in the semi-finals. Of course none of these students would have had the opportunity to participate without the efforts of Mr Dunn-Oswald for his organisation and coaching and by the parent volunteers who gave their time to coach and support different teams.

Week 6 was equally as busy for Holy Cross especially for our hard working students as they strive their way through assessment tasks and final assignments that will contribute to their end of semester reports. Teachers have been busy writing, marking and preparing end of semester reports. This process will be ongoing for a couple more weeks yet. A number of staff have had time out of the classroom for many of these activities over the past two weeks. I commend our students on their great efforts to continue with their work, working hard for the relief teachers who have been in our school recently. It is always pleasing to hear the positive comments and hear reports of the warm welcome that relief staffs receive when they are here at Holy Cross.

The biggest occasion was last Thursday, when we were lucky enough to send eight staff to a professional development session to work with Dr Bill Rogers at his presentation titled 'Managing the Challenging Class'. Valuable strategies were shared to assist in ensuring students are task driven and other important strategies we are implementing under our new 'School Wide Positive Behaviour Support Plan' were reinforced. The eight staff who attended will now have an opportunity to share their experience with our whole staff and their teaching teams.

In our last newsletter, I shared with you, the initial work that staff have been doing as part of our behaviour management review. You had the opportunity to read some of the research behind Positive Behaviour Management as well as reflect on the 'Positive Behaviour Matrix' that each of our classrooms is also becoming familiar with. If you missed this information please look back to our previous newsletter to have a look. In our next newsletter I hope to continue this sharing of information by introducing our 'Behaviour Consequences Chart' which staff and students have begun using recently.

At our next P&F meeting on Wednesday 10th of June, the beginnings of our process will be introduced and shared with those present. Your attendance will give you the opportunity to understand the many aspects of this process. As it is an ongoing one to update our Behaviour Management Policy, this meeting also presents an opportunity for all community members to contribute to our positive journey. We look forward to seeing you there.

Coming Events

DATE	EVENT
05.06.15	Year 4 Excursion Tjapukai 8.40am – 1pm
08.06.15	Queen's Birthday Public Holiday
10.06.15	P & F Meeting - 7pm
12.06.15	Readers Cup
17.06.15	Liturgy – Years 1 & 2 – 9am
18.06.15	Year 4 Orator's Night
19.06.15	Holy Cross Athletics Carnival
24.06.15	Liturgy – Prep & Year 5 – 9am
26.06.15	NAIDOC Activities

Many blessings for the week

Brad Henry
Assistant Principal – Administration
bhenry2@cns.catholic.edu.au

Learning Support News

To have emotional resilience children need a growth mindset – the ability to have a go.

Failed or NOT YET – The Power of "Yet"

Children need to be taught the power of "Not Yet". Not that you have failed, but that you haven't got it – YET. What is important is the journey, which may take longer for some. hence you haven't go it – YET.

There are some things that can be done to get an understanding of the power of YET.

1. Use praise wisely – praising the effort, strategies and persistence, rather than the product.
2. Use the words "Yet" and "Not Yet" to help develop confidence and persistence.
3. Encourage your child to move out of their comfort zone.

For more information listen to: http://tinyurl.com/mnblves

School Notices

Opti-MINDS

It's Opti-MINDS time again!

What is Opti-MINDS?

"Opti-MINDS is a is an opportunity for students with a passion for learning & problem solving to showcase their skills & talents in an exciting, vibrant & public way." (Opti-MINDS 2015)

We will form a team (or two) of keen and motivated Holy Cross students to work together over a period of 6 weeks to achieve their most creative solution to a given challenge. The students will then represent the school and present their solution to a panel of judges. The team will also participate in a 'spontaneous challenge,' which will require them to think quickly and creatively.

Interested year 5 or 6 students need to show 'a passion for learning & problem solving' and be prepared to commit themselves to regular meetings and practice sessions for 6 weeks (starting from week 1, term 3). They will also be required to attend the Opti-MINDS Challenge Day, which will be held on Sunday 23rd August at James Cook University.

Places are limited, as a team contains only 4-7 participants. Interested students can write a short application to Ms Stefanovic, stating what skill/ability they would bring to a Holy Cross Opti-MINDS team and how they have shown that skill/ability in the past.

Coralie Stefanovic
Holy Cross Opti-MINDS Coordinator

Term 2 School Fees

Please note that Term 2 School Fees were issued via email on 24th April and were payable by the 8th May. Please make arrangements to finalise your account as soon as possible if you have not already done so.

Should you be experiencing financial difficulty and are unable to meet your financial obligations please contact the school to make an appointment with our School Principal, Mrs Wendy Manners. A reminder that all fees are to be paid in full (unless direct debit arrangements are in place) in order for reports to be issued at the end of this term.

Semester 1 Report Cards

Please note that Semester 1 reports are due to be mailed out on Friday 26th June to those families who are financial or have a current payment plan in place.

Please notify the school office if you have changed your address details to ensure delivery.

We are happy to provide second copies of school reports, if requested by parents, in the case where parents live apart. If you wish to receive a second report, please fill out the request form below and hand in to the class teacher or the school office by Friday 5th June 2015.

2nd REPORT CARD REQUEST
Child's name 1:	Class:
Child's name 2:	Class:
Child's name 3:	Class:
Name Parent/Carer 1:
Address:
Name Parent/Carer 2:
Address:

EFT Transfer Customers

If you currently use this method of payment please check that you are using our NEW bank details and reference number as shown on the Term invoice to ensure your funds are receipted to the correct account. See below:-

BSB: 084-352
A/C #: 000017443
YOUR REF: 963000 _ _ _ _

Currently there are a number of families who have not included a reference number and are using the incorrect bank details.

Prep 2016 Enrolments

Prep interviews for the 2016 intake have begun and will be conducted throughout this term. All sibling applications should now have been finalised. Please note that although formal interviews for Prep siblings will not be conducted prior to placement offers being released, there will be informal 15 minute meetings organised during Term 3 for ALL current families in order to discuss your child's individual development, friendship groupings and to answer any questions that you may have.

GOTCHA Points

Congratulations to Mallon House who were the GOTCHA Point winners last week.

TERM 2	DILLON	MALLON	PETERSEN	ROBINSON
Week 6	316	403	338	381

Holy Cross Hero

Congratulations to Lauren Year 6C who was the Holy Cross Hero last month.

Bike Bus

Holy Cross Bike Bus is now well underway. A REMINDER THAT THE BIKE BUS WILL NOT RUN IF IT IS RAINING OR A STRONG CHANCE OF RAIN.

P & F News

P & F Meeting

The next P & F Meeting will be held Wednesday 10th June commencing at 7pm in the school library. All welcome to attend.

Tuckshop News

TUCKSHOP ROSTER
WEEK 7		PARENT HELPERS	SLINKY HELPERS
WED	3rd June	HELP REQUIRED	Aimee G 5H
			Trinity C 5H
THU	4th June	HELP REQUIRED	Mia-Poppy S 4C
			Nadia K 4S
FRI	5th June	Tracey Cook 8.30am-11.30am	Leia 5S
		URGENT HELP REQUIRED	Scarlett C 5H
WEEK 8
WED	10th June	HELP REQUIRED	Aimee G 5H
			Scarlett C 5H
THU	11th June	HELP REQUIRED	Iona F 5C
FRI	12th June	Tracey Cook 8.30am– 11.30am URGENT HELP REQUIRED	Hannah C
			Chloe M

Secondhand Uniforms

Secondhand uniforms and green jumpers are available for purchase at the tuckshop for $5.00 each.

If you can assist in the tuckshop we would love to hear from you. Please contact the Tuckshop Convenor, Kylie Gowlett on 0439 933 980, email: kgowlett@cns.catholic.edu.au or leave your number at the office.

The Arts News

Dance Drama & Music News

Hello everybody and God bless you all!

We are beginning to complete our assessment tasks in the Arts now and are winding down our semester units. As mentioned in previous newsletters, students are only being assessed on the Dance and Drama strands in the upcoming semester 1 report cards and music in semester 2. We have had a lot of fun during this semester and students are keen to showcase their work. Year 2 is our next dance act during this Friday's junior sector assembly. To date, only years 3, 4 & 5 have had opportunities to perform on assembly and therefore years Prep, 1 & 6 will be given opportunities to perform on assembly during semester 2.

DO YOU KNOW OF ANY LOCAL COMMUNITY BANDS?

Next semester, I am writing a unit for the year 5 & 6's called, "Local Community Music." I will be teaching students about how different music means different things to different people. I wanted to interview local community bands about the messages they want to share with people through their music, why they are in a band and what kinds of music they connect with and why. If you know of any local rock, cultural or alternative style bands that perform in the Cairns district and might be willing to be a part of our unit, please give them my email address, cwight@cns.catholic.edu.au , or leave a message with the school office on 4057 6920. I already have two bands but need more! Thank you!

DRAMA RESOURCES – WE NEED YOUR DONATIONS!

We are beginning to build up our drama and dance resources in the DDM. We can purchase some items, however, many of the items below may be your trash and our treasure! If you can donate any of these items, please send them into school and deliver them to the DDM room. THANK YOU!

• Men's business shirts, suit jackets, ties, hats, belts
• Women's small dresses, coats, hats, belts, necklaces
• Normal and novelty sunglasses
• Costumes of any sort
• Retro or old fashioned clothes
• Plastic princess crowns, fairy wands etc…
• Shawls or scarfs
• Novelty hats eg: cowboy, police, fireman, witch
• Wigs
• Etc…

THEATRE SPORTS – TEACHER VS STUDENT LUNCH TIME COMPETITION

It is with great pleasure that I present to you the first Theatre Sports competition between teachers and students. We have had two after school rehearsals and now the competition starts this Wednesday at 1st lunch in the Multi-Purpose Hall. It will go for another two Wednesdays before a champion team is crowned. Everyone is welcome to watch these two teams perform in three Theatre Sports games called; Death in a Minute, Slow Motion Commentary and Space Jump.

Teacher Judges - Leigh Ovens, Leanne Morton, Deb Scarborough

Student Judges - Mathew Handgodi, Eme-Rose Ernst, Kaelin Nelson.

Teacher Team - Katrina Reidel, Jo Van Ewyk, Jo Woodhouse and Jacinta Browning

Student Team – Billy Vincent, William Knight, Caitlin Ross, Mathew Dix, Jazz Woodall and Kiara Viney.

HOLY CROSS CHOIRS

We have had a long process of finalising our choirs but we are almost done. I am waiting for a few permission slips and some students to remember to turn up for weekly practices. We have 26 students in the General Choir and 12 students in the Liturgy Choir.

General Choir – Is a fun choir (years 2-6) who sing a variety of songs for upcoming whole school performances. We are currently working on a Glen Campbell classic "Try a Little Kindness" and a children's ABC TV favourite, "The Arthur Theme Song." We are also going to join up with the Liturgy Choir to sing the Catholic Education Week theme song "Heads, Hearts and Hands." We practice in the DDM room on Tuesdays at 2nd lunch.

Liturgy Choir – Is a specialised choir (years 4-6) of students who have a more mature voice and commitment to singing. The Liturgy choir's job is to sing at whole school liturgies and masses. We are given the Gospel acclamations, hymns and parts to learn in a short space of time. We practice on Wednesdays at 2nd lunch.

DDM LESSON UPDATE

Prep – " Imaginarium " – This semester is the first time that the Australian Curriculum: The Arts will be reported upon at the Prep level at Holy Cross. All students who have participated in my lessons and have shown me that they can imitate dance chorography and drama activities will have achieved a sound level. This means that they have met my expectations of a beginning student and this is generally the case for most of the children. There are some who find it challenging and are still `warming up' to the idea of acting in front of their class and some who take to it with great confidence. I am proud of all the Prep students as they have all improved over our short time together and seem to really enjoy attending their DDM lessons.

Years 1/2 - " Lets Dance: Movement Stories " – We are at a point now in our lessons, that I just play the music for each dance and the students can move into formation and perform the dance with minimal guidance from me! We are also working on accessing an Aboriginal dance for students to learn in the upcoming weeks. For those parents of year 1 students, I would like to apologise as year 1 were initially scheduled to perform on the week 5 sector assembly like they told you, but then plans were changed due to other whole school activities. Year 1 will now perform a music related item on assembly next term. Year 2 will be performing the Heel and Toe Polka and Taba Naba on assembly this Friday @ 8:30am as planned.

Years 3/4 - " Blast Off! Life in Space. " - Students were in the midst of writing a script together, however, the small groups are finding script writing a challenge when there are `too many cooks in the kitchen' so to speak. So we have had to change plans. Students will now be given a space script to perform based on their ideas that they have presented to the teacher. At this stage, we are unsure whether these plays will be ready for performance by the end of term, but the students are super keen to have a go at them still.

Years 5/6 – " Theatre Sports " – Students have formed their teams and have all made up a name and action for their group. Each lesson, students either perform with their team in a theatre sports game or judge their fellow classmates. Points are given to teams each week and there is a very competitive spirit in some classes! We have a lot of laughs each lesson and can't wait to see what happens during the teacher vs student match starting on Wednesday.

May peace be with you all,

Christina Wight
Dance, Drama & Music Teacher

Music News

Instrumental Music News

MUSIC FOR A GREAT CAUSE!

"Music by Moonlight"

The Holy Cross Band will be performing at the fundraising event Music by Moonlight held on Wednesday 10th of June 2015 on the lawn in front of All Saint's Chapel, at St Andrew's Catholic College, at 6:30pm.

Music by Moonlight is a fundraiser organised by the St Andrew's Catholic College music department. All profits raised on the night will go directly to the Friends of Himalayan Children (FHC) charity. FHC is a humanitarian organisation working in rural Nepalese communities and in Kathmandu. Its aim is to improve the lives of vulnerable women and children in Nepal through better access to education programs and community development projects. FHC was founded by Som Tomang in 2009; building a hostel in Talamarang to house orphans from Kathmandu, opening a primary school in Batase village to educate the local children and raising awareness around the world for the plight of young girls in Nepal. Devastatingly, due to the recent Earthquake, much of this hard work has been destroyed and most of the buildings are now in rubble. With our help, it is now the aim of FHC to rebuild the community of Batase Village and ensure that all of the villagers are equipped with sufficient shelter, food and medical needs during this difficult time.

We hope that this event will turn into a sea of picnic blankets and families, enjoying the sounds and showing their solidarity with the victims of these disasters. Indian Curry, a chandelier of stars and music from Holy Cross, St Andrew's & Cairns Brass Junior band will be on offer.

However, fundraising will be the major focus of the night and we hope to raise the desperately needed funds for FHC through the sale of tickets, food, drink and candles, all complementing the major fundraiser of the night being the 'Big Auction' of donated goods.

Tickets for this event can be purchased on the night (Adults $5, Child (school age)/Concession $3). Indian curries will be for sale on the evening, plus, Tea/Coffee, cold drinks and battery operated candles will also be available to purchase.

This will be a fantastic community event, and for such a great cause it is one not to be missed!

IMPORTANT FUTURE BAND DATES

Wednesday 10th June – Music by Moonlight
6:30pm All Saints Chapel, St Andrew's College

Thursday 18th June – Band Workshop
8:15am M Block, St Andrew's College

Tuesday 23rd June – Cairns Eisteddfod
1:30pm Cairns Civic Theatre

FLUTE VACANCIES

There are current places available on the instrumental music program to learn the flute. If you are interested in learning the flute, please complete a green music form (available from the office) and return it before the end of this term. Miss Russell will be starting the new flute group in term 3.

Music Tuition

Brass/Woodwind

If you are interested in learning a brass or woodwind instrument (including trumpet, trombone, flute, clarinet or saxophone), please contact Julia Russell via email: julia.russell@standrewscc.qld.edu.au

A reminder that instrumental tuition & hire contract agreements state a 4 week's written notice period is required if your child wishes to cease lessons. In the event of cancellation the full amount of the term fee will remain due and payable for that notice period. All instrumental fees should remain paid in advance.

Drums/Percussion

Are you interested in playing the drums or learning a percussion instrument?

For more information contact our friendly drum/percussion instructor Jen Fengler on ph: 0431461812 or email: jenfengler@hotmail.com

Piano

If you are interested in piano lessons please contact: Paul Brimstone on ph: 40551105

Guitar

If you are interested in guitar lessons please contact: Peter Drazic on email: pjd.guitar@bigpond.com

We are currently seeking a strings teacher for our violin lessons. Please contact the school office if interested.

Indigenous Education News

Sorry Day

6C were very fortunate to have our Holy Cross Indigenous Liaison Officer, Miss Breanna Lyall and Catholic Education Office Indigenous Liaison Officer, Mrs Kelly conduct a workshop recently with students about the importance of Sorry Day. Students heard stories about the Stolen Generation and the impact on Indigenous families at the time and the ongoing impact. Following the history lesson and stories, students made candles combining melted coloured crayons, focussing on the traditional colours relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people and wax.

Miss Lyall, Mrs Kelly with 6C students Lauren, Michael & Colby

Parenting Ideas

Sports Notices

2015 Far North Queensland School Futsal Titles

Wow, wow, wow!!!

By now, the 2015 Far North Queensland School Futsal Titles are already a week old and my voice has finally returned. I lost it somewhere on the second day, sometime between the 8th and 9th game…

Where to start? Well, maybe at the beginning: 4 years ago, Holy Cross decided to participate at the yearly FNQ School futsal titles event. We sent 30 students to the competition, distributed over 4 all-boys teams. Over the following years, this number grew up to 10 (!!!) teams, which we sent this year. All in all, we had 7 boy and 3 girl teams with close to 90 players representing our school. It is quite amazing to see just how many talented futsal/football (soccer) players we have at our relatively small school.

Just like in previous years, all of our students displayed beautiful behaviour on and off the field, accepting the referees' decision, never giving up and cheering each other on. However, what I enjoyed seeing most was how they displayed humility in victory and grace in defeat and how our players always shook their opponents' hands, after the game.

Over the four-day event, we had bucket loads of sweat and a few minor injuries, heaps of grins and shouts of joy, interspersed with the occasional tear. All our players did a wonderful job displaying skills even Ronaldo or the great Lionel would be proud of. In the end, Holy Cross walked away with 3 Age Championships (U8, U9 and U11), which is a great achievement!

Most importantly though, all our players will have grown as people because they represented their school and gave their personal best.

Last but not least, a huge THANK-YOU!!! on behalf of the Holy Cross school community to all the parents who gave up their time to coach our students both leading up to and during the event.

I am already counting down the sleeps till next year's event! Long live the round ball!

Kind Regards
Tilmann Dunn-Oswald
Holy Cross Futsal Coordinator

Rebel Sport Tennis

Congratulations to Harley V, Haydar A, Maui C, Sabine S & William K who represented Holy Cross in the Rebel Sport Tennis School Challenge on Sunday 31st May. All five students should be commended on their great sportsmanship and effort in the school coming fourth overall. The next school challenge if on the 13th June which is different to previously advised due to the Ironman event.

If your child is interested in participating in the next tennis challenge, please click on the link below to obtain an entry form and more information.

Cricket

Nathan Reardon from T20 Brisbane Heat Cricket and Ken Healy from Masters Cricket recently visited Holy Cross School.

Community Notices

Positive Partnerships ASD Workshop

Free autism workshop for CAIRNS families who are living with or associated with Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Like all school-age students, children with autism spectrum disorder benefit from strong, positive relationships between the home and school. Positive Partnerships uses evidence based materials and practical resources to help support these relationships by facilitating workshops for parents and carers in your local community.

Details for the upcoming FREE 2 day workshop
Dates: 16th and 17th June 2015
Venue: Rydges Esplanade Resort
209 – 217 Abbott Street, Cairns
Cost: FREE - including folder of resources, lunch, morning tea and refreshments

Full details and online registration at www.positivepartnerships.com.au

The workshop is funded as part of an Australian Government Department of Education initiative to support school-age children with ASD across Australia.

Well Women's Clinics (available to Medicare eligible clients)

Service includes Pap Smears, Sexual Health Screening, Breast Awareness, also info on Contraception, Continence, Menopause, Lifestyle Issues, Bowel Health, Domestic Violence, etc. All services are provided by a specially trained Women's Health Nurse.

Smithfield Community Health Fridays 12th & 26th June Ph: 4226 4800
James Cook University (JCU) Tuesday 30th June Ph: 4226 4812