29 September HOLY CROSS PRIMARY SCHOOL

From the Editor’s Desk- It’s that time of the term when the teachers’ heads are down and reports are being writ-

ten as I write this editorial. For the learners though, they have all breathed a sigh of

relief as their Formal Assessment tasks (FAT’s) and projects are well and truly over! We

have had an action packed term, especially with our Senior concert, ‘It’s Time’, sports

matches and our involvement in the various Eisteddfods: Art, Drama and Music. For

those of you who watched our concert, I am sure you will agree with me when I say that

it was truly entertaining. I know our director and co-director would say that it was a

huge team effort and they were so grateful to all involved to pull off such a big concert.

Well done to everyone! The Grade 5 Market day got off to a flying start on Wednesday.

From cupcakes to brownies, netball shooting , target shooting and a host of other good-

ies to buy, the Grade 5’s day was a great success! We held the Grade 6 and 7 Public

Speaking morning on Thursday and once again the standard was

extremely high. Enjoy the short holiday, as it will be full steam

ahead for our final term! CATHERINE RUTTER For all our latest news keep up to date via the Communicator.

MYSCHOOL CARD A big THANK YOU to our Holy Cross family for faithfully SWIPING their MySchool cards and for joining up as new members recently. Please have other family members sign up too and remember KEEP SWIPING!

Our Theme for the Term

Congratulations to Holy Cross on

celebrating its 122nd birthday on

Thursday 14th Septem-ber.

What a wonderful fun-filled day was had by all across on the field with a celebratory ice-lolly and school closing at 12.00

midday. The holiday break is upon us and, although

short, it is certainly time to take a few days off and relax! What a jam-packed term it has been –

the Senior concert, ‘It’s Time’ sporting fix-tures, Eisteddfods, Spring Day, our annual Spring Fair, FRC Golf Day, Public Speech Day, Market day and the academic side of school. Those of you who bought tickets to our senior production, ‘It’s Time’ , would know just how successful this production was. It was a tremendous team effort from both staff and parents who helped , but con-gratulations on a brilliant script and direction must go to Mrs Debbie van Blerk and her co-director Mrs Annelie Treurnich. What a team!

After many prayers, we woke to a beautiful day for our Spring Fair on Satur-day! A sincere ‘Thank You’ to you, our parents, and our many friends for support-ing us. It was wonderful to see so many people coming to enjoy the day with us. A special ‘Thank You’ to Mrs de Jongh, her FRC team and parents who gave of their time to set up and run the various stalls and then tidy up at the end of the day!

A very big thank you also to our Golf Committee for organising a most suc-cessful fundraiser. We really appreciate all your effort. Thank you to all who took tickets for the Raffle.

I also wish to extend my sincere appreciation to the staff, coaches, parents

and extended family who were in-volved in various activities during the term. Your hard work and sup-port does not go unnoticed. Lastly, I wish you a happy holiday with your children and look forward to the final term of 2017 God Bless you all. Mrs Jane Askew

Spring Flower Day A big thank you to all the chil-dren who went to so much trou-ble to prepare their recycled Spring Day ar-rangements so beautifully. This was a first for us to break away from traditional flower arrange-ments and for those of you who dropped in to view the arrange-ments would surely agree that there were some very creative arrangements on display.

A fantastic effort from everyone. Well done to you all!

PAGE 2 HOLY CROSS NEWS TIME

We encourage parents to ensure that their chil-dren attend the Learn to Swim lessons, when the swimming season starts again next term, if their children are not yet competent in the water. Wa-ter safety is of utmost importance to us.

Third term review from the Music Department It has been the busiest term in years for the Holy Cross Music De-partment, music pupils and choir members, with numerous music events on the 3rd term calendar. Most results were on the school’s communicator. A short summary will follow below.: George Eisteddfod 55 music pupils were entered in 131 items, all achieving gold certifi-cates! There were 6x A, 57x A+ and 68 A++. Congratulations to those who were invited to perform at the Festival Concert in the Arts Theatre: Ludolph Pedro (piano), Steven Kapp (piano), Eden Walsh-Tucker (violin), Charlize van der Walt, Livvi van Jaarsveld, Bella van Jaarsveld (vocal trio) and the Instrumental Ensemble. Mossel Bay Eisteddfod 18 music pupils took part this year, achieving a total of 1 Silver, 10 Gold, 17 Honours and 10 Prestige awards. Holy Cross Primary was very well represented at the Gala Evening, which was held in the Diaz Museum. Christina Engelbrecht, Antonia Hanekom and Isabel-la Domingo sang beautifully, whilst Kaitlyn Macdon-ald, Kesia Gelderbloem, Steven Kapp, Samuel Leg-gatt and Ludolph Pedro gave confident performances in piano. Outeniqua Choir Festival The Junior Choir, Senior Choir and Vocal Ensemble took part in this annual event, giving beautiful and polished performances, entertaining audiences and uplifting their spirit with excellent choral singing. Thank you to all staff and par-ents for their support on the day. Tygerberg International Eisteddfod Holy Cross Primary piano pupils who took part this year, were Rich-elle Baird, Kaitlyn Macdonald, Jesse van Heerden, Kesia Gelder-bloem, Jaden van Heerden, Steven Kapp, Samuel Leggatt and Ludolph Pedro. Steven and Ludolph were invited to perform at the Prestige Concert on 28 September, Steven, Ludolph and Kaitlyn are also trophy winners – more detail will follow next term. Grade 4-7 School Concert “It’s Time!” Thank you for the excellent singing of the Vocal Ensemble and Senior Choir at the concert. Other music items incorporated into the concert were a piano dual, piano solo and the Instrumental Ensem-ble. It was fun for our musicians to be part of the storyline. Young Musicians Competition Our school did very well at this prestigious event, having 6 finalists performing at the Gala Concert, held at the Tuinedal NG Church this year: Chloe and Asha Tait (vocal duet), Kesia Gelderbloem (vocal solo), Ludolph Pedro (piano solo), Jaden and Jesse van Heerden (piano duet), the Vocal Ensemble and the Instrumental Ensemble. The following finalists were trophy/prize winners: Lu-dolph Pedro (Best Pianist and overall winner in the Junior catego-ry), Kesia Gelderbloem (Best Contemporary Vocalist and 2nd Junior overall), Chloe and Asha Tait (Best Duo) and the Vocal Ensemble (Best Vocal Ensemble and best Junior En-semble). Congratulations to all our music stars! ABRSM We are awaiting the violin examina-tion results. Katherine Armstrong achieved a distinction for Grade 2 Music Theory. Well done! UNISA Congratulations to these15 pupils who all passed their theory ex-amination with distinction. Roll of Honour = 95% and above. Kesia Gelderbloem, Jesse van Heerden, Emma Neizel and Nathan Hoon achieved 100%! Well done to all! Pre-grade 1 Owethu Dingi, Gabriella Kritzas, Anika du Toit (all distinction) and Nathan Hoon (Roll of Honour) Grade 1 Nicola Mouton and Jaunè Fortuin achieved a distinction. Ruby Launder, Kesia Gelderbloem, Jesse van Heerden, Chloë Tait, Asha Tait, Emma Neizel, Chulumanco Schaap, Andrew-William Mitchell will receive Roll of Honour. Grade 2 Tiffany Noemdoe (distinction) We are awaiting the results of the 2nd Session practical examina-tions. 2nd Session theory examinations will be written during the 2nd week of next term. Parents will soon receive more information. SAMRO Hubert van der Spuy National Music Competition Ludolph Pedro participated in this competition against the best South African junior musicians. We are eagerly awaiting the results. On next term’s music calendar will be the internal evaluations (4th week) and the music concert series (5th week) in which all music pupils will take part. So keep practising during the short holiday in order to be prepared for next term’s assessment and performance at the concert. God bless! Yours in music!

Grade 4 Outing to the Transport Museum and

Power Van Trip As part of the History

Transport theme this

term, the Grade 4

classes went on sepa-

rate days to the

Transport Museum.

We started our morn-

ing with a beautiful trip

up the mountain on

the Power Van, which

was a first for many.

This was followed by a

pit stop on the way down to

have lunch.

Back at the Museum we

went off in groups on an

Amazing Race to work out

riddles that related to the vari-

ety of transport models on

display. A couple of favourites were the Royal Carriages

and Dennis. If you get to the museum for yourself, see if

you can find out who, or what, is Dennis! A great time was

had by all. Thank you teachers for taking us.

We had the time of our lives... With memories of the senior concert fresh in our minds, it is hard to believe that ‘It’s Time’ has come to an end. After many months of learning lines, rehearsing dance steps, sing-ing our hearts out and practising musical melodies, it was truly a rewarding experience to see the excitement on the faces of the 200-strong cast of our musical.

The audience was taken on a journey through time along with the crazy Professor Potts, his goofy sidekick Ivan and a class of students who were catapulted from one musi-cal era to the next. Of course, no tribute to music would be

complete without the appearance of a few well-known icons, including Elvis, who was reunited with his blue suede shoes and an unsuspecting John Lennon lookalike. For those who missed the show, or would like to relive the memories, the concert DVD and photo CD are now on sale

GRADE 3 FOREST OUTING The Grade 3 classes recently enjoyed their annual forest walk on the Brown Hooded Kingfisher Trail in Wilderness. As always, it was lovely to see a variety of birdlife and to learn the identification of some of our indigenous trees. What was sad to see was how little water there was in the usually bubbling stream. Some of the children got a chance to stand on the big rock in the middle of the stream to recite the poems that they had been practising.

We would like to extend our gratitude to the many parents who accompanied

the classes on this outing. We hope that you enjoyed the walk as much as

we did.