News

Every Christmas, pupils from Holy Cross visit local care homes, to sing carols for the elderly and vulnerable people in our community.  Unfortunately, due to Covid, this year we were unable to do this, so the children have created Christmas cards to send instead.

Thank you to Home Instead Senior Care who will be collecting our children's cards and acting as post office, to distribute the cards to the lonley, isolated and elderly people in Uckfield this Christmas.

Smartphones, tablets, consoles, and TVs  frequently top the Christmas list, so follow this link to help with the safe set-up of devices :

https://www.saferinternet.org.uk/advice-centre/parents-and-carers/parents-guide-technology

Have a happy holiday and be safe. 

Mrs. Griffin 

This year the Uckfield Festival of Christmas Trees is being held virtually, and we are very pleased to once again take part in this important local event, to support the Church, the local community and to keep the magic of Christmas alive in Uckfield. 

Recently, a videographer visited our school and filmed our beautiful Christmas tree accompanied by our amazing Willow Class children singing.

The Virtual Festival of Christmas Trees will be released on Saturday 5th December at 5.30pm.  You will be able to watch the festival via Holy Cross Church's facebook and Youtube page.  We hope you all enjoy it.

Holy Cross Church Facebook Page

Brighton Housing Trust (BHT) is a local charity working to combat homelessness across East and West Sussex. Over the last five decades they have helped thousands of people with complex needs to secure safe accommodation, overcome barriers to work and learning, and address issues such as addiction, poverty and mental health.

We joined their Christmas Bauble Campaign this year to raise awareness of homelessness and the work BHT do to support our local community.

Every pupil at Holy Cross decorated a special bauble with glitter and Christmassy pictures. The pupils each wrote a special message. Our baubles will be posted off to Brighton Housing Trust this weekend so they can decorate their residential services this festive season.

We will also be fundraising for the Trust by asking for a small donation on Christmas Jumper Day 16^th December.  

Each class now has its own Christmas postbox so that pupils can start bringing in Christmas cards for their friends. To ensure Covid safety, boxes will be emptied of cards by adults, who will wash hands before and after handling them. The cards will then be quarantined for 48 hours before being handed out to pupils by an adult. Hopefully these measures will prevent the spread of the virus and ensure everyone's safety. We are trying hard to keep to our Christmas traditions whilst adhering to DfE and local authority guidance.

Our Christmas tree was delivered on Monday after school and unveiled on Tuesday. It's a perfect specimen and has been donated to the school by Michael Grant of White House Farm Christmas Trees, Uckfield. Michael used to be a pupil at Holy Cross Primary School and now he very generously gives the school a wonderful tree each Christmas.

Thank you Michael.

On Tuesday 17th November, Cherry class participated in a virtual tour of Uckfield Library.

The children thought of questions to ask prior to the tour and enjoyed seeing the books they had asked about. The children were amazed to learn they could borrow up to 20 books in one go for free. Mia commented 'I like the princess books.' Skye said 'I liked when she read the pea book.' We are now all looking forward to visiting the library when it reopens. 

Years 1 through to 6 have been looking at what a computer scientist is in relation to our Gender Balance in Computing DfE programme.

Fortunately, one of our parents, Mr Weller, was kind enough to answer all of our computer science questions. Mr Weller studied Computer Science in 2000 and now runs a business in Uckfield. He has also been a frequent visitor into our school by running a Raspberry Pi Computing Club last year. 

Here are some of our questions and responses from Mr Weller:

What does your usual day of computer science look like?

Each day can be quite different. Because I run the business, I’m often on the phone to customers finding out what they need next. Other times I have to fix things that have broken (or ‘just stopped working’), or even visit customer’s offices for meetings. Most of my time is taken up with actual coding however, and I spend a lot of time in front of computer screens (I have three screens on my desk connected to a single computer).

Did anyone inspire you to become a Computer Scientist?

There are two people who inspired me. My dad wrote many computer programs and worked on computers for much of his life, including on computers that used punch cards (these were new when he used them, but are antiques now). The other person is Alan Turing, who was one of the code breakers during the World War 2.

What would you recommend to me if I wanted to become a Computer scientist?

‘Play’ with computers and learn how to program them. Scratch is a great way to learn some of the basics of programming, but there’s also Python and Visual Basic if you want to start making ‘real’ computer programs. I know of many real programs that started out as a hobby or just to learn how things are done.

On Remembrance Day, Cherry class learnt the significance of poppies and enjoyed making their own.

Dear God,

I pray for those who have no home,

who walk the streets,

who trudge the roads.

I pray for those who want to help them

with the door of welcome

and the meal of companionship 

and the bed of rest.

May they bring blessings to each other.

Friday 13th was Children in Need, so all of our learning that day was based on this event.  We talked about what Children in Need was and why we raise money for them.  We practised our fine motor skills by finger painting spots on Pudsey's bandana.  We used materials of our choice to colour or stick on Pudsey.  We practised our writing skils by following patterns that Pudsey had left us and also by cutting and sticking our favourite cupcakes onto a cake stand!  Our story at the end of the day was called 'Pudsey's Great Fundraiser'.

Christmas is a very special time in every primary school. At Holy Cross we are looking forward to taking delivery of our Christmas tree this week and as we decorate it we will be considering what it must be like to be homeless over Christmas. On our Christmas dinner day everyone will be invited to wear a Christmas jumper and we will be collecting 50p donations from each child which will go to a local homeless charity. 

Mrs Daphne Starnes, our music teacher, and Mr Pearson have put their heads together to plan the school's Nativity and Carol Service. As always, Year 2 pupils will be given the speaking roles and Year 1 and Reception pupils will support with the singing and instrument playing. The plan is to film the Nativity, either in school or at Holy Cross Church, and to edit all the elements together to create a festive Nativity and Carol Service that can be viewed in the comfort of your own homes throughout the Christmas period.

Key Stage 2 pupils will be singing Christmas songs and Carols and we are hoping that they might regale us with some musical pieces on the ukulele, all being well.

Although Christmas 2020 will not be quite the same as previous years, as a school team we will be working really hard to make it truly special, because that's what our pupils deserve. We look forward to seeing lots of celebratory festive photos in the next edition of our Holy Cross Newsletter.

Cherry class had a very exciting afternoon! As we can't go to a firework display, we brought the firework display to us! We talked a lot about firework safety and how we must not go near to fireworks. We spoke about how sparklers can be lots of fun but that we must wear gloves or pop the end of a sparkler into a carrot to hold. We did some lovely firework painting and then we built our very own bonfire. We had to use the sticks to create a bonfire and then we used the tissue paper to make the flames. After break time, we had hot chocolate and marshmallows and we even made some bread stick chocolate sparklers to eat. As we were eating our marshmallows and drinking hot chocolate we watched the fireworks on the big screen and spoke about how pretty they were and all the loud noises they made. It was lots of fun. Happy firework night everybody, stay safe!

Thank you to everyone who was able to donate money on Friday 13th November for Children in Need.  Mrs Ritchie spent the weekend counting all the coins from your Pudsey Bear pictures and we are happy to announce that we have raised £140 so far for the charity.

Thank you to everyone who donated and Mrs Ritchie for organising.

Are you considering applying for a place at our school?

If so, we would be very pleased to offer you and your family, an opportunity to visit Holy Cross to find out more about us!

To arrange a visit, or for any enquiries, please call 01825 762336.

If you are unable to visit Holy Cross in person due to COVID-19, please see our virtual school tour video from our Headteacher, Mrs Cathy Dart.

Holy Cross CE Primary Youtube: Virtual School Tour | Prospective Parents

This year Holy Cross will be holding our school Christmas Lunch and Christmas Jumper day on Wednesday 16th December.

A letter will be sent home soon with more details and information regarding menu options and payment. 

On Wednesday 16th December the children can also wear a Christmas jumper to school and if possible bring in a small dontion for the Brighton Housing Trust.  BHT is a local charity working to combat homelessness across East and West Sussex.  Any donations will be greatly appreciated. 

Pupils from Willow Class at Holy Cross CE Primary School visited the War Memorial at Holy Cross Church today to pay their respects and remember those Service men, women and animals who have given their lives for their country.

The pupils were met at the Memorial by Father John and the school's Chair of Governors, Mrs Sandie Boniface. Father John led the pupils in a prayer of Remembrance and they laid their poppies alongside the wreaths at the foot of the Memorial.

Our school has signed up to be a part of the Department for Education programme 'Gender Balance in Computing'.

The Gender Balance in Computing programme is a valuable opportunity to find new ways to encourage girls to develop an interest in computing during their primary school years.

It’s a sad fact that many girls don’t currently see computing as a subject for them or as an option for their future careers. This has led to a disparity between the number of boys and girls who go on to study computing at GCSE and beyond.

We hope by joining the new initiative, we can find ways of addressing this disparity.

To kick start the programme we asked pupils from Year 1 through to Year 6 'What does a computer scientist look like?'

We were pleased to say that our children didn't show any gender stereotyping when drawing their picture of a computer scientist. Instead, they wondered what the job was! 

We look forward to continuing our work on Gender Balance in Computing in the forthcoming months. 

Just to remind you that our final INSET days for the school year 2020-2021 have now been confirmed as:

Wednesday 2nd December 2020

Monday 7th June 2021

There will be no school for the children on these days.  The school will be closed for staff training.

Holy Cross has always strived to be creative, innovative and support our parents and children in the best way possible to make learning purposeful and holistic. Our strategy for Remote Learning continues this. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Holy Cross will endeavour to:

• Ensure consistency in the approach to remote learning for all pupils, including those with SEND, who aren’t in school through use of quality online resources and teaching videos.
• Ensure continuous delivery of the school curriculum.
• Support effective communication between the school and families and support attendance.

For further information, please view our Remote Learning Policy by heading over to our website.

TAPESTRY

At Holy Cross, our youngest pupils in the Early Years Foundation Stage access their learning through the App 'Tapestry' when they cannot attend school due to COVID-19.

Follow the link to sign into your parent Tapestry Account.

GOOGLE CLASSROOM

Google Classroom is used for our pupils in Year 1 through to Year 6 to access learning whist they are absent from school due to COVID-19. 

Follow the link to sign into your pupil  Google Classroom Account.

Please see the handy Parent's Guide to Google Classroom attached to this news article.