Holy Cross College, Ellenbrook
'I came that they may have life, and have it to the full' John 10:10
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A New School Year

08/02/2019
Principal



Our College Assembly on Wednesday was a community celebration in which we welcomed new students and staff to the College. Our prayer focused on Dom Rosendo Salvado on whom we will have a special focus this year,  Salvado represents the Enrichment Pillar for our College and the values of gratitude and stewardship.  In Salvado’s life as he lived out the Gospel calling he lived out these values. 

We welcomed the following staff back from leave :
  • Mr Murphy
  • Ms Carter
  • Mrs Knoblauch
We also welcomed the following new staff :
Mr Bull – Assistant Deputy Principal – Faith
Miss Waters – Learning Innovator and Year 5 Teacher
Mrs Barrett – Sports Coordinator, Physical Education and Religious Education Teacher
Mrs Andrews – Art and Textiles Teacher
Mr Bowen – Mathematics and Physical EducationTeacher
Miss Carrara – Physical  Education and Mathematics Teacher
Mrs Foxbridge – Humanities and Science Teacher
Miss Gray – English, Humanities and Religious Education Teacher
Miss George – Year 2 Teacher
Mrs O’Hanlon – Year 1 Teacher

We also acknowledged staff taking on new roles this year :
Mr Shelton – Deputy Principal (Learning)
Ms Keating – Learning Innovator
Ms Dunstan – Learning Innovator
Mr Hughes and Ms Rafferty– Middle School Innovators
It is a tradition at our opening assembly to invite back high achievers from our graduating class.  We congratulated Meagan Jones, our College Dux for 2018 received an excellent ATAR score of 96 and also received a Certificate of Distinction from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority for outstanding levels of achievement in the WA Certificate of Education. Meagan has been accepted into Law at the University of Western Australia with a direct pathway into the Masters programme as a result of her excellent results. 
We  also congratulated the following students who received an ATAR score above 90:
  • Darrell Chiu – who will study Commerce at Curtin University.
  • Kaelan Hesketh – who will study a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Western Australia with a direct pathway into Masters in Architecture due to his high score.
  • Laila Davies – who also was awarded a Certificate of Merit for high levels of achievement in the WA Certificate of Education.  Laila will study  Biomedical Science at the University of Western Australia.
In addition to these students the following students received Certificates from the School Curriculum and Standards Authority:
  • Zophia Paluszak was awarded a Certificate of Distinction.  Zoe will study Occupational Therapy at Curtin University.
  • Paige Albuino was awarded a Certificate of Merit and has been awarded a Dance Scholarship to study in Sydney, where she is currently. 
  • Sebastian Feszczur was awarded a Certificate of Merit and has been accepted to study Computer Science, with a major in Cyber Security, at Curtin University.
Students achieving a 90 plus ATAR will have their name inscribed on an honour board.
In addition to these individual student achievements, Holy Cross College was also recognised by the Standards and Curriculum Authority as being one of the highest achieving schools in WA in Religion and Life.
Our Graduating Class of 2018 did very well with 100% of General students achieved a Certificate II, III or IV, giving them a head start on vocational courses.  83% of students who applied for university received an offer for their first preference of courses and 96.2% received an offer form university in the first round of offers.
I congratulate the Class of 2018 for their results and wish them well for the next stage of their journey. 
This is our 10th year as a College.  In 2010 we started the year with just 69 students and a small number of staff. We couldn’t have imagined then that in our tenth year we would be a Pre-Kindergarten to Year 12 College with over 1000 students and over 100 staff. Since that time we have embarked on significant building programmes.  We are about to open the St James Centre which is in the Santiago de Maria building.  This building is named for the Diocese of Santiago de Maria which in a poor region of El Salvador  and includes Ciudad Barrios, the town in which St Oscar Romero grew up.  Romero served as the Bishop of Santiago de Maria form 1974 – 1977.  Witnessing the suffering of the landless poor in Santiago de Maria strongly influenced Romero’s commitment to social justice.  The Cathedral in Santiago de Maria is called the Cathedral of St James the Apostle and it is from this we take the name of the St James Centre.  For Holy Cross, St James also has a link to the Camino de Santiago as the great cathedral in Santiago de Compostela is also called the Cathedral of St James.  The St James Centre at Holy Cross will include the Wellbeing Centre which will house our College Counsellor, Psychologist and Nurse, and also the College Staff area.  It is a beautiful facility and I look forward to us taking full occupation of it in the weeks to come.  The next facility we will be building will be a Sport Centre. The  building of this this will commence this year.
In this 10th year we will look back and we will look forward, but our young people live each day of the present time at Holy Cross College I hope they live life to the full.



Ms Mandy Connor
Principal