At the time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?".  Jesus called a child, whom he put among them, and said, "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. ( Matthew 18:1-5).

Dear Friends,

Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023!  I have chosen our prayer above to begin as our school is centred and always focussed on the children in our care and their families.  It has been wonderful  welcoming  all our families to our school and  ELC this week and watching the excitement that new beginnings bring!  

• Prue Sheargold Assistant Principal who will begin in week 6-   a HUGE thank you to Emily Capper who is our AP until Prue arrives
• Tom O'Rourke,  our new PYP coordinator and 6 Red teacher
• Carlee Tonkin Kindergarten Red
• Candace Goffin Year 1 Red
• Michael Prosper Year 2 Green 
• Holly Shaw Year 4 Green 
• Courtney Nelson 6 Green (2 days)
• Rachel Gallacher 3R and 2R 
• Anastasia Kalokarinos Classroom Support Assistant.

I also thank Rose Lee who has taken on the role of Classroom Support Teacher and Lisa Binutti-Wilson, who is our Religious Education coordinator, whilst Emily is AP. 

A HUGE congratulations to the Andracchio family (Ava) on the birth of baby Harper and the Noja family (Amaya and Xavier) on the birth of Zachariah.  What beautiful Christmas  holidays gifts! 

At the end of the Christmas break, our staff meet together for four days of Professional learning.  The first day focussed on our school theme for 2023, "Walking Together" (See RE News below) and the staff reflected on the Emmaus story from Luke's Gospel. 

The next two days involved an IB Workshop on transdisciplinary learning, with presenters from New Zealand. These two days of professional learning  highlighted the interrelatedness of knowledge that gives students opportunities to construct, internalise and transfer meaning and understanding.  Staff were given opportunity to explore the relationships and shared concepts of disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary learning. We also engaged in activities that synthesise concepts related to ways of knowing while learning how to develop central understandings that encourage learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be.

The final day encompassed all staff across every school in our Archdiocese learning together at the Convention Centre, at a conference titled "Faith In Learning".  Much about this day has been widely covered in local and national news throughout this week. 

As well as an important focus on learning, Holy Trinity values positive relationships with all in our community.  We look forward to welcoming you all with our P and F next Friday 10th february, at our welcome BBQ.  We also value the opportunity to meet with parents at a "Parent Partnership" meeting in Week 3. This meeting enables parents and carers to talk to the teachers about their children-  please note that a survey will be sent to you to be completed and emailed back to help support this conversation and important information.  The link to book a time in with your child/ren's teacher will be available on Compass next Monday. 

Vital information will also be sent home next week via Compass, firstly through the newsletter on Thursday and then, each individual student's family will receive the first Unit Overview.  In each of these overviews, will be a detailed explanation about your child's learning and other important dates and information pertinent to your child's year level. 

We are still finalising dates in our School calendar and will publish each week in the newsletter term dates.  Please refer to our school website calendar for all the 2023  events.  Please note this is constantly monitored and updated.

I also encourage you to read carefully the P and F news in the article below.  There is important information about events happening in the next couple of weeks and opportunities to further your engagement with our community.  Speaking of the P and F, words cannot express our thanks to Ginny, Katie and all our Uniform shop volunteers who work tirelessly to ensure our families had uniforms ready to begin the 2023 school year.