“Were not our hearts burning within us while Jesus was talking on the road, while He was opening the Scriptures?” Luke 24:32

We remember the two on the road to Emmaus, 

who were welcomed by the risen Christ.

Jesus drew them close with compassion

and lifted their spirits with kindness.

As they sat at table in the breaking of the bread

their disappointed hearts began to heal. 

Dear Friends,

Our 2023 School's spiritual theme for this year described above, focuses on walking together for a shared purpose.  Pope Francis encourages us to search for Christ within Scripture, prayer and the everyday actions of our lives.  We look forward with hope to journeying together as a community this year, just as the disciples did on the road to Emmaus.

It was wonderful to begin this 2023 journey together last week celebrating our opening school Mass and presenting our Year 6 leaders to our Holy Trinity community. 

Teachers, parents, and students enjoyed a wonderful Mass celebrating the start of the year. We had each class present a prayer cloth that they made around Journeying with Jesus. There were some beautiful Prayers of the Faithful and readings. After our mass, Year 6 students were presented with their Year 6 badge that Father Greg blessed. The parents and carers of Year 6 were invited to pin their badge on their child. At the very end we concluded with the students’ favourite song, My Lighthouse. I felt that this was a lovely way to start off our Year 6 journey.

By Chloe B

Year 6 have also spent some significant time at both the MoAD and at school inquiring into the characteristics of effective leadership and formulating our Holy Trinity leadership groups for 2023. 

Year 6 went to MoAD which is the Museum of Democracy. When we arrived at the museum, we met Stephanie. She took us around the museum. The got into groups and we focused on what we saw. We watched a video of kids that have changed the world for the better. The Year 6 students worked on leadership and how to be good leaders. The Year 6 students are ready to take on the challenges of 2023.

By Tiana C

On Wednesday last week, Year 6 went over to the Parish Centre. We talked about what makes a good leader. We separated into our house groups to talk about what we think the school year could look like for 2023. We discussed what the leaders from the past years have done during their leadership time. We decided to make a new group for our leadership roles. Each group will take on board different roles. All the leadership groups will be in charge of carnivals but student voice will be an important part of one of the roles.

By Amelia R

Strategic Planning

We have also begun a new three year focussed Strategic Plan, formulate under 5 realms- these realms will also be the basis of our School Registration report.  Holy Trinity is again due for Registration in 2023 and the panel will be visiting on the 26th and 27th of July.  We will also begin a School Self Study in preparation for IB Evaluation in 2023. Our Annual Improvement Plan for 2023 is based on three strategic goals as follows: 

Our Annual Improvement Plan 2023

• Strengthen the use of the PYP Framework for all planning, teaching, and learning across the curriculum 

• Develop and strengthen students’ social and self-awareness to flourish as global citizens 

• Ensure the cycle of assessment practices are effective and inform learning and teaching

Thank you to all our families who joined us for our welcome picnic last Friday night.  Thank you also to Mark Bullock and his P and F helpers for all they did with our BBQ.  It was also wonderful last night to see so many parents here involved in both the School Board and P and F for 2023. 

NAPLAN 2023

ACT schools will participate in NAPLAN Online testing from 15^th – 27^th March 2023.
 
As a parent, you can become familiar with NAPLAN Online tests by visiting the public demonstration site, https://nap.edu.au/naplan/public-demonstration-site .The purpose of the site is to familiarise students with the type of items they will see on NAPLAN Online and related functionalities. This level of familiarisation is worthwhile to help students understand and be comfortable with the format of the test.

On Tuesday 21^st of February, students in Years 3 and 5 will be participating in a NAPLAN practice test.

Students are required to bring their device to school along with headphones. These headphones must be able to be plugged into the device, please no wireless Bluetooth headphones.

Please ensure your child has the NAP Locked Down Browser installed.

If they require a school device or headphones, please email Caitlin Meany caitlin.meany@cg.catholic.edu.au

If you have any questions or wish to discuss your son or daughter’s participation in this event, including withdrawal, please contact Emily Capper Emily.capper@cg.catholic.edu.au  

Thank you to all our families who joined us last Friday night for our P and F Welcome BBQ. Thank you also to Mark Bullock Lisa Bauer, our class coordinators and all our volunteers on the P and F who helped with this great occasion. Last night we also hosted at school and on MS Teams our first School Board and our first P and F Meetings.  Both groups were so well represented and I was incredibly impressed with the commitment and the enthusiasm shown by all.  In next week's newsletter, I will share with you our members on both the Board and P and F and details of some of the plans already in place for events in 2023. 

Have a wonderful weekend and a peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families. Thank you again for a wonderful start to 2023!

Philippa