Dear Friends,

Welcome to Term 4!  It has been wonderful to come back to our beautiful community at such a lovely time of the year! In some ways, it feels like the fog is lifting and we are edging closer to a more hopeful lead up to Christmas.  Over the next few weeks, we hope to open our doors, with caution, to our community for some events.  We also hope to soon resume pick up arrangements at the car park only. Watch this space!

This term we warmly welcome Eliza (2R) and  Will M (KR), and Maija L (3 /4 R).  We also look forward to welcoming our new ELC and Kinder students for 2021 at orientation  sessions later this term. 

We finished September with two more reverent and special Confirmation Masses for our students at Holy Trinity and in the wider Parish.  We now look forward to beginning  our journey preparing students in Year 4 for the Sacrament of First Eucharist.  This will start next Tuesday night with the Parent Information session. 

Confirmation Photos

We also celebrated in Week 10 last Term our Awards Assembly.  Congratulations to the children below who received this accolade for all their tremendous work throughout the last five weeks of Term 3. 

Award Photos

This term we are trialling again supervised eating, either in the classrooms or outdoor spaces with their teachers for the first 10 minutes of both Lunch at Recess breaks.  We are again encouraging students to take their rubbish home and ensure we continue to keep our playground areas clean and our bins contained with a reduction of waste.  This is certainly a goal of our sustainability group and we encourage families to include  in lunch boxes recyclable packaging and less disposable waste. 

It is with excitement that I have recently been informed that our Building Grant Application has been approved for 2021 to refurbish the Annex Building (currently Year 1 classrooms).  This Australian Government Capital Grant will assist us with the refurbishment of the three upper classrooms and also one ground floor classroom (where the clothing pool is currently housed).  I am meeting with the building staff at Catholic Education next week to develop a timeline for this and to arrange portable classrooms to house the classes affected until the building is completed.

Thank you to those parent who have volunteered for our working bee, scheduled for tomorrow afternoon.  As the forecast for tomorrow is scheduling afternoon rain, we will now postpone the Working Bee until Friday of next week, 23rd of October.  

With every best wish for a holy and peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families,

Philippa

Sacrament of First Eucharist

Please find below information regarding first Eucharist from Fr John and the Parish Office.

Global Sschool Partners - Evaland Hekima 

Congratulations to our community on a succesful fundraser for our partner school Evaland Hekima. Overall, we raise $4000! Thank you so much, I know that this money will be much appreciated!

Children’s Liturgy timetable for the Term

Children’s Liturgy runs on the 2^nd and 4^th Sunday of each month during term time. Below is a timetable with the dates for Term 4. Children’s liturgy occurs during the 9:30am Sunday Mass at Holy Trinity, Curtin.

Emily Capper

Religious Education Coordinator

Exceeding Rating for Holy Trinity ELC

Last term the ELC undertook an Assessment and Rating visit from the Children's Education and Care Assurance (CECA) authorised officer, over three days. The visit collects evidence through interviews and observations of the seven National Quality Standards.  The ELC was rated as 'exceeding' in five of the seven National Quality Standards, meeting in two areas and overall achieved an exceeding rating.

We are very proud of the rating and will continue to work with our children, families and community to maintain and continue in our quality improvement.

Preschool  pick-up

A reminder to our ELC families and carers to not remain in the playground area after 3pm pickup.  Our Covid safety plan requires parents to move from the playground promptly to ensure physical distancing measures are maintained. It is a busy period in the ELC with the transition of the preschoolers and primary aged children into the After School Care program. We thank you for your support and cooperation in this and look forward to the time when we can return to enjoying the community vibe in the preschool again.

School Fete (ELC)

Children in the Ground Parrot and Rock Wallaby classes will participate in the Holy Trinity fete on Friday 11 December. (details in Szapp and newsletter) If children from the Black Cockatoo class would like to attend the fete, they are able to be dropped at the ELC between 10am-2pm on fete day, but RSVP is essential by 23 October.

We are seeking three parent volunteers for each class to be an extra pair of hands for the teachers on fete day. If you are able to help with this please sign-up using the following link.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D48A9A82DABFCC61-fete  

Stay and Play

Stay and Play is unfortunately postponed until further notice due to difficulty managing visitor numbers implementing our Covid-19 safety plan.

Dear Parents and Carers

Over the past few months, Catholic school communities have worked hard to ensure that all candidates in the 2020 ACT Election understand our policy priorities. Thank you for supporting this effort, and thank you to all candidates who were willing to engage with us.

You will be aware that our priorities for the next ACT Government are:  

1. Equitable School Funding
   • Fund Catholic schools at 25% of the per-student cost of education in an ACT Government school.
2. Land Release and Planning
   • Make land available for new Catholic schools.
   • Improve planning policies to include new Catholic schools.
3. Support for Catholic Early Learning Centres
   • Provide financial support to Catholic Education Early Learning Centres to support equitable access and construction of new centres.

The Canberra Liberals remain committed to supporting our funding and land release policy priorities. The Liberals plan supports families, while also committing to a review of the curriculum in the ACT. You can find information regarding the Canberra Liberals education policy commitments here.

Despite understanding the cost of living pressures facing all ACT families, both ACT Labor and the Greens have remained committed to planned cuts to funding for ACT Catholic schools. This policy approach will inevitably put upward pressure on school fees.

ACT Labor has committed to continue capital improvement grants to non-government schools, equity grants to support disadvantaged families, and grants for non-government school parent associations. You can find information regarding ACT Labor’s education policy commitments here.

The Greens also support proposed land release for non-government schools. The Greens have stated their priorities as providing ‘nature-based’ play spaces for older schools, and infrastructure available to all schools. You can find information regarding the ACT Greens education policy commitments here.

I am aware that there are candidates from all parties that support Catholic education and who actively advocate within their party for our needs. I encourage you to consider the education policy positions of both individual candidates and parties before voting as this will directly impact the affordability of non-government school options in the ACT.  

Thank you again for your support of ACT Catholic schools. 

Good wishes


Ross Fox
DIRECTOR

Authorised by Ross Fox for Catholic Education Archdiocese Canberra & Goulburn

BYOD Program for 2021

Due to COVID-19 Restrictions, our 2021 3-6 BYOD Launch will not be hosted on school grounds. Therefore, I have provided all information I usually give out on the night including Acceptable Use Agreements, technical device requirements (minumum) and other information relating to our BYOD Program. If you have any further questions, please email me: rebecca.casey@cg.catholic.edu.au

Holy Trinity conducted a 1:1 iPad program in place in Years 5 and 6 from 2013 – 2015. We trialled a BYOD program in Years 3/4 in 2015 and after finding it worthwhile and effective, moved into BYOD from Years 3-6 in 2016 and 2017. This has successfully continued over the past few years.

At Holy Trinity, we believe it is important that our teaching and learning reflects the needs of students in today’s current climate. Within the classroom environment, a personal device also provides the children with multiple opportunities.

Why BYOD? Our BYOD Program provides:

• More choice for parents (not just iPads)
• Increased student engagement
• Greater access to research and information
• Unlimited ways to present ideas and apply critical thinking
• Central control for robotics
• No issues of work being deleted or tampered with by sharing a device
• A personal device can be tailored to individual needs
• Continued learning from school to home
• Exposure to different operating systems
• Security of personal log ins and passwords

Over the last three years, we have had extensive changes to our wireless network. This included detailed mapping of our wireless, upgrade of routers to handle heavy traffic and the ease of connecting a variety of devices. This created a safe, reliable wireless environment to support our BYOD model for Years 3 through to 6 continuing in 2021.

Therefore, in keeping with this plan, all students in Year 3 -6 will engage in this program by bringing a personal device to school in 2021. The specifics of the devices and the rights and responsibilities associated with the program are contained in: 

• Facts and FAQ's document.

• The School Wide Network Usage Agreement and the 1:1 Device Policies and Acceptable Use Agreements 

• Recommended Essential Apps

• Screentime- Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavioursrecommended by Australian Health Guidelines (2019)

At the start of the 2021 school year, all students in Years 3 - 6 will participate in cyber safety and digital citizenship boot camps. Depending on COVID-19 restrictions, Parent information sessions will be offered to provide parents with material regarding varying ICT topics. Once the students and parents have signed and returned the necessary acceptable use agreements, students will be permitted to bring their personal device to school.

* If this provides difficulty for any families please contact our principal, Philippa Brearley.

Regards,

Rebecca Casey

ICT Coordinator

rebecca.casey@cg.catholic.edu.au

Next week is Book Week at Holy Trinity. Please read below....

• On Wednesday, 21^st October students are invited to come to school in a costume /outfit that reflects a book character that they love or enjoy. We will have ELC – Year 2 parade and then a 3 – 6 parade. There will be prizes given across the grades for best dressed or original outfit. The theme for 2020 Book Week is ‘Curious Creatures, Wild Minds’. I find that Pinterest is a great resource to check out costume ideas.

• Unfortunately, at this stage, it will be students only. Check out the Book Week shortlist for 2020 - https://www.cbca.org.au/shortlist-2020

• We will also have local author Tania McCartney doing a presentation for K-2 and then 3-6 in the hall on Friday, 23^th Tania visited us six years ago and was amazing; she has since become rather famous as an author and illustrator – check out her blogspot http://taniamccartney.blogspot.com/

• Please click here for link to the order form for Tania’s books. Please have this back at school by tomorrow (Friday, 16^th October).

• Story Box Library https://storyboxlibrary.com.au/ is an online resource that Holy Trinity subscribes to. It is a wonderful resource that families can access at home. This year Story Box Library has put together a selection of books that are on the 2020 Book Week Shortlist. If you get a moment over the weekend please let your children watch a few of the shortlisted books. 

Password: HolyTrintyReaders

User ID: HTreads

Happy Days. 

Dear Holy Trinity,

Firstly, just a quick thank you to all of you who have supported the tuck shop this year by either buying food or volunteering or both. It’s really been appreciated.

 As we enter Term 4 there are a few things to update you on.

1. The Tuckshop will be closed in week one of Term 4. 
2. As of Term 4 we are excited to bring a couple of new items to the menu including toasted sandwiches on Thursdays. Qkr! will be updated with these items in the coming days.
3. Our volunteer roster is live again. It was great having so many people in the tuckshop last term. If you can spare some time, it would be really appreciated. Check out the available spots via this link https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040a45adac2ea3fe3-tuck.
4. Lastly - our take home dinners will begin again in week two. As with last term, the items will be available on QKR until they sell out. Keep an eye on the site over the next week.

Thanks again for everything and looking forward to seeing you/providing the kids with some great healthy home cooked food again this term.

Kind Regards,
Alicia La Brooy

The kids-only fete day is approaching and we are calling out for volunteers to help us make the day a wonderful experience for our children. The fete is operating on a shoe-string budget and we need people-power to run the kitchen, games and activities. PLEASE VOLUNTEER.

Please note, if you are not a registered volunteer you will not be able to casually visit the school on the fete-day because we have COVID requirements restricting total visitor numbers and requirements to collect contact information. 

The kids-only fete day is Friday 11th December (Week 9). We have three volunteer shifts;

Morning: 9:00am-1:00pm

Afternoon: 12:00noon - 4:00pm

All Day: 9:00am-4:00pm

Please use this link https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0D48A9A82DABFCC61-fete  

to sign up. Once you have signed up, the Fete Committee will be in touch to discuss what type of volunteer activity you would like to do - some examples include helping the ride supervisors, being a side-show alley game attendant, BBQ master, fairy floss maker, craft guru, haunted house character etc.....

OUTSOURCE your volunteering! 

If you have older children who would be interested/capable of volunteering for the day, we are very receptive to their participation. Maybe some of our Holy Trinity students have an older brother who would be pleased to dress-up as the monster in the Haunted House or an older sister who would be delighted to manage the dunking toilet to ensure teachers get as wet as possible! We will require you to sign a permission form for them to volunteer but we would love to see ex-students return for a day! Note, several of the independent and Catholic secondary schools will have already finished by the 11th December so older siblings might have some spare time on their hands! Please use the link above to register and then we can talk about your individual circumstances.

If you have any questions, please contact htpspf2021fete@gmail.com

Regards,
Jenny Van de Meeberg
Fete Co-ordinator

Unfortunately due to the predicted weather, we have had to postpone the Working Bee scheduled for this week. The new date is for Friday the 23rd October.

To rsvp, please click here. If you have already rsvp'd to the date on the 16th but can still make it on the 23rd, you do not need to rsvp again. However if you are unable to make it to the 23rd please send us an email to advise at office.holytrinity@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Many hands make light work.