Reading from St Paul to the Colossians (Col 3:12-15)

As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Dear Friends,

The photos above are of some of our Students from Year 3 who have celebrated the Sacrament of First Eucharist in the January break.  At the end of this month, the rest of our Eucharist candidates will celebrate together at a special Mass in the Parish.  Week 2 began with the Reconciliation Parent Information night and the Gospel above, was the prayer presented to open the meeting.  Tracey will refer more about this in the RE News below. We continue to keep all our students  and families celebrating Sacraments this Term in our prayers.

First Eucharist

Congratulations to Ava, Tiana, Maggie and Maddie who celebrated their First Eucharist during the school holidays!

Today we celebrated our Opening School Mass and Leadership Badge Ceremony for 2022. A huge congratulations to our Year 6 students who received their leadership badges. The Holy Trinity School community wishes you all the best in your last year of primary school and we look forward to watching you grow and flourish as the new leaders of our school.

Reconciliation

Thank you to all the families who were able to attend our Reconciliation Parent Information night via Mircosoft Teams on Monday evening. It was so lovely to be able to meet virtually and begin the preparation of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Some important reminders for parents and carers of children making the Sacrament:

• Enrolments have now closed. If you missed the cut off date, please contact Catherine at the Parish Office.
• Click here to select a Reconciliation Homegroup and to nominate being a Homegroup leader. Please add your name, your child's name and email address to your chosen group. Remember our homegroups cannot run without a leader!
• Click here for the Sacrament of Reconciliation sign-up sheet.
• If you were unable to attend the Parent Information Night, please send me an email so that I can forward you the Microsoft Teams recording of the session.
• Reconcilation candidates will receive their Becoming Catholic Reconciliation  work books on Friday.

Youth Ministry

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to Grace Lustri for all the work and connections she made with staff, students and our parish community over the past two years. We congratuate Grace on her new position at ACU with thier Mission Ministry. We are currently awaiting an announcement about our new Youth Minister for 2022.

Important Dates:

Sunday, 20th February: Staff Commissioning Mass at Holy Trinity Church at 9.30 am. The Holy Trinity Staff will be presented to the parish community and receive a blessing. All welcome to join us for this special parish mass.

Sunday, 27th February: Sacrament of First Eucharist Mass. Due to Covid restrictions, this mass will be for candidates and their families.

Wednesday, 2nd March: Ash Wednesday

Saturday, 19th March & Sunday 20th March: Reconciliation Presentation Masses

Healthy Lunchbox Week

6-12 February is Healthy Lunchbox Week. It is timed perfectly for many families as they embark on school lunchboxes for the first time. Lunch time is a lovely time for preschoolers to enjoy food and build social connections, but it also allows our teachers to discuss 'eat more' or 'eat less' foods and focus on nutrition.

Holy Trinity has a whole school focus on reducing waste in lunch boxes. Packaging of food usually means it has been processed and lacks the nutritional benefits of fresh food and creates packaging waste. The team at the ELC are happy to reheat food if required to support your child's needs.

Nutrition Australia has produced a great Healthy Lunchbox guide which can be viewed by clicking here.

Updated Immunisation Records

If your child has had their 4 year old immunisations since enrolment period last year, can you please email the ELC the updated Medicare Immunisation History Statement. We are required to maintain up to date records of student immunisation data. 

Covid Procedures Early Learning Centres (ELC)

Procedures for addressing a positive case of Covid-19 in the ELC differs from the Primary School. If a child attends the ELC while infectious, a Covid-19 Exposure Risk Assessment is conducted. Families will be advised of a positive case being present at the ELC and if their child is considered low, moderate or high risk of exposure. 

Only children and staff considered high risk are required to quarantine for 7 days.

Depending on Rapid Antigen Test supplies, the ELC will continue to send home two tests a week for all children and staff. We ask families to test prior attending the ELC and again mid-week or if your child displays symptoms. If your child receives a positive test, register your positive RAT using the ACT Health online form covid19.act.gov.au/RAT-positive and advise your ELC Director. All communication is confidential and privacy maintained.

We ask families to support our Covid risk minimisation measures by:

• keeping sick children home.
• one parent/carer only to enter the ELC gate.
• primary aged siblings are not to enter the ELC but wait at the seated area in front of the ELC gate.
• Parents/carers to wear a mask and use the Check In CBR. Please leave the ELC promptly once your child is signed in/out.

The ELC staff are continuing to minimise risks by:

• requiring staff  and essential visitors to wear masks inside and outside
• maximising outside learning opportunities
• regular cleaning of high touch points, toys and equipment.

Swimming Carnival News

This Year's Holy Trinity Swimming Carnival had had to be cancelled due to the ongoing nature on Covid regulations. The carnival was due to be run on the 18^th of March. The Regional Carnival that was also due to be run in Week 8 of this term has also been cancelled by School Sports ACT.  

With no School Carnivals nor Regional Swimming Carnivals as qualifying events, SSACT and Swimming ACT will implement a process to accept entries from schools across all events conducted within the ACT Champs Program. With qualifying times already established, they will calculate and confirm numbers of entries per event. 

Entry times provided will have to be verifiable by Swimming ACT – they have a full data base of all ACT swim club meets, this unfortunately means that entered students will need to be part of a club or established swim squad. 

SSACT will circulate details by Week 3 for competitive (club) swimmers to submit verified times (they will email me for times) for entry to ACT Swimming Championships scheduled for Term 2, Week 2.

Could anyone wishing to submit a time please contact Ben Davis via Ben.Davis@cg.catholic.edu.au. 

Qualifying Time Opportunities (verifiable times)

Students who are new to the sport of Swimming, or who have not been able to obtain a verifiable time in the most recent Swim Season, can obtain a verifiable time through the following mechanisms;

• Tuggeranong Vikings Swim Club are kindly offering a School Clinic for stroke development and an invitation for students to attend their Club Night on afternoon/evening of Sunday 27 February at Lakeside Leisure Centre, to obtain a verifiable time. Times TBC, please contact Adele Gow adelegow@hotmail.com.au (TVSC Committee Member) for more information.
• Swimming ACT is offering an invitation for students to attend a time trial from 2pm Sunday 13 March at the AIS. Entry request would need to be supported by a statement of capability from their swim coach or swim instructor giving an approximate time for each event. Students wishing to take up this opportunity must contact Lorraine Wuth school.liaison@swimmingact.com.au prior to the 4 March deadline. There will be limited spaces available and not guaranteed.
• Contact an ACT Swim Club and request to join one of their Club Night’s or other especially arranged opportunity to obtain a verifiable time from a Club Official in their specific event(s).

 All parents and friends of students at Holy Trinity are welcome to join the school P&F. We strongly encourage you to come along, meet some new people, and share your views on school activities and fundraising events. The P&F meets for one hour, twice a term on Wednesday evening of Week 4 and Week 8. There is an elected committee but all are welcome to participate as general members.

At the moment we are holding our meetings virtually however we hope to resume face-to-face meetings later in the year. If you would like to attend our next meeting on Wednesday 23rd February at 6:00pm, which also happens to be the P&F AGM, please send an email to htpspfpresident@gmail.com and you will be sent the Zoom link.

There are a number of official roles that are vacant for 2022, including President of the P&F. We would love to see some new candidates consider stepping up into these positions - no experience is necessary and there is a great team of experienced parents who will be there to support you. If you would like to know more about the roles available or to chat about the skills/expertise you think you could share with the P&F, please reach out to Jenny at htpspfpresident@gmail.com

It has been a tricky couple of years with limited opportunities to gather in person but being part of the Holy Trinity P&F will give you an opportunity to feel like part of a broader community and meet a terrific group of parents from a range of year groups.

If you are undecided if the P&F is for you, may I encourage you to come along to the first meeting of the year and give it a try - no long term commitment is necessary!

This first P&F meeting of the year will be next Wednesday 23rd February at 6:00pm, which also happens to be the P&F AGM. If you would like to attend, please send an email to htpspfpresident@gmail.com and you will be sent the Zoom link.

 There are a number of official roles that are vacant for 2022, including President of the P&F. We would love to see some new candidates consider stepping up into these positions - no experience is necessary and there is a great team of experienced parents who will be there to support you. If you would like to know more about the roles available or to chat about the skills/expertise you think you could share with the P&F, please reach out to Jenny at htpspfpresident@gmail.com

I hope to see some new faces next time we meet,

Jenny Van de Meeberg

P&F President

As we start the new year, we are again calling for Class Coordinators.

If you haven’t done the role before it is a great way to be involved in the school and your child’s class. You will be a point of contact for families and provide them with regular updates and reminders, many of which we’ll provide to you.

There is also the hope that you arrange birthday and end of end of year gifts for teachers as well as class or year catch ups. There are other coordinators to help you, as well as a coordinator of coordinators.

If you are interested please email Kim on kimmiebowie@gmail.com

It is time to submit your contact information for the 2022 School Directory.

Holy Trinity P&F manages the online School Directory through the app "Directory Spot".

For those new to our community, the School Directory contains class lists and family contact information that can be used for organising playdates, birthday parties, sport, or social activities for the children of our community. Only parents/guardians from Holy Trinity are given log-in access to view the School Directory information - it is not in the public domain.

No details in this directory are to be used for any unsolicited purposes and unauthorised use, including for commercial purposes, is strictly prohibited and will result in user access being revoked.

As with every year it is up to each individual family if they chose to be in the directory. If you would like your family's details to be included in this year's School Directory please complete the form by clicking here.

Please note that if you do not supply your details before Friday 18th Feb, your details will not be included in this year's School Directory.

Regards,
Jenny Van De Meeberg
School Directory Coordinator

Holy Trinity is very excited to again be working with the Merchant's Feast in our school tuckshop.

'The tuckshop will operate every Wed, Thurs and Fri between 9.00-11.15am. Whilst The Merchant's Feast will prepare the food offsite, we still need volunteers to heat some of the food and organise delivery to classrooms. There will be an experienced volunteer on each shift, but we still need two extra volunteers each Fri. If you are able to assist or have afamily member who would like to help out, please sign-up at https://signup.com/go/iUPsezE

If you have any questions, please contact the Tuckshop coordinators, Cath and Kirsty, on holytrinitytuckshop@gmail.com

We look forward to serving The Merchant's Feast's delicious menu to the children and we appreciate your ongoing support to ensure this service is viable at our school.