Dear Lord,

May we stand in solidarity today with all my brothers and sisters around Australia and the world who are suffering. May we be united in your love, and may we work to build your kingdom here on earth.

Holy Trinity, Hear our Prayer. 

Dear Friends,

Welcome to Week 9 and the last edition of our newsletter for the term.  Next Thursday we will be sharing our termly Inspiring Connections edition, focusing on our SEL program from ELC through to Year 6.  Any other messages will go through Compass, with our Daily COVID reporting. 

Enrolments for 2023

We are creeping to that time of the year, when parents are looking at differing schooling choices for their children, with enrolment time approaching. As a Principal in a Catholic Primary School, I am aware that there are information sessions and Open Days coming up for Canberra schools,  including the all-boys’ Catholic schools in Canberra, which take enrolments from Year 4.  Here at Holy Trinity our school offers, for boys and girls across our primary school an education that is personalised, comprehensive, student centred, has a high academic focus with the added benefits of a co-educational setting, in an International Baccalaureate school, offering the Primary Years Program.

Learning together in a co-ed classroom has many benefits for both genders. In co-educational primary schools, girls and boys engage collaboratively, exchange ideas and debate issues. Importantly, the presence of both genders adds to the richness and diversity of thinking and learning that fills all classrooms in our school. Respectful relationships amongst boys and girls is of high importance and nurtured from the ELC right through until Year 6. Co-educational settings also promote inclusivity and are essentially a more natural reflection of our society. Here at Holy Trinity our students are curious, collaborative and connected. Skills such as self-management, social, research, thinking and communication, as well as the IB Learner profile attributes and other affective skills, will ensure they enter high school well prepared for the challenges they will encounter.

The benefits of keeping your child in primary education here at Holy Trinity include an excellent academic education in a Catholic Primary school with a low-cost fee structure. Leadership opportunities is another consideration: it is here that girls and boys together  learn to be leaders, with the opportunity to contribute significantly to four  leadership groups throughout the year,  including Christian Outreach,  Sustainability, Sports and Well- being.  We also have multiple lunch time clubs and extra curricula activities such as choir, book club, Minecraft, coding, gardening, Tournament of Minds, Maths Olympiad, Youth Ministry, Lego and sports opportunities.   Given our size, all students have the opportunity to experience leadership roles. Here at Holy Trinity our Year 6’s lead assemblies, liturgies, fundraising for differing communities in need and prayer/announcements. They also have the opportunity to lead in events such as Open Days, Year 6 Exhibition, Book Week, Sport Days and other special events e.g. Grandparents Days.  All of these experiences build confidence, friendships and skills, which prepare them well for entering high school in Year 7.

Well-being continues to be a major focus at Holy Trinity and is central to everything we do at our school.  We are fortunate to have trained leaders across our staff in Seasons for Growth and Cool Kids programs, which are normally offered in community settings.  Our relationships across the school are strong, and our students are nurtured.  We have whole school support structures in place for students with differing needs and all are cared for,  listened to and valued.  We have also spent an extensive amount of time creating learning environments, both indoor and outdoor, that are flexible, refurbished and well resourced.

My experience is that all students graduating in Year 6 from Holy Trinity have had no difficulty in securing a place in the high school of their choice, whether that be Catholic, Government or Independent (both co-educational and single-sex schools).

I would like to reiterate that I will partner with you in whatever decision you make regarding your child’s education. I will support you in your choices and offer the best information I can, which is why I considered it appropriate for you to hear from me about the value of a co-educational environment within an IB setting for your children’s primary school years. If you wish to talk to me further about this, my door is always open.

Please note that any current families at ELC or school who have siblings to enrol for 2023, you do no to need to wait until the official enrolment period in May-  you can now go on to our website and enrol online. 

Building Projects at the School and ELC

These holidays our Annex building project will begin a demolition phase in readiness for our new classroom coming across the top of stage 1. Students will still be able to access the oval and basket ball courts, however some of the hard top and ramp will be partitioned.  We are also beyond excited to advise of some significant works in the ELC also commencing in the school holidays.

Our school community would like to acknowledge and thank a Holy Trinity parent, Catherine Everett for her genius landscape design work and vision for this space which aligns so perfectly with the ELC philosophy on the value of inspiring and engaging learning environments as the 'third educator'. Catherine arrived at Holy Trinity from the US with an impressive resume in landscaping design. She (and her children) have spent countless hours researching Canberra's play spaces, Australian flora, as well as familiarising herself to building standards, the who's who of construction, building and playground equipment. 

Sadly for us, the project begins as the Everett family leave their Canberra posting and return home to the US. Catherine will not see her work in a completed state. 

Catherine, thank you, you have left your indelible mark on our school. 

It is lovely to finish this article today with some very happy news- congratulations to Campbell and Charlotte Sloane on the birth of Maggie Anne Sloane earlier this week! Congratulations also to the Weatherall family (Cai Rock Wallabies) on the birth of baby Zac! 

Have a wonderful weekend and a peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families.  Please do not hesitate to reach out for anything at all and continue to stay safe. 

Reconciliation Retreat Day

Last Friday our Reconciliation candidates and all of Year 3 participated in a Reconciliation Retreat Day. It was a fabulous day and the students were able to make many connections about the significance of seeking forgiveness from God and those that they have hurt or done wrong by. A huge thank you to all the people who have helped to prepare our candidates, in particular our homegroup leaders, families and year 3/4 teachers Rose, Caitlin, Ben, Michael and Lyn.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

The Sacrament of Reconcilation commenced last weekend and will continue over the coming weeks. Congratulations to all our candidates: Sophie C, Phoebe C, Peyton S, Neve I-G, Henry B, Violet B, Hugo M, Martin B, Carlo V, William N, Emily G, Joseph J, Josh H, Rocco M, Madeleine B, Romeo C, Tiana M, Ella N, Sophie B, Julian B, Harry V, Laura G, Ilaria E, Aurelia M, Alexis H, Daniel T, Evie S, Noah P, Juliette F, Audrey D and Bettina G. 

May we continue to keep our Reconciliation candidates in our prayers during this special time in their spiritual journey.

Easter Raffle

Tickets for our annual Easter Raffle are now on sale. Thank you to all the students and families who have been supporting this fundraiser. Also, a huge thank you to all the Year 3/4 students who have kindly donated our prizes. All donations need to be placed in the class donation baskets by tomorrow, Friday, 1st April.

Uniform Free Day

To conclude our Term 1 fundraising for Project Compassion, all students are invited to wear free uniform on the last day of term, Friday 8th April in exchange for a gold coin donation.

Holy Week Prayer Celebrations

Due to current Covid restrictions, we will be live streaming all Holy Week Prayer Celebrations to each of the classes and the parents of the presenting class. Microsoft Teams links for these prayer celebrations will be emailed out to the families of the presenting class. Please make sure that your microphone is on mute for the entire prayer celebration.

ANZAC Day

Our military families and students will lead the school in our ANZAC Day Service on Friday, 29th April at 10.30 am. Any Australian Services personel who would like to take part in the service, can you please contact me by sending an email to tracey.hanlon@cg.catholic.edu.au

Term 2 Fundraising for Global School Partners

Next term our Christian Outreach leaders will be fundraising for Eveland Hekima who is our GSP School. Every two weeks there will be a different fundraiser led by each year group. To participate, all you need to do is donate a GOLD COIN for each event. Please refer to our fundraising schedule for the dates of these events:

Covid Update

Please note that it is a requirement in early childhood settings for;

 - parents/carers to wear a mask when entering the ELC (including the playground)

 - older siblings to remain outside the ELC gate at all times

 - parents/carers to check-in with the Checkin CBR app

 - observe physical distancing and leave the ELC promptly after drop off/pick up.

Staggered drop-off/pick-ups are still encouraged for children in the Preschool program. Preschoolers can be dropped from 8.50-9am and picked up from 2.50-3pm. Children in the preschool program must be picked up by 3.00pm to avoid cross over with children attending the ASC program.

If your preschooler is not picked up promptly at 3pm they will be added to the Preschool Plus roll as we are required to maintain accurate records of attendance times in the event of a Covid-19 exposure in the ELC.

A reminder for families that if you have a COVID-19 case in your family, to please notify me via email  - cushla.sheehan@cg.catholic.edu.au

ELC children are unvaccinated, and we have vulnerable people in our community. Thank you for your support in minimising risk and keeping our children and families safe.

School Holiday Program

Preschool finishes on Friday 8 April 2022 and will resume on WEDNESDAY 27 APRIL (due to ANZAC Day Public Holiday 25 April, Staff Professional Learning day Tuesday 26 April) but the ELC will remain open for the School Holiday Program on 11-26 April.

The aim is to provide a relaxed atmosphere where the children will be able to play, participate in a variety of fun activities and interact with their peers in a safe and supportive environment. The holiday program will operate from the ELC but also make use of our local environment too.

Bookings must be made before the ELC office by Wednesday 6 April. Cost is $110 per day. Children will need to bring morning tea, lunch, hat and water. The ELC will provide afternoon tea. The ELC opens 8am-5.45pm in school holidays.

Spaces are limited and priority is given to current ELC families, please book early to avoid missing out.

If you would like to book your Preschooler, Kinder or Year One child please click here.

The Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge (CMRC) is about to start at Holy Trinity for 2022 and we are very proud to have 440 children from the ELC to Year 6 registered for the challenge.

Holy Trinity have been involved in the CMRC for a number of years now. It is a really popular reading challenge and as a school we usually win some great prizes.

Each child is ‘challenged’ to read 30 age-appropriate books over a 15-week time frame. (The challenge does go for longer, but I try to wrap it up at the start of Term 3). We will officially start the challenge Week 10 of this term (next week) and run it until after the July holidays.

There will be a display in the hallway near Kinder that keeps track of which child finishes the 30 books and how many books they read over the challenge.

There is also a raffle that runs throughout the challenge. As children finish a CMRC sheet, they return it to the library, get it signed off and then get a raffle ticket. At the conclusion of the challenge prizes are given to each grade level from Scholastic Book Club funds.

At the end of the challenge, I take four great readers to the awards ceremony, morning tea and a shop at Paperchain. Big fun!

A CMRC form will be sent home to each child on tomorrow (Friday) afternoon. Please keep it safe. The links below are for the two CMRC challenge sheets – one is just for 30 books to be read of your choice; the other sheet is a challenge to read 30 books with a twist.

K x

2020_CMRC_Individual_P_6_Student_Reading_Record.pdf

2020_CMRC_Individual_P_6_Student_Reading_something_different_Reading_Record.pdf

School Fees
Term 1 school fees were due to be paid by Friday 11th March unless your family is paying your fees via an ongoing payment plan eg. fortnightly, weekly or monthly payments.

Please note that the Term 1 Water Safety fees were processed after the original statements were sent out ($38.00 per child). 

Year 6 families were charged last week for the Leadership shirts that each family ordered for your child at a cost of $40.00 per shirt ordered.

Medical Appointments - Compass
If your child has a medical appointment or will be arriving at school late for any other reason, please do not process an absentee note through Compass as this causes the system to mark your child as late for the whole day, even if you amend the times. For instances such as mentioned above, simply email the classroom teacher to advise them that your child will be late and then the Front Office staff will sign in your child upon their arrival.

Parents at this point in time are still not allowed in school buildings.

Exclusion Periods
If your child has been sick with either vomiting or diarrhoea, please remember that they should not return to school until it has been over 24 hours since they have last been ill.

Early Collection of Students
If you need to collect your child early from the school, please ensure that you email the classroom teacher to advise them that they are leaving early and what time your child needs to be sent to the front office.

Currently we have up to 10 students leaving early and teachers not being notified which means that our front office staff are having to run around the school collecting students which then leaves the front office unattended. If front office staff are unable to leave, our only alternative is to call for children to come to the front office over our PA system-  this becomes a constant interruption to all classes during the  last session every afternoon.

Therefore, unless you have arranged with the classroom teacher or contacted the front office prior to 2.30pm, last minute changes of pick up arrangements can no longer be guaranteed or only facilitated. You may need to wait to the end of the school day (3.10pm) to collect your child. 

Please note that continuous early pick ups and/or late arrivals, also impact your child's learning and they miss out on important information that is given out at the beginning or end of the day. Your child missing 10 minutes of school a day, equates to almost one hour of school per week that they are missing out on.

Masks
As per the ACT Health guidelines, all adults, regardless of vaccination status, must wear a mask when entering school buildings. Please note that this includes when you open the door to talk to staff. 

Cold and Flu Symptoms
Please do not send children to school who are displaying any cold and flu symptoms. This includes children who have returned a negative RAT test, children must be kept home until all cold and flu symptoms desist. This is as per ACT Health guidelines that anyone displaying cold and flu symptoms have been asked to stay at home.

Many children are being sent to the front office by their classroom teacher as early as 9.15am to be sent home, as they should not have been sent to school as they are sick.

Please remember that members of our community are immuno compromised and it is everyone is responsible for ensuring their safety.