National Sorry Day - 26 May 2022

On Tuesday 24th May, the Church celebrated the Feast Day of Our Lady Help Of Christians. Under this title, Mary is the spiritual patron of Australia. So it was a good day for us to present our country to Mary for her prayers, particularly as we move into a new time under a new government.

Our mothers helped create us by imparting important building blocks of who we are to us. By both nature and nurture, our mothers helped us to grow, learn and make decisions about how and whom we wanted to become.

Today Mary does the same. She offers us her example to follow.

She invites us to allow our “hidden self to grow strong”, just as she did. 

Loving God, you place deep in our hearts the love of Mary, Help of Christians.
Through her prayers grant wisdom to our leaders and integrity to our citizens.
Under her protection may Australia be granted harmony, justice and peace.
We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

2022 ATHLETICS CARNIVAL

It was so wonderful to be able to be together as a community yesterday for our annual Athletics Carnival. The weather was kind to us, and Woden Park was filled with the laughter, participation, cheering and spirited competition of our youngest students through to our eldest. It was so heart-warming and energising to have some many members of our community together after so long apart. We are hopeful that is just the beginning of the return to community events for our school. Thank you to everyone involved in making this event such a success. Mr Davis will share more about the day including House and Spirit Cup Winners in next week's newsletter. 

2022 ANNUAL IMPROVEMENT PLAN 

Goal 2 - Empower Students to be actively engaged in learning 

One of our major initatives to support Goal 2 has been the implementation of Word Inquiry here at Holy Trinity.

WHAT IS IT?
Word Inquiry (WI) is the term we use here at Holy Trinity to describe the instructional approach for teaching word level literacy. WI uses inquiry principles to target the features and conventions that govern word structure and employs a structured or scientific inquiry approach to assist student’s understanding of the interconnections between phonology (phonemes); morphology (bases and affixes) and etymology (the history of and interconnections between words).

Although there will be set times in the week that are dedicated to the discipline of Word Inquiry, it is, by nature, transdisciplinary and once core concepts are established and tools grasped, we have found our learners exploring the meaning and structure of words in Mathematics, Science and Religion. In fact, often we can barely utter a word without beginning to analyse it! Such analysis leads to deeper comprehension, stronger spelling skills and enriched vocabulary.

KEY LANGUAGE AND SKILLS STUDENTS USE: 
Phoneme fingers enable students to use their fingers on their cheek to feel for the phonemes (sounds) when a word is said out loud. This multisensory approach reinforces the importance of listening for the phonemes and linking their phoneme knowledge to grapheme correspondence when writing or tap spelling a word.

Tap out spelling enables students to use their body to spell a word out loud. Prefixes are tapped as a morphological unit on the head, the base is tapped on the arm, with digraphs and trigraphs tapped as one unit and prefixes are tapped on the lap before swiping the arm and saying the word. Tap out spelling reinforces word structure.

Word sums enable students to make strong visual connections with the morphemic structure of the word, learning to add affixes to base words to build word complexity and contribute to vocabulary growth.

Word Webs are used to find words that relate to a specific base with a shared core meaning as well as having the same spelling structure. For example:

Word matrices are effective in demonstrating a group of words around one base element to create a word family. Students need to investigate all possible prefixes and suffixes and make decisions as to whether a synthesised word makes sense by asking, “Could ______ be a word?” “ What would it mean?” and “How can I use it in a sentence?”

Word sorts enable students to test their hypotheses by sorting words and noticing patterns and categories. In our classes we frequently use the ‘what’s in/what’s out’ word sort to establish morphologically similar word families.

Flowcharts provide a visual representation to help students organise their thinking around suffixing decisions and develop automaticity in suffixing with the goal of independent use to assist writing.

Reference materials, such as dictionaries and etymonline to check word meanings, origins and histories.

STUDENT VOICE 

Raff - "I love discoverying which word belongs in a word family. The researching part is lots of fun". 

Enzo - " I enjoy word inquiry particurlay discovering which part of the word is the base".

Nehe - "I'm enjoying discovering bound bases in class. Our word of the week is excursion. I predict then investigate. It really stretches my thinking". 

Allegra - "I can box the base".

Alex - "I love using my phoneme fingers".

Seren - "Word Inquiry is fun because I learn how to spell words. I use strategies like phoneme fingers when I am writing".

Jimmy - "Word Inquiry helps me to learn how to spell new and interesting words. It's the biggest help ever."

George - "I like that I have learned about suffixes and prefixes. This helps me when I am spelling new words".

Justine - "I love learning about different words and breaking them down."

Gabby - "I love learning about new words". 

Alexix - "It helps me understand the words and what they mean". 

TEACHER VOICE 

Mrs BW - "The exploration of French and Greek word origins is an engaging and interesting component of word inquiry". 

Mrs Lee - "Word Inquiry is great for helping students understand and remember terminology across disciplines. My class all remember perimetre (peri = ground, metre = measure)."

Mrs Twyford - I love word inquiry because students now have strategies that allow them to write with greater independence, no longer do they wait for someone to spell a word for them. It has also made conferencing a more enjoyable experience. Feedback on spelling is appreciated because students understand that letters can make more than one sound." 

The following images show the processes we use to analyse words. Maybe you would like to have a go at this at home next time you are discussing a word. 

LOWER PRIMRAY	UPPER PRIMARY

Let Your Light Shine

Our theme for 2022 is “Let your Light Shine” from Matthew’s Gospel. Throughout the year, staff and students will be looking at the ways we can let our light shine and share our gifts with those around us. 

This week Year 2 share thier visual own representation of this years theme.

Global School Partners

Thank you to all who contributed to our Crazy Hair Day last week. We raised 
$449.90 for Evaland Hekima. What an AMAZING effort!!

Sacrament of Confirmation

Please ensure that your child is signed up for a Mass Click here for the link.

Covid-19

Thank you to those families affected by Covid-19 for your communication with us. We hope to help support your child, your family and our school community in staying safe. Please note the following:

- Please advise the ELC staff if your child is a close household contact. Your child is welcome to continue to attend school if they have tested negative on a RAT or PCR within 48 hours. We will monitor for symptoms while your child is at the ELC.

- Please advise the ELC Director if your child has tested positive to Covid-19 and has attended the ELC within 48 hours of testing positive. The ELC is mandated to advise families of possible exposures. Your and your child's privacy is fully respected in this process.

School Holiday Program

The ELC is now taking bookings for the July School Holidays. Information and bookings can be made here.

Casual Preschool Plus, Before and After School Care Bookings

The ELC welcomes casual bookings for Preschoolers, Kindergarten and Year One children currently enrolled in the ELC. Bookings can be made by calling or emailing the ELC office. elc.holytrinity@cg.catholic.edu.au

Enrolment Period - ELC & Kindergarten

Catholic Schools enrolment period for 2023 runs throughout the month of May. The ELC and Primary School are enrolling now. Please note that ALL Preschool families need to enrol their preschooler into their priority enrolment area school. Enrolment in the ELC does not automatically continue into Primary School. Please refer to the Holy Trinity Primary School website for enrolment information and the enrolment link.

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS WILL BE TAKEN ON:

THURSDAY 9th JUNE and TUESDAY 14th JUNE 2022 

OUR SCHOOL CODE L4D Q9E QR5

School photographs are scheduled to be taken by advancedlife. As a school all ordering will need to be completed online to reduce administration and potential security issues related to the return of cash and envelopes on photo day.

Orders for packages and sibling photographs can be placed securely online at www.advancedlife.com.au using our school’s unique 9 digit advancedorder code. Portrait and group package orders are due by photography day.

Should you wish to purchase a sibling photograph online, the order must be placed no later than the day before photography day. Sibling photographs will only be taken if an order has been placed.

Should you have any queries concerning school photographs or online ordering, please contact us at www.advancedlife.com.au/contact

GIRLS WINTER UNIFORM 

Winter Winter check tunic or navy blue slacks (detachable skirt – Year 6 only)
Sky blue long sleeve blouse with Peter Pan collar or long sleeve polo shirt with school crest
Maroon fleece jumper with school crest
Black shoes with navy blue socks or navy blue tights
Navy long line jacket
Navy blue school hat

BOYS WINTER UNIFORM 

Navy blue long trousers (or navy shorts weather permitting)
Sky blue shirt with Holy Trinity Tie or long sleeve polo shirt with crest
Maroon fleece jumper with school crest
Black shoes with navy blue socks
Navy long line jacket
Navy blue school hat

Please refer to our full Uniform Policy that is located on our website.