Welcome to our third edition of SHINE.

Here at  Holy Trinity, we are committed to working together in partnership with parents, teachers, and community members, to create an educational experience that fosters, strengthens, and enhances a variety of learning experiences for your child. 

Throughout the years gone by we have held numerous Parent Information Sessions. These sessions have been designed to support the journey of parents/ carers as they negotiate the education of their child. As we continue to navigate this ‘new covid norm’ we are excited to launch a new initiative SHINE (sending home information and news about education).

This platform will give us a new and long-awaited opportunity to reconnect with our parent community by sharing strategies and suggestions for how parents/carers can further assist their child/ren at home. 

We hope you find lots of useful information, tips and practical strategies to support your child/ ren in this new platform.

This weekend our First Eucharist candidates will be presented to the Parish community at one of the Parish Masses. We ask God's blessing on each of them and their families as they prepare to receive the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time.

Lord Jesus, 

Bless the children preparing to make their First Eucharist. 

May this day be an initial step into a life-long love of the Eucharist. 

Give them a hunger for this sacred food so that they turn to you for comfort, guidance and wisdom. 

Thank you for their innocence and goodness. 

Amen

AGENCY 

Teaching and Learning at Holy Trinity

Teaching Conceptually

As you are well aware Holy Trinity is an International Baccalaureate school, where we teach the Primary Years Programme (PYP). Using the framework and philosophy of the PYP we are able to better prepare your children for a future of possibility. As we don’t know what shape their future careers may take, we make a dedicated effort to prepare our students with the necessary skills and knowledge to face any challenges head on. 

One of the ways we do this is by framing all teaching and learning with a focus on conceptual understanding.  So what is a concept? Good question! When we refer to a concept, we are describing a way of guiding our students in their learning without limiting it. The most common misunderstanding is that concepts and topics are the same thing. Let me explain.. 

If we set a unit of work around a topic all teaching and learning will be focused and inherently limited. This inadvertently limits our children. If, however, we teach using a conceptual lens, there is no limit to where our students can take it. 

A standard mainstream school in Australia will most likely be following a flat 2D learning framework. This framework is successful in delivering content and building required skills, but does not promote higher order thinking, or cultivate agency (Fig 1). As a PYP school, we approach our teaching and learning using a 3D framework that prioritises conceptual understanding as well as teaching content and building skill (Fig 2).   

Fig 1                                                                      Fig 2

At Holy Trinity, we aim to prepare our students for any challenges they may face in their higher education and future careers. Through teaching conceptually we are building the capacity of our children to be adaptable and dynamic learners. Yes, they will learn all the same content and skills as any other school, but our students will also graduate with the following attributes:

• innovative thinkers,
• effective researchers,
• concise communicators,
• and most importantly, independent and self aware. 

Hopefully this has given you a bit of insight into why we teach the way we do. Stay tuned to future additions of SHINE as we continue to share about teaching and learning in a PYP school. 

PYP IN ACTION