"I am the living bread that came down from heaven.  whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh." (John 6: 51). 

Dear friends,

This weekend's Gospel (partly quoted above), is very pertinent to our community as we begin our Parish Sacramental preparation for First Eucharist.  Thank you to all parents and staff who were able to attend the First Eucharist Information night at the Parish centre last evening. Let us pray for our First Eucharist candidates and their families as they begin this special sacramental journey together with our community.

Thank you also to members of our P and F, particularly Rob Shiner, who organised a fundraiser for our school on Sunday at Bunnings Gungahlin.  Thank you also to families who came out there to help support this. I am continually reminded of how blessed I am to be a part of such a giving and committed community at Holy Trinity.

This week it was with great pleasure that we had a visit from a Registration panel comprising of representatives from both  Catholic Education  and the Education Directorate. The panel is currently finalising our report, which I will share the major components of  with you once we receive this.  The panel however did express how much they enjoyed and learnt from visiting our school. Major affirmations included the following:

• The Catholic identity and culture is extremely evident at Holy Trinity School- it is seen, acted upon and lived
• There is a positive, inclusive culture amongst all the community, with a staff that has a high morale and a commitment to their vocation
• As a learning community that has committed to the IB PYP Program, we are risk takers, innovators and educators striving for academic excellence whilst thoroughly preparing our students with skills for a future yet unknown.

Although at Holy Trinity we do not have a dedicated bus route for our children, I know many of you have older children at other schools where they may travel to and from school.  You may have seen the proposed changes to the Canberra bus system for 2019, especially with a reduction of dedicated school buses. If this does affect your family, I encourage you to have a look at the Canberra Bus website and the proposed changes- https://canberrabuses.com.au/wp-content/uploads then please, either complete the survey https://www.yoursay.act.gov.au/rapid-bus-network or, email Transport Canberra TCCS.MyRapidNetwork@act.gov.au or, the Minister for Transport and City Services, Meegan Fitzharris MLA, fitzharris@act.gov.au.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome this week the Campbell family, Heidi joining our Year 1 Green class.

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

Philippa

The Feast of the Transfiguration

Last Friday students from Sts Peter and Paul and Holy Trinity celebrated our Parish Feast Day, The Feast of the Transfiguration. After arriving by bus or foot (5/6),  the students enjoyed participating in an activity with their buddy class from Sts Peter and Paul. After filling up on sausages, the students then enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. The students enjoyed playing soccer, or climbing on the play equipment, shooting the netball, investigating the creative equipment or playing in the sandpit. The students then settled themselves and prayerfully participated in mass led by Father John. It was a wonderful day through playing and prayer we come together and celebrated as one parish.

First Eucharist Preparations  

On Wednesday the Parish of the Transfiguration held the Parent Information Night for First Eucharist. There has been some changes to the preparation for candidates this year. Instead of home groups, this year candidates will prepare with their families at home with the commitment to attending weekend masses, and reconciliation prior to celebrating the sacrament.

St Mary Mackillop Prayer Assembly

Thank you to 5/6 White for leading the School Community in a respectful and reverent Prayer Assembly about St Mary Mackillop and her life’s work of helping others in need.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Next Wednesday, 15 August, the students will celebrate mass with the Holy Trinity Parish Community for the Feast of the Assumption. The church is unavailable, so mass will be held in the school hall at 9:30am. Everyone is welcome.

NEXT WEEK

Wednesday 15th August: Feast of the Assumption Mass @ Holy Trinity School Hall, 9.30am.

Important Term Dates

Saturday 25th August: First Eucharist Presentation and Parish Mass, 6pm

Thursday 13th September: First Eucharist Retreat day @ Holy Trinity

Saturday 15th September: First Eucharist Mass @ Holy Trinity, 6pm

First Reconciliation Registration commences: Week 10, Monday 24th September.​

Overcoming the curse of perfectionism

by Michael Grose

Perfectionism is a modern curse in families and schools.

Fear of making mistakes holds more children back and is a greater impediment to children reaching their full potential than any school funding issue that tends to make front page news from time to time.

Perfectionists have a deep-seated unwillingness to expose themselves as temporary failures while they learn. This stops them from really achieving their full potential. This fear of failure is strongest amongst first borns, our most prolific population cohort, so it is little wonder that perfectionism is one of the greatest problems in Australian schools.

Perfectionists are hard to live with
Perfectionists make demanding partners and anxious children. They can be critical of those around them just as they are highly critical of themselves. Their attention to detail can be infuriating. Their inflexibility can be enraging, particularly if you are an easygoing person yourself. Perfectionists usually want to be better than everyone else. You can pick a perfectionist at a thousand metres. They generally:

1. plan ahead
2. are neurotic about order
3. are critical of themselves and others
4. hate to leave jobs half done; they will stay at work until a task is completed
5. procrastinate if they are unsure of results
6. dislike delegating
7. apologise a lot
8. are governed by absolutes.

How to help perfectionists?
Help perfectionists understand that they don’t have to do everything perfectly. In some circumstances there is little margin for error: I expect parachute-makers to do a perfect job! But in reality very few tasks require perfection.

Develop the courage to be imperfect
The great psychologist Rudolph Dreikurs talked about the ‘courage to be imperfect’. He believed that people are motivated by one of two forces: the desire to be superior or better than others, or the desire to contribute or be useful. Those motivated by the first force are never content because there will always be someone who can do a better job. Those motivated by the latter find contentment and fulfilment not only because their contributions usually assist others but also because they are not obsessed by doing a perfect or terrific job. Their satisfaction comes from helping, not from achievement.

Get them volunteering
Volunteering is a great antidote to perfectionism. When kids volunteer their time and services they can just focus on getting the job done and be judged by their contribution rather than on how well they did in completing their task.

Help them settle for excellence
I agree with Kevin Leman, author of The New Birth Order Book, who claims that perfectionists need to learn to be satisfied with excellence, rather than perfectionism. Now excellence is pretty good. I am not suggesting that they should always settle for second-best efforts. But being a slave to perfectionism means that people become observers rather than participants in many aspects of life, whether at work or in their leisure time. They tend to look on as others get on with what needs to be done.

Loosen them up
If you are living with a perfectionist then you need to help them take themselves less seriously. Humour is something they definitely need. Whatever you do, don’t put pressure on them to succeed as they already put enough pressure on themselves. Do the opposite and release the pressure valve. Focus on processes not results and help them follow the 80:20 rule – that 80 per cent of results comes from 20 per cent of effort (and achieving that last 20 per cent of results takes a lot of effort). There are times when they just don’t need to do the perfect job.

Perfectionists! By helping them focus on others rather than themselves you’ll help them live more fulfilled and happier lives. Ironically, when they focus on others they invariably grow up being more capable individuals because they’ll try a greater range of activities and end up achieving more.

 (Source: ParentingIdeas.com.au)

For the past three weeks all children at HT have been reading books involved in this year’s Book Week competition. The theme for 2018 is “Find Your Treasure”. The theme is all about books being a treasure to be loved, read and adored. Pirates and treasure maps are also all around.

Click on the image below  to go to the Chidlren's Book Council of Austalia Short List 2018. 

The annual Book Week Parade will take place Week 5 – Wednesday 22^nd August. Children have been asked to come as a character from a book that they treasure. It’s always nice if the children have the actual book with them on the day.

On the day of the parade, we will all parade around the hall, discover what books from each category are the ‘Winner, winner chicken dinner’ and have a few raffle prizes for the kids that come in costume.

During the day we will also have a visiting story teller for Kinder and Year 1 and a Book Week drama performance for ELC – Year 6.

We love Book Week.

  Don’t forget that….

To view the current catalogue Redgum Book Club Term 3 Catalogue

You will find more great titles to order this term on their website, with books starting from $2 www.redgumbookclub.com.au 

The catalogue is now open and closes on the 13th August.  Ordered books will be delivered free to the school, week commencing the 27^th August.

Last but not Least…

All children at HT have been involved in the annual Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge for 17 weeks now. 80% of the children have handed in their form (with the 15 completed books) or listed books read via Qkr. If your child is one of the 20% to yet complete the challenge, PLEASE address this ASAP or send in a note so I can finalize the results.

All forms to be in by Friday, 17^th August – Week 4.

Happy Week 3 to you all.

Kate J x

Catholic Primary Schools Netball Carnival

A reminder about the upcoming netball carnival.

St Monica’s is delighted to host the 2018 Catholic Primary Schools Netball Carnival.

Venue: Tuggeranong Netball Association Courts, Were Street Calwell ACT 2905

Date:    Saturday 20 October 2018

Registration Fees

A fee of $30 per competitor is required to enter the carnival. The registration fee includes a food voucher (a sausage sandwich, a fruit drink, a piece of fruit and a bag of chips) per competitor. If your child has any dietary requirements, please ensure you let the school know on the registration form for catering purposes. Competitors will also receive information to assist them and their team in participating for the day. Payment can be made via QKR or to the front office.

In the event that the safety of participants is perceived as being placed at an unacceptable risk or the grounds are closed due to wet weather, the event will be cancelled. If this occurs, it is not practical to reschedule or refund team registration fees.

Registrations close on 17/8/2018

Like the St Monica’s Facebook page –

https://www.facebook.com/2018catholicschoolsnetballcarnivalcanberra/ and receive all the exciting updates, upcoming events, news and draws (when available).

Permission forms have been sent out via Schoolzine.

REMINDER – This Saturday you can drop off items for the 2^nd hand stall

Don’t forget you can bring your boxes of books, puzzles, dvds and bags of clothes into the school hall this Saturday from 3pm-5pm. Drive through the circular drive in the school, park and drop them in – easy access! Lana and her team will be in the hall to greet you! Please remember that all items should be clean and in good condition.

HAIR BRAIDING STALL!

Do you or someone in your family have a skill/talent/love for hair braiding? We would love to have a hair braiding stall at the fete again this year but need someone to coordinate this stall and willing volunteers! This is a great stall for older siblings/teenagers to work on. Please contact Lisa if you are interested: lisajbauer40@gmail.com

This stall is always hugely popular and we’d be sad to see it go this year.

 ‘’GROWN UPS” BOTTLE STALL

We are also searching for a convenor for our grown up’s bottle stall. Think tombola…but with bottles of wine/beer! This stall was very popular at the last fete and we’d love to run it again. Can you help us out??? No collections required as all drinks will be donated – you just need to run it on the day. Please contact Lisa if you are interested: lisajbauer40@gmail.com

 GARDEN STALL SNEAK PEEK!   Thank you to our clever garden stall coordinator Lucy - how fantastic are these succulents looking?!  They'll be available for sale at the garden stall on fete day.

 NO DONATIONS IN WEEK 4

Next week is our fabulous walk-a-thon week – no collecting of fete donations in week 4.

                  Are you on Facebook?

If you are on this social media platform why don’t you join our Holy Trinity Community group.

This group is a P&F initiative to support our community and communication for P&F events at Holy Trinity. It is a parent community page and we’d love for you to join.

Find us on facebook today.

 FATHERS’ DAY STALL    

The Fathers’ Day stall will be held on Friday, 31 August

Each child is asked to bring in a small gift for the stall.

For a gold coin donation, children will be able to select a gift from the stall (proceeds to the P&F).

Please send in your gifts now!!

We recommend a gift worth about $7 - $12.  Some ideas... magazines, gardening stuff, mugs, socks, lollies, books, toiletries, key rings, movie tickets, DVD’s...

The list goes on! It doesn’t have to be expensive, just thoughtful.

Please wrap your gifts in cellophane or clear plastic and

send in the gift as soon as possible so we can make sure there are enough gifts for the children to purchase.

**Mum or other non-Dad Helpers are also needed.  If you can spare an hour or two Wednesday 29^th or Thursday 30^th or the morning of Friday, August 31, please call or email Sarah on 0478 877 819 or nathansarah@bigpond.com

We are sitting at 41 membership sales to date which equates to $492 fundraising – yay, HT community!

2018/2019 Digital and book memberships for ACT and surrounds (and other states) are going fast but there is still time to purchase!  Memberships valid until 1 June 2019 for you to enjoy valuable dining, shopping, travel offers and lots more with family and friends.

Click here to order via our online HT payment page. 

Don't forget to select "Pick Up" as Delivery Option for hard copy memberships - we will send it home with your child/ren via school classroom bags.

Thank you for your awesome support - it is genuinely appreciated.

CHOIR AUDITIONS

Woden Valley Youth Choir is community not-for-profit organisation committed to providing a strong Kodaly based music education, providing performance opportunities and instilling a love of music in all its choristers. WVYC will hold auditions on Saturday 1 September for young people of school age wishing to join in term 4 2018.

WVYC currently consists of two Primary aged choirs, a treble voice choir for High School up and our newest choir for young men with changing or changed voices. The choir also has two selective a cappella ensembles and rehearses on Tuesday afternoons and evenings in Molonglo. Our choristers come from all over Canberra and Queanbeyan and beyond.

If you are at all interested please talk with Mrs Thomas or go to http://wvyc.org.au/join-us/

            VACUUMING ROSTER     

TERM 3, WEEK 4 - WED 15 AUG

Team Leader: Lana Eldridge, Dean Prail, Ross Hamilton, David/Athena Cains, Michael Chan