When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were all sitting. 

Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability’. (Acts 2:1-4) 

As the friends of Jesus gathered in one place, we gather here, waiting for the Spirit to fill this house and enlighten, as with tongues of fire, the minds and hearts and lives of our young people; and to renew this flame in all of us as well. 

Spirit of God, Seal our hearts with the Spirit of your love.

Give us the courage of the saints to love when it is easier to hate, to see beauty beneath what is ugly, and to bring hope to our world. Teach us to have reverence and respect for all of life and to look for ways to respond to the gifts you have given us. Keep us always open to the Spirit’s presence in our world. We ask this for your Kingdom’s sake. Amen

Dear Friends,

Today's newsletter begins with the prayer used at Confirmation Retreat Day today.  Please keep all our Confirmation candidates in your prayers as they prepare for this Sacrament to be celebrated next Tuesday night. Today's newsletter follows with our Year 6 Leadership groups reporting on all the responsibilities and events they have been involved in during this term!  Enjoy their voices and I look forward to seeing many of you tomorrow for Grandparents Day,  Learning Journeys and the Working Bee.

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

Philippa

Members: Veronika R, Georgia N, Abby VB, Sophie R, Valentina G, AJ S

During this term, the Service group have been having such a great experience carrying out the various jobs we have had to do. So far, we have helped out with class and prayer assemblies, showed many visitors around the school, and have had a brilliant time with Sts Peter and Paul on Transfiguration day. During transfiguration day, we helped out the Sts Peter and Paul students by showing them where to go. It was a great opportunity to meet students from another school and show them how friendly Holy Trinity can be.

With the support of our teacher facilitators we have identified extra opportunities for how we can be of service in the future. We are looking forward to continuing to assist with special days such as, Father’s Day, Grandparents Day and Learning Journeys.

Members: Audrey H, Hannah B, Emily Ro, Amy W, Ava S, Liam P

Well-Being leadership community has been researching, sharing, explaining and talking about different social skills. During Weeks 1-5 we have been talking about decision making and being balanced and Weeks 6-10 we focused on being cooperative and open minded. We hope that students will apply the knowledge they now know about these social skills and use them at school and at home. Throughout this term we have noticed that kids have been using these social skills correctly at school. They have been open-minded when hearing other people’s perspectives and ideas in the playground - what games to play and how to make good decisions, and in their classrooms - in group work how we can involve sharing each others ideas together. For the remainder of the term we will be continuing to share presentations and continuing to work on making our school a better place were these social skills are involved. This term the Well-Being student leadership group has been busily devising interactive presentations to share with classes to provide support and teach younger students about the importance of making good decisions and how they can demonstrate cooperation daily. We wanted this to boost positivity around the school and hopefully help students to create positive friendships with one another.

SUSTAINABILITY GROUP

Term 3 was the start of Waste Free Wednesdays, run by the Sustainability Leaders. We began the process with a waste audit from ACT Smart Schools came to Holy Trinity to support us with our waste audit. The waste audit showed us that many children are throwing away food that has not been touched, such as whole sandwiches, pieces of fruit, yogurt pouches and yakults.  We discovered that our paper waste was not contaminated with other waste, well done everyone on keeping our paper bins clean! Waste Free Wednesdays have been a success, with most children bringing little to no waste to school, and taking their waste home.

With the start of spring, the gardening club has been busy planting new veggies such as potatoes, silver beets, beans, sweet peas and capsicums. We now have some beautiful cabbages, broccoli and spinach growing too. A huge thank you to Moya, our dedicated gardening expert who freely gives her time to support us in our Kitchen Garden. If any other parent of grandparent would like to join us you would be welcome. We meet on Wednesdays at 11:10am.

Please continue to support us with keeping our school as waste free as possible.

The Sustainability Team

The Sports Committee : Ruby A, Sophie H, Maddie D, Ava F, Ava M, Christian G, Oscar H

Obstacool course

Setting it up:

When we first heard about Obstacool the first thing we did was find out the theme song. We figured that it should be a song that everyone likes and after looking at a bunch of songs we chose ‘The lion sleeps tonight’ from the Lion King movie. After we chose the song we started to make posters saying what day it was on, what type of clothes to wear and more. Then we would come up at morning assemblies to remind everyone. So finally after a lot of planning a bunch of raffles and lots of fundraising the fun day came and everyone had a blast.

The day:

As being part of the Holy Trinity sport committee we helpedtheObstacoolll course. On the day we helped and supported the students participating in the Course. As a team we set up and helped run the course with the younger students. 

Handball Competition

Mrs Punyer has organised a handball tournament for the students of Holy Trinity Primary School. The year 6 students of the sports committee helped run the competition during lunch. The games are in partners, in 2 vs 2 matches. The teams are very even and are very competitive.

Holy Trinity is having a talent show on the 20th of September. We are having a talent show so we can raise money for for Camp Magic. Camp Magic is an organisation which helps kids who have lost someone close to them like a parent or sibling. Camp Magic helps kids understand grief and supports them to deal with how they are feeling. The kids use the seasons as a guide and they connect their feelings to them. The camp helps teach them the grief cycle and how to deal with it.

The talent show will be a bit different this year. It will only be Years 1-6 who will preform. Year 5/6 will have have five acts. Year 3/4 will have four acts. Year 1 and 2 will each have 2 acts. There will be a time limit of two minutes that the students will have to show everyone their talent. In the talent show the students can do a dance, a skit, sing, magic, jokes, comedy, gymnastics, musical talent and show off anything that they can do. The students must have their act ready by the end of week 8. It’ll be a gold coin to watch the talent show and five dollars per person to enter. We will have prizes. We are going to have a very special guest judge!

We cannot wait to see the talent Holy Trinity has to share!

Written by Jessica G, Emily R, Erin S, Ella S, Claire O, Rachel H

 

Reconciliation

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated in the Parish of the Transfiguration, North Woden on Thursday 28^th November 2019. Registration is now open for Reconciliation. Students in Year 3 are invited to register.

To enrol your child, please access or download the Qkr! App.

• Search ‘North Woden Transfiguration’.
• You will then create a profile. One your profile is completed you can click into Parish (2^nd collection, Sacraments) and follow through to Reconciliation.

Dates for Reconciliation                

Confirmation

The stole night was held on Tuesday 10^th September at 6pm. The candidates and their parents had a wonderful night together, creatively preparing stoles to wear next week for their Confirmation, and learning more about the symbols associated with the Sacrament of Confirmation. Thank you to everyone who joined us, it was a wonderful night for our parish community.

We will be celebrating the Sacrament of Confirmation with our Year 6 Candidates at 2 Masses in our Parish; Tuesday 17th September, 7:00pm at Holy Trinity, Curtin and Thursday 19th September, 7:00pm at Saints Peter and Paul, Garran.

Everyone is warmly invited to join us. Please continue to keep the candidates in your prayers.

Excursion to Canberra Theatre - Possum Magic.

Last Friday the Ground Parrot and Rock Wallaby classes enjoyed a trip to the Canberra Theatre to watch Possum Magic. It was a wonderful opportunity for our children to watch and enjoy a high quality theatre production (and the bus ride was pretty exciting too).

Transition to Primary School

The ACT Council of Parents & Citizens Association and the ACT Education Directorate is hosting a free transition to school parent forum on 17 September 2019 7-8.30pm. Hedley Beare Centre for Teaching and Learning 51 Fremantle Drive Stirling.

This forum will provide information and resources to support you and your child’s successful transition to school. Hear from experienced educators, researchers and parents who will also be happy to answer your questions. This is a free event.
To register (or request a podcast) email: earlylearning@actparents.org.au or ph 02 6241 575

School Holiday Program in the ELC

The ELC is now taking bookings for the school holiday program that will run from 30 September to 11 October. The program is open to children from the ELC, Kinder and their siblings in Year One, with priorty given to current ELC families. Bookings can be make by clicking here. 

Lids 4 Kids & Bread Tags for Wheelchairs

The ELC is collecting milk bottle lids to be recycled to make prosthetic limbs for children using 3D imaging.

Bread Tags for Wheelchairs: The bread tags are repurposed into a range of products such as seedling trays, picture frames, door knobs, coat hangers and more. The money earned from selling the tags is used to buy wheelchairs for people who can’t afford them.

Collection jars are located in the ELC foyer and can be dropped in at any time.

Collection of lids and tags also saves this resource from going to landfill.

Stay and Play

Playgroup for pre-preschoolers and their families. Wednesday mornings from 9am-10.30am in the ELC Playground (weather permitting). Parents, grandparents, carers and children are all very welcome.

Are you asking your kids to step up?

by Dr. Deborah Gilboa

We do a lot for our kids, because we love them and often they need us. But we forget that one of the best things we can do for our kids is to help them learn to do for themselves and for others.

Do you ask your kids to do chores, to help out on a regular basis? You would be surprised how many parents – who were raised doing chores – don’t ask the same of their kids.  If you do give them chores, do you sometimes go behind them and redo the work when they’re done? Don’t! If it’s not done right, get your child to fix it.

When I ask why parents don’t give chores or why they don’t challenge their kids with hard things – and I do, all over the world – parents tell me it’s because kids are too… busy! They’re working their tails off on classwork, teams, clubs, groups, trying to excel at 100 different things! So adults are willing to take on every other responsibility in their lives in order to facilitate these goals. And it’s hurting kids.

We drive them everywhere – fewer teens are seeking drivers’ licences each year. We type their work, do their research and try to buy them anything they or we think might possibly increase their success. We solve every problem and bulldoze over every potential obstacle. And kids accept this as the natural order of things.

We are stepping in front of our kids, when in fact we should be stepping back and allowing our kids to step up.

It sounds like tough love, but it’s not. This is parenting. This is making sure that our kids, in just a few short years, don’t still need us to do everything for them. Our kids know that we are expert problem-solvers. Now it’s their turn to step up and learn to help themselves and others.

So how can we let kids step up? Here are a few tips you can try right now with kids of any age.

1. When your child or teen comes to you with a problem, don’t fix it. Say “You’re a good problem-solver. What do you think?” And then listen to the answer.
2. Expect them to fail, and talk about what they’ll do when (not if) that happens.
3. Give them tasks to do that help the whole family (not only themselves) and make sure they do them, until it’s done well. Be patient, but firm.

It’s crucial that you take a step back and let your kids make mistakes and learn from their experiences. You aren’t going to be there in adulthood to clear the obstacles they face or solve the struggles. They eventually will have to make decisions and find solutions on their own and they will be ill-prepared if they weren’t allowed to make those mistakes under supervision while you’re right there to show empathy and give support!

You may be thinking “but what if there’s an emergency and I have to jump in?”  Well, first define emergency.

Two percent of the time, kids need an adult to jump in front of them and solve the problem. They need an adult to protect them from a life-threatening issue that overwhelms their internal resources such as when they experience bullying, mental health issues and eating disorders.

The other ninety-eight percent of the time kids need a compassionate adult to take an interest, from a distance, without fixing anything. So step back so that a child or a young person can step up and handle problems and dilemmas themselves.

(Source: Parentingideas.com.au)

UPCOMING PARENT WEBINAR (FREE)

You can attend our upcoming webinar, Step back so kids step up, at no cost!

About the webinar
Children and teenagers are capable of so much more than they are often given credit for. Closing the expectation gap between what adults believe kids and young adults are capable of, and allowing them to create their own solutions to the challenges they face will greatly impact their resilience, and society as a whole. In this webinar, Dr. G will outline the practicalities of doing that, and the guiding principles that will make it possible.

When
Wednesday 18 September 2019 8:00pm AEST.

Price
This webinar is $37 per person to attend, and is free of charge to families at schools that have a membership.

How parents can redeem the voucher
1. Click this link: https://www.parentingideas.com.au/parent-resources/parent-webinars/webinar-step-back-so-kids-step-up
2. Click ‘Add to cart’
3. Click ‘View cart’
4. Enter the voucher code STEP and click ‘Apply Coupon’ (valid until 18 October 2019). Your discount of $37 will be applied.
5. Click ‘Proceed to checkout’
6. Fill in your account details. These details are used to login to your account and access your parenting material
7. Click ‘Place Order’

"I know I need to slow down if I get in trouble at home for doing things too fast. I used to feel stressed, I would stop and begin again when this happened. I used to feel frustrated with myself, especially when I was doing my homework. I would try to get it done quickly so I could watch Bondi Rescue. I would have to keep re-doing it. My mum would ask me to start again and she would say to me, 'Do a job properly, do a job once', and that's with everything - writing, reading and everything." George 5/6 Red

"I know I need to slow down when it's 8pm and I only just begin think about dinner. Or when I forget to pick up a child from a sporting activity. Or when the bell rings for the end of the school day and I haven't had lunch. Or when my children ask me when I'm going to get off the laptop. I try to take time for myself by going for a walk with a friend, or taking a long shower, or reading or listening to a podcast." Mrs Foley, Classroom Support 

"I know I need to slow down when I forget things. That tells me I need to stop and start again. Usually in the morning, when I need to be somewhere, I put myself under pressure to get there on time but then I forget something and I know I need to slow down." Mr Feerick

Year 2 ICT Happenings

Year 2 have been using different tech tools to enhance their learning such as: 

Year 2 use this tool to assist in publishing their stories using text and image.

Number Pieces App- Students use this tool to create numbers using MAB blocks. This helps them to learn place value in an engaging way.

Good habits start young- Part 2

A guide for parents and carers

Parents and carers play an important role in helping children to develop digital intelligence — the social, emotional and practical skills needed to successfully navigate the digital world.

ACT Athletic Championships

Congratulations to Charlotte S and Miriam S who competed in the ACT Athletic Championships at the AIS earlier this week. Charlotte place 4^th in the 800m and Miriam won the 70m and 100m events. This is an outstanding result for the girls, well done.

In debating news, our Year 6 students have participated in two vigorous debates in the last fortnight. Our first opponents were Holy Family Primary School, hosted by Holy Trinity in week 7. The topic of the debate was, 'Single use plastic bags should no longer be sold', and our team were the affirmative.

Both schools presented some strong arguments but the negative team took out the win. Congratulations to Valentina, Ava and Emily Rogers, you all did a terrific job and were gracious in defeat!

This week's debate was hosted by St Anthony's Primary School where our team argued against the topic, 'Mobile phones should be banned in all schools up to Year 12'. Amy, Abby and Jess received some constructive feedback from the Mackillop College adjudicators after presenting some convincing points. Our girls received a participation award for their efforts.

We are looking forward to our final debate next week, when we will visit St Francis of Assissi and argue against the topic, 'Technology is making people dumb'.

Ms TL

TERM 3, WEEK 9 - WED 18 SEP

Team Leader: Geoff Wynn, Ben Bryant, Brian Nash, Georgina Papoutsis