"Love one another and bear with one another, and let love guide you in all you life...  We must teach more by example than by word." 

(St Mary of the Cross) 

Dear Friends,

Thank you to those families who were able to join us last Friday night for the Parent Information Night and Welcome BBQ.  I would particularly like to thank Mark Bullock, Cath Day and the BBQ crew who organised all the food, cooking and clean up to ensure our families enjoyed our first social gathering together as a community for 2020. After January being such a difficult and challenging start to the year, it was lovely to be able to spend  time together to welcome the new academic year. 

For those who were unable to come to the evening, please note that at the end of the formal presentation, each teacher distributed Curriculum overviews and other notes for parents.  If you have not yet received this for your children,  please email your child's teacher and this will be sent home. I have also included in the following link the slide presentation from the evening.

Parent Information Night 14 February 2020

More information will come over the next few weeks outlining strategies we will be implementing to  help achieve specific goals outlined in our 2020 strategic plan.   The new tuck shop management , school menu and take away family meals, facilitated by Alicia La Brooy, a parent at our school and a nutritionist who has majored in Health Science, will be coming soon!  Alicia also has her own business, Efficiently Nutricious (EN) that, like the new tuck shop initiative, strives to help people to eat better, feel better, waste less food and be kinder to our planet.  

I have had much positive feed back in relation to the new car park.  It is hoped that the bollards and signage will be here in the next couple of weeks to complete the project.  A huge thank you to Mark Bauer (Vice president of the P and F) who has spent much time managing this project.  This includes writing the  tender application and spending a considerable amount of his own time working with the traffic consultant and with Cord Civil, who are completing the project.

Thank you to Scott Pearsall (School Board Chair) and Cath Day ( P and F President) who spoke at our information night.  They will also write in the newsletter to keep you up to date with things happening on both these committees. In case you missed it on Friday night, the P and F AGM is next Wednesday night, 6:30pm in the school Library and all is welcome!

Much information and concern  still continues around the Corona Virus.  Please see attached  link below, which includes some useful websites. 

Corona Virus Information for Parents

We look forward to spending the day at the CISAC poll tomorrow with our students Kinder- Year 6.  It is always such a lovely day to share together, with opportunity for all to participate. (yes, even the parents!) Thank you to Mel Punyer and Emily Capper who have spent an extensive amount of time organising this special event for us. 

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

Philippa

Journey With Jesus Retreat

On Tuesday our Year 6 Leaders participated in our CSYMA Journey With Jesus Retreat. The day focused around equipping each child with a metaphorical “backpack of faith” to take with them on the journey of life. Inside this backpack they were introduced to some helpful tools that can pull out for the journey’s ups and downs, life’s new beginnings and changes like starting high school.

Grace our Youth Minster and her team lead the students through the retreat engaging them in games, inspiring talks and small group discussions. At the end of the retreat an invitation was extended to ALL Year 5 and 6 students to join the Holy Trinity Youth Ministry Team for 2020.

Ash Wednesday

Next Wednesday Holy Trinity will be attendning Mass at 9:30am for Ash Wednedday. We warmly welcome you to join us!

Sacrament of Reconciliation 2020 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be celebrated in the Parish of the Transfiguration, North Woden on Thursday, 2nd April at 6:00 pm at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Curtin. 

There will be a Parent Information Night on Tuesday 25th February at 6:00 pm at the Parish Centre at Curtin.

Class Masses Term 1 

You are very welcome to join your child's class to attend Mass at 9:30am.

Please see dates below:

Upcoming Dates

Week 4

• Monday 2:30pm - Prayer Celebration Lent 5/6G
• Tuesday 5:30pm - Reconciliation PIN (Hosts) 6pm for all Families
• Wednsday 9:30am - Ash Wednesday Mass 

Week 6

• Saturday 6pm - Reconcilation Presentation Mass

Week 7

• Monday 2:30pm - Prayer Celebration Reconcilaition - 3/4R

Week 8 

• Monday 2:30pm - Class Assembly 3/4G
• Wednesday - Reconciliation Retreat

Week 9 

• Monday 2:30pm - Class Assembly 1G
• Thursday 6pm - Reconcilation

Online Safety for under 5's

The ELC has a new library resource eSafety Early Years - Online Safety for under 5's. The booklet offers practical advice and strategies for parents and carers to tackle the key online safety issues for children from birth to 5 years old.

Pick-up and Drop-off times

Thanks to all our families who have been prompt in the preschool drop-off and pick-ups. As we offer both before and after school care for both ELC and primary aged children, we appreciate a timely pickup via the correct preschool door. It ensures safety for all children transitioning between programs, optimising learning time and enabling teachers and staff to attend meetings after school when required. Please advise if your child is not attending ASC.

After School Play time

We welcome families to stay after school to extend children's play time, but we ask that you move from the ELC playground to the Primary School playground to enable to After School Care program to operate safely.

Thank you 

to Stephanie Scroop (mum of Dylan, ELC & Sierra, Y2) for painting the class murals and welcome sign that line the entrance of the ELC, making an appealing and welcoming space. If you have a gift (artisitic, musical, building, gardening etc) that you would like to share with us, we would love to hear from you.

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.

Making new friends and staying in touch with old classmates 

by Michael Grose

 As a parent there is a great deal you can do to help your child adjust socially at the start of the school year. Here are some tips to help.

Encourage your child to be open to new friendships

An open, friendly attitude is a child or young person’s best social asset. Students who open to forming new friendships are more likely to succeed than those who seek solitude, who are critical and who limit themselves to just one or two familiar faces. Encourage your child or young person to seek out new friendships, even though they may feel uncomfortable or strange at first.

Encourage healthy relationships

Do all you can to encourage healthy relationships based on respect and common courtesy. Generally, when a relationship is healthy a child feels safe, valued and able to speak up. Unhealthy relationships, such as cliques, are restrictive, one-sided and are full of gossip and criticism.

Encourage inclusiveness

Studies have shown inclusiveness to be one of the prime social skills shared by socially successful students. Encourage your child or young person to include others in games, conversations, team activities and other group activities. Inclusiveness is not just a wonderful friendship skill, it’s strong leadership attribute as well.

Encourage friendships with both genders

If you are in a co-education environment encourage your child to form friendships with both boys and girls. This is particularly valid if your child has siblings of their own gender, or don’t have siblings. It’s through these early relationships that we gain the confidence to mix with different genders in the later years. Forming friends across genders helps to break down the mystique that sometimes forms, when a child has little contact with the ‘other’ gender.

Stay in touch with former classmates and school friends

Encourage your child to maintain friendships with former classmates and groups outside of school as this helps to insulate against unfriendly behaviour that they may experience with their close social circle.

Provide social scripts

Your child may benefit from being provided with some social scripts that they can use in common social situations such as meeting a new friend, joining in a game or asking someone else for help. Boys, in particular, can benefit when given the words to use in a variety of different social situations.

Forming new friendships can take time

Meeting new students and forming new friendships can be anxiety-inducing. If this is the case for your child, then it helps to acknowledge their feelings of discomfort, but also remind them that these feelings will pass. As well discuss the fact that feeling comfortable with new friends often takes time, particularly if your child by nature is reserved or slow to warm up in social situations.

Helping kids work through friendships can be tricky for a parent as you don’t have a great deal of control over what happens at school. However, with empathy, patience, encouragement and a supportive attitude you can do a great deal to help your child make a smooth social transition.

(Source: Parentingideas.com.au)

Canberra Raiders Visit

On Monday 17 February, 2 Canberra Raiders players visited Holy Trinity to talk to years 3–6 about the importance of feeling part of a group, respecting your team mates and self-care.

This is a great initiative from the NRL to have current Raiders players present and educate children, on such important values of being apart of a team sport. 

The children loved interacting with the players and learning about these values.

To be in a team you have to commit and respect each person. Charlotte Smyth

It is important to respect your body because otherwise you will sit around all day and die young. Harris Gledhill

It was very inspiring because they had something to say and meant it. Sienna Tanfara

They were very encouraging to join a team. Ginger Patteson