Dear families and carers,

What a week of Magic and celebration we have had at school this week. Beginning on Monday with Magic Mike sharing his passion for all things magic...the students were captivated and entrigued by his performance. We will continue this next Friday with our Magic Show from our talented learners. As one student told me a true magician never reveals how he does his trick!

It was wonderful to be a part of the magic of Book Week on Wednesday as we discovered the winners of the 2024 awards. Whilst it doesnt matter which book wins we have all voted for our Holy Trinity favourite. A huge thank you to our librarian Mrs Kate Mertz, her energy and enthusiasm for all things magic and books has been unstoppable! She has continued to surprise us all week.

Last Friday the Year 6 Belonging Group realised their initiative of making homemade lemonade to raise money for Our Global School Program student, Faith in Kenya. Squeezing many lemons and preparing sugar syrup to add to the fresh lemons the students, Mrs Kate Lategui and Ms Maddy Winter held a hugely successful Lemonade Stall. In the PYP, action is considered to be both an application of learning and an opportunity for students to engage in a form of contribution or service. The Belonging Group were an example of how our students have seen a need and taken action.

"In the PYP it is believed that not only is it possible for students to identify appropriate action, but also that teachers have a responsibility to enable them to choose their action carefully, to facilitate this action, and to encourage them to reflect on the action they undertake. This is viewed as an important part of students’ active participation in their own learning” (IBO, 2009, p. 26).  

Awards Assembly

Tomorrow we will celebrate our Week 5 Awards assembly at 2:30pm and will be wearing crazy socks. We look forward to hearing about our learners successes this half of term and seeing the crazy socks. 

Tell Them From Me

Thank you to the families that have already completed the Tell Them From Me Survey. We value your voice and feddback so please take time to complete the survey  if you have not already.

The survey is anonymous and you can access the parent survey on your computer or mobile device by using the URL code below:
http://tellthemfromme.com/htps2024

Please note that the survey access will close tomorrow, Friday August 23. 

Hats..

As the weather continues to warm up our students need to ensure they are wearing a hat during all break times and PE lessons. This is a great time to check all your child's clothing items are clearly labelled. We are receiving a large number of clothing items to the lost property with no names. Students are warming up and leaving their clothes across the school. Your items will return to you if they are clearly labelled. 

Father's Day Celebrations

The annual Father's Day Community Breakfast, brought to you by the HTPS Community Council will be held on Friday 30 August, starting at 7:45am on the blacktop above the basketball courts (weather permitting). Yummy pastries and self-serve warm drinks (tea, coffee and hot chocolate) will be available, as well as juice boxes for the children. Please let us know you are planning to come by making your family's contribution via QKR by Tuesday 27/8/24 - just $10 for a family of four, and $2 for any additional people (extra kids, grandparents, etc). 

Eucharist Presentation Mass

This weekend our students in Year 4 who are making the Sacrament of Eucharist will be attending a Presentation Mass at the parish masses across the weekend. We ask that you keep these children in your prayers as they prepare with their families for this important Sacrament.

Help Needed

If you have an hour or two to volunteer in our Clothing Pool we would love to hear from you. This service is invaluable for our community. If you have time to volunteer please reach out prue.sheargold@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Enjoy the sunshine and spending time with your family across the weekend. 

Prue

Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal

A very big thank you to families for your donations for the Mini Vinnies Winter Appeal. We are so grateful for our generous HT community and thank St Vincent De Paul for the great work they do in our area.

Catholic Missions – Crazy Sock Fundraiser (This Friday)

On Friday 23^rd August, Holy Trinity students are invited to wear Crazy Socks to school! We ask students to bring a gold coin donation to support Catholic Mission.

Catholic Missions collects donations for Church mission programs throughout the world and in Australia. School Mission Month fundraising activities are an important support for the work of Catholic Mission.

We look forward to seeing your crazy socks on Friday!

Sacrament of First Eucharist

We look forward to seeing First Eucharist candidates at one of the Presentation Masses this weekend (Saturday 24th August 6pm or Sunday 25th August 9:30am).

If you have any questions about the Sacrament of First Eucharist, please contact Catherine Grinsell-Jones at the parish office on 6281 3999.

Catherine Joy

Acting Religious Education Coordinator

Book Week

There is no doubt that Book Week is centred on the opportunity for children (and educators) around Australia to dress up as their favourite book character. And of course, there is magic in this. But the real magic of Book Week extends far beyond the costumes and parades.

Book Week provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the profound impact that reading has on a child's development. Beyond the obvious positive impact on language development, we know that reading also transports children to magical worlds where their creativity is sparked and imagination is nurtured. The 2024 Book Week theme, Reading is Magic, conveys that exact idea; books lead young minds into a universe of stories where wonder and amazement are captivated.

Further to this, there is also magic that occurs to a child's cognitive and emotional development when we read with them. Books can stimulate critical thinking, prediction making and problem solving, as well as supporting children to better understand emotions, empathy and the sometimes-complex nature of social interactions.

Click here to read more about the importance of and tips for reading with young children.

Working Bee

Throughout our enrolment period, we welcomed a large number of prospective parents into our ELC. When taking them around our learning environments, many were impressed with and commented on our outdoor spaces. We too, love our playground.

ELC and school community members are warmly invited to join our working bee on Saturday 31 August 2024, from 9:30am.

We will have sand and tanbark to wheelbarrow in, as well as some painting to be done. ...and if that is not your thing, perhaps you are a handy baker and could provide something for the morning tea break?

Be sure to bring along your gloves, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows (if you have them). We look forward to seeing many little and big hands working together to make a difference.

Hats, Hats, Hats

Our SunSmart policy states that all children and staff are required to wear hats when outside from August to May each year. Please ensure your child has a clearly labelled hat each day and support them in applying sunscreen when they arrive in the morning.

ELC Facebook

Holy Trinity ELC now has a Facebook page, which we encourage you to follow. We will post updates, reminders and share some of the wonderful learning experiences that our children get up to.

Click here to follow us.

Dear HT Community,

What a fabulous few weeks we have had in the build up to Book Week 2024… Congratulations to the fabulous authors and illustrators who took out the prizes for 2024 – such an achievement.

Week 4 :

R.A. Spratt (booked a year ago):

Rachel was our guest author for the older grades, she was amazing - such passion, knowledge and soooo funny. People in Bowral (her hometown) actually thought she was  a homeless person until they saw her photo in the local book shop.

Rachel has written 30 books, plans and plots for two weeks prior to writing a book and then makes time to write for two hours a day.  Rachel writes 10 books a year and her podcast launched during Covid has over 5 million listeners.

Her story about all her books having ‘Self-explanatory titles’ made complete sense – grandparents are her best clients and easy titles are better to remember.

Rachel started each session with a loud trumpet, shared great writing tips, gave us a private reading of one of her books and then ended up with a quick song on her ukulele.

Week 5:

Magic Mike (booked a week ago)…
OML he was soooooo amazing, and we were all completely gobsmacked. I haven’t stopped telling people about how Magic Mike…

Made two friend looks at each other and then the cards they were holding tight in their palms swap to the other friend’s palm.

Got a child to select a card from a deck, pulled out a card that said, ‘not your card’, then found their card with their name written on it. He then made the actual deck of cards that the child was holding onto turn into a glass box that said ‘Magic Mike’.

He also asked loads of random questions and somehow worked out the code to Mrs McCann’s phone.

Got one child and 10 teachers to type all these ridiculous numbers onto their phones (that the child said) and somehow the final answer was the date and exact time.

Got myself and Mr O’Rourke to pick a random number from 1 – 50 which was a movie title, got a child to pick a random number from 1 – 100 that was something from the shops and then had a poster printed of both of us doing that exact thing.

If you ever got a chance get to one of Mike’s shows go, although from Hollywood to Holy Trinity what more would he want to do.

Holy Trinity Book Week Parade, Awards Ceremony and Staff Production..

By 8.30am the car park was full, parents were ready to go and the blacktop was filled with every outfit imaginable- from Peter Pan’s Boat, to the faraway tree, a rubric cube, Lighting McQueen’s car, a bee hive, a bunch of grapes, a 100 magicians, Barbie herself, crayons, wizards galore, Narnia’s lamppost, butterflies, Charlie Bucket, angry bears and wimpy kids… the list goes on but it was the best ever. Thanks to Mr Feerick for keeping us all dancing.

After much singing, dancing and laughing we said farewell to our parents and guests and headed into the hall for the serious side of the day – announcing the ‘Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner’ books and honour books for 2024 - it wasn’t that serious and there were lots of laughs. After the formalities we got some children up on the stage to tell us all about their outfits. Photos taken and a bit of dancing done.

To conclude the celebrations the staff then put on their annual Book Week Play ‘Cindy, a modern day Cinderella’. It was hysterical and often off script, but the children laughed and laughed. The director cringed but it all worked out - Mr Davis was Guy Prince, Mrs McDevitt was Cinders, Mrs Sheargold the Stepmum and the Three Stepsisters were from another school, I am sure. Thanks to Mrs. White for the accompanying slide show and soundtrack.

Sorry – I have written a thesis.

Next week photos of the Book Week Parade Best Dressed, our Aura Parker visit (wear something fabulously blue and bring a toy bird if you can) and our Magic Show Update (unfortunately postponed until next Friday as I have no voice)

God Bless,

Kate Mertz

Felicity competed in the Australian National Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championship yesterday in Melbourne and won a silver! It was a very tough draw for her and she did exceptionally well, winning her first two fights against higher ranked opponents. 

Congratulations to Felicity on her achievement.

The Great Book Swap, in support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.

We ask all students to donate a book from their home library for The Great Book Swap.

On Wednesday 4 September 2024 we invite students to bring a gold coin (or note!) to school to spend at the Book Swap. Everyone will walk away with a ‘new’ book to read.

Congratulations to students celebrating their birthday this week: Bridget H, Ella N, Elsa K, Henry Z, Esme C, Joshle J and Samuel G. Best of birthday wishes to you all, have a wonderful, special day.

Please notes dates can change