Jesus said, ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.’

Dear Friends,

Last weekend we commemorated Remembrance Day, the ritual that marks the cease-fire of 11 November 1918, 100 year ago. The above Gospel was shared at our Remembrance Day Prayer Service on Monday, where we honoured inspirational people, who serve our country to bring about peace and purposeful change.  On Wednesday we also presented from our 5 and 6 students their Exhibition Inquiry, honouring humans who use inspiration and knowledge to bring about purposeful change.  It has certainly been an honour and inspiration to watch the growth, perseverance, risk taking, care and reflective insight that all our senior students gained during this personal inquiry.  Such a wonderful ocassion to celebrate such rich, insightful and engaging learning.  In next week's newsletter we will share the 2018 Exhibition learning with you all.

We are coming to that time of the year when we begin planning staffing and class groups for the following year.  I am currently employing new staff for next year as we have some staff leaving. Brett Seaman will be joining the St John the Apostle staff at Florey, another loss for us, however we wish him continued success into the future.  We also have two very long serving staff members retiring at the end of this year-  Michael McNamara and Terry Ross.  Both gentleman have given a significant part of their lives to this school and the families and we are indebted to all they have done.  We will be welcoming Caitlin Meany, Tracey Hanlon, Catherine Joy and Emily Capper to our 2019 teaching staff; Caitlin is an Early Career Teacher who did her 4th Year Practical placement here in Year 1G class and the other three teachers are experienced staff who come from differing Catholic schools in Canberra.

On Monday, all children will receive a green form to fill in suggesting students they would like to be placed with for 2019. There are many elements to consider to form equitable and cohesive classes of students.  We want to  make sure that all students are in the best possible learning environment.  These considerations will be outlined in this note for your child to fill in with you. We will then place all these considerations into Class Creator, our new software program. This program that will help us generate classes which will then be closely reviewed by our teaching teams. These forms will need to be completed  and returned to your child’s teacher by no later than Friday 23^rd November. If there are specific needs or information about your child in regards to 2019 class placement, please contact me via email by the 23^rd November.   Please do not request specific teachers for your child, just any circumstances you believe need consideration when forming class for 2019.

Finally,last week at our School Board meeting we voted for a new Chair.  This is  because John Owens, will be finishing his journey here at Holy Trinity as his last child, Georgia completes Year 6 at the end of the year. Words cannot express our gratitude for the many hours and insightful wisdom and support John has given to our community over the years. We also thank and welcome Scott Pearsall (Liliana Yr1 and Conor ELC 2019) who will be the new Chair of our School Board from the beginning of 2019.

Please keep Grace Fogarty (1G) and her family in your prayers as her grandmother died recently.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our School and Parish Mass at 6pm on Saturday night, followed by a Parish BBQ. With every best wish for a holy and peace-filled week ahead with your beautiful families,

Philippa