Congratulations to Laura and her family (Black Cockatoo's) who welcomed baby Zoe last Friday.

Enrolment period Catholic Schools enrolment period for 2019 began this week and runs throughout May. Preschool families will need to complete an enrolment for Kindergarten. Enrolment forms are available from the Holy Trinity front office or ELC office. Our next open morning is on Tuesday 15 May at 9.30am-11am - you may have friends or family you would like to invite along.

Toys please note that toys and personal items from school are discouraged from preschool. They can get lost or damaged which is distressing for all. There have been a large number of children bringing in toys from home, we have plenty of toys in the ELC, so we would appreciate your help in keeping toys at home.

Year 2 Grade Mass 

Year Two will lead the Holy Trinity Church community in mass next Tuesday 15th at 9:30am. Everyone is warmly invited. 

Global School Partners Fundraising events

During Term Two Holy Trinity will be fundraising for our Global School Partners (GSP) partner school Evaland Hekima Academy. This term our aim is to raise money for a water tank for the students and staff to enjoy clean, fresh water. We have 4 events organised:  

Friday Week 4- 5/6- Teacher Dunk

Friday Week 6- ELC and Kinder- Coin Line

Friday Week 8- Year 1 and 2- Cake Stalll

Friday Week 9-  3/4- Talent Show

All these events will be advertised at the Friday Morning Assembly, the week before prior to the event. The events will be organised by the assigned teaching teams and the Year 6 GSP Team.

For more information about GSP and how to get involved with sponsoring a child, please clink on the image below.

Sacrament of Confirmation

Preparation for the Confirmation Candidates of the Parish of the Transfiguration starts this evening with a Parent Information Night. The Parish Based Program will run differently this year due to lack of volunteer leaders. We look forward to seeing all parents of the candidates this evening.

Term 2 Dates to Remember:

• Global School Partners Fundraising Events- Week 4, 6, 8 and 9
• Confirmation Parent Information Night: 10^th May, 6pm, Parish Centre
• GSP Event- 5/6 Teacher Dunk, Friday 25^th May, 2:30pm
• Parish Mass: 2^nd June, 6pm
• Confirmation Parent and Child Night: 7^th June, 6pm, School Hall
• GSP Event- ELC & Kinder Coin Line, Friday 8^th June, all day
• Confirmation Date: 17^th June, 9am and 11am
• GSP Event- Year 1 & 2 Cake Stall, Friday 22^nd June, 10:30 & 1:10pm
• GSP Event- Year 3/4 Talent Show, Friday 29 June, 2:10pm

Next week, student in Year 3 and 5 will sit for the first time, NAPLAN online. Students in Year 3 only will be completing a paper-based writing test. If your child has a BYOD and it meets the technical requirements, as advertised in Term 1 Week 5 and 6 newsletters,  they need to ensure that they bring their device (with NAP Browser uploaded) and headphones to school FULLY CHARGED on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. 

Library News

Welcome to Term 2. Lots of things are happening in Library Land this term….

1. Week 4: Thursday 24^th May, Holy Trinity will be once again participating in the National Simultaneous Storytime - along with another 760 000 children from all around Australia. The book this year is ‘Hickory Dickory Dash’.

2. Week4: Friday 25^th May, Years 3 – 6 will be attending a session with visiting author – Coral Vass and then another session with illustrator – Dub Leffler. We have been lucky enough to book Coral and Dub while they are in Canberra launching their new book ‘Sorry Day’ at the National Library. Their visit ties in perfectly with National Reconciliation Week the following week. Check out Coral’s website, she has written some lovely books. Dub illustrates and has also written a number of books.

3. Don’t forget that the Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge is now in full swing at Holy Trinity – Please see the newsletter from Week 8 (last term) if unsure what to do. If the Code Reader is too hard for you to complete, please down load a challenge sheet or send your kids into the library to grab a CMRC form.
4. Redgum Book Club closes Week 4 – Monday 21^st

 Happy Reading. 

Congratulations to Olivia Daffy who has been selected to perform with Opera Australia. She will be performing with 19 other students from Woden Valley Youth Choir later in the year. Olivia will be performing Madame Butterfly on two occasions later in the year. We wish you well Olivia and hope to hear how we can get our front tickets.

On 7 May, Hannah from Australian Girls Choir conducted a workshop for our Holy Trinity Choir. Students who attended were encouraged to sing as a group, in pairs and perform a little choreographed dance. Our next performance will be at Fred Ward on the 22^nd May.

Friendships are an important aspect of all of our lives – perhaps even more so for our children as they navigate the often complex years of growing up and discover their place in the world. As our young people grow and develop, so do their friendships.

In the early years, many friendships are developed through manufactured situations and groups we are involved in as parents. First time mother’s groups, antenatal birthing classes, playgroup, church groups and other friendship groups for mothers, often become the first opportunities that our children have to play and develop these early skills of relating to their peers. It is during these early toddler years that we can safely observe and guide our children’s play time. We can help them deal with minor disputes over whose turn it is to play with the truck, use the dress up cape or the blocks. We teach our children to play fairly, share and take turns.

As our children enter their early Primary School years, these friendships develop more out of our earshot. Some parents may even feel a little concerned that they will not know each of your child’s friends at school and whom they choose to be influenced by. However, there is a lot we can do as parents to help guide our children through these years of critical relationship building. Developing the strategies to deal with friendship conflicts, tricky situations and issues of bullying are lifelong skills that will stand them in good stead for the years ahead.

What makes a good friend?

From an early age, we can have conversations with our children around what makes a good, healthy friendship. What are the qualities we look for in a friend? I have asked this very question of hundreds of children over the past two decades and the same qualities are mentioned time and time again:

Honest
Trustworthy
Friendly
Dependable
Kind-hearted
Humorous
Forgiving

These qualities are probably the same for many of us parents too. However we also need to remember that we should also display these qualities if we are seeking positive and healthy friendships. We will actually attract these same qualities in the friendships we make when we model these ourselves.

Lead by Example

Whether we like it or not, our children are observing us all the time. They watch how we speak, act and conduct our own friendships.

A few days ago, I was astounded by an exchange I observed on social networking site Facebook between two grown women – mothers – right in front of their children’s watchful gaze. What was perhaps the most distressing for those observing, were a few comments posted intermittently by the young children of these women – who were observing every hurtful missile fired between the two! One child simply wrote: ‘Please! will you stop calling my mum names!” “Please will you stop speaking to my mum that way, she doesn’t deserve it!’ And my heart broke!

These parents were clearly having a very heated falling out – but to play this out in a very public way and under the ever-watchful eyes of their children was just so sad. To these children, the modelling is already occurring before their eyes.

Model your own positive Friendships

As parents, we can do a lot to teach our children about navigating friendships by modelling our own in a positive way. Demonstrate that a friendship is a two-way street by phoning your friend occasionally, sending an encouraging note or card, or making a meal for them if they are unwell. When we do these things naturally in our own relationships, we are teaching our children how supportive real friendships can be.

Dealing with Tricky Friends

We will always encounter friendships that can become a little complex or tricky at times. Our children will find this very difficult when it occurs but we can teach them how to handle this effectively and let them know that it is okay to set their own boundaries and enforce these when necessary.

Hurt Feelings

Feelings will often be hurt during our friendships- that is the nature of living in relationship and part of a community. However, it is how we deal with hurt feelings – that is most important. When your child experiences hurt feelings, try and use this as a teachable moment!

Recently my daughter came home from school feeling down. A girl in her class had distributed her birthday party invitations in front of a gathered group of friends – however she did not invite my daughter.

My daughter was clearly stunned as she relayed the story to me.

‘Why would someone DO THAT?!’ she questioned. ‘It is just SO mean!’

It became a great teachable moment for her. We talked about how this girl must be feeling about herself and her position amongst the girls if she has to noticeable, in front of everyone, NOT invite a well-liked, popular girl in the group. It was all about this girl’s feelings of power, or lack of. I talked to my daughter about how she was feeling at that moment, and explained to her that there will always be people who deliberately (in this case) or accidentally hurt our feelings. What my daughter could learn from this is how NOT to treat others – whether they are your closest friend or just a part of your social group at school. Be mindful of other’s feelings.

When it came time for my daughter to plan her own birthday party, and she had a limited number of guests allowed, she made it a point to hand out her invitations in private and at a time that would not cause upset to others.

We cannot possibly protect our children from having their feelings hurt or having to deal with difficult people – but we can teach them how to respond and learn valuable life skills about navigating tricky friendships.

Most Friendships won’t last Forever

If you had have told me at age 8 that my best friend in the entire world, would not have been my lifelong friend forever, I would simply not have believed you! But to our children, their friendships do seem ‘lifelong’ and permanent. They cannot imagine these relationships ever drifting apart. However, the reality is, most of our early friendships don’t continue on forever and this is a good point to teach our children. Some friends are with us for a reason, and some for just a season. But each will bring something unique to our lives and perhaps teach us a lesson – even if that lesson is what we don’t want or need in a friend.

Be Friendly!

As much as this may seem like such a simple point to make, it is important that our children learn to be friendly – even to those who are unkind or cause conflict in our lives. There will always be people who annoy us, speak rudely to us for no apparent reason. But we are not always privy to what is going on in their lives. If someone is mean or nasty to your daughter, explain to her that we don’t always understand why people choose to be rude to us or react in certain ways. What we can do is demonstrate some grace and act with kindness.

Elbert Hubbard said: ‘In order to have friends, you must first be one.’

This is a good mantra to teach our young people. So often, our children complain that they have no real friends, or they are not popular at school. But this quote is a timely reminder that they need to practice being a friend. The more you practice being friendly and being interested in others, the more people will be drawn to you.

Friendships will always be a lifelong learning opportunity. Hopefully, as we navigate and manage our own friendships as adults, we can model to our own children how to best take this journey through life.

 By Sharon Witt

Delighted to report we have swum past our original goal of 30 (yay) and are now targeting at least 40 membership sales (equates to $480 donation direct to HT).

Still looking for a Mother’s Day gift?  How about an Entertainment Membership that Mum/Grandma/Carer/Other Special Person can enjoy with you, extended family and friends for more than 12 months of valuable dining, shopping, travel offers etc?

Check out this article from Money Magazine Australia (http://moneymag.com.au/entertainment-book/) on how good the 2018|2019 Entertainment Memberships are! And as if this isn't reason enough, $12 from every membership we sell, directly supports our HT fundraising.

They are going fast, so get in quick to purchase your digital or hard copy membership for Canberra and surrounds as well as other states/territories.  2018/2019 Memberships are valid now until 30 June 2019.  Note: 2017/2018 memberships are still valid until 1 June 2018.

Click on the tab below to order or access our online HT payment page (https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/232w05) for electronic completion.

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 valuable support - it is genuinely appreciated.

Congratulations to Jarvis Christie, who played Captain of the Guards and Knight 2 in Canberra Academy of Dramatic Arts production of Shrek the Musical Jr. Also, playing the Dragon was an ex Holy Trinity student.  Jarvis was in two performances on April 14th and 15th at the Belconnen Community Arts Theatre. Well done Jarvis.