Today we celebrated our Parish Feast Day; The Feast of the Transfiguration of The Lord. 27 years ago, the Parishes of Holy Trinity Curtin, and Saints Peter and Paul Garran amalgamated to create the Transfiguration Parish, North Woden.

Today, the staff and students, gathered together to celebrate the unity of our parish, its strong faith, generous acts of service and dedication to being followers of Jesus, just as those present at the original Transfiguration were.

The original Transfiguration event is the guidepost for all we are and do as a Parish: Jesus Christ, shining atop Mount Tabor in His glory to Saints Peter, James, and John, gave them a vision that would strengthen their faith when they saw Him suffer on a different hilltop, the Mount of Calvary.  None of us is perfect, all of us have our sins, our fears, our doubts, and our crosses, but with the grace of God we’re on the way together. 

Below is a copy of the Parish of Transfiguration Newsletter. It contains short comments and photos about some happenings of late in the parish. Mindful that we are one parish (since 1994) albeit with two schools, Holy Trinity and Sts Peter and Paul,  it is important to acknowledge and celebrate the same.  Today we celebrated the Feast of the Transfiguration with Mass as a school community in anticipation of the Parish Feast  of the Transfiguration celebrated by the universal Church on Saturday 6 August. 

The Holy Trinity Parents and Friends Committee has played an active role in the school for many years.

The committee - working with parents, teachers, students and the local business community - has raised over $600,000 in the past decade. 

Funds raised have gone to such projects as the ELC playground, refurbishing the basketball courts, tuckshop remodelling, literacy resources, playground landscaping, IT equipment and furniture.

The most recent commitment is to provide - as fundraising allows - $30,000 for the annexe building project and $15,000 for school resources.

As well, the committee has been a vital catalyst for bringing families together for social events.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown out the rhythm of the committee's activities and the sense of connection many school parents have with each other.

The committee is working to restore its activities this year, with a view to returning to a new normal in 2023.

Past regular events include: a start of year welcome barbecue, Mother's Day and Father's Day stalls, the school disco, an end of year event, the walkathon and a fete every two years. The P&F also operates the uniform shop on a voluntary basis.

Information will be provided in coming weeks and months on how you can help the P&F not only fundraise but restore a greater sense of connection and involvement in our fantastic school, and have fun on the way.

Paul Osborne

P&F President

SO HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

The p&F are holding some terrific community building events this term! A Father’s day stall, fabulous disco for the kids and a fun walk-a-thon. More details to follow but we really need some more helpers to run these events. If you are interested in getting involved, please click here. 

Microsoft Teams meeting

Join on your computer or mobile app

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 420 976 009 621
Passcode: KTsDY7

Friday 5 August

This Friday the ELC will be operating as usual when the school has its pupil free day. Unfortunately we are unable to offer the 'holiday care' for primary aged children due to our regular classes attending.

Hatching Chicks

The preschoolers avidly observed and inquired into the life cycle of chickens through the hatching chicks program over the last two weeks. The kit is being collected on Friday morning.

Our chicks and ducks are available for families to take home on Friday morning (before 9.30am). If you wish to take some home, please contact the ELC office for confirmation and details for the care required, by THURSDAY 4pm.

Before and After School Care

The ELC currently has available places in the Preschool Plus/Before School Care and After School Care programs. If you would like to enrol your child please email elc.holytrinity@cg.catholic.edu.au for an enrolment pack.

Stay and Play

Due to the updated Covid Road Map for Term 3 and restrictions on visitors, Stay and Play will be postponed until Term 4.

HATS

Hats are required to be worn from 1 August as per our Sun Protection Policy.

Parking

Please be mindful of where you are parking in the afternoon at pickup times. Please note that parking in the Church grounds is not permitted due to access and safety issues. This is a pedestrian thoroughfare for children and families. If the school carpark is full, please park at Curtin shops or below the presbytery where there is ample parking available.

Preschool families (9am-3pm) - please allow time to park and collect your child by 3pm. We have a staggered drop off (8.50am-9am) and pick up (2.50pm-3.00pm) period for Covid safety. Late pick ups run into our After School Care Program and staff meeting/programming time. Children dropped before 8.50am and picked up after 3pm without notice, will be added to the Preschool Plus roll and charged accordingly.

Pupil Free Days

Friendly reminder that tomorrow, Friday 5 August and Friday 9 September are Pupil Free Days. Students will not attend school. Kids Biz will again offer a program for the day. ELC parents please note: Pupil Free Days are only for Kinder to Year 6, not the ELC.

Church Carpark (Strangways Street)

A reminder to parents and carers that parking in the Church grounds is not permitted due to access and safety issues. This is a pedestrian thoroughfare for children and families. If the school carpark is full, please park at Curtin shops or below the presbytery where there is ample parking available. 

Welcome to Term Three which is our favourite term in the library as we celebrate Book Week.

We spend the first six weeks of this term looking at the shortlisted books for Book Week. The theme this year is ‘Dreaming with Eyes Open’. We focus on; Picture Book of the Year, Younger Readers Book of the Year, Early Childhood Book of the Year, and the Eve Powell Information Book of the Year - there are six books in each category.

We unpack the books, vote on our favourite books, and complete a range of craft activities related to the nominated books. The celebrations conclude with a Book Week performance (Tuesday, 23^rd August) and the fabulous Book Week parade (Thursday, 25^th August) -the children are already talking about which book character they will come as.

We have prizes for fabulous costumes, announce the ‘Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner’ books for 2022, we then parade and dance around the hall for approximately two hours. We also take photos to share in the newsletter and on Seesaw.

On another note, a big thank you to all the fabulous readers in our school who have completed an individual Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge for 2022. We have had completed forms from children in ELC all the way to Year Six. All completed CMRC forms are handed into the library, stickers are placed on the name of the person who has completed the challenge and raffle tickets are put into either the ELC -Year 2 Box, 3/4 Box or the 5/6 Box.

Prizes are given out once the challenge concludes – Week 6, Friday 26^th August.  

At a school level, all grades are also working on completing the CMRC in their classes. All books read in class and library are recorded on the grade challenge sheets.

Please click here to download a CMRC form, there is also a box outside the library door with blank. 

Happy Reading 

Father's Day stall is happening on Friday 2nd September 

The Holy Trinity Fathers' Day stall will be held this year on Friday 2nd September.  For those not familiar with the stall the idea is that each child gets to ‘buy’ a gift for their dad.

To make things easier for families this year, the P&F will procure all the gifts for the stall. We ask you to contribute $5 per child via Qkr which goes towards the cost of the gifts and a donation to the L'Archce Foundation. Every year the Father's Day stall donates all profits to this terrific local charity, who provide people with intellectual disabilities the support they need to lead fulfilling and empowered lives.

Payment for the Father's Day stall is in the School Events menu on Qkr in the Holy Trinity P&F section.

We understand some families in our community might be experiencing financial hardship and we want to assure those families that all children will be invited to participate in the Father’s Day stall irrespective of payment. No child will be excluded.
If you are in a position to donate a ‘gift’ to support a less fortunate family in our community, we would be thrilled - it’s as easy as making an additional contribution via Qkr.

HELPER REQUIRED:

On Thursday 25th August, there will be a 'wrap and wine' evening in the school hall commencing at 7.15pm. Also, on the day, Friday 2nd September, we require a number of Mother helpers to assist with the stall between 8.30am – 11.00am.

To volunteer, please click here and complete the form which will be sent through to  Lisa Bauer.

Thank you to the parents/carers in our community who have communicated to us already that their child/ren will not be returning in 2023. 

If you have a child/children with an Enrolment Application pending at another school or you know your child/children will not be returning to Holy Trinity in 2023 could you please click below and fill in the form to be sent to the front office. This does NOT include current Year 6 students. 

If your child is not returning in 2023, please click here.

Thank you, this would greatly help us to inform staffing and planning for next year. 

It has been lovely meeting new families to Holy Trinity and help them with their uniform needs over the last two weeks. 

We are next open on Tuesday 16 August 08:30-09:00 for in-store shopping and all delivery orders placed by 12 August July will be sent home on this day. 

We ask that families utilise the D2C option where possible to minimise movement in and around the school. Please note that Qkr! will only display two weeks worth of dates due to a system technical limitation. If all dates are greyed out, please try again the following week. 

We continue to have a large number of quality second hand items available for purchase at a significantly reduced rate. Unfortunately we are unable to offer second hand items as part of the D2C service and families will need to come and visit our friendly volunteers during our opening times to purchase these. 

It would be extremely helpful to our volunteers if families could only donate items that are clean and of saleable quality with no rips, tears, stains or broken zippers etc. We are looking into ways we can responsibly consider uniforms across their lifespan, including end of life recycling. In the meantime we encourage families to utilise textile recycling programs (for example https://www2.hm.com/en_au/sustainability-at-hm/our-work/close-the-loop.html).  

As part of our COVID-19 safety protocols, where families are shopping in-store, we ask that family members (over 12) consider wearing a mask, in line with health guidance, and family groups continue to socially distance from other family groups. 

It is expected that this peak, overlayed with the flu season could extend into October. As such we ask that families consider their summer uniform requirements and place these orders as early as possible to minimise any impacts and delays. 

Size 8 green jumpers are now in stock. 

As always, please reach out if you have any urgent uniform needs and we will work with you to ensure these needs are met. 

 RE: SCHOOL BOARD AND COMMUNITY COUNCIL REVIEW

The Catholic Education Commission endorsed the establishment of a Working Group to review various aspects of Archdiocesan School Board and Community Council models.

During the course of this year the Working Group has engaged in targeted consultation with internal stakeholders and has had some preliminary discussions with a narrow group of external stakeholders, including representatives from the Catholic School Parents Archdiocese of Canberra & Goulburn.

The Working Group is now seeking to draw on the experiences, expertise and perspectives of parents and carers, school staff and members of school communities through a process of general consultation. To this end, an Issues Paper has been drafted outlining the key issues that the Working Group has identified to date and posing a number of discussion questions that the Working Group is seeking responses to.

Click here to access the Issues Paper 

Members of your school community can go to the webpage: https://cg.catholic.edu.au/school-board-and-community-council-review/foreword/ to submit a response to the questions posed in the Issues Paper. 

The closing date for submissions is 2 September 2022.

If you have any questions about the Review, please direct them to Sarah Meier, General Counsel and Governance, Risk and Policy Manager via email sarah.meier@cg.catholic.edu.au or by telephone 0433 997 077.

Good wishes

Ross Fox

DIRECTOR

Catholic School Parents Australia (CSPA) are conducting a survey of Catholic School parents on student Wellbeing and Learning.  The survey results will be used to report to the Federal Government and Catholic Education.  The survey is open until 31 August 2022.