TERM 4, WEEK 8 - WED 4 DEC

Team Leader: Geoff Wynn, Ben Bryant, Brian Nash, Georgina Papoutsis

Reminder:  Could team leaders please ensure the ELC is vacuumed, as well as the main building and annexe.   Just the carpeted areas, as the bathrooms are done by the cleaners.

 "The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet: "I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare the way - a voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" (Mark1:1-3)

Dear Friends,

This weekend we begin the season of Advent, the beginning of a new year in the annual cycle of the liturgy.  It is a time for us where endings and beginnings are happening together, which brings about a lot of mixed emotions. There may be a sense of completion, or perhaps anxiety about what a new year will bring, and then the mixtures of successes and failures, hopes and disappointment.  These mixed emotions are picked up very neatly in the four weeks of Advent leading up to the birth of Christ- waiting, hoping, preparing and anticipating.  

Thank you for helping complete your children's friendship groups and requests as we finalise class lists for 2019.  Our enrolments continue to increase, and this may now mean a change in the class configurations for 2019- this will be finalise soon, along with staffing for 2019.

As I have discussed with you in the past, the Catholic schools funding uncertainty is beginning to settle with a welcome commitment  from the Morrison government to help restore some funding.  However it is still unknown exactly how much government funding our school will receive and thus there will be an increase in tuition fees set by the Catholic Education Commission and our school levies for 2019.  These combined will help to keep pace with rising salary and school costs, to ensure Holy Trinity continues to deliver the quality education for our students that staff work hard daily to achieve and, that you as parents expect. Fees  for 2019 will also support additional priority resourcing such as :

• School Education needs, including ICT resources, infrastructure and technology
• Camps and excursions, water safety program
• furniture for flexible learning spaces
• ongoing commitment of the IB program, including professional development for staff to continue a high quality of teaching and learning
• facilities maintenance and refurbishment.

Families will receive in the next couple of weeks a 2019 fees schedule.  Please always remember that no student at Holy Trinity will ever be refused enrolment, excluded or disadvantaged because of circumstances that makes fee payments challenging. 

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

Philippa

Holy Trinity's Thanksgiving Mass- TUESDAY 4 DECEMBER  

All families that are leaving Holy Trinity at the end of 2018 and those who have volunteered their time to help the school, are invited to attend Holy Trinity's Thanksgiving Mass. The mass will be led by Kinder and is an opportunity for the staff and students to give thanks and bless the families of our school community. The mass will be held on Tuesday 4 December, at 9:30am.

Sacrament of Reconciliation

Next Tuesday at 7pm, the Parish of the Transfiguration will be celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation for 2018. Everyone is welcome to attend and support our students that will receive the Sacrament. 

St Vincent de Paul Christmas Food Appeal

Students at Holy Trinity are asked to donate at least one item each towards St Vincent de Paul Christmas Food Appeal. These items will be combined to fill hampers for families in the Canberra region. Each class has been allocated a food type to put in a collection Basket that is in each classroom. These donations will be presented to St Vincent de Paul at our Thanksgiving Mass, Tuesday 4 December 9;30am.

 Please send in all food items by the end of Week 7, Friday November 30. 

Christmas Concert Poster Competition

All entries for Holy Trinity’s Christmas Concert Poster need to be either emailed or handed to Mrs Everding by tomorrow morning. The staff will be judging them and the winner will be announced at next Monday Mornings Meeting.

Christmas Concert Pre-entertainment 

During Week 8 students will have the opportunity to sign up for our Christmas Concert pre-entertainment. Students can play or sing one Christmas Carol during our pre-entertainment from 5-5:30pm before the Christmas Concert on Friday 14th December. 

Year 6 Graduation Mass 

If your student is graduating from Holy Trinity can you please email a baby/ toddler and a preschool/kindergarten photo to Mrs Thompson-Lang by Friday 7^th December at Heidi.Thompsonlang@cg.catholic.edu.au

 Global School Partners Christmas Craft Fundraiser!

BIG thank you for your generosity and support last Friday at our pop-up craft & baking stall. Drum roll please…we raised an amazing $731.60 which will make a significant difference to the Evaland Hekima Academy in Africa. Well done Holy Trinity Community – your kindness and thoughtfulness is really appreciated! A huge thank you to Jo Hamilton for all your time, effort and organisation that went into the creating of the art and craft and the selling of it. Thank you also to the parents and students that helped last Friday. 

Children’s Christmas Eve Vigil Mass 

If any students are available to participate in the 5:30pm Holy Trinity’s Children’s Christmas Eve Vigil Mass, please email Mrs Everding.

Upcoming RE Celebrations…….. 

Week 8 

Tuesday 4 December- Thanksgiving Mass led by Kinder @9:30am.  

Tuesday 4 December- Sacrament of Reconciliation @7pm. 

Week 9

Friday 14 December- End of Year Concert @12pm and @5:30 followed by P & F BBQ

Week 10

Wednesday 19 December- Year 6 Graduation Mass @12pm 

Stay and Play

Every Wednesday morning from 9am-10am in the ELC Playground during school term. Pre-preschoolers and their parents, grandparents and carers all very welcome.

Technology holiday guide for parents

by Martine Oglethorpe

As holidays approach, the role that screens and devices will play becomes an increasing concern for parents. Days when kids are usually tied up with school and activities make way for many an idle hour and, as such, parents fear those hours will be spent largely engaged with a screen or gaming console. While there is certainly no harm in some well-balanced screen time and developmentally appropriate online activities, we must remember that, as parents, we have an important role in helping our kids manage and balance that screen time. Here are a few things we can do:

Understand the battle
It is important parents know the beast they are dealing with. It is easy to shout from another room to get off a screen or whinge to our friends that ‘kids of today’ are all addicted to their phones, but we need to recognise the pull that many of these devices have. The social networks are designed to keep us liking, commenting and sharing. The games cajole us into having ‘just one more’ turn at being the last man standing. These technologies tempt us to reach just one more level, or to scroll for just a few minutes more. Our brains experience a dopamine release and a sense of insufficiency when we use a device. There is always something else to do or something else to scroll through, or one more YouTube video to watch. So our kids are up against it when trying to control their time on a device. We need to help them with that.

Get outside
We can complain that kids never go outside and play anymore, but sometimes we have to physically get out there with them or offer opportunities in which being outside and active play are appealing. We have to work a little harder at this today because we are competing with a device that answers many of our kids’ perceived needs. We need them to know that their needs are greater and more varied than what their screens can offer.

Have some rules
Despite their apparent dislike of rules around technology, kids will (one day) appreciate having boundaries to help them manage their screen time. Rules can be established regarding time limits, devices in bedrooms, device-free meal times, etc. Whatever you decide is important, be sure that you have those discussions with your kids. And any discussion around rules or consequences should happen away from the screens so they are clear on the expectations. (Talking about their screen-time habits while they are just about to be the last man standing on Fortnite is probably not going to make for engaging conversation.)

One console on one television…outside the bedroom
Having only one television that is connected to a gaming console or to Netflix is a good way of ensuring that the device gets shared and one child doesn’t monopolise the screen. And leave consoles out of bedrooms where the appeal of just one more quick game can very quickly rob them of important sleep time.

Role model
Make sure you are showing your kids how you want them to be. Have times when the devices are put away and you give full attention to the people around you. Don’t answer calls or emails at the dinner table. Don’t fall asleep with a device landing on your forehead. Take time to get outside and do things active and in nature. Don’t ever use a phone while driving. Use the Screen Time feature on iOS products to monitor just how you are using your technology and whether you could be making some changes. Kids learn more from what we do than what we say.

We know the technology isn’t going anywhere, and we know there are many wonderful benefits that screens provide. But ensure that holidays and downtime hours can be filled with many different experiences and in ways that leave your kids in control, even if you have to work a little harder to give them that.

(Source: Parentingideas.com.au)

Swimming

Students have thoroughly enjoyed their swimming lessons at CISAC Belconnen. Thank you for the support you have provided your children over the last couple of weeks in preparations for each day. We hope they have developed some lifelong skills that will aid them when in the water.

Volleyball

Over the last 2 weeks Year 6 have taken part in volleyball clinics. Players from Volleyball ACT have provided the students with fun and engaging lessons. Well done to the Year 6 students who consistently displayed enthusiasm and great sportpersonship during the clinics.

Congratulations to Liam P, Tess N, Abby VB, and Claire O’C on being selected to attend the 2018 Chief Minister’s Reading Challenge awards, last Friday, with Mrs. Mertz.

This year the awards ceremony was at the National Library from 11.30 am. We were lucky enough to have the actual Chief Minister – Mr Andrew Barr –  at the ceremony this year. He spoke beautifully about his love of reading.

Jack Heath, a local Canberra author and an ambassador of the CMRC, then spoke about being an author. He was amazing and told us how writing a book needs a whole lot of imagination.

We also received Holy Trinity’s three award certificates and $300 from the very generous Paper Chain book store in Manuka. Holy Trinity completed all categories of the competition. We learnt that 32 000 students from Canberra were registered in the challenge this year.

At 12.30pm lunch was served – which was a little too fancy for us but looked impressive. We then ventured to Manuka for some good old hot chips, a drink and finally a shop at Paper Chain. All attendees purchased a book each for the school library.

It was big fun and a lovely reward for four great readers; Abby, Liam, Tess and Claire – who were fabulous ambassadors for our school and had perfect manners.

On 26th November, 41 students performed at Parliament House in the Marble Foyer. The performance consisted of four Christmas songs, celebrating the start of advent. Many parliamentary staff and the public were very complimentary our student behaviour and musical prowess. A big congratulations to the students were exceptional ambassadors for our school. ​

Week 7

Lower: Liam is reading a book that has 24 pages. He has just finished reading page 17. How many more pages does he still have to read to finish the book?

Middle: The cheapest sliced bread in one supermarket was $1.65 per loaf and the most expensive was $4.40. What is the difference between these 2 prices?

Upper: Two books and one pen cost $45. Four of the same books and one pen cost $85. What would the price be of six of those same books and two pens?

       TERM 4, WEEK 8 - WED 5 DEC

Team Leader:  Lana Eldridge, Dean Prail, Ross Hamilton, David/Athena Cains, Michael Chan