Lord Jesus you are with us as we commence our year's work.  Let us remember that the Catholic school is a marvellous place where people really belong, where the values of the Gospel can set children free to learn and grow and to live a happy and full life.  Please bless our parents as partners with our staff and open our hearts in friendship to each other.  Amen. 

Dear friends,

On Tuesday we celebrated our Opening School Mass and invited parents to present our Year 6 leaders with their badges.  This was a wonderful ceremony to begin our school year, focusing on our 2019  theme and partnership together as a Parish school.

Our Year 6 leaders will meet with staff every fortnight to partner together in special projects across the school allocated in the following groups:

Sport, Service, Christian Outreach,  Sustainability, Technology and Well-Being. 

The staff look forward to meeting together on Friday night for our Parent Information Evening and Welcome BBQ hosted by the P and F.  As in past years the P and F will supply the bread, sausages, onions, veggie patties, icy poles, and families are invited to BYO all other BBQ supplies please. The school calendar outlines again the times as published in the Week 1 newsletter and Szapp notifications sent throughout this week.  Please note that other important dates for 2019 have also been added to our school calendar,  which can be found on both our school website and school App. 

Last night the School Board met for the first time this year, and we welcomed Scott Pearsall as our new Board Chair.  He will introduce himself and the work of the School Board on Friday night, along with representatives from the P and F during the information session in the Hall.  Handouts for each grade group and the Parent Partnership survey forms will then be available for collection before sharing in the BBQ together.

A special congratulations to the Golack family (Lucas, Year 2 ), who have a beautiful addition to their family, Zara, born during the January holidays.

I look forward to seeing you all on Friday night and to sharing in this special partnership together at Holy Trinity throughout 2019. 

"You can do what I cannot do.  I can do what you cannot do.  Together, we can do great things.  That is  the result of partnership in Jesus."  (Mother Teresa) 

Philippa

Opening School Mass

Thank you to everyone that attended and participated in our Opening School Mass and Leadership Ceremony on Tuesday. Congratulations to our Year 6 students who lead us in mass and received their leadership badges. We wish you all the best in your last year of Primary School and we look forward to watching you strive in your leadership positions. Thank you to each class who created a prayer mat and presented these at mass. A special thank you to Austin and Rachel for alter serving.

Upcoming Religious Education Celebrations

Emily Capper

Religious Education Coordinator

Direct Debit Payment of ELC fees. The ELC is transitioning to Direct Debit payment of fees. Statements will be sent fortnightly and with the total owed fees deducted on the Friday. Please click here to download the form to set up your account.

Parent Information Night and Welcome BBQ

The ELC Information session will take place in the primary school, in the classroom closest to the ELC. Families are welcome to either leave their children in the ELC playground with staff or bring them to the information session. The information session will start at 5.45pm.

ELC families will gather at the rear of the ELC next to the primary playground after the Information session.

Stay and Play

Is a play group for pre-preschoolers and their parents, grandparents and carers. 9-10.30am Wednesday mornings in the ELC playground (weather permitting). All very welcome.

Unearthing kids’ strengths

by Professor Lea Waters (PhD)

Personality strengths – our character – play a big role in helping us build our talents. Think about anyone who has built a talent and imagine if it could have been done without character. Imagine Einstein without curiosity, The Beatles without creativity, Mother Teresa without compassion or Neil Armstrong without bravery.

Yet for decades, scientists were blind to character strength. We focused on talent, often on physical strength and skills. In fact, when I first ask young children what they think a strength is, they almost always point to their biceps or talk about being able to lift something heavy.

Once you get familiar with the language of strengths and a framework for seeing them, you’ll see character strengths easily in your child. In fact, you may find your child calls on their character strengths more often than on talent to meet life’s challenges.

Three key elements of a strength

You’ve probably seen a child joylessly perform at a piano recital. They may hit all the right keys, but there’s no energy or enthusiasm. It’s as if they don’t want to be there. On the flip side, we’ve seen the child onstage who’s clearly motivated and energised and who fearlessly flails through every mistake – of which there are many.

It turns out that three elements come together to form a strength. For purposes of strength-based parenting, we need to keep our eye on all three:

1. Performance (being good at something).
   Watch for when your child shows above-age levels of achievement, rapid learning, and a repeated pattern of success.
2. Energy (feeling good doing it)
   Strengths are self-reinforcing. The more we use them, the more we get from them. They fill us with vigour. You’ll notice your child has abundant energy when using a strength.
3. High use (choosing to do it)
   Finally, look for what your child chooses to do in their spare time, how often they engage in a particular activity, and how they speak about that activity.

For true strengths, these three elements form a beautiful feedback loop: great performance provides the child with a shot of high energy, so the child naturally chooses to do more. In turn, high use – also known as effort or practice – improves performance levels. So, for example, if you notice that your child is energised when they play the piano, and you provide enjoyable opportunities for them to play, if they’re mining a true strength they will likely practise more, which improves their performance, which then energises them … and so the loop continues.

Keeping this triad in mind will help you avoid pushing your child into an area that seems like a strength just because your child is good at it. It will also help you differentiate between whether your child is bingeing on an activity in an escapist way or expressing a true strength.

For example, when a parent asks me, ‘My son is great at computer games and wants to play all the time. Is that a sign of a strength?’ I reply, ‘Observe his energy levels at the end. Is he drained and cranky? Or energised and full of life? Are you seeing the full triad?’ Computer games can tap into a child’s strategic and problem-solving skills or stimulate creativity (in some games, you invent whole new worlds). Or they might just be about filling time.

So look for all three signs. When you see your child do something well, with energy, and repeatedly, you’ll know you’ve unearthed a strength.

(Source: www.parentingideas.com.au)

Welcome to 2019. I hope everyone had a lovely break and are ready for a big and busy year full of lots of good books.

Just a few things to get the year started…

• The Library is open every day during the 2^nd half of lunch. Please remind your children to come as it is a great place to read, sit, draw, talk quietly or play a game.
• We also open the library two mornings a week: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8.30 am.
• Library lessons are once a week for 1 hour. Please take note of your child or children’s library days and send them in with a library bag and books to return.

• Each year, I look for parent volunteers to act as “Book Coverers”. If you have a spare hour, I will send home a bag of 10 books, per volunteer, per term. It’s not a hard job and I try to match the books to your family. If you feel up to the challenge, please email me at mertz@cg.catholic.edu.au or send a note via your child.

 Happy Reading,

Kate x

PS - Redgum Book Club was sent home with the eldest children this week. Orders close Monday, Week 4. Please note that 20% of all sales go to the Holy Trinity library. I often use the money as prizes and awards for events during the year.

To view the current catalogue, please open the link Redgum Book Club Catalogue Term 1 2019

Or to view in PDF format open the link Redgum Book Club PDF Catalogue Term 1 2019

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

The Swimming Carnival is all set for next Friday 22 February 2019 at CISAC Belconnen. The 50m events will commence at 8:30am starting with the 12 Years Freestyle moving down in the ages. Backstroke, Breaststroke and Butterfly events will follow. Please note that if your child has nominated to swim in a 50m event, they are required to be at the pool by 8:15am. As we are using the touch timer this year and running 25m events, the students swimming in the 50m events are required to tumble turn for a short course 50m. Based on ACT qualifications this is permitted. Kindergarten and Year 1 were planned to start their novelty events at 12pm, due to arrangements at the pool they will now be able to start their novelty events at 11:15am. If you are a parent that has indicated you are willing to assist, can you please arrive at the pool by 11am to ensure we can start the novelty events promptly. Thank you to the parents who have indicated they are able to assist at the carnival, a note will come home with your child early next week indicating your role. A schedule of events will be also released on SZaap early next week for your reference. Please note that if you are coming to watch a spectator fee of $2.50 is charged by CISAC. It is also paid parking at the venue. Thank you for your prompt response with the permission notes. If you are yet to complete this, please do so ASAP.

Riding to school

We again are having security issues at the bike racks. Please ensure if your child is riding to school their bike is locked up. If you require a lock please see Mr Feerick and we can loan you a lock for the day.

Nut, Fish and Egg Aware

There are a number of students in our school community who suffer servere allergic reactions to nuts, nut products, fish and Eggs. These allergies may cause anaphylaxis and are life threatening.  It is necessary for Holy Trinity to have a ‘nut free’ environment to accommodate their needs.

Students, staff and parents are not to bring to school any food products containing nuts or nut products and fish or fish products. In relation to eggs, we ask that no boiled eggs, or egg based foods (eg: Quiche, Frittata, Meringue, Eggs sandwiches) also not be brought to school. Foods which include egg but have it mixed through (eg: cakes and slices) are fine to bring to school.

All students need to be aware that they are to only eat from their own lunch box and not share food with any other student. Staff and students should wash their hands before and after eating.

Speeding in carpark No driving through boom gates patience

For the safety of all students and families, parents are asked to park their cars in the designated parking areas in the school playground close to Strangways Street and not in the areas in front of the school. If you are parking in Strangways Street or a t the area bleow the Presbytery, please remember that no families are to walk through the grounds of the Presbytery and Church.

In the mornings and afternoons, parents are asked not to park in the "safe bay" alongside the car park fence except to drop off or pick up. Parents are asked to park their cars and walk across to drop off or pick up their children via the crossing. Also please remember that unless specifically notified by a staff member or the school (eg: for a funeral), please do not drive through the two boom gates on to the asphalted playground area during the hours of 8.00am and 4.30pm.

As we have many young children moving about the grounds with their families at drop off and pick up, we also ask that everyone be patient with the traffic and maintain a safe speed (no faster than 5km/hr) when on school grounds.

       TERM 1, WEEK 3 - WED 20 FEB

Team Leader:  Geoff Wynn, Ben Bryant, Todd Lenfield, Nick Williams

PART-TIME PARISH SECRETARY (3 days, 20 hours week): People are invited to apply for the position of Parish Secretary. Essential: strong communication and liaison skills; strong organisational skills; ability to work in a team environment and to take direction; understanding of and respect for the Catholic Church and its teaching. Desirable: Experience in an office environment and facility with financial and database packages.  Salary will be subject to the Clerk Award 4/5 rates.  Phone 6281 3999 for a copy of the selection criteria and duty statement. Applications to Fr John Woods, PO Box 297, Curtin ACT 2605 / john.woods@cg.org.au close Thursday, 28 February.