You created all people in your image. We thank you for the astonishing variety of races and cultures in Australia and in our community.
Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of friendship, and show us your presence in those who differ most from us.
Grant that we may always promote the justice and acceptance that ensures lasting peace and racial harmony.
Grant that we may show equal respect to all persons of different cultures that we may come across.
And help us to remember and appreciate that we are one country, with many stories.

Amen.

Dear Friends,

Today, across Australia, we celebrate Harmony Day - a day  about inclusiveness, respect and belonging for all Australians, regardless of cultural or linguistic background, united by a set of core Australian values. The day coincides with the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Australia is a vibrant and multicultural country — from the oldest continuous culture of our first Australians to the cultures of our newest arrivals from around the world. Our cultural diversity is one of our greatest strengths and is at the heart of who we are as Catholics, Australians and an International Baccalaureate school that embraces international mindedness.  Cultural diversity makes Australia a great place to live. An integrated multicultural Australia is an integral part of our national identity. All people who migrate to Australia bring with them some of their own cultural and religious traditions, as well as taking on many new traditions. Collectively, these traditions have enriched our nation. Harmony Day is particularly important day also to focus on values of acceptance, love and respect, as we all come to terms with the horrendous attack at Christchurch last week. 

Next Monday through to Wednesday we will be having our IB Evaluation visit from two assessors: Virginia Sutton, Deputy Head of Junior School, Branksome Hall, Korea and Lee-Anne Pyke, Kingswood College, Albury. During this visit, they will be meeting with all staff members, students from each class, School Board and other community representatives and staff from Catholic Education.  The assessors will also be pouring through all our school documentation and information collated from our 12 month Self- Study.  This is an important time for us to celebrate all the wonderful learning at Holy Trinity as an International Baccalaureate School and also to be given insight from assessors about our future direction. 

A huge thank you, yet again, to Jill Rasmussen who created our 2019 Student Directory.  This takes a considerable amount of time and effort to produce and I know is a valuable resource for our families at both the ELC and school.  Thank you also to all parents who have committed to the Working Bee tomorrow afternoon.  There are many jobs to be completed, so please bring wheelbarrow, shovels, gloves etc and of course, lots of energy!  You will be rewarded with a sausage and drink at the end!

Please keep in your prayer the Di Mezza (Jenna 3 /4) and Prior (Liam 5 /6) families on the loss of their grandfathers this week.  

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

Philippa

Harmony Day

Today we celebrated Harmony Day. It was wonderful to see so many students who came to school dressed in their traditional dress or wearing the colour orange!

Project Compassion

A message from the Christian Outreach Leadership Team

This term we have been fundraising for Caritas Australia. Every Monday morning the Christian Outreach team have been leading the school in the Caritas Prayer. In our class groups we have been watching videos on different people who are less fortunate than us and looking at how we can help and support them. We have been watching a different clip for each week.

Week 5-Thandolwayo from Zimbabwe

Week 6-Tati form Indonesia

Week 7-Peter from Solomon Islands

Week 8-Michaela from Australia

Week 9-Salma from Bangladesh

Week 10-Nguyet from Vietnam

Please support Caritas Australia. In every class there is a Project Compassion box where donations are welcome!

Christian Outreach Leadership Team

Ava S, Teah, Amy W, Liam, Maddie and Hannah'

Easter Egg Raffle

As a community we have already raised approximately $250 from the donations collected from the Project Compassion boxes. During Weeks 8, 9 and 10 the Christian Outreach group will be selling raffle tickets to students to win one of our Easter Raffle Baskets. Tickets are $1 a ticket or $5 for 6. The Easter Raffle Baskets will be produced from Easter eggs donated by our Year 3/4 Families. 3/4 families your class contacts will be in contact shortly to provide you with more information. 

Harmony Day

Today the prechoolers celebrated Harmony Day by wearing tradtional cultural costumes and sharing a diverse and delicious multicultural lunch. Thank you to all the families that contributed the beautiful food. There are some photos below capturing some of the fun.

School Holiday Program

The preschool program will break for school holidays on Friday 12 April. The ELC will run a school holiday program each day from 8am-6pm, with the exception of Good Friday, Easter Monday and ANZAC day. Term 2 resumes Monday 29 April. 

The school holiday program is run by our After School Care coordinator, Lucy Washington, Sarah James and our other ASC staff. The cost per day is $78 (before CCS). Spaces are limited, so book early to avoid missing out. Click here to make a booking. Priority is given to preschool children and current families.

Stay and Play

Playgroup for pre-preschoolers and their families. Wednesday mornings from 9am-10.30am in the ELC Playground (weather permitting). Parents, grandparents, carers and children are all very welcome. 

Responding constructively to the Christchurch shooting

by Michael Grose

Last Friday’s shooting of innocent people in two Christchurch mosques is an event that has shaken people to the core worldwide.

While we’d like to protect our children from such events, in reality it’s impossible, as the news coverage is so widespread and the event itself has impacted so many people. The personal nature of this particular tragedy makes it even harder to stomach than some recent natural disasters that have made the news, as awful as they have been.

So how do you approach this with your children? There is no easy answer, but be assured that your child will benefit from talking to you. These ideas may help:

Be available

Let your child or young person know that it is okay to talk about the events in Christchurch. Listen to what they think and feel. By listening, you can find out if they have misunderstandings, and you can learn more about the support that they need. You do not need to explain more than they are ready to hear, but be willing to answer their questions.

Filter the news

While we don’t advocate censorship, we do suggest that you take particular care about your child’s exposure to news events. The consistency of images can be frightening for young children who don’t understand the notion of distance and have difficulty distinguishing between reality and fiction. Older children and teenagers will probably be interested in the news events, but they probably need an adult available to answer their questions and reassure them.

Engage in the news with older children

Many issues are now arising from this event that may be of significant interest to older primary-aged children and teenagers. Be prepared to engage in discussions about political leadership, gun laws, the coverage of the event itself by the media and other issues that will emerge. Increasingly, young people are demonstrating that they want to have a voice in shaping the world they live in. Give them a chance to air their concerns and formulate their ideas in the safe confines of home.

Manage emotions raised

The Christchurch tragedy may raise many emotions for children and young people including sadness over the loss of life, confusion over how such an event could happen, and outrage over injustice. Take your cues from your children and follow the threads that emerge. Demonstrate that you understand how that they may be upset and clarify their emotions if possible: “It’s understandable to be angry when you hear news like this.”

Moderate your language

Currently, we live in very divisive times. The fact that this shooting was carried out on one particular group demonstrates just the extent of the divisiveness of our community. Encourage kids to be inclusive, steering clear of valued-laden, extreme language such as ‘terrorists’, ‘evil’ and ‘horrors’ when describing the events and the alleged perpetrators. Not only does this type of language encourage children and young people to take a position rather than focus on the problems, it risks desensitising them to the reality of the impact of this event. The use of more sedate, yet descriptive language such as ‘gunman’, ‘awful’ and ‘tragedy’ can take remove the emotional sting, while demonstrating the enormity of the event’s impact.

Keep to a normal routine

Your child may feel powerless. You may feel the same way as that’s what events like the Christchurch shooting does to us. Maintaining the same sleeping, eating and daily routines can help to restore a sense of control over our daily lives.

Show them how to change the world

Arguably, these are the worst of times in terms of social divisiveness. Our children in many ways are letting us know that they don’t want to continue living this way. So how can they have an impact? Recently a timely clue came my way in the form of a notification from Facebook. Over the weekend, a parent shared an existing message to her Muslim friends as a message of hope. The quote reads:

“Don’t become too pre-occupied with your child’s academic ability, but instead teach them to sit with those sitting alone. Teach them to be kind. Teach them to offer help. Teach them to be a friend to the lonely. Teach them to encourage others. Teach them to think about other people. Teach them to share. Teach them to look for the good. This is how they will change the world.”

We get that power back when we start to impact the people around us in small ways, making positive changes for the better.

‘Kindness’, ‘helping others’, ‘encouraging’, ‘sharing’ and similar concepts don’t make great political slogans but they form the basis of every strong community- which is precisely what kids need.

(Source: Parentingideas.com.au)

The Cross Country is planned for tomorrow Friday 22 March. Students will be required to wear their sports uniform and are allowed to wear a shirt with their house colour.

The students will sit on the oval in their House groups. The House Captains will assist keeping them settled and ready for races.

Below is a schedule for the carnival for your reference if you would like to come and support.

11:45pm –  Assemble on the oval in House Groups

11:55pm –  7/8 yrs (Yr 2) (1000m)

12:05pm –  Year 1

12:15pm –  9 yrs (1500m)

12:25pm –  Kindergarten

12:35pm –  11/12 yrs (3000m)

12:45pm –  10 yrs (2000m)

12:50pm   –  ELC

After the events the students will receive an icy pole.

1:20pm   –  Ribbons and announcement of winning Houses – 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd placegetters at line up.

Oh hi everyone! I just wanted to update you all on a couple of things:

Suggestions/comments please!

So if there is anything at all you would like the P&F to know, please feel free to contact me directly at htpspfpresident@gmail.com. Your comments to me will be treated with respect and will remain anonymous. I have also put a P&F Suggestion Box in the school foyer if you prefer to contact me that way.

You may have some ideas about what our children would love to see around the playground, or suggest changing the time of certain events. You may have some skills and time to help out with a fundraising idea. It could be anything at all! Please don’t be shy. Please also remember, we are all members of the P&F, there’s just a couple of us that formally meet twice a term to chat about your ideas and suggestions and make some decisions on behalf of us all.

Tuckshop Update

As you’ve probably guessed, the Tuckshop hasn’t opened this term. We had over 30 people volunteer to help run the Tuckshop this year, so thank you all very much! Unfortunately, that’s just not quite enough to operate over the year. We love volunteers, but can’t ask you to do more than one shift a term, and with just over 30 would leave us well short for the year. But thank you thank you for offering to help out, we really appreciate it (and we may still need your help throughout the year).

What we’ve decided to do instead, is keep the Tuckshop closed for Term 1 except for a special Hot Dog Day (Red Day) on Thursday 11 April (last week of Term). More information on the Hot Dog Day will be provided closer to the date.

We are considering many different options for the remainder of the year, including a revised menu. We so desperately want to open our Tuckshop for our children, and would appreciate any suggestions you might have. Please feel free to contact me directly on htpspfpresident@gmail.com, or via the Suggestion Box in the school foyer (as explained above).

Movie Night

How good was the Movie Night?? So fun. Thanks again to the organisers and volunteers, total funds raised after expenses was $882.78!  We’ll keep this money and allocate it to one of this year’s priority projects when finalised in a couple of weeks.

Our Charities

I’m fairly certain (!!) you all read my previous Newsletter contribution in Week 5 where I committed to providing further information on the charities the P&F donate to, so here goes.

L’Arche

Last year, the P&F donated $3,000 to the Canberra Community of L’Arche. This money was raised through the Parent Revue ($600) and the Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day stalls ($1,557.68), with the balance to $3,000 being made up from the P&F’s working balance. This year, the P&F have committed to donate up to $3,000 again. These funds will again come directly from the Parent Revue and the Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day stalls.

Just to give you some context and understanding into the organisation, I’ve taken the following straight from larche.org.au where you can find further information:

Jean Vanier founded L’Arche in 1964. Jean is the son of Georges Vanier, a very admired Governor General of Canada.  Jean served in the British and Royal Canadian Navy as an officer and then in 1950 studied philosophy and theology at the Institut Catholique in Paris. Whilst there, he met Father Thomas Philippe a Dominican priest and professor who was to become a close friend.

Jean moved back to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto but was invited to return to France by Father Thomas. He moved to Trosly-Breuil where his eyes were opened to the institutionalisation of people with learning disabilities. Jean was incredibly moved and invited two of the men he met, Raphael Simi and Philippe Seux, to leave their institutions and come and join him in his own home. Inspired by Noah’s Arc, Jean named their house L’Arche (the Ark in French).

Jean had been and still is an inspiring teacher.  Many of his friends and students came to visit him and experience this radical new way of living.  L’Arche in Trosly grew rapidly and in 1969 the first Community outside France opened in Canada.  In 1970 a Community was formed in Bangalore, India. Gradually more and more Communities began around the world founded by people inspired by Jean’s work. 

L’Arche in Canberra offers supported living in community households together with a rich social and cultural life, for adults living with intellectual disability who are looking to lead full and rewarding lives in friendship with others who are seeking community and connection. It is now branching out into a social enterprise: The Hub in Phillip.  Among the Hub’s several aims is the desire to establish a venue for social and cultural purposes where people with an intellectual disability are hosts and owners of the space and where an inclusive audience for the arts can grow; and, through Foundation Arts courses taught with a difference, a place where people with and without intellectual disability can experience each other as creative equals.  In time, the Hub will work towards incubating arts-based micro-businesses and other social enterprises.

Global School Partners

This is Lydia Nyamotage Nyasani. Lydia is 8 years old and has three brothers and one sister. Her parents are small scale farmers, but their land is so small they do not harvest enough to feed the family, let alone have excess to sell. Lydia attends the Evaland Hekima Academy in Nyamira, Kenya.

Last year the P&F started sponsoring Lydia with an annual sponsorship amount of $350, plus an additional $50 towards a Christmas present. This year the P&F will continue to sponsor Lydia with the same contribution, $350 plus a $50 Christmas gift. 

Before I stop talking, one last thank you to our wonderful teachers who looked after our 5/6 campers. Without you all, nothing is possible, thank you from all the parents. That’s it from me, thanks so much for reading! Chat soon.

Cath Day

P&F President

       TERM 1, WEEK 8 - WED 27 MAR

Team Leader:  Michael McEwan, Mark Kaykema, Patarick McCann, Mark La Brooy

You can help Holy Trinity's fundraising efforts by pre-ordering your 2019/2020 Entertainment Book (digital and hard copy memberships available) and receive bonus Early Bird offers for use right away - hurry, this discount available for limited time only!

Membership is great value - instant savings with something for everyone including casual and fine dining, adventure, travel, family activities, gift card/pressie discounts and lots more.

While having fun R&R time with your family and friends you are supporting a worthy cause - $12 from every membership goes directly towards Holy Trinity Fundraising efforts – yay!

Three Ways to Order:

1. Scan the QR code to be taken to our online payment page;
   
2. Access our online payment page here: www.entbook.com.au/232w05; 
3. Complete the hard copy form sent home with your child/ren this week and return to front office.

For more information email questions to: htpsentertainmentbook@gmail.com

Thanks for your support!

Crafty, arty, creative, fun

after school program…

Places now available for Term 2

Monday’s after school at Holy Trinity: 3:10pm - 5:30pm

For students in all years: ELC - Year 6

There will be…painting, crafting, constructing,  

jewellery making, homemade beauty, colouring and so much more…

all in a warm, small group environment. 

Cost: $23 per child – per week including afternoon tea and all craft supplies 

Contact Lisa Bauer @ Peli&Co to enrol or for more information

Email: lisa@peliandco.com.au or 0419 439 732