Congratulations to students and teachers celebrating their Birthday this week: Kavinsivam S, Hugh L, Georgia M, Philippa W, Levi H, Zara G, Henry B, Thomas M, Daniela G, Ava M, Sadie B, Imogen I, Maia R, Jude M, Miss Capper, Mrs Ford and Mrs Kalokerinos. Wishing you all a fantastic birthday!

PALM SUNDAY 

You may have noticed that the school has launched a brand new website. The new site has been totally redesigned and rebuilt and was launched only this week. If you haven’t seen it yet click here and take a look for yourself. I am sure you will agree that the new site is fresh and engaging and seeks to capture the essence and atmosphere of our unique school.

Philippa and I are heading to Singapore tomorrow to attend our first regional International Baccalaureate Conference. It is such a privilege, to share experiences with educators from around the world and to gain a deeper insight into the provision of a rich and deep education, for our school community. Our attendance at this conference enables us to be part of the global community, forge international networks and hopefully bring innovative ideas back to our school community.

The strongest feature of the PYP as seen by me to date, is the foundational understanding of the student as a competent partner in the education process. Viewing students as agents of their own learning, the PYP encourages not only our students to take initiatives in actions and decisions that affect their lives, but also to know that making mistakes is a healthy part of their learning journeys. The learner profile enables students to be more cognizant of their personal capacities in relation to the profile attributes. At Holy Trinity we endeavour to live out the attributes of the Learner Profile in the classroom, on the playground, in the wider community and, importantly, even when no one is watching! For all of us this requires practice, and for our students it requires conscious, well-planned learning experiences that allow for the Learner Profile attributes to be identified and developed.

Today we have seen all our learners push themselves to be 'risk-takers', by participating in the swimming carnival with courage and commitment. Similarly, our Year 5 and 6 students have been encouraged to be 'communicators; through presentation of their inspiring leader as a part of their Who We Are inquiry unit. Year 3 and 4 students have acted as 'knowledgeable' individuals, exploring and understanding that Earth is part of an immense system called the universe, within their How the World Works unit. In our ELC our students have been 'inquirers', as they explored their families of origins. Kindergarten have also been 'inquirers', as they begin to explore the big concepts of interdependence and sustainability. Year 1 have been 'knowledgeable' and 'reflective' when packing their lunches, ensuring that they are eating a balanced diet and making thoughtful lifestyle choices. Year 2 have been 'reflective' as they explored their personal strengths and abilities. Not the be forgotten, the constant attribute of 'caring' that both our teachers and parents show daily to each other and  the students in our school community.

Finally, a large part of PYP’s strength is attributable to the valuable feedback and active sharing of insights, learning and practices from within our school community. During week 10 we will share our INSPIRING CONNECTION MAGAZINE which will provide you with a snapshot of the great work that has occurred over the term.  

Car Park Safety

Please be mindful of the clear expectations for car park pick up and drop off , to ensure the safety of all in our community.  Unfortunately in the morning we are having some cars driving through to drop off at a very fast and unsafe pace.  We understand that sometimes mornings are difficult and we run late.  However, nothing is so important as the safety of our community.  In the afternoon pick up, we are sometimes slowly down the process when carers are parking in the zone and getting out of the car to put children in their seats.  Two staff members are always on duty there to do this for you, so we can keep traffic flowing.  If you have  a change in pick up people, please ensure you let them know of these procedures, thank you. 

Parish School Mass

Thank you to everyone that attended Holy Trinity’s Term One Parish School Mass on Saturday. A special thank you to the Year One parents that supplied super and helped with the set up and clean up. Thank you also to our amazing students that were part of the mass and to the Winchester family for bringing down the offertory.  

Confirmation update 

An information and enrolment form went home to all eligibile canadates on Tuesday. Please read and follow the information given by the parish. 

Holy Trinity’s Holy Week Liturgies

Please see the calendar for the dates and times for the Holy Week Liturgies. Please note that Year 2 are now leading us in our Palm Sunday Liturgy and 3/4 White and Green will be leading us in our Good Friday Liturgy in the Church next Thursday.

Palm leaves NEEDED

We are seeking palm leaves for Year 2’s Palm Sunday Liturgy. If you can leave them at the front office tomorrow or Monday morning that would be appreciated.

Project Compassion- Easter raffle

Thank you to the Year One families who have already brought in Easter eggs to contribute to our Easter eggs baskets. These baskets will be raffled off next week. If you haven’t contributed Easter eggs, please do so no later than Thursday next week. All money raised will go towards Caritas Australia. Please see the poster created by the “Caritas Team” of Claire, Sophia and Amy (Year 5/6) for further raffle details. 

Holy Trinity Church Easter Mass times

Mass of the Lord’s Supper- Thursday 29^th 7pm

Commemoration of the Passion- Friday 30^th 3pm

Easter Saturday Easter Vigil- Saturday 31^st 7pm

Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of the Lord- Sunday 10am & 5:30pm

Harmony Day The ELC celebrated Harmony Day with some language, song, dress and beautiful food from around the world. Thank you for all the contributions of delicious food. Thanks also for Nancy (Melina's mum) who cooked with the Ground Parrots and Rosa (Tiana's mum) for teaching the Black Cockatoos about making Italian bread. (photos below)

Thank you A huge shout out to Anthony (Rafa’s dad) who made some fantastic tinker boards for our inquisitive children to play with. The boards are already a well-loved and very popular with all the children. (photo below)

Water Fun Day The Ground Parrots and Black Cockatoos participated in a water play day early this week to coincide with the school swimming carnival this week. The weather was kind and the play was fun. (photos below)

School Holiday Program School holidays (including preschool) run from 16-27 April. If you would like care for your child during this period you will need to book them in the school holiday program. Booking forms have been distributed through your child’s pocket/sleeve, extra forms are available from the ELC office. Booking forms are due back by the end of this week on Friday 23 March. After this time spaces will be offered to the Kinder and Year One children.

Child Care Subsidy We are moving towards the change to the Child Care Subsidy, which will replace the Child Care Benefit and Child Care Rebate. Information regarding these changes can be found on the link below. The biggest change to you will be the amount of CCS you will be entitled to. To calculate your rebate; www.education.gov.au/ChildCarePackage

https://www.education.gov.au/new-child-care-package-frequently-asked-questions

Community Council will meet for the first time on Thursday 12 April at 7pm in the ELC. All ELC and BSC/ASC families welcome.

Stay and Play is a play group for pre-preschoolers and their carers, each Wednesday in the school term in the ELC play ground from 9-10.30am. All welcome (photos below)

Every parent wants the best for their children, and that includes wanting them to have great experiences at school. By and large, Australian schools deliver on that expectation. They are generally safe places for kids, staffed by hard-working teachers who have the best interests of their students at heart. Achievement, discipline and student wellbeing are high on the list of priorities for most teachers.

Nevertheless, despite the best teaching practices things do go wrong at school. Most kids experience learning difficulties from time to time. Conflict and peer rejection are a normal part of school life. The developmental nature of childhood means that there will always be some turbulence, particularly around key transition ages such as the start of adolescence. During these times young people frequently experience a dip in their learning as well as significant relationship difficulties. Kids will often come home from school with grievances, and call on their parents for assistance.

Your approach as a parent when your child has difficulty at school can make a huge difference to their resilience and to their future relationships with teachers and peers. This includes not only any advice you may give and the way you give it, but also the way you approach the school, if that becomes necessary. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence suggests that there’s been a significant increase in aggressive incidents at schools involving parents reacting to their children’s grievances. This presents a danger to teachers, harms the all-important teacher-parent relationship, and sets a bad example to children about how to resolve differences.

Here’s a seven point checklist to help you stay focused and be effective if your child experiences difficulty at school.

1.Be empathetic first

Kids, like adults, like to vent. They will often benefit simply from having told their side of a story to a trusted source. Often they just want their parents to understand what’s happening, so your first response should be an empathetic one. That is, your child should feel you understand them and take them seriously. “That’s awful. I’d be upset too if someone stole my lunch” is the sort of response kids want to hear when they are genuinely upset.

2.Stay calm and take your time

It’s natural as a parent to want to protect or defend your children, particularly when you think that they’ve come in for some unfair or poor treatment. But acting when you are full of emotion is not always smart as emotions make us prone to over-reaction and jumping to all sorts of possibly incorrect conclusions.

Rather than getting on the phone straight away to organise a meeting at school, take your time to think through how you might assist your child. Time generally provides greater perspective, which will likely lead to a better response from you.

3. Get the all facts

Getting the facts about the situation can be really tricky. Kids are faulty observers and often only see one side of a story when there’s a problem with a teacher or a fellow student. They sometimes can’t see that perhaps they may have contributed inadvertently to a dispute at school, or perhaps said something that may have upset a teacher. It’s your job to help your child or young person process what happened in an incident, so that all the facts emerge and you can fully understand their place in any problem. Keep asking questions to enable the complete story to unfold.

 4. Assess whether to go to school or not

Often problems can be dealt with at home, simply by talking through an issue and giving kids some common sense tips to help them cope. However, if your child has a recurring problem that he can’t solve himself, or you think adult intervention may be needed to sort out a relationship issue with a teacher or peer, then consider meeting with your child’s teacher or year-level coordinator.

 5. Use the right channels if you take the issue to school

Approach the school calmly, going through the school office or directly to your child’s teacher if that is the usual protocol. If you have already established a relationship with the teacher concerned, then it’s often easier to approach them directly.

 6. Look for solutions rather than blame

Parent-teacher meetings usually get nowhere when either party blames the other. State the problem as you see it and view your child’s teacher as an ally, not a foe. “I’m really worried about Jeremy. He’s been acting strangely lately and I need some help” is the type of approach that will elicit a helpful response. Talk about your concerns and keep the discussion focused firmly on what’s best for your child. Listen to your teacher’s viewpoint, valuing a different perspective.

 7. Stay in touch

Be realistic with your expectations, remembering that some problems can’t be solved to your satisfaction, nor will they be resolved straight away. Be prepared to work alongside your child’s teacher over the long-term, which means maintaining communication with each other.

Parenting is easy when things are going well, but testing when your children struggle or experience difficulty. Stepping back and taking a long-term, reflective view is often the best approach when your child experiences difficulty at school.

By Michael Grose  from Parenting Ideas 

Swimming Carnival

All the students had an enjoyable experience at the carnival. Well done too everyone who participated in the races and novelty events, including the parents. Thank you to the parents, who volunteered their time to make today possible. Thank you to all the amazing teachers who helped organise and coordinate all the events.

Cross Country

Wednesday 4^th April week 9, is the date set for the Cross Country Carnival. Students will become familiar with the courses over the coming weeks. If you would like to come support the time of the carnival will run from 12pm til 1:40.

Our talented photographers will be visiting your School on:

Tuesday 27^th & Thursday 29^th March 2018

 Payment must be made before photo day 

We only photograph children who have prepaid online

 To order your School Photos it is as simple as logging onto our website and selecting from the following three options

THE SCHOOL PORTRAIT  PACKAGE

Your full package will contain 2 different individual natural outdoor photos of your child professionally printed at 5x7”  and  8 wallet size prints (4 of each portrait) a beautifully produced class photo with names 7x10’ all for only $35

SIBLING PHOTOS

We will also be taking 2 different natural outdoor sibling shots on the day if you would like a portrait of the kids together (both printed at 5x7”) for only $25

 GROUP PHOTO ONLY - $25

For those families not wishing to purchase individual photos, but still wanting a memory of your child’s school days, there is the option to purchase a class photo only. This comes as a 7”x10” print.

 To order your photos click on image and follow these instructions:

• Click on [ PREPAY ]
• Select your School
• Select your child’s Class
• Select your preferred package/s – School Portrait Pack / Sibling Photos / Group Only
• Click Prepay
• Go to View Cart
• Make sure packages ordered are correct
• Proceed to Checkout
• Once you have completed your personal information please enter your payment information. (Place Order)

 Four weeks after photo day we will return with your portraits.

Please note there has been a change in photo day for 1 Red and 2 Red classes ONLY. 

TERM 1, WEEK 8 - WED 28 MAR 

Team Leader: Peter Conlon, Michael Miller, David Pembroke, Wayne Poels, Simon Frawley 

Exciting news – bonus early bird offers for our annual Entertainment Book fundraising are now available until 10 April unless sold out before!

An Entertainment Book provides a great opportunity to have fun, discounted adventures together with family and friends for 14+ months (valid 12 April 2018 to 30 June 2019) while also raising $ for HT.  20% of every membership sold is donated to our school fundraising efforts - yay to that!

Digital or hard copy entertainment books for the ACT and surrounding regions can be ordered by either:

• going to our online HT payment page (https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/232w05) for electronic completion; OR

• completing the hard copy flyer (to be sent home with your child/ren later this week) and returning to the front office or your classroom teacher as soon as possible.

Don't forget to select "Pick Up" as Delivery Option for hard copy memberships - we will send it home with your child/ren once books available.

Note: it is also possible to purchase memberships for family and friends which are valid for other states - any birthdays, special occasions, new staff relocating etc you can consider gifting entertainment book(s) to?

Thank you for your valuable support - it is genuinely appreciated.