School Newsletter 2nd July 2021

Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei,  Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta

Dear Families

As we come to the end of a very busy term, we give grateful thanks for all the learning, loving and serving that has happened across the term. There have been many opportunities to be involved in school-wide events, learning community/year level events, parish/school events, whānau events, community events etc as well as the regular teaching and learning programmes happening in each learning community. To see all of this happening, reminds me to reflect on one of our school Gospel values -Excellence/Hiranga.

We show excellence/hiranga in our Trinity school community through our commitment to the Catholic faith formation of our students and the nurturing of our students’ gifts and talents. We strive to do this in partnership with our families, our parish and the wider community. All of our successes … our demonstration of excellence … happen because of of the support provided by our kaitiaki/teachers, family and whānau who guide and encourage our students, leading them towards excellence. It’s important that we acknowledge our kaitiaki/teachers, family and whānau, our priests and parishioners, our School Board and PTFA members who journey with us ensuring we are always supported. THANK YOU for being with us as we strive for excellence/hiranga – we know that excellence/hiranga is a reflection of God’s blessings for each one of us and for our school community!

This week we held our Mahi Tahi Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences across Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and early evenings. It was such a pleasure to see our whānau engaging with their child and kaitiaki in rich conversations about the children’s learning. Thank you for taking the time to be at school to share in the students’ learning progress and achievements through our HERO digital reporting, to enjoy the learning community displays, to look through students’ workbooks and online work and to enjoy a cup of homemade soup on Thursday night! This time of engagement and involvement is very important and is another opportunity for us to work together in partnership celebrating our children’s gifts, talents, skills, knowledge and understandings.

Staffing News!

Mr Quenten Brown

Mr Quenten Brown is leaving our school at the end of this term to relocate to Christchurch with his family. Quenten’s extended family live there and he, Victoria and the children are looking forward to spending time with their family in the years ahead.

Quenten has been with us since 2019 and has made a wonderful contribution to the growth of our school both as a kaitaiki/teacher in the senior area of the school and also as our school-wide Sports Co-ordintaor. Quenten has provided a quality teaching and learning programme for his students and we are truly grateful for his knowledge, experience and time that he has dedicated to serving our children and their families.

Quenten has been very instrumental in organising our school-wide sports events and programmes – swimming, cross country, athletics and the organisation, coaching and management of all of our inter-school sports activities. Being involved in these opportunities has allowed our children and our school to shine so we are very thankful to Quenten for the important role he has played here.

We have not yet finalised a replacement teacher for Quenten’s role as a Year 5/6 kaitiaki/teacher in Learning Community Maunga. We will inform the students and our families as soon as we have confirmation.

We wish Quenten and his family every Blessing as they head to new adventures in the South Island!

Mrs Paula Lewis

We are also sad to be sharing the news that Mrs Paula Lewis will be leaving us early in Term 3. Paula and her family are relocating to a new home in Tokoroa. Although Paula has only been with us a short time in her role as Office Administrator, it has been an absolute pleasure for us all to be working alongside her. Paula has continued the good work of Mrs Quarterman and has been quick to adjust to the pace and busyness of school life. Paula’s calm, caring and efficient manner and work ethic has been much appreciated and we will certainly miss her in the office area. We will have an opportunity to farewell Paula in early Term 3.

We wish Paula and her family every Blessing as they head to their new home.

DRS Report

Mufti Mania Outreach

Next week, on Friday 9 July, our school will be having our Mufti Mania Day to ‘walk in solidarity with our brothers and sisters’ in West Papua. Students can come to school wearing colourful clothes and need to bring a gold coin for the donation collection. Through Caritas, Aotearoa New Zealand, this year we are supporting Kristus Raja School in West Papua. The students at this small school have felt the impact of the pandemic and have been in lockdown since March 2020! The majority of students come from poorer families and have found remote learning a real challenge. The school was built back in the 1970s and the buildings are wearing out. Funds raised this year will help repair their toilets and bathrooms and provide new desks, chairs and resources for students for when they return to school.

End of Term Mass

We invite our families to join with us for our end of Term 3 Mass next week on Friday 9 July when we will gather together to give thanks for this wonderful term and also, to farewell Mr Quenten Brown as he leaves us for his new school in Christchurch. Our Mass will be led by Father James Mulligan and students from Pompallier Whānau. Mass will be at 9:30am in Taamaua (school hall). We look forward to seeing you all!

Baptism

Tomorrow on Saturday 3 July, we are celebrating with 13 of our Holy Trinity children who are receiving the Sacrament of Baptism at St Mary’s Church, Papakura at 10:30am. You are welcome to come along to witness this beautiful initiation of welcoming our children into the Catholic Church.

First Holy Communion

On Saturday 26 June, six of our students received their First Holy Communion at St Mary’s Church in Papakura at 5:00pm Mass. Alongside Father James Mulligan, Father Iosefa Euese led the celebration of all the children who received the Body and Blood of Christ for the first time. It was a truly remarkable celebration! We congratulate and continue to pray for James Santos, Felix Ah Ling, Gabriel Benliro, Annie Yu, Albertus-Magnus Lautua, Summer Beza & Chris Yu.

Catholic Caring Foundation

Early next term, a few of our students will be attending the Catholic Caring Mass held at Christ the King Church in Owairaka on Wednesday 28 July at 11:30am. As the 11th Bishop of Auckland, Bishop Patrick Dunn is the patron for the Catholic Caring Foundation that serves many different individuals and families who find themselves in positions of financial, emotional, spiritual and physical hardship. We have six students from Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School who will be receiving the Catholic Caring Certificate at the Mass. The certificate celebrates these students who show outstanding excellence in the way they put others before themselves and who live out the virtue of humility in their daily lives.

Teachers Attending Paid Union Meetings

Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School teachers who are members of NZEI Te Riu Roa will be attending a paid union meeting on Monday 5th July, with some attending in the morning and others in the afternoon.

The purpose of these meetings is for teachers to discuss the priorities for the renegotiation of their collective agreement in 2022. Issues being discussed, such as school staffing levels, directly impact on the education of your children. These meetings are a critical component of the negotiation process and it is the legal right of all members to attend a meeting and have their say.

While there will be some impact on the usual school programme that day, we have adjusted the programme to minimise disruption, and the school will remain open.

Attendance Dues Reminder

As part of being a member of a Catholic School community, there is a financial commitment required from the families to ensure the provision of an excellent Catholic Education in a well cared for environment. Therefore acceptance of enrolment at Catholic Schools means the agreement to pay the compulsory Attendance Dues to the Catholic Diocese of Auckland.

PTFA Second Hand Uniform Shop Prize Draw

Emergency Drills

To ensure that our students know how to keep safe in any unexpected emergency, we practise drills so that students are aware and know what to do in case a real emergency should occur.

So if your child has come home and shared with you what they did during an earthquake drill, a fire drill or even a lockdown drill, build on that sharing and ask what they did and why. The more we can continue these conversations at home, the better our students will remember what to do if an emergency does occur.

Any queries or questions, feel free and don’t hesitate to make contact with the school or email Andrew Malele amalele@holytrinity.school.nz

Whānau Points

Our coveted Whānau Shield was donated to us by Jennifer and Alan Quarterman at the end of 2020. Aubert Whānau, with their fine efforts on our 2020 Sports Days, Cross Country and other occasions, was the first Whānau group to win the Shield on its debut in 2020.

With an incentive in place, we now have a shield that we contest for with our good deeds, our honourable intentions and in our want to do good because it is the right thing to do. Students are being awarded whānau points for a variety of reasons … e.g. for simple acts of showing kaitiakitanga, in keeping our common place of learning clean and safe they are awarded 1 point … for showing our Gospel values in what they say and do, 5 points … for going above and beyond in anything, 10 points. At the end of each term, the points are collected and the whānau group with the most points are awarded a treat – from an ice block to an extended lunchtime. The points are reset again at the beginning of each term. But the points collected at the end of each term will be kept, added together and will determine the winners of the Whānau Shield 2021.

There will be other ways we can involve our wider community when it comes to gaining points, and those opportunities will present themselves soon enough. Major school days like our Sports Day and Cross Country events will certainly have significant impact on how points can be earned as well.

Theatre Club

Term 3 will bring some exciting opportunities for all our students. One exciting opportunity is for our students to be a member of our first HTCPS Theatre Club. Our students Lani-Bella Winter and Rebecca Thorpe are driving this initiative, and with the support of our kaitiaki, will run sessions on a Wednesday at lunchtime, to build confidence through theatre sports, acting exercises and a whole lot more.

A sign up sheet is available in each of our Learning Communities, and if your child is keen to participate, all they need to do is to ask their kaitiaki.

We look forward to what will be an exciting prospect, and potentially a future school production led, directed and driven by our students.

Kia Ora Whānau!

Together, we have created the first Holy Trinity Theatre club! Our hope is that this will be a fun time for students to perform in student-lead plays, get more confident, make new friends and showcase their talents in the performing arts! 

Our plan is that once students have finished signing up we will meet them once a week to play theatre games, practice doing a performance which will be presented at the end of each term and most importantly…..Have fun! 

God Bless,
Leilani Winter and Rebecca Thorpe.

Learning Community News

Learning Community Ngahere

Over the last two weeks, our students have been researching and learning about an Austrian artist, Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  They explored different techniques and identified a variety of  common features that were used in his visual paintings.  Our students recreated their own design of Hundertwasser’s dreamscapes with famous features of lollipop trees, hidden faces, floating eyeballs, onion domes, rows of houses, teardrops, colourful spirals and contouring lines.  Students enjoyed creating their visual dreamscapes and challenged themselves to put a cultural representation in their artwork to showcase their own cultural identity.

Curriculum News

Matariki Learning Day

We had a wonderful day of Matariki learning on Monday. Students rotated in their whānau groups to grow their learning about Matariki. Our fantastic staff planned learning activities around the story of Matariki, naming the stars belonging to the Matariki star cluster and what they are associated with and how Matariki is celebrated. Here are some stories that the students from Learning Community Moana wrote about the day.

On Monday, we had a bit of a wonky day because it wasn’t our normal school day. We had a rotation day and we were going to the LCs around Holy Trinity. It was Matariki learning day for everyone. We were moving in our whānau groups. 

I learned that there are nine stars but two stars are so small that you can’t see them. There are nine stars in the Matariki cluster. I felt proud and amazed that I learned new things about Matariki . Hooray! The best Matariki learning day ever! Liliana Chang

Yesterday I was at school and after calling the roll we went into our whānau groups. My whānau group’s name is Patrick Dunn. We went to Awa and we made playdough. We sang a song and it was a māori song.  

One thing I learned from the māori song is about sea creatures. I can name sea creatures in māori. I enjoyed learning how to make stars and we got to write the names of the stars down. I felt excited when I made them and I made them in LC Moana. Vaimo’onia Vaitaki

Yesterday was Matariki learning day at school. All the whānau groups went around the school to different activities for Matariki. Everyone loved it because they were shouting so loud, ‘aaaaaaaah!, except for me.

One thing I learned to do is make clay sea animals. You use clay to make it.  Choose a sea animal, leave it for a couple of days to dry and then it will be done. I felt excited at the start because I didn’t know what was going to happen. I felt marvellous at the end of the day because all of the Matariki activities were fun! Alexei James

Yesterday the whole school had a Matariki rotation day. We would go to different LC’s and do different activities or make things that celebrate Matariki.

One thing I learned was that Waitā and Waiti are twins and they are associated with water. The Matariki rotation day was really fun and I got to do lots of learning that celebrates the cluster of Matariki. Cooper Pihema.

On Monday we had Matariki learning day. We visited every kaitiaki whānau groups. My whānau group is Pompallier. 

One thing I learnt was how to make kites and about the nine sisters. I know that the brightest stars are Waitā and it’s twin is Waitī. I enjoyed learning the ‘Wheke, Wheke’ song with Mr Malele. It was so much fun. We made sea animals with playdough and the star was hard.

The day was enjoyable because I learnt so much that I didn’t know before. It was the best learning day ever.
Carla Witbooi

Papakura Museum Artwork

We have had a group of budding artists working alongside Miss Aiesi, to complete two pieces of artworks, a koru clay and painting. These amazing pieces of artwork will become part of a collective art exhibition created by schools in the Papakura area. We are looking forward to admiring our students’ art contribution displayed in the local Papakura Museum sometime in July.

We thank you Miss Aiesi, Lani, Zeus and Abigail for sharing your amazing talent, commitment and time to completing this project. Please look out for it if you are visiting the Papakura Museum or Library. 

Bike Day for Year –2 Students

We have been fortunate enough to have Counties Manukau invite our Year 0-2 learners to have a Bike Day at school next Thursday 8 July 2021. All bikes will be provided and instructors will guide our children through the process of cycling around a course. It looks like it’s going to be a fun filled day!

Playhouse Theatre Performance

Enviro Team News

Thank you to Auckland Council for their grant so we can purchase two large worm farms. We look forward to having the worms produce lovely fertiliser for our gardens!

Upcoming School Events

Baptisms
Saturday 3rd July 10:30am @ St Mary’s Church, Papakura

School Gathering Liturgy and Assembly – led by Learning Community MAunga
Monday 5th July 8:50am in Taamaua/school hall

Teachers Paid Union Meetings – school remains open
Monday 5th July 

Bike Day Programme for Year 0-2 students
Thursday 8th July 

End of Term School Mass
Friday 9th July 9:30am in Taamaua/school hall

Mufti Mania Day
Friday 9th July – gold coin donation for Caritas Aotearoa

Term 2 Concludes
Friday 9th July

Term 3 Commences
Monday 26th July

Welcome to New Families, School Gathering Liturgy and Assembly – led by Senior Leadership Team
Monday 26th July 8:50am in Taamaua/school hall

Papakura Community Service Dinner – VOLUNTEERS needed!
Tuesday 27th July 5:45 – 6:45pm Crossroads Methodist Church, 25 Broadway, Papakura

PTFA Meeting
Tuesday 27th July 7:30pm in the staffroom

Caring Foundation Mass
Wednesday 28th July 11:30am @ Christ the King Parish, Owairaka

School Board Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 28th July 6:00pm in the staffroom

sKids Holiday Programme

Please find attached the Term 2 Holiday Flyer.

sKids Holy Trinity is here for July School Holidays!

Visit: https://enrolmy.com/skids-sknz2/activity/96-Holy_Trinity_July_Holidays to book now!”

Thank you very much and from our team at sKids Holy Trinity we want to thank you for your on-going support.

Beginning Experience Grief Resolution Programme

BE Poster Aug 2021 ALONE AGAIN? Widowed, Separated or Divorced? The Beginning Experience is a non-profit organisation with the motto a “Weekend Away for a Lifetime of Change” for adults. The retreat will help you work through your painful loss. The participants find new hope, increased emotional health and renewed energy. Date Friday evening to Sunday afternoon 13-15 August. Cost $350 or early bird price of $325 if paid by 2 July.  Includes accommodation, meals and materials. Contact Lynda 0274898003 and (09)478-9742 or Kelly 027-686-4416 www.beginningexperience.org.nz

Upcoming Community Events

School Holiday Community Events

RRR Art Competition – Papakura Library

Reuse Recycle Repurpose Art Competition & Exhibition – RRR Art Competition (1)