School Newsletter 22nd October 2021

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

Dear Families

Welcome to Term 4! Although not the way we had hoped to begin our school term, we are hugely encouraged and inspired by our students, our families and our staff for their continued resilience and integrity in this time of restrictions and challenges due to the pandemic.

We are proud of our community and what we have been able to achieve together to support our children with distance/home learning, being away from each other and from the school site. We are heartened by the way our students and whānau are striving to stay connected and engaged with their school learning – we know it is not easy when families are working from home but we are doing it and it is wonderful to see the children attending zoom lessons and social times and posting learning tasks to their HERO My Learning Wall pages!

I think these characteristics of ‘Courage’ certainly apply to our school whānau at this time …

Leadership – courageous people are not deterred by adversity
Compassion – courageous people put other’s needs ahead of their own
Embrace the unknown – courageous people meet the challenges that lie ahead
Objectivity – courageous people are willing to take tough decisions

Courageous people believe in themselves! They know who they are and what they stand for.

Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School is a faith based school community striving to find our purpose and mission through the Holy Trinity – learning, loving and serving shown through our love of God, our love of self and others and our love of creation, proclaiming the Good News, giving witness to our faith and serving the needs of others – COURAGEOUS people indeed!

Welcome to New Members of Holy Trinity!

We warmly welcome Miss Michaela Harvey, Kaitiaki/Teacher of Learning Community Awa – Years 0/1 to our school teaching team this term. We are thrilled to have Michaela join our staff. Michaela has already shared so much of her gifts and talents with us and we know that she is going to absolutely excel as a kaitiaki at Holy Trinity. Ka mau te wehi!

And we also extend a special welcome to Avery Cooper (Learning Community Awa), Marion Rosales (Learning Community Awa Taamaua) and Eaun Tamonte (Learning Community Maunga). It is certainly a different way to commence schooling with us and we are very proud of your resilience and ability to jump on board and join the Holy Trinity team.

From the School Board …

On behalf of the school Board, warm greetings to you all in this first week of Term 4, the eleventh week away from school! This is not the beginning of Term 4 that we had hoped for, when we were looking forward to welcoming all the staff, children and whānau back into the school site face to face. Instead, our Alert Level 3 lockdown restrictions continue, as we all do the very best we can for our children and their learning.

As a Board, we are very proud of all our staff and community for the way in which you have responded to the challenges that the current restrictions bring. Thank you to all the staff for the great work you are doing in bringing the on-line learning to our children and a special thank you to all our whānau for your continued involvement and support of your children as they engage in all the learning activities. From the many posts put up on the HERO digital learning wall, it is great to see the creativity that many parents and children are involved in. Well done to you all!

The Board continues to undertake all its regular work via ZOOM, and fulfil its obligations related to the governance of the school. There are constant emails and documents coming from the Ministry via school regarding the operation of schools in the COVID world. Under the excellent leadership of Peta Lindstrom, our principal, we can assure you that we are following all the guidelines and requirements. If there is anything you feel that the Board can help you with, do not hesitate to get in touch.

In the interest of health and safety of all of our community, especially our tamariki, please continue to follow the restrictions and protocols the government have in place in the endeavours to keep COVID out of our community. At the risk of sounding like the prime minister and the health experts, if you feel unwell get tested, and for your own well being and that of your whānau and the wider community, please get vaccinated.

This is a time of uncertainty and it is difficult just going from one week to the next with the current restrictions and not knowing what lies ahead regarding our school operation. Please continue to pray that the next Alert Level review for Auckland, scheduled for Tuesday 26 October, will give us a clearer picture of the way forward. We long for the day we can have all our school whānau back on site with us.

In the meantime, take good care of yourselves and your families- Kia kaha! You all continue to be in our prayers.

A Prayer for this Week:

Loving God
We pray for your love and compassion as we go through this challenging time… Lord hear us
We pray that we continue to stay true to our school vision of learning, loving and serving in your name… Lord hear us
We pray for those who are suffering with sickness and all who are caring for them… Lord hear us
We ask for protection of the elderly and vulnerable so they do not succumb to the risks of the virus…  Lord hear us
We pray for our whanau here and overseas who we cannot be with, that they keep well and approach each day in faith and peace, trusting in the truth of your goodness towards them… Lord hear us
We make these prayers in your name O Lord- the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN

Ngā mihi mahana ka manaakitia koutou te Atua

Philip Cortesi
Presider of the Board

DRS Report

St Mary’s Parish, Papakura Newsletter

We encourage you to go to Parish website where you will find an updated newsletter for your reference. https://papakuracatholic.org.nz/ If you would like to receive the weekly Parish newsletter on your email, please email Angela Hodge at office@stmaryspapakura.co.nz.

Cans for Christmas

Every year, we run a ‘Can for Christmas Drive’ to collect food cans to go towards St Vincent de Paul to support our Auckland families for Christmas. Unfortunately, because of the circumstances we are in, the ‘Can for Christmas Drive’ will now be an online collection. If you are able to make a small donation, this would go towards helping our Auckland families in need, especially during this coming Christmas time. Just go to https://www.facebook.com/Cans4Christmas

SYNOD

Pope Francis has convened a Synod. SYNOD 2021-2023. For a Synodal Church.
Pope Francis invites the entire Church to pause and listen to the Word of God and the Holy Spirit working through the lives and wisdom of all Catholic people, so that we might continue to develop and grow as missionary disciples of Christ. As people of God, we are called in virtue of our Baptisms to be active participants in the life of the Church. As we embark on this synodal journey, let’s reflect on ways we can aspire to be the church we are called to be. A missionary church, a listening church, a welcoming inclusive church.
Auckland Diocese began this phase of synod journey with an online liturgy last Sunday 17 October. There will be listening groups set up for the month of November which you can register yourself to attend online. Please go to the Auckland Diocese website for more information. https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/synod/

Upcoming Featured Events

Even during Lockdown, there are some fantastic opportunities for us all to be a part of online liturgies, celebrations and virtual gatherings with special speakers. Please check out the Auckland Diocese website https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/event-calendar/ to find out about upcoming virtual events that you and your family can attend. Some of the events are:

Monday 25 October – Vocation Series (6:15pm – 7:30pm)
The Catholic Young Adults community will be continuing their Vocations Series over the next few weeks, getting different guest speakers to share about their vocation. Go to the Auckland Catholic Youth Ministry Facebook page.

Wednesday 27 October – Livi’n in Lockdown (7:00pm – 8:00pm)
Join Sam and Felicity from the Auckland Catholic Youth Ministry Team for a laid-back, radio talk-show style event for youth & young adults on Facebook Live. This week, we’re talking on the topic of music & worship! Go to the Auckland Catholic Youth Ministry Facebook page.

There are always the wonderful daily reflections on the ‘Gospel of the Day’ by Bishop Michael on his facebook page for your reference.

Attendance Dues Payments

Attendance Dues for Terms 3 and 4 2021 statements and reminders will be sent electronically to families next week.

If you are still to make payment for Term 1 and/or Term 2, please do so as soon as possible. Thank you for attending to this.

Please note that there are 3 options for payment of the Attendance Dues and Catholic Special Character Contribution

1. Full amount paid by Internet Banking to ASB school account – details for payment are on the statement.
2. Automatic Payment to be set up via internet banking to ASB school account
3. Payment can be made at the school office – cash or Eftpos

For those families paying by Automatic Payment (AP), please note that 2021 payments must all be completed by 1st December 2021.

Please see Carmel Stewart (Office Administrator) or Peta Lindstrom (Principal) in the strictest confidence if you have any concerns or questions regarding the payment of Attendance Dues.

Financial Assistance is available for payment of Attendance Dues.

Year 7&8 Camp Cancelled

With huge uncertainty as to when our students will return to school, and what the rules and restrictions will look like, we have made the decision to cancel this year’s camp that was intended for Wednesday the 3rd November to Friday 5th November of Week 3 of this term.

If and when we return to school, our primary focus will be on the welfare of our students, reconnecting person to person, and just as importantly settling back into school learning time.

Thank you to all our Learning Community Ngahere parents for their support – for filling out the required forms and attending our camp meetings. We’re genuinely disappointed for our students and for the missed opportunity, but their safety and welfare must come first at this time.

If you have any queries or questions, please feel free to make contact with Andrew Malele amalele@holytrinity.school.nz

CYBER SAFETY!!

With students learning from home during this time of uncertainty, there is a huge reliance on connecting with school learning through the various digital platforms. This also brings an increase in cyber activity – especially activity that causes more distress and harm.

It is very important that any school zoom or google meet links to our school’s learning community lessons shared through our HERO and email notices are used and utilised appropriately. Our only way to connect with our students at present is by Zoom or Google Meet. If a Zoom or Google Meet link is shared outside our school community, it can potentially invite unwanted and unnecessary attention.

We ask our students and our families to make sure that any digital information shared in regards to our virtual meetings, are kept within our school community.

As a school, we will endeavour to ensure our security measures are kept tight and secure and that our processes are clear AND by working together, then our kaitiaki/teachers can continue safely communicating with our tamariki for home/distance learning.

Reminders!

2021 School Leavers

If you are leaving our school at the end of this year due to a change of circumstances (other than our Year 8 students), please email the school office as soon as possible – office@holytrinity.school.nz. We are currently managing a maximum roll of 300 students and this much needed information will help us to make decisions in regards to enrolments for 2022 placements. Thank you.

Learning Community News

Learning Communities Awa & Awa Taamaua

This week the kaitiaki in Awa introduced the children to another way of presenting their work (via video recording). This improves listening skills and public speaking. The work being uploaded is fantastic as the children are showing resilience and great confidence in front of the camera. They are also becoming more vocal and expressive in their presentation. Thank you to all  parents for your continued support in your children’s ongoing home learning.

The tamariki are also gaining great skills with online teaching sessions by following the online expectations and by doing this, their engagement in learning is enhanced.

For Awa and Awa Taamaua we’ve introduced slides during our zoom meetings. It was wonderful to be able to screen share the lesson as it progressed and it also helped the children focus on the lesson as it evolved.

We began with a prayer to remind us of our love of God and his creation, then onto the rules which reminded us of how we should behave during our learning time with the teacher.

Then the roll was called to check who was present as when the screen is shared the teacher cannot see the children’s faces. The children remembered not to call out until the teacher called their name just like being at school but different because they are online. We then began our lesson which was literacy/ maths or catch up day where we revised what we had been taught during the week.

As a follow up we emailed the slides to remind our students and whānau of what we had learned for the day, with worksheets to complete and then post on our HERO My Learning Walls.

Onsite Learning Community

At the beginning of the week we welcomed back a few students into Bubble Rua (Bubble Two) here at school. We have been engaging in a lot of online learning set by our kaitiaki and attending zoom sessions regularly. We have been focusing on letter formation, number formation, basic facts and have shared some of our learning onto our learning wall. Engaging in our online learning has not been the only learning we have been doing in our bubble. We have also been learning about recycling. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. We researched and discussed things we could do here at school and ended up making many treasures to take home. 

We also repurposed egg cartons to make Christmas wreaths, trees and flowers.

Here we have Bubble Rua with their pine cones they repurposed and painted to take home to hang on their Christmas trees.

Learning Communities Maunga & Ngahere

These wonderful students greeted the new term head on, by sharing some of the tasks they’re doing through their HERO Learning Pages. This work is from a few of our students, but it is great to see that most of our students are tackling the start to the term with enthusiasm and determination. Ke mau te wehi and kia kaha!

Learning Community Moana

One of our home learning activities this week has been around Drama. Moana students were asked to create a freeze frame of a character from their favourite book or movie. They had to comment on their body positions and facial expressions. They had so much fun exploring this drama technique at home and during our Friday morning gathering time.

Curriculum News

Connected Curriculum Learning Concept of Service 

We are continuing on with the learning concept of ‘Service’ which we started mid way in Term 3.  Our learning during Social Justice Week and the Beatitudes story given to us by Jesus, continues to inspire us to carry on Jesus’ mission of Service. It is a wonderful story with lots of examples of ways we can be a ‘kaitiaki’ to serve in our common home.

In this current time, our learners are exploring their unique role as kaitiaki, and they are called to take action by identifying an issue/problem or need and seeking solutions to inspire kaitiakitanga and to nurture our common home.

Position Vacancy – Catholic Diocese of Auckland Executive Officer

The Diocese is looking for a new Executive Officer to support our General Manager.

We are seeking a highly capable and experienced Executive Officer.  Our Executive Officer will provide executive support in governance, legal, property, finance, treasury, human resources, risk and compliance as well as supporting the GM on strategic projects and initiatives.  It’s a busy and very interesting role working with a great team of people. The role will assist our GM to collaboratively manage the leadership team.

While handling strategic and operating information with integrity and confidentiality, you will have the experience to prioritise tasks that change frequently. Of course, strong skills in most of these applications is important – MS word, Excel, SharePoint, Mailchimp, Infoodle and PowerPoint. Our senior team is also advanced in their use of these applications.

We’re looking for a people person with great communication, relationship and administration skills. Sound judgement, accountability, discretion, initiative and the ability to work autonomously, efficiently and professionally are essential for the success of this position and its reputation.

Please visit the Diocesan website www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz to view the full advert and position description.

Applications are via SEEK and close on 3 November.

Upcoming School Events

Term 4 commences
Monday 18th October

Labour Day Public Holiday
Monday 25th October

Pre-recorded School Gathering Liturgy and Assembly – led by Mr Malele
Tuesday 26th October 10am on HTCPS Home Learning Google site

School Board Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 27th October 6:00pm via zoom 

Pre-recorded School Gathering Liturgy and Assembly – led by Learning Community Moana and whānau
Monday 1st November 10am on HTCPS Home Learning Google site

Term 4 concludes
Tuesday 14th December

Upcoming Community Events

Athletics New Zealand

The start of the summer athletics season is almost upon us, and clubs all around the country are looking for tamariki and rangatahi to get involved and give athletics a go.

Your local athletics club is run by volunteers, and they are working hard to get ready for the new season.

Want to learn how to run, jump or throw? The skills you learn in athletics are the perfect foundation for almost any sport.

Every student can give athletics a go. Our local athletics club Papakura Athletics & Harrier Club is welcoming new members now and we encourage students to get involved and get active.

Contact details for all athletics clubs nationwide are available here athletics.org.nz/FindaClub and become a member.