School Newsletter 4th November 2022

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

Dear Families

What a wonderful community celebration on Friday at the PTFA School Fun Run event! When we come together in this way as students, whānau/family, staff, Board, PTFA and friends, we truly live out our school’s Gospel value of Kotahitanga – Unity. When we live in kotahitanga, we are calling for us to be as one family coming together and being one with the Father.

Unity/Kotahitanga is expressed in relationships where we come together in communion with God and one another, to bring alive the school’s vision of “Love Ka Ako, Learn Ka Aroha, Serve Ka Manaaki”. It was so up-lifting to see our school community “being unity in action” at the Fun Run.

THANK YOU to everyone who was involved in making this school event such a joyful, fun, happy time of gathering for all.

“Blessed are those who work in kotahitanga/unity for they shall encompass the wairua-spirit of God who makes all things possible through Him, with Him and in Him. Amen”

THANK YOU PTFA!

Thank you so much to our hard working PTFA Team for the fun filled and fabulous School Fun Run night on Friday evening! It was GREAT!

A special thanks to Michelle Porter, Laura Cooper and Fiona Rudsits and our PTFA Team members for the extra organisation and preparation for the evening. A BIG thank you to your family members as well who provide fantastic support to you and lend those extra pair of helping hands that makes the events so successful!

We had a number of volunteers who helped make our Fun Run fantastic … THANK YOU to …
Mr Farley and Kaizer (LC Ngahere) – our great MCs for the event
The Palisoc family – thanks for the music and speaker system set up
The Maifea family for the set up of the field run with the obstacles
Simran Singh and his family for the generous donation of drinks
Mr Miravite for being our First Aid responder
Our School Board for managing the car parking duties on the field
Ray White Company for providing free coffee and hot chocolate to our families along with raffle prizes
Mrs Aman Kaur and Learning Community Ngahere students who ran the sweets, cupcakes, slices, drinks stall!
And to our staff who “got stuck in” to provide a pair of hands wherever they were needed!!

From our PTFA ….

Thank you so much to all our volunteers for helping make the fun run such a great success! We appreciate all the effort and time you put into the evening.

We raised over $2,680 from the raffles, drinks, sausage sizzle and baking stall!

The Fun Run prize money is at around $18,000, which we will get 50% of (30% go to purchasing the prizes and the company take 20% for administration etc.)

So all up we will have a profit of approx. $11,680!!! How incredible! We can’t thank you all enough for your amazing support!

Laura Cooper and Michelle Porter
Co-Chairpersons
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School
Parent, Teacher & Friends Association

From our School Board …

Our congratulations to Philip Cortesi who is our School Board Presiding Member for this current term of office. Philip is an extremely dedicated and hardworking member of our Board and in holding this special position, he, along with our School Board members, are able to continue to strengthen the strategic direction of the school. We are fortunate to have Philip’s wealth of knowledge and experience, wisdom and guiding hand as we enter a new phase for the school with the restructuring to a Year 1-6 contributing primary school from the beginning of 2024.

Our School Board members are:
Presiding Member of the Board – Philip Cortesi
Elected Parents – Vineetha Uthamaputhiran, Trish Martin, Jason Farley, Maila Altamirano and Lenis Martin
Bishop’s Representatives – Philip Cortesi, Alma Santos, Apaula Fruean-Lautua and Anna Soo Choon
Staff Representative – Lynn Rhodé

Thank you from the Board to our PTFA …

From the Board, many, many thanks to you Michelle, Laura and all of you, for the time, thought and effort put into this event- what a success!! A great team effort!! It was great to have so many of our school community coming together to share in this event and contribute to our fund raising. Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was heart -warming out in the carpark as people left and wound down their window to say “thanks for a great night” and give a wave/thumbs up!!

Again, many thanks to you all. Your efforts are much appreciated.

Blessings to you all

Philip

DRS Report

RE Books Coming Home

Next week, our tamariki will be bringing their Religious Education books home to share what they have been learning about in RE with you. Please take some time to have a look at their books and write a family/whānau comment to celebrate and affirm their new learning. Each Learning Community will decide which day their tamariki will bring their RE books home to you.

“All Souls” Banner

As part of the celebration of the double Feast Days of All Saints and All Souls, we have a special All Souls banner that is displayed in the office foyer. You are welcomed and invited to add names of your loved ones who have died to the banner, so we can pray for their souls, especially during this month of November.

Eternal rest grant unto them, o Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of all faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Amen

Congratulations Miss Connery!

We are very proud of our wonderful Miss Samantha Connery who has completed her two years as a “Provisionally Certificated Teacher” and is graduating and gaining her full practicing certificate this week. Samantha is a wonderful role model for our Holy Trinity Learners. Her kind and caring nature are her super powers! Ka mau to wehi – you are amazing – Well done Miss Connery!

Paid Union Meetings for Teachers

Our Teachers will be attending Paid Union Meetings on Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th November. These are important meetings for teachers to attend so that they have the opportunity to consider the Collective Employment Agreement offer as a result of the negotiations being held by the Ministry of Education and the NZEI Union. There will be minimal disruption to our school day as we have organised to provide for teacher cover during the short period of time the teachers may be off site. Our teachers will be attending in a staggered rotation. Thank you for your understanding.

End of Year Dates

The end of the year is fast approaching! Please note these important schools dates so that you don’t miss out on any of the activities and events leading up to the end of term. We will advise immediately if there are any changes.

Friday 4th November
PTFA School Fun Run Fundraiser from 5:30pm

Thursday 24th November
Orientation Morning for 2023 New Families and Students 9am @ school

Friday 2nd December
Praise-giving Awards Afternoon 1:00pm @ school
HERO End of Year Reports published online

Friday 9th December
End of Year Mass/Leavers acknowledgement 11:00am @ school
followed by School Leavers/Families lunch and ‘School Helpers’ Lunch

Tuesday 13th December
Family Picnic and Nativity Liturgy celebrations 5pm @ school

Thursday 15th December
School-wide Tabloids Sports Day @ school

Friday 16th December
Liturgy and Assembly for Other Leavers and Service Awards 12:00pm @ school

Friday 16th December
School concludes for the year 1:00pm

Calendar Art

It’s Calendar Art time again!

Last week, each child brought home their Calendar Art form with their own unique code that can be used for ordering calendar art products.

The students were busy last term creating art work that can be made into affordable Calendars, Cards, Diaries, Mouse Mats and Sketch Pads.

Each product is made from your own child’s art work.

These make unique Christmas gifts for family and friends and are perfect for posting overseas.

Follow these instructions to place your order online:

1/. Go to www.kidsartworks.com

2/. Use the Entrance Code: KZ8081

3/. Enter your child’s room & name when prompted

The order is open now until Monday 7th November

Payment can be made over the website via credit card or account2account.

If you have any questions please contact the PTFA – ptfa@holytrinity.school.nz.

Kind regards

Laura Cooper and Michelle Porter
Co-Chairpersons
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School
Parent, Teacher & Friends Association

Learning Community News

Learning Community Moana

LC Moana learners have been getting outside and enjoying the sunshine when doing Physical Education and Health learning. We have been learning that health and wellbeing is holistic. To help us with this understanding we have been looking at the model of ‘hauora’. We have created actions to show the parts of hauora to remind us to look after ourselves and others.

Moana learners have learnt about how Māori are tangata whenua. Māori have many special customs and stories that they value and have passed down through generations. Moana learners have looked at their own parts of their heritage that they value. They have compared what they value with each other and are learning to explain how this inspires tūmanako.

Learning Community Maunga

LC Maunga loves Golden Time! Golden Time is a chance for our learners to explore a topic of interest to them. This week Ethan presented a slideshow on the Philippines Revolution, Alleyne and Franco shared what they learned about the Korean War (and made a great diorama), and Chaesi spoke about her dad who plays rugby for Manu Samoa. Other learners are researching space, music, soccer, why parrots can talk, and many other interesting topics.

In Concept we’ve been learning about our cultural heritage and where we come from and where we stand. Our culture and identity are unique. Our identity is shaped by our culture. We learned that some cultures can be the same in some ways and we can show kotahitanga by sharing our language, our history, and our food. By Ashleen Kaur.

In RE (Religious Education), I’ve learned that the ‘common good’ is helping each other. Our hearts are open because we have God’s love and that helps us feel tūmanako – hope. By Lupea Kaloni

In RE I’ve been learning about the three Catholic teachings. They help me in my everyday life by guiding me and showing me what is right, and have helped me become more social and respectful. By Lucien Chang

Learning Community Ngahere – MATHEX

When I first heard that my teacher was entering me into Mathex, I was partly excited and partly nervous. My Mathex group and I practiced every lunchtime and during maths time. Once the day of mathex came, I was so nervous because I was scared of failure. We had a 30 minute timer and somehow it went by quicker than I had imagined. In the middle of the competition we were in 2nd place and I got a bit excited but I knew that it was too early. As time went on, we got harder questions which we had to skip. There was a tie-breaker round and we ended up in 4th place. I was happy and I knew I could do better next time but this was a good experience for me! -Skylar

My Mathex experience was an interesting one and once I had gotten to the place where Mathex would take place, I felt nothing but nervousness. After meeting up with my teammates and the teachers that helped me learn what I needed, I started believing we could do this! As soon as we began to get ready for the competition I started to feel a lot more confident in trying my hardest. Question after question, my team had been able to gain points though we had to skip some of the questions because of the time limit but we were able to understand what it was asking of us. We ended up in fourth place! Being able to compete in a Mathex competition helped me understand a lot more about maths problem solving and I might even try to attend another competition in the future! -Zeus

School Enrolment Preference Forms

Please note that Fr James Mulligan, St Mary’s Parish, Papakura is available to sign School Enrolment Preference Forms on Thursday mornings from 10am to 12noon and afternoons from 4pm to 6pm in the Parish Office.

Please call parish office at 09 2996056 to book an appointment. Many thanks for your co-operation.

Students Leaving at the End of 2022

Due to our need to manage our school roll of a maximum number of students (300), it is very important that you inform the school office immediately if you know that your child/children will be leaving Holy Trinity School at the end of this year, 2022. We have a number of children on the preference waiting list for 2023 commencement and we would like to ensure that we can confirm enrolment placements for them before the end of 2022. Thank you for your help in this matter.

St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College Update!

Online 2024 ENROLMENTS for St Ignatius Catholic College are NOW OPEN.

If you are intending to enrol at the College for your child in Year 7, Year, 8 or Year 9 in 2024 then it’s very important that you ENROL ONLINE NOW.

To enrol: Go to the school website www.saintignatius.school.nz

Other information on the website: Enrolment zone and priorities, Attendance Dues form, Fees information, Catholic Diocese form, Preference information and form

It is VERY IMPORTANT that you complete the 2024 enrolment forms as soon as possible so your child does not miss out.

This term, Term 4 2022, there will be interviews at our school, Holy Trinity for 2024 enrolment at St Ignatius Catholic College – you will only be able to have an interview if you have completed the online enrolment form.

Interview date: Wednesday 23rd November

We are happy to answer any questions via the email address enrolment@saintignatius.school.nz

Sports News

Sporting Super Stars!

A BIG Congratulations to Francheska from Learning Community Moana and Brandon from Learning Community Awa) who were finishers in Whaka100 5KM kids Mountain Biking held in Rotorua last weekend.

It was a very tough 82-metre terrain mountain biking track and they completed it in 48 minutes.

We hope that Francheska and Brandon’s success is an encouragement and inspiration to other students to give new things a go! WELL DONE you two – we are very proud of your excellence/hiranga and resilience/ngāwari.