Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta, Namaskārām, Sat Shri Akaal, Vanakkam and Ayubowan
Dear Families
As a Catholic Community we celebrate Trinity Sunday as part of the Church’s liturgical year. Holy Trinity is the charism for our school community as we are named Holy Trinity Catholic Primary school, and we too celebrate this special time in the season of the church by marking the closest Friday to Trinity Sunday as our School Trinity Feast Day.
Relationship, love and unity is important to who we are and how we are at our school. We have a great example and model of relationship in the Holy Trinity – the Trinity exemplifies love – it is the love of the Father for his Son, the love of the Son for his Father and the overarching love of the life giving Holy Spirit. It is love that binds the three together. And it is this love and relationship that’s the essence of the Trinity. This is an important part of our school culture and the type of community that we want to be – where we welcome all, we participate and contribute, we build and nurture relationships, we model love and service and seek excellence in our learning and where we unite as Holy Trinity Family.
How wonderful then that we can celebrate this special day as a school whānau with our Parish Priest, Father James, this coming Friday 2nd June at school and again as a parish community on the weekend 3rd/4th June – The Most Holy Trinity Feast Day!
From our School Board …
Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa , Malo e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hau, Bula, Kumusta ka
As we approach mid term, winter is almost upon us. The last few weeks have been challenging with weather events that have resulted in flooding, damage to homes, sickness (including both children and staff) and the like. Thank you for your patience and understanding, as amidst it all, our staff have continued to do the very best they can to provide learning and teaching programmes to ensure our children continue to progress and achieve.
THANK YOU to all those families who have been participating in the gatherings of our different ethnic communities. Thank you for making the time to come and share your thoughts and ideas about your children’s education. Your input is highly valued and helps us to look ahead at how we can further develop the school and the learning experiences it offers. I am reminded of the idea of TEAM– Together Everyone Achieves More.
To our PTFA– a BIG THANK YOU from the Holy Trinity School Board– what great work you did in organising a very successful Twilight Market at the end of last term. A special thank you goes to our two co-chairpersons- Laura Cooper and Michelle Porter, who worked tirelessly with the planning and in bringing everyone together for this event. What a great night it was. Not only was it a great fundraiser, but the meeting of new people, the working together, the fun, laughter and sharing was just amazing! Manaaki koutou katoa!
THANK YOU to all our families for your support – as a result of everyone’s effort, just over $10,000.00 was raised to go towards the school’s Sacred Space/Prayer Garden. The last details of the plans are just being finalised and once we have the approval of the Catholic Diocese property personnel, we will be underway. We are hoping to see the construction of the Sacred Space begin early next term.
ROAD SAFETY, CAR-PARKING and our NEW PEDESTRIAN GATE
This continues to be one of the Board’s responsibilities, and we are ever mindful of the on-going challenge this continues to be.
While we cannot control the traffic flow along Airfield Road, there are some things we can all do to try and make the entry and exit points of the school, particularly at the beginning and the end of the school day.
It is great to see:
- People adhering to the carpark speed limit of 20kmph
- People delaying their after school pick up time by a few minutes which helps to reduce the 2.45-2.55pm congestion.
- Drivers continuing up Airfield Road to go around the traffic island at Mill Road and coming back down Airfield Road and entering the school from the left, rather than making a right hand turn into the school from the centre of Airfield Road.
- More of our families, parking in the neighbouring streets and walking in and out of the school, thus reducing the amount of congestion out on the road waiting to turn into the school.
- An increasing number of people using Kapowai Boulevard, adjacent to the school, as a parking area and walking into school to collect their children. If you are using this road, we ask that you do not park right up at the Airfield Road end, where there are yellow lines and in the area where cars need to turn in order to drive back down the road to exit.
We now have our pedestrian gate installed down at the end of the carpark on the field side– just inside the double gates that lead onto the school field. It is our intention to have this gate in use next week.
This means that:
- All families using this road, will need to park and use this new gate as the pedestrian access into the school.
- We ask that no one use the entrance end of the carpark to walk around the corner and into Kapowai Boulevard- it is not safe with cars coming into the carpark.
- Families should park a little further down Kapowai Boulevard, away from the school entrance end of that road.
We ask that in the interest of everyone’s safety, the procedures for Kapowai Boulevard are followed by everyone. Many thanks for your patience in understanding.
Conclusion
On behalf of the Board, thank you again to our parents, whānau and friends of the school, for your on-going support.
May we all be blessed by the Holy Trinity and may the love of God continue to strengthen us in all that we do.
Blessings
Philip Cortesi
Presiding Member of the School Board
DRS Report
Trinity Feast Day School Mass
Next week Friday 2 June, our school will be celebrating our Feast Day which actually falls on Sunday 4 June. We will begin our special day with a Trinity Mass at 9:30am with Father James Mulligan in Taamaua/school hall. Students and kaitiaki of Pompallier Whānau and MacKillop Whānau will be leading our Mass. To make it extra special, we will be having a whole school mufti to celebrate Samoan Language Week as well. We ask that your child comes wearing their traditional Samoan puletasi or iefaitaga and alo’a, or they can wear a lavalava to school. We are inviting all our families and friends to come along and celebrate our Holy Trinity Feast Day with us with a special Mass and then later on in the day, Trinity’s Got Talent (TGT) show.
Trinity’s Got Talent – Trinity Feast Day Show
This coming week is a very special week for our school. We are having a huge festive day at school on Friday 2 June to celebrate our Holy Trinity Feast Day. After Mass in the morning, we will be spending the afternoon watching performances from our students who will be sharing their gifts and talents. This is our annual Trinity’s Got Talent Show! We will be holding the Show in Taamaua.
Please do encourage your child/children to participate in the Trinity’s Got Talent Show. They just need to share their proposed item with their kaitaiki/teacher who will sign off the entry form and pop it in the box in the Office. We’re looking for performers who can sing, dance, play an instrument, juggle, tell jokes OR generally have lots of talent to share with us!
Looking forward to a truly special day on Friday 2nd June as we celebrate being a Holy Trinity School!
The Sacrament of Baptism at St Mary’s Parish, Papakura
Baptism is celebrated every SECOND SUNDAY of the month after the 10:30am Mass. If you would like your child to be baptised at St Mary’s Church, Papakura please contact the Parish Office so that you know what documents to bring. There is a baptismal preparation course in the Ryder Room next to the Church on the last Thursday of the month at 7:00pm. You only need to attend one Thursday class for your child to be baptised.
The Parish Office number is (09) 299 6056.
Holy Trinity Celebrates Samoan Language Week
Sunday 28 May – Saturday 3 June
The theme for Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa – Samoan Language Week 2023 is ‘Mitamita i lau gagana, maua’a lou fa’asinomaga’ which means ‘Be proud of your language and grounded in your identity’.
- Be proud of your ancestral language
- Be proud of your spiritual language
- Be proud of your language in your families
- Be proud of your written language
Various activities have been planned by aiga, staff and students to help celebrate Samoan Language Week. Manuia le vaiaso o le gagana Samoa!
PTFA News …
Here are some ‘highlights’ from our recent PTFA meeting:
- Our Sacred Space garden plan is finalised! We’re so pleased to able to present the design to you, once it has been approved by the Catholic Diocese of Auckland Property Team. It’s the culmination of the last few years of hard work thanks to all of you and our school community. THANK YOU for making this beautiful space a reality for HTCPS!
- The Twilight Market was a resounding success, lots of positive feedback, and the final total raised was $10,141 thanks to the additional funds from Team Cathy Mei!
- Mark your calendars! We are planning a Matariki Disco on Friday 28th July, with two time slots to keep the numbers under control. Tentative times are: Juniors – 5:30-6:30 and Seniors – 6:30-7:30
- We will be holding our AGM on Tuesday the 20th June – 6:30pm. This is a wonderful chance to have your say if you have ideas for fundraising or school projects, or if you’d like to get more involved in the PTFA here at school.
We look forward to seeing you all on the 20th June for the AGM.
Have a wonderful weekend.
Ngā mihi,
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School
Parent, Teacher & Friends Association
EOTC Education Outside the Classroom
“Learning to Sail”
An Awesome Day …
Yesterday the Year 8’s went to Maraetai Beach to go sailing and learn about water safety. When we got there, we already knew that it was going to be a fun experience and the view was great!
We were first greeted by our awesome instructors who gave us an introduction to what our day was going to look like, then we went down to the beach and our instructors told us about the little sail boats (optimist dinghies) and all the ins and outs of it, as well as how to operate it. To put it short …
- to steer you need to pull a stick at the back of the boat to pull the rudder and steer in whatever direction you choose.
- to accelerate you have to pull a rope controlling the sail and …
- to decelerate you need to push the rope backwards. After we knew what to do, I could tell my classmates were eager to get sailing.
However, the sailing was a little bit chaotic to say the least, many boats were bumping into each other as we all endeavoured to increase our sailing skills. It was almost as if we were playing on water bumper boats, but it was absolutely fun!
The next thing we did was paddle boarding. Paddle boarding was like kayaking except we were standing rather than sitting. It was basically the same, you would have a paddle, then to go forwards – you have to place your paddle forwards. If you want to go right you paddle left and if you want to go left you paddle right.
Afterwards, we went back to shore and we were given a fun challenge by the swimming instructors. We had to run to the pavement at the back of the beach shoreline then we had to run into waist deep water and we had to do a number of things based on water safety and place ourselves in positions of what to do if we needed help.
At this point we were flat out exhausted and we were relieved that we were going to change out of our wetsuits and eat hotdogs prepared by the awesome Tracey Lee! After we got changed we had a good time eating hotdogs and enjoying ourselves.
Overall, this experience was both exciting and educational. It not only taught us important skills that we can use for fun, but also skills we can use if we were in danger in the water. I’m sure all the Year 8 students and I can agree that it was a memorable experience! I think my hauora/wellbeing is full!
By Euan T.
Holy Trinity School Community Meetings/Gatherings
Across Terms 2 and 3 we are providing opportunities for our school families/whānau to gather together in their ethnic communities to get to know each other a little better – to build whanaungatanga/relationships, to share and help plan for school language weeks, to share information about our current school Health Curriculum programmes and to gather whānau voice about health issues and concerns for our tamariki children.
It is always lovely to begin our time together with a shared meal, afternoon tea etc. Please keep an eye out for our invitations on HERO, Facebook and printed copies home to our families inviting you to join with us at each of the different occasions. We value this time together in getting to know our families, your stories, your desires for your children and your desires for our school. Please come along and share in this special time!
Our Filipino Families will be meeting together on Monday 12th June at 6:00pm commencing with a shared meal. We look forward to spending special time together with our families.
THANK YOU to our Indian families, our Sri Lankan families and to our Māori whānau who joined us recently for a shared afternoon tea and an evening meal for our Māori whānau. Our families shared a huge wealth of ideas for the planning of school learning. We also presented school information about our current Health Curriculum programmes. We appreciated the discussions around this curriculum and the possible teaching and learning programmes families were keen for us to provide for our ākonga/learners.
Learning Community News
Learning Community Whenua
In Whenua, we have been researching why certain food types last longer than others. This led to the learners using their ‘thinking like a scientist’ skills e.g. investigating, observing and sharing their ideas relating to which foods should be stored in fridges/ freezers and pantry cupboards and why.
On our ‘Discovery Wall’ we are looking at how preservatives work, what physical, visible changes we can see when there are lots of preservatives in food like a cheeseburger or little preservatives like bread. The children have been sharing their ideas on whether preservatives are good or bad for our health.
The other investigation that has been ongoing relates to God’s creation and what type of soil is best suitable for plants to grow in. This has resulted in an awareness by the children to care for God’s creation by watering the plants, picking up litter and being kaitiaki of our environment.
The idea of having a ‘Learning Community Pataka Kai’ is being discussed. The learners are investigating which food types would be suitable to be stored inside a pataka.
Learning Community Whenua will be making a ‘Pataka Kai’ to provide for the nutritional needs of the children at our school. This is one way we hope to strengthen community within Holy Trinity School!
Learning Community Awa
In Awa, we talked about the science of Autumn this week and got the opportunity to see leaves outside. This is a fantastic connection to what we’ve been studying about the scientific method. We had a talk about conserving our environment and realised that science had transformed the ecosystem. We were able to integrate Arts into Science by observing and collecting various leaves. Our young scientists have had a lot of fun putting on their thinking caps and exploring their creative abilities.
In RE, children have been learning to identify and explain ways that the fruits of the Holy Spirit fosters love in our everyday interactions, which develops our connections with ourselves, God, others, and creation to strengthen communities. They had a great time learning a song to help them remember all the fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Learning Community Moana
This week, Moana learners have been engaging in ‘accountable talk’ to encourage our oral language skills. We had a look at a range of landscape art. Whilst talking about the artwork, we were very curious as to why the colour of the stream is different in each art piece. We also wondered if streams that appear green have lots of pollution? We worked collaboratively and used our ‘thinking like a scientist’ skills to carry out science experiments to help us understand why water appears in different colours. We used water and food colouring for our experiment. We have learnt that the colour of the water in the stream changes depending on the surroundings of the stream as well as what is growing inside the stream.
Learning Community Maunga
In Learning Community Maunga, students have been exploring and learning about the significant places that make up our school pepeha, places mentioned in our Papakura haka which we often chant in our whakatau. On Tuesday 30 May, we will be going on a learning journey to visit these local places such as the Pāhurehure Inlet and Pukekiwiriki Paa. Through the lens of Science, we will be exploring how people cared for the land and water in the past compared to how we care for these taonga today.
Learning Community Ngahere
In Learning Community Ngahere, students are preparing themselves to get ready for Rehu Tai – Speech Competitions. We will start in-class competitions in Week 8 to select our finalists to participate in the school-wide competitions. Our tamariki are excited to represent our school in the Papakura/Takanini inter-school finals.
Learning Community Ngahere is also planning to celebrate Holy Trinity Feast Day at school on the 2nd of June. Students are participating in Trinity’s Got Talent to share their gifts and talents with the community. We would like to invite our parents to be a part of this excitement and to encourage our students to enter our very own school talent show!
With our connected curriculum Discovery learning journey, we are planning to visit to Kings Plant Barn to learn more about plants and their environmental importance. Students have explored how our lifestyle has impacted our surroundings and natural resources. Students are also learning about how these plants can avoid flooding and also keep our surroundings clean and green.
Next week is Samoan Language Week! Learning Community Ngahere will be celebrating Samoan Language Week and learning to cook Koko Laisa – a Samoan dessert. As a part of Food Technology, our students will be cooking Koko Laisa for the whole school on Wednesday 31st May 2023. Our parents will be helping us. Thank you to our ‘parent teachers’ in supporting and enabling us to organise this Food Technology lesson for our students.
Mental Health Learning!
Peer Mediation Programme
We have been unpacking the term ‘conflict’ with our learners. Learners have been working on identifying what conflict looks like at our school as well as the different approaches we have towards conflict. We are working towards building the understanding that conflict can be dealt with in different ways depending on the situation we find ourselves in.
Below are the 5 ways we can deal with conflict:
- We can be like Pūpūrangi and avoid the situation – ‘Nah, forget it. I don’t want to talk about this right now’
- We can be like Kiwi and be accommodating – ‘Never mind. Turn that frown upside down! Let her have her way so we can all be happy’
- We can be like Mako and compete – ‘This isn’t over yet, my idea is the best so you have to do as I say’
- We can be like Kurī and compromise – ‘If you agree to this solution then you can use my iPad to play your game’
- We can be like Ruru and collaborate – ‘Let’s hear both sides before jumping to conclusions’
Hauora /WellBeing Activity – Practice your Breathing!
We all experience times where we feel worried and anxious. People carry this worry and anxiety in different parts of their bodies. Some carry it in their mind, others in their stomach. It’s important to have a range of tools to help us when we feel this way. One way to ease anxiety is to regularly practice deep breathing, a special 4-2-6 technique can help with this!
- Place you hands over your stomach and close your eyes if you want
- Take a deep breath in while counting to 4 in your mind
- Hold your breath while counting to 2 in your mind
- Breath out while counting to 6 in your mind
- Repeat this process as many times as you need
Challenge yourself to practice this technique. Once you are familiar with it, you can use it anytime you begin to feel overwhelmed, worried or anxious.
New Side Gate – Kapowai Boulevard – NOW OPEN!
We have installed a side gate from the Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School field onto Kapowai Boulevard!
This means that all families using Kapowai Boulevard for pick up of children in the afternoons, will be able to meet the children on Kapowai Boulevard – parallel to the school field. A staff member will walk the children to this area after school by gathering the children together on the court area, walking across the field, through the new gate and up the steps to Kapowai Boulevard.
This area is further down from the school entrance car-park area. We will no longer be crossing the children using the pedestrian crossing at the school entrance.
We will be utilising the system in the afternoons ONLY at this stage AND we are going to start today!
We have been practicing the children throughout the day so that they know exactly what to do.
Our intention is to reduce the close vicinity of children and moving traffic at the front entrance of the school particularly at the congested ‘end of day’ pick up time.
Families will be able to drive up Kapowai Boulevard, turn in the turning bay and drive back down Kapowai Boulevard to park on the left hand side facing Kuaka Drive. Please DO NOT park on the yellow ‘no parking’ lines on Kapowai Boulevard or in the turning bay areas.
This new operation is ensuring that we are keeping everyone’s safety in mind!
We hope this new practice is helpful to all, keeps everyone safe and reduces the school pedestrian and traffic safety concerns.
Thank you so much for your patience and understanding as we get this new ‘end of the day’ system underway for families using Kapowai Boulevard!
Travelwise – Whenua Scooter Skills Day!
Fa’afetai tele lava Travelwise Student Leaders Team for your exceptional efforts in organising and hosting a successful scooter skills day for Learning Community Whenua children. It was a fun-filled day of learning and discovery, centered around the importance of staying safe while riding a scooter and being mindful of hazards … for example sneaky driveways and crossing at the traffic lights or pedestrian crossing etc!
A great event for our little ones to have the opportunity to ride their scooters around school afterwards and even better that the rain stayed away for the time that they were outside.
Book Club
Kia ora whānau
Issue 4 of the Book Club catalogue is out now. It’s the last one for Term 2, so now is a great time to stock up on books for the school holidays. There are books available for as little as $3 each.Upcoming School Events
Samoan Language Week
Monday 29th May – Friday 2nd June
Papakura Hīkoi/Journey – Learning Community Maunga
Tuesday 30th May 9am-2pm
Holy Trinity School Feast Day Mass
Friday 2nd June @9:30am with Father James in Taamaua/school hall
The Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
Sunday 4th June
King’s Birthday Weekend – Public Holiday on Monday – school closed
Monday 5th June
School Liturgy and Assembly – led by Learning Community Maunga
Tuesday 6th June @ 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall
Years 5-8 Netball – North Counties Inter-schools
Wednesday 7th June @ Bruce Pulman Park
Confirmation Mass for candidates
Friday 9th June @ 7:00pm St Mary’s Parish, Papakura
First Holy Communion Mass for candidates
Saturday 10th June @ 5:30pm St Mary’s Parish, Papakura
Papakura Stream Visit by Learning Community Moana
Monday 12th June 9am-1pm
Filipino Families Gathering
Monday 12th June @ 6:00pm in Taamaua/school hall commencing with a shared evening meal
PTFA AGM (Annual General Meeting)
Tuesday 20th June 7:00pm in the school staffroom
Holy Trinity School Cross Country Day
Wednesday 28th June
Term 2 Concludes at 2:50pm
Friday 30th June
Term 3 Commences at 8:50am
Monday 17th July
The Developing Athlete with Dr Craig Harrison
Tickets are on sale for an insightful presentation with Dr Craig Harrison on Tuesday 6 June, at Sacred Heart College. “The Developing Athlete” will be a fun-filled evening with family and friends and we invite all parents and students from all different sports codes to join us. Be sure to get in early to secure your tickets before they sell out!
Where: Sacred Heart College Theatre, Gate 1, Crossfield Road, Glen Innes.
When: Tuesday 6 June (Doors Open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start). The presentation will conclude at approximately 8.30pm
Ticket Price: $30 per person and available here: www.sacredheart.school.nz/
Upcoming Community Events
Kuraconnect Turbo Touch
Kuraconnect is running FREE Turbo Touch at Bruce Pulman Arena for the next four Friday’s from 6pm, we would love to see a couple more schools come down and have a go it is so much FUN! ALL THE WHĀNAU can play together in one team! The team consist of 10 players with 5 players to take the court, if you are playing mixed the requirements are 3 female and 2 males.
Below is the link for registrations, for those that register online and are present on the night they will go into the draw to win a $50 Mad Butcher voucher!
https://www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/201312
Artz on Show School Holidays Workshop
We are a children’s performing arts School Holiday Workshop provider, helping develop children’s talents and confidence.
We tutor Drama, Theatre Arts, Art, Vocals, Jazz and Hip Hop dancing. Plus a Team building and Specialist element.
On the Friday afternoon of our week together, the children perform a small Show of what they have been learning for their parents.
Our July 2023 School Holiday Workshop is “Shrek”.
Kids School Holiday Camp at Chosen Valley Christian Camp
