Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta, Namaskārām,
Sat Shri Akaal, Vanakkam and Ayubowan
Dear Families
We are busy working towards the end of the school year’s ‘must dos and can dos’ just as we do at home … preparing for the rush of Christmas celebrations and holiday times! So how wonderful it was this morning, to take time away from our busyness to prepare our hearts and minds for this coming Advent and Christmas season by receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation led by Fr Mathew and Fr James. Our senior students participated in this beautiful rite of confession, forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation.
We are so proud of the way our students sat in reverence and peacefulness and spent this time reflecting on our thoughts, word and actions that may have turned us away from God. Each child showed courage to share their sins and stories with Fr Mathew and Fr James, having conversations that will help us to avoid sinning in the future, to live holier lives and to being better united with God. We were also challenged to have the same kind of compassion and forgiveness for those who sin against us, just as we had experienced God’s love and forgiveness through participating in the sacrament of reconciliation. Definitely a holy time for all!
From the School Board …
Greetings to all our families from the School Board, especially those who have joined our Holy Trinity School family this term. Welcome aboard and we hope to get to know you more as you become involved in the life of our school.
Strategic Planning and Reporting
The Board’s focus continues to be on the three key goals of our 2024-2025 strategic plan:
1. To nurture a living Catholic faith community where each person encounters the living God, grows in the knowledge of Christ and His teachings, and responds to the call to give Christian witness.
2. To develop a localised, connected and responsive curriculum
3. To develop inclusive, reciprocal and collaborative community relationships.
Our principal and leadership team, with the staff, continue to implement the excellent annual plan and initiatives they developed at the beginning of this year, in working towards achieving the three goals outlined above.
At every monthly meeting, the Board receives very comprehensive reports about the progress being made with the annual plan, along with regular reporting around student achievement. Very positive progress is being made in all areas and the commitment made by Peta, the leadership team and all staff, is acknowledged and appreciated. WELL DONE TEAM! Our children are receiving an excellent Catholic education in all areas.
At this time of year we are reviewing 2024’s progress to date, and looking ahead to the initiatives that are being planned for 2025. With the government’s 2024-2025 priorities around structured approaches to literacy and a new maths curriculum, there will initiatives included in our plans to meet these requirements.
In the new year, we will be engaging our community in on-going consultation, as we look ahead in preparation for a new school board taking the helm in September-the triennial school board elections are being held at this time. As in the last few years, we look forward to the thoughts and ideas that will come from our school families around their children’s education.
School Roll and Student Enrolments
At Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School, we believe that all children from Catholic families are entitled to a Catholic education. Ideally, we would like to enrol every Catholic child who wants to come to our school.
However, we are required to work within our maximum roll which is stated in the school’s official Integration Agreement with the Ministry of Education. Our school’s maximum roll is 400, but with limited accommodation, and the likelihood of no further buildings available in the immediate future and with the enrolments we already have for 2025, we are almost at full capacity. With our permanent buildings and the two relocatable classrooms already in full use. We will continue to manage our school roll in 2025.
This is not the kind of news any of us want to hear. However, we are bound to the present situation as it is, until such time further building can be undertaken.
The Board acknowledges and thanks our principal and office administrators for the great work they do in managing the school roll on a daily basis. It is not an easy task.
For enquiries regarding student enrolment, please contact the school office by email- office@holytrinity.school.nz or phone (09)2969039
MANY THANKS to everyone in our school community for your on-going support and involvement, as together we work to provide a great Catholic education for our children. We make a great TEAM!
Ma te Atua koutou katoa e Manaaki
Philip Cortesi
Presiding Member of the Board
DRS News
RE Books Coming Home
The week, commencing 25th November, your child will be bringing home their Religious Education books to share their RE learning with you at home. It would be great if you can take the time to sit with your child and go through their learning. There will be a space for you to write a whānau comment in. Your comment can be about celebrating your child’s learning or a learning from school that you see has been transferred to your home or even an encouraging comment to motivate your child to continue to learn about our Catholic faith. Each Learning Community will be sending their RE books home on a different date so watch this space!
PTFA News …
We have a couple of options to choose from:-
- Quality 2nd hand toy that can be sold at the 2nd hand toy stall
- Non-perishable food or Christmas item that can be included in our Christmas Raffle
PTFA Meeting – Final Organisation for the Christmas Twilight Market!
Our next Parents, Teachers & Friends Association (PTFA) meeting, will be held at school next Tuesday, 19th November. We would love to see you there!
The Christmas Twilight Market is fast approaching so we will be finalising the details for this event – if you are keen to volunteer then it will be a great opportunity to find out more about how the event will run and put your hand up to help out.
Date: Tuesday, 19th November 2024
Time: 7:00 PM
Venue: School Staffroom
If you can’t make the meeting, don’t worry – you can still volunteer to help out on the day. Please reach out to the PTFA email address (ptfa@holytrinity.school.nz) or let the school office know and we will give you all the details.
Ngā mihi nui,
HTCPS PTFA
Congratulations … A Remarkable Achievement!
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School student wins an international maths award!
We received this GREAT news about Mehtab Singh Year 4 Learning Community Maunga! Please have a read below of Mehtabs amazing achievement – we are so incredibly proud of him and his family!
From the SIP Team … We are pleased to share some wonderful news about a remarkable feat achieved by one of your students who recently took part in the 21st International SIP Abacus & Mental Arithmetic Competition held in Kolkata, India, on the 10th of November, 2024.
We are elated to inform you that Mehtab Singh has also brought glory to New Zealand with his dazzling performance at the competition. Mehtab Singh showcased lightning-fast mental arithmetic skills to be awarded as one of the top ten performers in a competition of 6,000 children from 11+ countries around the world. Mehtab Singh won in this competition by competing against some of the best young minds in the world, bringing honor to New Zealand.
Mehtab’s dedication, hard work, and focus have resulted in this achievement, and we couldn’t be prouder. This achievement by Mehtab Singh reflects the quality of education fostered at Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School and the unconditional support of our team at SIP Abacus. We at SIP Abacus believe these success stories will inspire other students and further bring glory to your prestigious institution.
Do check out the pictures of your champion in all the action. We have attached the pictures along with this mail.
SIP Abacus congratulates the entire school community for this remarkable accomplishment by Mehtab Singh. We at SIP Abacus look forward to eagerly supporting and fostering the success of your students in the days to come.
Congratulations to our 2024 Mathex Team!
Congratulations to our Year 6 students who participated in the Inter-school Mathex Competition this week – Jan Manalo, Liliana Chang, Janine Amposta and Ella Yu – ka mau te wehi ki a koutou – you are all amazing! The team achieved 3rd place in the Year 6 competition. This is a highly competitive mathematics event involving 13 local primary schools and provides students with a fun and challenging opportunity to explore maths beyond the classroom environment.
The team’s critical thinking, confidence in maths problem solving and astounding teamwork definitely helped them to attain 3rd place in their category.
It was a well-organized competition sponsored by ASB Bank that saw our participants awarded with certificates and bags as a token of appreciation.
The Mathex competition inspires a love for mathematics where young students can build foundational skills and enthusiasm for future learning!
Thank you to Mrs Ali (LC Moana Kaitiaki) for training and supporting our Mathex team to a successful outcome!
Mahi Tahi OPEN DAY at School
Kia ora e te whānau, 
We warmly invite you to our Mahi Tahi Open Day, a celebration of your tamariki’s learning progress, attitude, and collaborative efforts in the learning community throughout this year.
When: Friday, 22 November, 9.00am-2.30pm
Where: Your child’s learning community.
This is a wonderful opportunity for your tamariki to share their learning achievements, progress toward their goals. As part of Tōku Reo, they will share reflections on how they relate, collaborate, and engage with peers while working together in their learning space.
Drop in at any time during the day to connect with your child and experience their mahi firsthand. We look forward to seeing you all next week!
Cultural Groups
Our students are busy practicing for the upcoming Cultural Groups and Nativity Performance! Practices are held weekly, with an additional practice during lunchtime to ensure everyone is ready.
The students are working hard to perfect their performances and are excited to share their items with you on the night of the performance:
Wednesday, December 11th, 4:00 pm – 7:00 pm.
We look forward to seeing you there to celebrate their hard work and talent. Thank you for your support!
Orientation Morning for 2025 New Students and Families
On Thursday, 28th November, we look forward to welcoming and hosting all of our 2025 new families and students who are due to commence schooling with us at the beginning of 2025.
This is such a special time for our school as we share with our new families a little bit about who we are as a Holy Trinity Catholic School whānau. We share with our new families about what it means to be a Holy Trinity learner and how engaging, collaborating and respecting all who we are with … and in all that we do … inspires us to be faith filled people learning ka ako, loving ka aroha and serving ka manaaki as Holy Trinity School members!
Our new families will join us from 9:00am until 11:30am on Thursday 28th November. Nau Mau Haere Mai whānau!
Duffy Theatre Performance
On Tuesday 18 November at 1:30pm, Duffy Theatre will be visiting our school. This is Duffy Theatre’s 30th year! We are pleased they are coming to our school as they celebrate this milestone, and we are looking forward to them sharing the Duffy Books in Homes message of “It’s cool to read and it’s cool to achieve”.
Learning Community News
Learning Community Kohanga
At the start of the term, Learning Community Kohanga grew with the addition of seven new students. The first week was fantastic as we participated in Athletics Day. Students were ecstatic and thoroughly enjoyed the event.
In maths, we are focusing on measurement. Students are engaging in activities that involve comparing the lengths of objects using non-standard tools to measure them.
In Religious Education, we are learning how to be part of the Church and exploring ways to welcome others to empower mission. We are also identifying different ways to belong to and participate in the Church.
In Social Science, to celebrate the conclusion of our overarching concept, “Our Story, Our Taonga,” we will welcome our new students by sharing Gospel value stories of kotahitanga (unity), manaakitanga (respect), and arohanui (compassion) through singing and dancing.
Learning Community Awa
It has been a busy term with lots of learning happening in LC Awa. This week we had Fr. Mathew visit us to talk about the Nativity story and how our faith stories help us welcome others to be part of God’s family. Fr Mathew talked about the story of the Birth of Jesus and how we can respond to mission in different ways. We saw the children’s face light up when Fr. Mathew said ‘we can be Angels’; just like Angel Gabriel when we give out God’s message to others by saying “God Loves You”. By this we strengthen and empower others to build and enrich God’s kingdom on earth by working on our mission.
In Literacy, we talked about different ways text creators share stories as taonga and one of them is through Korero Paki – storytelling using pictures. This term’s Korero Paki is “The Nativity of Jesus”. As text creators, children are learning and using descriptive words in their sentences to design their ideas to share the Nativity story as taonga with their audience. We are implementing Structured Literacy Approaches with most of our learners to support them with decoding skills of segmenting and blending words and transferring this phonics knowledge into their writing.
In Maths, learners have been learning about weight and capacity. We have been exploring real-life objects to estimate and compare weights and measures using everyday language of heavy – light.
In Health & PE, it is amazing to see how children share their Maths and Literacy knowledge through different cooperative or challenging games.
Learning Community Whenua
Whenua learners are enjoying their learning this term. We are focusing on Social Science and the Arts, which includes drama, dance, and music. This focus aligns well with many of our end-of-year celebrations, including cultural group performances and Advent, a season to prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus.
Learning Community Whenua completed a home learning activity and they were encouraged to prepare a cultural story that they valued in their whānau/family to present to Whenua learners in the beginning of Term 4. They used this learning about valuing our stories to compare the different ways we value our cultural stories. They will also explain how valuing these stories can inspire others and contribute to empowering their audience to mission. We are grateful for their stories and a big thank you to the families who have participated.
In Religious Education we are learning about the special symbols, words and actions that are used in the Sacrament of Baptism that welcomes people into God’s family. Learners will choose one way they can show how to be like Jesus. Learners will choose and create a way to share their learning through painting, sculpture, poster, role play, dance etc. to teach others about Jesus’ mission which is our mission.
For the Arts we are learning about the different elements in dance where learners will showcase their learning in Our Nativity performance to celebrate our stories, our taonga to their school community audience.
For writing, Whenua learners are using Book Creator to share either their Korero Paki on the Nativity of Jesus or Craftlab.
Learning Community Ngahere
We have learnt so much from our stories shared. We learnt that our stories all have special messages that we can learn from. Learners have worked collaboratively to share a story through song, they have written a song with a special message to empower others to mission. Ngahere learners also used the elements of dance to come up with a dance to match their song. They all showed the Gospel value of Ngāwari – Resilience and Kotahitanga – Unity to present their song and dance to the audience in order to empower their audience to mission.
In maths we have been learning about measurement using volume. Learners have been using measuring cups to practise measuring correctly using ml and L. We will be using our learning to make our Christmas scented candles for the Christmas Twilight Market.
Learning Community Maunga
What a wonderful start to the term for Maunga! As part of our social sciences inquiry, we have been learning about how our stories can help us to connect to people and places to empower mission. LC Maunga visited Papakura Marae and came away with a rich educational and cultural experience. Our learners enjoyed participating in the workshops learning ti ti torea, mau rakau, waiata and learning stories from our local iwi Ngati Tamaoho.
In RE, we have been busy learning about the Sacraments and their symbols. We have been praying the Rosary and the Angelus prayer during the month of our Holy Rosary. Father Matthew came in for a visit and spoke to us about the four Mysteries of the Rosary and the special events that took place in Jesus’ life. Our learners have a better understanding of the Rosary and its special purpose for certain prayers and reflections. Our maths strand is measurement with a focus on capacity and mass. We are using different units of measurement to measure volume and weight.
For writing, we are learning to use different language features like similes, alliteration, metaphors, rhyme and authentic Te Reo Maori using our korero paki story ‘Pania of the Reef’. Our learners will be busy creating Christmas cards, poems and a liturgical dance to share and gift to the elderly residents at two of our local Rest Homes as part of our service and mission in our community during the season of Advent.
Sports News
Sailing Day at Maraetai Beach
On Thursday 21 November, 20 Year 6 tamariki will be heading to Maraetai Beach. There, they will be shown the basics of sailing by the Maraetai Sailing Club volunteers, and then they’ll have the opportunity to have a go at sailing in a single person optimist sail dinghy, as well as having a go at paddle-boarding (weather permitting). Our tamariki will also learn valuable water safety skills and ways to prevent drowning. It will be an amazing, challenging, and fun opportunity for these learners!
Hauora/WellBeing News
Awhi Team
Book Club
The last Book Club catalogue for the year is out now. Orders for Issue 8 close on Thursday 21 November at 3pm. Order online to take advantage of the offer to get $5 off Issue 1 of 2025. Payment (cash/EFTPOS) can also be made at the school office. Please make sure the form is filled in correctly and has your child’s full name and LC.Term 4 Special Events and Activities
Please save the date for these ‘end of Term 4’ celebrations events and activities. These are all family/whānau events and we are delighted to warmly welcome our school families and wider school community to be part of each special event and activity where we celebrate who we are as a catholic school – rejoicing in our catholic faith, our students achievements and our school’s achievements from throughout 2024.
Thursday 28th November
Orientation Morning for 2025 New Families and Students 9am – 12pm @ school
Friday 29th November
PTFA Christmas Twilight Market 3:30pm – 6:00pm @ school
Tuesday 3rd December
School Helpers THANK YOU Morning Tea 10:30am @ school
Friday 6th December
Praise-giving Awards Afternoon 12:00pm @ school in Taamaua/school hall
Monday 9th December
Liturgy and Assembly for Other School Leavers and Service/Leadership Awards 9:00am @ school
Wednesday 11th December
End of Year Mass – Blessing and Acknowledgement of 2024 Year 6 Leavers and their families 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall
Wednesday 11th December
Whānau/Family Picnic – Cultural Group performances and Nativity Liturgy celebrations 4:00pm – 7:00pm @ school
Job Vacancy!
Dear Holy Trinity whānau
Our wonderful hard-working Caretaker, Mr Stewart is retiring at the end of this year – we are so sad to see him go after looking after us and the school environment so well these past few years!
We are currently looking for a person to take on this role in 2025. Please see below for further information.
Upcoming School Events
Cultural Groups and Nativity Practices
Monday 18th November
Whātuia te Wairoa – Weaving Well-Being lessons for Year 5/6 students
Tuesday 19th November @ school
PTFA STALL HOLDERS Meeting for Christmas Twilight Market
Tuesday 19th November 6:00pm @ school in the staffroom
PTFA Meeting
Tuesday 19th November 7:00pm @ school in the staffroom
EOTC Sailing Day for nominated Year 6 students
Thursday 21st November @ Maraetai Beach
Mahi Tahi OPEN DAY at school – sharing of students’ learning
Friday 22nd November in the Learning Communities @ school
Whātuia te Wairoa – Weaving Well-Being lessons for Year 5/6 students
Friday 22nd November @ school
Orientation Morning for 2025 New Families and Students
Thursday 28th November @ 9:00am at school
PTFA Christmas Twilight Market
Friday 29th November 3:30pm – 6:00pm @ school
School Helpers Morning Tea
Tuesday 3rd December 10:30am @ school
Rest-Home Visit by Learning Community Maunga
Tuesday 3rd December
Praise-giving Awards Celebration
Friday 6th December 12:00pm @ school in Taamaua/school hall
Liturgy and Assembly for Other Leavers and Service/Leadership Awards
Monday 9th December @ 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall
End of Year School Mass/Acknowledgement and Blessing of 2024 Year 6 Leavers
Wednesday 11th December 9:15am @ school
Whānau/Family Picnic, Cultural Group Performances and Nativity Liturgy celebrations
Wednesday 11th December 4:00pm-7:00pm at school
Term 4 Concludes for the 2024 year at 1:00pm
Tuesday 17th December
Upcoming Community Events
Artz on Show January Workshops
We are excited to begin promoting our January 2025 performing arts School Holiday Workshop – WONKA!
The Workshop will take place from Monday, January 13th to Friday, January 17th, 2025, at the Karaka War Memorial Hall.
