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

Dear Families

On Sunday week, 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.

School’s TRINITY FEAST DAY

This year, we celebrate our school’s Feast Day on the Friday closest to TRINITY SUNDAY. This will be Friday 25th May. We are hugely excited as this will be our very first Feast Day as a school family and we have many celebrations planned to mark the occasion. We commence our special day with Liturgy at 9am followed by tabloid sports in the second block and then a “Trinity’s Got Talent” show in the afternoon. Children are welcome to perform their special talent as individuals or groups on the day. Over the weekend, have a family discussion about what would be a good talent for your child/children to share with us all!

On Sunday 27th May, our school will join with St Mary’s parish to celebrate Trinity Sunday at St Mary’s Parish Church 10:30am Mass with shared morning tea to follow in the Parish Hall. Ana Silva, our DRS will share further information and organisation of this day.

Support Staff in Schools

As part of International Support Staff Day this week, we acknowledged and celebrated the Support Staff members of our school community – Jennifer Quarterman (Office Administrator), Carolyn Harvey (Teacher Aide and Librarian) and Nina Taimalie (relieving Teacher Aide) with a special morning tea and a little gift. It’s great that we continue to thank and value our support staff for the amazing work they do in our school – supporting kaitiaki, manutaki and our children in a variety of ways – they are a bit like our mums and dads – we can’t manage without them!

DRS News

Sacrament of Confirmation

On Friday 11 May, some of our young children received the gifts of the Holy Spirit when they celebrated the Sacrament of Confirmation led by Bishop Patrick Dunn at the St Mary’s Parish Church in Papakura.  This marks a wonderful time in their faith journey and we pray for God’s blessings upon them. May they continue to carry the Light of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, this day and always.

Pentecost

This coming Sunday 20 May, the Church celebrates Pentecost.  Pentecost marks the end of the Easter season and is called the “birthday of the Church” as it was from this event that the disciples went forth to spread the Good News and establish the Church.  Happy Birthday!

School Parish Mass

Our Feast Day of The Holy Trinity is on Sunday 27 May.  On this special Sunday, our children will be leading the Parish Mass at 10:30am held at St Mary’s Church in Papakura.  We warmly invite all our families and whanau to attend this special Feast Day Mass as we gather together as a School Parish community.  Please note that all students are expected to come in their school uniform.

We also ask that each child donate a non-perishable grocery item that would contribute towards our Offertory basket for the Mass.  These items will go towards St Vincent de Paul in Papakura, helping them to assist families who need support.

Bullying-Free NZ Week

This week, activities within and across Learning Communities have been focussed on helping our students understand what bullying is and what they can do if they’re being bullied or see it happening. Bullying is a serious issue that all schools face and it’s important that every member of our school community knows they have a role to play in preventing and stopping bullying.

What is Bullying? …. Bullying is …
deliberate: done on purpose to cause harm
imbalanced: one person has more power
repeated: occurs more than once or has the potential to be repeated.

Bullying can be verbal, physical and/or social and it can happen in person or on-line.

Kaitiaki and students have been sharing key messages from activities and actions throughout the week – living our school Gospel values of respect/manaakitia, resilience/ngāwari, integrity/ngākau pono, excellence/hiranga, compassion/arohanui and unity/kotahitanga will encourage us to be a school that is bullying free and is focussed on love, respect and uniy for all.

School Family Bereavement

Thank you to our school community who have been wonderfully supportive of the Lautua family especially their children, Georgina and Albertus-Magnus as they grieve the  sudden death of their beloved Mum, Wilna.

Thank you for the many prayers and loving thoughts shared with us which we have passed on to the family and children.

If you would like to support the family – grocery items or a monetary donation is most welcome and can be handed into our school office as a collection point. Thank you for your wonderful generosity. Please do keep the family in your prayers.

PTFA (Parent Teacher Friends Association)

The Inaugural meeting of the PTFA was held this week. Thank you to parents/whanau who were able to attend and to those who sent through apologies. Although our numbers were small, we have a fantastic nucleus of enthusiastic whanau who are keen to be involved in this community group. We were able to share ideas about the purpose of a PTFA, ideas for PTFA fundraising and community building activities, the PTFA relationship with the Board of Trustees in their governance role and next steps to progress the establishment of this important forum.

The next meeting is to be held Thursday 7th June 7:00pm in the school staffroom. ALL are Welcome!

Family/Whanau Learning Workshops

On Thursday 31st May from 6:00pm – 7:30pm, we will be running a learning workshop for families/whanau in Taamaua/Hall. Some of the activities will be hands on learning experiences, similar to the way we work, kaitiaki and students, together in the learning communities. Some areas of interest for you may be … supporting reading at home, understanding maths strategies to solve word problems, coding for spheroballs, how to logon to ixl software programme for maths practice, consultation around “homework learning” etc. Please do let us know if there are any areas of interest that you would like us to include. We would love to see you there with your family!

Policy and Procedures

It is always good practice at the beginning of each term to inform parents and community of the appropriate channel to share concerns or worries. Schools are required to have a Complaints Policy in place.  The purpose is to provide clear guidelines for the school community in raising and resolving concerns and complaints.

These procedures enable us to:

  • maintain the best learning environment for our students
  • resolve matters of concern early, if possible
  • respond to feedback and concerns constructively
  • deal with complaints fairly, effectively, and promptly
  • take into account individual circumstances
  • maintain confidentiality
  • preserve school/community relationships and communication
  • monitor and record complaints and concerns about student safety.

Most complaints can be resolved informally by discussions with the people concerned.

  1. Discuss the issue with the right person.
  2. Work towards a resolution.

School policies and procedures are held online with SchoolDocs. We will advise you of the username and password through LINC-ED internal communication, to enable access to these. There will be an opportunity to participate in the review schedule each term as is relevant.

School Reminders

Bell Times

School commences at 8:50am. Please try to have children here on time so that they have the opportunity to set themselves up/organise for the day by putting their bags away, changing for sports/fitness, catching up with friends and gathering for prayer time. If you are late, please encourage the children to come through the Office Admin area for a late notice. The school day concludes at 2:50pm.

Winter Uniform

Thank you to families/whanau who have their children in the correct school uniform each day. School socks and black school shoes (not sneakers) now need to be worn for the winter months. The school uniform stockist is NZ Uniforms in Lambie Drive, Manukau.

Samoan Language Week – Vaiaso o le Gagana Sāmoa

Tālofa lava! Afio mai!

Samoan Language Week  – Vaiaso o le gagana Sāmoa takes place this year between Sunday, 27 May to Saturday, 2 June.

This is Week 5 on the school calendar.

The theme for this year is: “Alofa atu nei. Alofa mai taeao – Kindness given. Kindness gained”.

We are looking forward to celebrating this important event with school and to acknowledge our Samoan students, aiga and staff members.

Learning Community Whenua

Learning Community Whenua have been immersed in exploring and wonderings about our world around us. The children have been developing their curiosity by asking questions, making things, observing physical change in substance and how things move. We have identified that there are two types of force – push and pull. Children were able to walk around the school and identify things that we can push or pull. We are now exploring simple machines which will help us to understand forces in action.

National Young Leaders Day

Last week the Year 7&8 students went off to the Vodafone Events Centre, Manukau to the NATIONAL YOUNG LEADERS DAY – we learnt about how to “Think like a Leader”. We were inspired by Lisa Tamati, an ultra marathon runner; Riley Hathaway, the girl who started the young ocean explorers, and more. They taught us that as leaders, we need to follow our passions, believe in ourselves and try and inspire others to do their best. At the end, Vince Harder and William Wairua performed some songs for us. Wowwee! 

We look forward to using our new skills to help all students at Holy Trinity to become the best they can be.

Kelly Tarlton’s & Auckland Zoo Overnight Trip

Learning Community Maunga spent an amazing time on Monday night, staying over night at Kelly Tarlton’s and visiting Auckland Zoo on the Tuesday. A big thank you to the parents and adults that supported us as parent helpers: Averil Hiddleston, Sel Seluone, Letisia Saafi, Jo Petrie and Nina and Faopusa Taimalie. You all made the event run smoothly. Also, thank you to Jennifer Quarterman for making 80 burger patties and organising Monday night’s dinner, and Peta Lindstrom for her support of the event.

Year 7&8 students from St Patrick’s School, Taupo came along for the trip with us. It was a great way to build relationships with students from another part of New Zealand and we hope to build on this relationship in the future.

 Sports

Year 5-8 Rippa Rugby and Soccer Inter-school Competitions

Over the next few weeks our Year 5/6 and 7/8 students will be training for some inter-school sporting competitions. We have three teams participating in the events with more information coming out about the specific sporting events next week.

Girls Hit Out Day

This week, our Year 5-8 Girls spent the day at Bruce Pulman Park participating in a range of sports. They learnt the basics of golf, badminton, softball, hockey, tennis and squash. We had one big downpour of rain which sent us running for shelter, but other than that we had a fantastic day getting involved in sports that we might not otherwise have had a chance to play.

Hip Hop Dance Lessons

Hip Hop Lessons started this Thursday, 17 May. We have almost 70 students participating, almost half the school! There will be 10 lessons across the term, culminating with a dance performance for the school community. Watch this space for more information!

Upcoming School Events

School Assembly and Prayer – Learning Community Maunga leading
Monday 21st May 9:00am in Taamaua/Hall

Monthly Board of Trustees Meeting
Wednesday 23rd May 6:00pm  in Admin Building/BoT Room

School TRINITY Feast Day Liturgy
Friday 25th May 9:00am Liturgy in Taamaua/Hall

School/Parish Mass “Trinity Sunday”
Sunday 27th May 10:30am Mass @ St Mary’s Parish, Papakura followed by shared morning tea in the Parish Hall 

School Assembly and Prayer – Learning Community Moana leading
Monday 28th May 9:00am in Taamaua/Hall

Samoan Language Week – activities at school
Monday 28th May – Friday 1st June

Family/Whanau Learning Workshop
Thursday 31st May 6:00pm – 7:30pm in Taamaua/Hall

With God’s Blessings
Peta Lindstrom
Principal

Community Event

What Now Audience

During 2018 “What Now” is broadcasting from a different community around Auckland every Sunday from 8am-10am on TVNZ 2. On Sunday 27th May they are live from the Papatoetoe area and would love you to be there as part of the audience. Kids (5-12yrs), families (including Mum & Dad), school classes, sports teams or groups … are all invited to be part of their awesome live audience … & it’s FREE!!  Here is your chance to try something new, maybe play games, get FOAMED or even GUNGED!!

 There are two easy ways to register to be part of the audience…

  1. Families register online at www.whatnow.tv/bonus/audience
  2. Or for group bookings please email your interest to audience@whitebaitmedia.com

 Seating space is limited, don’t miss out!

Suzanne Irvine, Audience Co-ordinator, What Now – M 027 562 2723    W whitebaitmedia.com

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