Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta
Dear Families
This Sunday, the liturgical season of Advent commences. Advent is a season observed as a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. The term Advent means “coming” in latin. Many families will have an Advent Wreath at home where they light one candle each week in joyful and expectant hope of celebrating Christ’s Birth. We too, can light a candle and in the silence of our hearts, name one thing that we can be more aware of this Advent Season that will draw us more deeply into Christ’s light and love.
God of the promise
you on whom we rely,
visit us with your joy and peace
as we journey with anticipation
through this advent time.
Amen
(source: Josephite Prayer Book Volume 1)
End of Year School Community Events
We are looking forward to our families and community joining with us for our end of year events as we celebrate all that has been achieved throughout this 2020 school year.
2020 School Praise-giving
Friday 4th December 1:00pm in Taamaua/school hall
This is a time of “praise” giving where we acknowledge students who have especially displayed academic and personal excellence and also those students who have consistently demonstrated our school Gospel values throughout the 2020 school year.
End of Year School Leavers Mass & Fr Peter’s Farewell
Tuesday 8th December 9:15am in Taamaua
We invite families to join with us for our “Thanksgiving Mass” as we give prayerful thanks for all that has been achieved this year as a school faith community. We especially extend an invitation to all families of our senior students who will be leaving us at the end of this year. This is an opportunity to join together in blessing and thanksgiving for our senior students who have contributed so positively to the life and growth of our school.
Family Picnic Evening and Nativity Play
Wednesday 9th December from 5:00pm – school courtyard
We invite families to bring a picnic along and join with us on the court and field area for early dinner before the students “retell” the Nativity through story, song and dance.
Final School Liturgy and Assembly
Monday 14th December 8:50am in Taamaua/school hall
We will be acknowledging all other school leavers and also presenting service certificates to school leaders who have undertaken roles and responsibilities across this year
School Assembly
Wednesday 16th December 12:30pm in Taamaua
This will be our final gathering as a 2020 school family before we head off to a well deserved Christmas Season and the summer holidays.
School concludes for 2020
Wednesday 16th December 1:00pm
DRS Report
Sacramental Celebrations
Last Sunday 22nd November, seven of our senior students received the Sacraments of Confirmation and First Holy Communion at St Mary’s Church in Papakura. It was a beautiful Mass led by Bishop Michael Gielen alongside Father Peter Murphy and Father James Mulligan. The church was filled with parishioners, especially the families of the candidates who made sure to be there to witness and participate in this wonderful celebration. We congratulate Martin Thomas, Isaac Rudsits, Zachary Cillo, Jacob Cillo, Becca Thorpe, Kyle Tamani and Brayden Greaves.
We pray for them as they continue to grow and deepen their faith. May the gifts of the Holy Spirit guide their words and actions in their daily lives.
Advent
This year the important and happy season of Advent begins this coming Sunday 29 November. During these weeks we turn our thoughts to the coming of Jesus, who is the saviour of the world. Jesus is the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity who is very much present among his people. That is wonderful news! During our Advent journey, we think about the many ways God comes to be with us. It is a time of preparation and we try to make ourselves more ready to receive God in our day-to-day lives. We remember the call of Jesus to his followers to make our world a peaceful and loving place so let us make special efforts this Advent to be signs that God is with us. This is what ‘Emmanuel’ means – God with us.
Papakura Community Dinner
Special thanks to our staff, Board of Trustees and family members who helped out this year with our school’s ministry at the Papakura Community Dinner. It is wonderful to see our Holy Trinity whānau volunteer their time to serve our community outside of school and to see our students helping out. Our school is rostered to serve at the community dinner every month on the last Tuesday and we endeavour to promote this special service each year. Thank you again for your generosity.
End of Year Mass
On Tuesday 8 December we are inviting you to come along and join us for our End of Year Mass. This is always a special Mass as we will be acknowledging our senior students who are leaving at the end of the year. It will be even more special as this will be our school’s opportunity to say thank you and good luck as we farewell Father Peter Murphy this year. Father Peter will be leaving St Mary’s Parish in Papakura for his new ministry as the Spiritual Director at the Holy Cross Seminary. We continue to pray to the Holy Spirit to guide Father Peter in his new ministry.
Nativity Play and Family Picnic
On Wednesday 9 December we will be having our annual family picnic evening where you are invited to come along 
with your whānau, bring your picnic and share your kai while enjoying our Nativity play. The picnic will commence at 5:00pm and all students who are part of the Nativity acting cast will be called into the Learning Community at 5:30pm. This year we have selected students from across the school to perform the Nativity for our families and the other Learning Communities will be singing in between the scenes. We will have booklets for you on the night so you can sing along as well. We look forward to sharing this special Christmas story with you and reminding you again of the true meaning of Christmas time.
Bereavements
It is with much sadness we share the news of bereavements for our school families. We extend our heartfelt love and prayers to the Nau and Finau Families with the death of their much loved young niece – may she rest in eternal peace. We also pray for and send our love to Philip Cortesi, our Board of Trustees Chairperson, with the death of his beloved Mum.
Through the support of us, your school family … may you all be comforted by God’s korowai/cloak of love and care during this time of grief and sadness.
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.
Wednesday 2nd December Mahi Tahi “Working Together” Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences 3pm-6pm
Friday 4th December Praise-giving Awards 1:00pm @ school
Tuesday 8th December End of Year Mass/Leavers acknowledgement 9:15am @ school
Wednesday 9th December Family Picnic and Nativity Liturgy celebrations 5pm @ school
Thursday 10th December Morning Tea for Family, Community and Agency Helpers 10:15am @ school
Monday 14th December Liturgy and Assembly for Other Leavers and Service Awards 9am @ school
Wednesday 16th December School concludes for the year 1:00pm
Digital Online Reporting to Parents
We are looking forward to sharing our term’s learning with our families including individual students’ achievement levels in reading, writing and maths. Teachers/Kaitiaki and students have completed assessments and recording evidence of their progress and achievement to share with families through the HERO online parent portal. Reporting information will be published for families to access online from Monday 30th November. If you are unsure of how to access the HERO parent portal, please call in to the school office for support with accessing the link and setting up of a password.
Mahi Tahi Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences
As we near the end of the year, it is time to reflect upon learning progress and achievements, and to celebrate successes and all that our students have achieved over this very unusual 2020 school year! It is also time to look forward to next year, to set goals and aspirations for each of the students. Families are invited to attend our open Conference time from 3:00 – 6:00pm on Wednesday 2nd December. This is a great opportunity to spend time in your child’s Learning Community, sharing learning conversations with the kaitiaki/teachers and your child. It’s also a time to gather with other school families to enjoy social time and to try one of our sausage and onion sandwiches we will be preparing for this time!
School will provide the sausage and bread and we are asking each family to bring an onion into school before Wednesday so we are able to cook these up during the day to add flavour to our sausage sandwich – THANK YOU!
Thank you for taking the time to be with us and to be so involved in the children’s learning. This truly reflects the partnership that we are endeavouring to create where we can all talk and share about the successes, improvements and challenges of our young ones.
On WEDNESDAY 2nd December from 3:00pm – 6:00pm
we will hold an OPEN TIME for Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences
in each of the Learning Communities
Orientation Morning for 2021 New Families
The morning of Friday November 27th was a special occasion for our school, because we were able to welcome and host our newest members to our ever growing community. Over the years we have seen growth in our school and we’re always proud of our tradition to whakatau our new families and students. This year has seen our largest group of our newest members. It was great to see the excitement of our newest students being matched at the same level of energy from our current students, who were more than happy to host them in and around our school and in their Learning Communities. We look forward to what will be an exciting new chapter of the rest of their faith learning journey here at Holy Trinity. Nau mai, Haere mai!
Thank You – Helpers Morning Tea
Here at Holy Trinity, we are very mindful of the many people of our community who have gone above and beyond to support their own and all our tamariki, our staff and our school community. Although no words or gift can ever replicate our sincerest appreciation of their time and efforts, as a token of our appreciation we are hosting a ‘thank you morning tea’ here at school. We look forward to hosting those wonderful people on Thursday 10th of December.
PTFA News
Earlier this week, the children brought home an ‘online order form’ for Kids Art Works. These are personalised with your child’s name and a unique code at the bottom of the page.
Your children have created some wonderful artwork, which can be made in to calendars, diaries, cards, sketch pads and mouse pads. Please go to www.kidsartworks.com and enter your unique code to view your child’s artwork and order products.
Orders will close on Wednesday 3 December at 9am. We are hoping these will be delivered before Christmas, but unfortunately there is no guarantee, as they’re very busy.
The PTFA will make a small profit on all orders, which will be donated to the school to help fund the Sacred Space Garden. We appreciate your support.
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School PTFA. ptfa@holytrinity.school.nz
PTFA December Meeting
The next PTFA Meeting will be held this coming Tuesday 1st December 7;30pm in the school staffroom. All are welcome to attend!
Mrs Quarterman’s Farewell
We celebrated a wonderful Retirement Liturgy and Farewell for Mrs Jennifer Quarterman last week. It was a privilege to honour Jennifer for the many years of service she has given to school education. Although there were tears, they were happy tears of gratitude and thanks for all Jennifer has contributed to, in the establishment and development of our school office administration operation and as a much loved staff member. THANK YOU Jennifer!
Learning Community News
Patrick Dunn Whānau Group
During Whānau time, the children worked in groups to portray our school Gospel values.
It was great to see the creativity as the children got into groups (older with younger) and in a few minutes worked out their mini play.
Some of the Gospel values that were shared were:
- Excellence/Hiranga
– Children enacted a school scene where the teacher taught the children and praised them for their high quality of work.
– A group of children were working together doing Maths and another child helped them improve and attain better results
- Unity/Kotahitanga
– A little girl needed help and a group of friends went to help her.
– Another group while playing, invited another child (who was lonely) to join them
– Another group noticed a sad child and went to play with the child
- Integrity/Ngākau pono
– A group of children saw litter on the ground and talked about doing the right thing at the right time and picked up the litter
– A group of children in class while the teacher was away started misbehaving and one of them reminded them to behave as the teacher had requested.
– A group of children were asked by the teacher to do their own work but one child whispered answers. When the teacher returned and asked them if they were doing their work honestly, two of them admitted that they were being told the answer.
- Compassion/Arohanui
– Children were hitting another child and one of them said – “Stop!” which they did.
All in all, it was great to see the tuakana teina relationship between our young and older students.
Learning Community Whenua
This week, Whenua led the liturgy at school. Our focus was “Christ the King” with a reading from the Gospel of John: 18:33-37. The message taken from this reading is that Jesus doesn’t wear a crown or have lots of riches. He doesn’t live in a palace with lots of servants. Jesus shows us that you do not have to be rich or powerful to be important. He shows us that what is more important is how you treat others. What we do and say is much more important than whether we are rich or poor or how we look.
Whenua Learners had a fantastic Athletics Day. They wrote a recount about their favourite activity. Here are a few snippets…
I went with my whānau house for athletics. I went to show my skills and my sport talents. We did cricket, sprinting, frizbee, throwing and hockey. My favourite activity was sprinting. Mr Malele said ‘three, two, one, go!”. I ran as fast as a cheetah. It was my first time coming second place.
By: Liliana Chang
On Friday, I had athletics day. I was with my whānau doing sport. We did it because it was fun. We just stayed at school. My favourite activity was ball scoop. Me and my buddy got scoops and a ball. I threw the ball to her and she threw it to me. I can’t believe the fun we had that day!
By: Laviana Burgoyne
And Whenua Learners have also been adding skills to their kete taonga as part of their life and learning journey; a kete that will adapt and grow with them as they continue on their journey, e.g. riding a bike, learning how to dance; solving maths problems; how to swim; doing basic science; welcoming everyone to our school; showing resilience, learning to write, helping people in need.
Sports News
HTCPS Athletics Games Day 2020
Friday 20th of November was the hottest day on record for Holy Trinity. Not because it was the hottest day on record, but more that all our students spent most of the day out in the sun! Wearing their bright colours representing their whānau groups, our students engaged and were exposed to shotput, discus and vortex throwing; lape a pacific twist on a game of softball, but using legs, no bat and a bigger ball; jumping hurdles, tossing and throwing, as well as hockey and a good traditional game of tapu ae.
And then the ultimate event of 60m races! Students raced in their our own gender and Learning Communities, but it was whānau group versus whānau group. It was the only event that was scored – every participant that ran earned 5 points, if you came in third you earned 5 more points, second 10 more points and if you came first, 15 more points.
Congratulations to …. AUBERT WHĀNAU for being the Holy Trinity Catholic Primary Athletics Games Day Champions for 2020!
Thank you to all our whānau community who braved the sun to support their tamariki, and a sincere thanks to our staff for their amazing support through the day. Many thanks to Mr Brown for his organisation of what was a successful day.
Final Call to join the Holy Trinity Tryathlon Weet-Bix team!
What is it ?
The Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon is designed for Kiwi kids aged 7-15 years to help them stay active and healthy through a programme of participation.
Participants get to swim, cycle, and run their way around age appropriate courses, either as an individual or as part of a team of two.
Date – Wednesday 2nd of December 2020
Where – Mountford Park, Manurewa
Every participant who enters receives:
- a Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon medal
- a downloadable certificate of achievement
- an official Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon t-shirt, drawstring kit bag & swim cap
- complimentary breakfast from the Weet-Bix Breakfast Tent
PLUS the chance to WIN awesome spot prizes and meet their sporting heroes.
How do I join the Holy Trinity Team ?
1) Click on the following link: https://www.registernow.com.au/secure/Register.aspx?E=40590&G=118752
2) Click on ’Join SCHOOL GROUP’
3 ) Click on ‘Continue joining SCHOOL GROUP’
4) Press ‘Continue’ at the bottom of your screen
5) Enter details and make payment online when needed
Parent involvement
All students need to be entered and fees paid for by their own parents/families. On the day parents will be expected to take their child/children to this event.
Regards,
Mr Brown
qbrown@holytrinity.co.nz
HTCPS Sports Co-ordinator
Student Achievement
Congratulations to Emereziana who represented her Athletics Club in their 4 by 100m & 4 by 200m races where their team placed 2nd for each event at a recent Auckland Athletics Day Competition. They had a blast! Well Done Emereziana – we are proud of you for achieving excellence/hiranga!2021 School Stationery
We’ve teamed up with OfficeMax to make getting school ready faster! Our back to school stationery lists will be loaded by the end of next week and ready to go on myschool.co.nz.
This year OfficeMax have introduced Laybuy*, so you can pay in 6 weekly, interest-free instalments – and still get your order right away.
By ordering in December, you’ll be able to choose to receive your order straight away or after you get home from holiday in January. In addition, all orders placed online in December will receive a FREE A4 Magnetic Family Organiser* – ideal for keeping activities and events on track throughout the year.
We encourage you to order early to ensure your child has all their stationery requirements ready to go for the start of Term 1. Don’t wait until mid-January when the ‘team of 5 million’ get home from holiday – order now and avoid the back to school rush.
It’s easy to shop online at myschool.co.nz. Just search for our school, select your child’s class and/or subject lists and follow the instructions on the easy-to-use website.
If you prefer you can call the OfficeMax MySchool team on 0800 724 440 Monday to Friday, 8.30am – 5pm.
OfficeMax makes it easy to get back to school ready with these great benefits
- Free delivery on orders over $46*
- Pay now or in easy instalments – internet banking, credit cards, debit cards or pay in 6 weekly, interest-free instalments with Laybuy*
- School Rewards – when you shop on myschool.co.nz we earn rewards* that can be used to purchase extra resources for school
- Price match promise – shop with confidence, if you find a lower price OfficeMax will match it*
- Save valuable holiday time – avoid queues and busy shopping malls by shopping online from the safety and comfort of your home
* Terms & Conditions apply, see myschool.co.nz for details.
Upcoming School Events
School Liturgy and Assembly – led by the Student Cultural Team
Monday 30th November 8:50am in Taamaua/school hall
PTFA Meeting
Tuesday 1st December 7:30pm in school staffroom
Mahi Tahi Parent/Teacher/Student Conferences
Wednesday 2nd December 3:00 – 6:00pm in the Learning Communities
Weetbix Tryathalon
Wednesday 2nd December Mountford Park, Manurewa
2020 School Praise-giving Ceremony
Friday 4th December 1:00pm in Taamaua/school hall
School Liturgy and Assembly – led by Learning Community Ngahere
Monday 7th December 8:50am in Taamaua/school hall
End of Year Mass – Senior Leavers Mass and Fr Peter’s Farewell
Tuesday 8th December 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall
School Family Picnic and Nativity Play
Wednesday 9th December commencing 5:00pm in the school courtyard area
Helpers Morning Tea – Thank You
Thursday 10th December 10:15am in school staffroom
Board of Trustees Monthly Meeting
Sunday 13th December 6pm
FINAL School Liturgy and Assembly – led by the School Support Staff Team
Monday 14th December 8:50am in Taamaua/school hall
Papakura Community Dinner Service
Tuesday 15th December 5:30pm Crossroads Methodist Church, Broadway, Papakura
School Assembly – led by HTCPS Staff
Wednesday 16th December 12:30pm in Taamaua/school hall
Term 4 concludes
Wednesday 16th December 1:00pm
Community Information
We have been asked to share this following information with our school families …
Auckland Council is writing to you in your capacity as Secretary or Communications Manager for your School, to advise you Auckland Council is improving the way it collects rubbish within your area.
From 30 November 2020 we are moving to a different rubbish contractor in your neighbourhood to maximise efficiency and improve service delivery.
If you have any further questions or would like to know information, please feel free to get in touch with us.
Or you can visit makethemostofwaste.co.nz for more information.
Upcoming Community Events
Christmas Event
Come and enjoy Light Up The Town, a new Christmas event for the whole family at Paerata Rise. December 5th to 12th every night from 6pm to 10pm for FREE fun, entertainment (even grab a photo with Santa himself) and your chance to WIN $2,500 worth of prizes! Search Paerata Rise on Facebook or click here for more info: https://bit.ly/3ncSe4V
