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

Dear Families

As Term 3 draws to a close, we can reflect on the wonderful learning ka ako, loving ka aroha and serving ka manaaki that has taken place across these school weeks. We have been BUSY!

It was such a delight to see so many of our school community families here on Wednesday supporting the children with their cross country event. We have missed having our families on the school site so please know how much you are welcome to be here. Along with the children and the staff, you are the heart of this school and bring kotahitanga/unity to all that we do.

We give thanks to God …
for the many gifts and talents that have been shared across the term, for the teaching and learning, for the respect and care, for the friendships that have been nurtured, for our faith that has been lived out and for the love that keeps us going.

We ask God to bless our families and staff as we all take time to renew and refresh this holiday time.
We make this prayer through Christ, our Lord.  Amen,

A Letter from Our Bishops

This week we have received a letter from our New Zealand Bishops sharing the news of the lifting of the Covid19 restrictions and the impact this has for us as Sunday Mass goers. The Bishops are extending a warm and encouraging invitation for us to return to our obligation of Sunday Mass attendance. The full letter is available here by clicking on the link … Bishops Letter to Parishes regarding lifting of Covid-19 restrictions Sep 2022

“With the recent lifting of all Covid-19 restrictions we are happy to extend an enthusiastic invitation for all Catholics of Aotearoa New Zealand to return to full and active participation in Sunday Mass … We wish to take this opportunity to thank you, the Catholic community of Aotearoa, for your patience, your generous and faithful commitment and your service over the past two and a half years … Most of all, we celebrate the opportunity we now have to discover anew  the blessings and graces of the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist without which we cannot live.”

DRS Report

Liturgical Formation Day

The Pope has recently addressed the ‘People of God’ in a letter titled, the Liturgical Formation of the People of God. The Liturgy Centre for the Diocese of Auckland is hosting a formation Day which will unpack some of the contents of this letter. You and your fellow staff members are warmly invited. The formation Day is October 29th 9.30 – 3pm, and will be at Rosmini College. There is no cost, but registration is appreciated.

Register by email liturgycentre@cda.org.nz or visit the website https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/liturgy-prayer/liturgyformation/

THANK YOU!

With grateful hearts, we want to say a huge THANK YOU to all our whānau for your generosity in donating cans of food for St Vincent de Paul this week. We know that there will be families in our Auckland community that will have enough food for this Christmas because of you! It’s a beautiful sight seeing our children and their families coming through the gate with cans of food to offer. May God bless you all for your giving hands. This morning the cans were picked up by St Vincent de Paul. With 6 years of our school being involved in the Cans for Christmas Drive, our total this year is our best one yet – 775 cans!! Malo ‘aupito! Fa’afetai tele lava. Salamat. Whakawhetai! Kia Ora!

Standing in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are in need, today our students dressed in their favourite colour and donated a gold coin to go towards Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand. Caritas is the Catholic Agency for Justice, Peace and Development. Through donations of cans of food for our Cans for Christmas Drive and a gold coin donation for Caritas, we are building whakawhanaungatanga/relationships as one human family reaching out to help each other. Our gold coin donation had a total of $370.90. Again, what a huge effort!! Thank you for your kindness and generosity, we could never achieve anything without the support of our wonderful whānau.

Sacramental Congratulations to …

Liz Dang, Leon Dang, Jasleen Singh, Aidan Singh, Danny Chau and Hannah Chau who all received the sacrament of Confirmation last week at St Anne’s Parish in Manurewa. This was a very special occasion for the children and their families as they welcomed Bishop Steve Lowe to the St Anne’s parish as celebrant for Confirmation.

This weekend, the children receive Eucharist for the first time as they make their First Holy Communion. Let us continue to pray for these children as they welcome Christ into their sacramental lives through the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ.

Parish Bulletins

Please click on the link to go to the St Anne’s Parish, Manurewa – Sunday 25th September Bulletin

St Anne’s Manurewa Parish Bulletin #35 – Sunday 25 September 2022

PTFA Disney Wave Rave!

The PTFA are excited to invite all Holy Trinity tamariki to a Wave Rave at Massey Park Pools on Friday 30th September from 7 – 8:30pm! The event is open to all school aged kids, so we’d love to see the wider Holy Trinity whānau there too! (No pre-schoolers are allowed to swim at this event, sorry).
Come along and join in the fun with bombing, an inflatable aqua run, spot prizes, live music and of course, the hydroslide!
Entry to the event is $10 per child, and includes a sausage sizzle with each ticket. Please purchase all tickets from the school office.
All proceeds will go towards our current fundraising project for the school – the Sacred Space/Prayer Garden. The sausage sizzle will also be available to everyone for $2 per sausage.
Please note all children 10 years and under need to be actively supervised by a family caregiver 17 years or older at all times.
Tickets to the event will be limited, so we recommend purchasing tickets early to avoid disappointment.
Thanks!
Laura Cooper and Michelle Porter
Co-Chairpersons
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School
Parent, Teacher & Friends Association

St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College Update!

Kia ora Parents, Caregivers and Whānau,
Many thanks to all who attended the information session on Tuesday evening about the College. We appreciate that not everybody who has expressed interest could make it and encourage all who would like to enrol students for Years 7, 8 and 9 for 2024 to visit our web site www.saintignatius.school.nz for information.
As explained at the information event, we are not publicly marketing the college until Term 4, to provide feeder school families the opportunity to submit an online enrolment and have the first opportunity to apply for places.
We are happy to answer any questions via the email address enrolment@saintignatius.school.nz and look forward to receiving your applications.
Ngaa mihi maioha,
Dean Wearmouth
Foundation Principal

Part-time School Administrator Vacancy

We are looking for an experienced School Administrator to provide support to the Principal in assisting with administrative duties and daily financial operations involved with the establishment of the school. There is scope for this part time role (12 hours per week) to become full time when the school opens in 2024.
If you have experience of school accounts management and/or administration and are interested in the role, please send an email to recruitment@saintignatius.school.nz to express your interest and receive a position description with details of how to apply.

The Witness

St Mary’s Parish Papakura presents, ‘The Witness.’ This is a musical telling the story of Jesus through the eyes of Peter. This is a wonderful way to be encouraged and enlivened in faith as you ‘walk the walk.’

Some of our students are part of the cast for this special production so bring the family.  Tickets $5.00. For tickets and more details, contact St Mary’s Pastoral Assistant, Benita at 09 2996056.

Staffing News Update

We sadly and fondly farewelled our dear Vivien Smith from the Office Administration Team a few weeks ago. Viv has transferred to a new work place with less hours and less busyness! We are grateful to Viv for her wonderful care of our students, their families and our staff during her time as Office Administrator. Viv’s gentle nature, her love and concern for all those she came into contact with and her warm welcoming of visitors and new families/whānau is legendary! We thank Viv for her administration work of student attendance, enrolments, payroll, health room care and the many more and varied tasks that need to happen every day that keeps our school running smoothly. We wish Viv every Blessing as she commences her new position.

We have also been blessed to have the efficient, capable and competent services of Mrs Ofa Soakai in the office for a few days as we wait for our new Office Administrator to commence their role in Term 4. Ofa has been a huge help to Carmel and myself and has been a wonderful addition to the Admin Team. Thank you Ofa – you are very much appreciated!

Term 3 Reporting to Parents

Term 3 digital reporting will be available to families from Tuesday 27th September on HERO through each student’s individual learning pages. You will be able to read about the progress and achievement your child/ren are making in Religious Education, Health and Physical Education and Journey (connected curriculum concept learning). You will also be able to view the children’s reflections on working as a Holy Trinity Learner, through their Tōku Reo profile.

Year 5&6 Inter-school Speech Competition

Tēnā koutou, talofa lava, mālō e lelei, kia orāna, fakaalofa lahi atu, fakatalofa atu, malo ni, ni sa bula vinaka, namaste, hola, konichiwa, sawasdee, nī hāo, mingălaba and sincere greetings to you all.

We are pleased to share this news with our whānau that our amazing tamariki … Vaasugi Uthamaputhrian, Gabriel Benliro and Chelsea Winston from Year 6, have represented Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School by presenting their speeches about “Sustainability” at the inter-school Year 5/6 speech competition held at Conifer Grove Primary School on 22nd September 2022.

They talked about how we can reduce pollution to sustain Mother Earth. It was great to see them competing against other wonderful speakers and showcasing their courage to present their points of view in front of a big audience and students from different schools. They experienced new learning when they listened to other students from different primary schools.

Congratulations to the participants of Holy Trinity; a high calibre of speeches made the decision hard for the judges out there!

Ngā mihi nui Air New Zealand Cargo Team

On Monday we had a very special visit from the cargo crew of Air New Zealand. We were blown away by their amazing generosity and gesture of goodwill, our school now has 6 picnic tables for us to use, made by the crew. They also brought freshly baked cookies for our ākonga to have for morning tea, what a delicious treat it was for them to enjoy!

Ngā mihi nui Air New Zealand Cargo Team for your gifts, we are so grateful for the picnic tables that will be used by our tamariki daily and by our whānau at school events. 

Curriculum News

Connected Curriculum Concept Focus 

We have started the concept of Tūmanako with an emphasis on the Social Science and The Arts curriculum learning areas.. The students are exploring how Tūmanako empowers us to enrich kotahitanga with self, God, others and the environment as we learn, love and serve. 

We want the students to think critically and deepen their understanding about Tūmanako so the essential questions to guide them through this process are:

  • What is tūmanako?
  • How can tūmanako empower us?
  • How can tūmanako enrich kotahitanga?

By the end of this concept, we want our students to use their learning to strengthen tūmanako in themselves and inspire tūmanako in others as they enrich Kotahitanga for all. Take some time to talk together as a whānau and ask your child about their learning. Use the essential questions to share your ideas about tūmanko to build your child’s understanding. 

Sports News

School Cross Country

What a fabulous day it was on Wednesday – our Cross Country held at our school for the very first time. It was awesome to see all our tamariki participate and demonstrate resilience/ngāwari as they completed the course. A huge THANK YOU to our families who came along and cheered on our children as they crossed the finish line! It was a successful day with Pompallier and Aubert Whānau both sharing first place with 390 points earned on the day.

Congratulations to all our tamariki and thank you to all our staff for working together in unity to make it what it was – a successful day!

Congratulations to …

Year 8 Girls: 1st Georgina Lautua, 2nd Lianna Delubio, 3rd Aeva Pihema
Year 8 Boys: 1st DK St John, 2nd Trey Hennessy, 3rd Josh Fernandes

Year 7 Girls: 1st Becca Thorpe, 2nd Emereziana Lautua, 3rd Simone Paterson
Year 7 Boys: 1st Sebastiano Simonetti, 2nd Konrad Karena, 3rd Alex Osipov

Year 6 Girls: 1st Marija Levkovska, 2nd Jospia Fabijanic, 3rd Kalai Tatui
Year 6 Boys: 1st = Martin Thomas and LJ Delubio, 2nd Alleyene Pisalbon, 3rd Gabriel Benliro

Year 5 Girls: 1st = Bella Harman and Jana De Vera, 2nd Liz Dang, 3rd Evelyn Henderson
Year 5 Boys: 1st Jovan Levkovski, 2nd Ebenezer Ofori-Anyinam,  3rd Lucien Chang

Year 4 Girls: 1st Izzy Porter, 2nd Ann Terese Jino, 3rd = Amadea Azuro and Ella Yu
Year 4 Boys: 1st Rimu Fox, 2nd Saxon Cooper, 3rd Aiden Sunil

Year 3 Girls: 1st Khayla Platon, 2nd Jane Tatui, 3rd Elsa Sajan
Year 3 Boys: 1st Ezra Hennessy, 2nd Lavin Fox, 3rd Liam Clarito

Year 2 Girls: 1st Katherine Farley, 2nd Gurbani Kataria, 3rd Sierra-Marie Watkins
Year 2 Boys: 1st Gabe Ah Ling, 2nd Makarios Jumma, 3rd Daniel Thorpe

Year 0/1 Girls: 1st Petra Levkovska, 2nd Zoe Porter, 3rd Freya Ah Ling
Year 0/1 Boys: 1st Nathan Santos, 2nd Zheian Rosal, 3rd Johan George

Auckland Year 7/8 Cross Country Championships

Another BIG congratulations to Georgina Lautua and DK St John who recently represented Counties Manukau region at the Auckland Schools Cross Country Championship held out at Muriwai Beach. Both students did exceedingly well in a very competitive class. We are proud of you!

 

Year 7&8 Boys Basketball Tournament

Last Friday was a busy basketball day for our boy’s team who were successful in winning almost all of their games at the tournament competing against other local schools. Two games were lost by 1 point each time – so although disappointing, it was a fantastic result in a hard fought game. Well Done to Trey, DK, Ethan, Josh, Taimana, Ziane, Toia, Konrad and Fomai – you were exceptional. AND THANK you to Mr Hennessy for refereeing all of the boys’ games and a thank you to Mr Karena and D’arion Taimalie for supporting and coaching the boys throughout the day!

Attendance Dues Payments

Attendance Dues 2022 statements have been sent electronically to families last week. Term 3 Attendance Dues are now owing. Please disregard the statement if your Attendance Dues are up to date.

Please note that there are 3 options for payment of the Attendance Dues and Catholic Special Character Contribution

  1. Full amount paid by Internet Banking to ASB school account – details for payment are on the statement.
  2. Automatic Payment to be set up via internet banking to ASB school account
  3. Payment can be made at the school office – cash or Eftpos

For those families paying by Automatic Payment (AP), please note that 2022 payments must all be completed by 1st December 2022.

Financial Assistance is available for payment of Attendance Dues. Please see Carmel Stewart (Office Administrator) or Peta Lindstrom (Principal) in the strictest confidence if you have any concerns or questions regarding the payment of Attendance Dues.

Mask Wearing

As a school staff we extend a very big thank you to our school community for your wonderful patience, understanding and compliance with the Covid Protection Framework restrictions/guidelines that were necessary at school.

Now that the Covid Protection Framework is no longer in place, there are changes to our school guidelines:

Household contacts of a person with COVID-19 do not need to isolate, but instead are asked to complete a RAT test each day, for five days. Therefore, children who are household contacts but test negative and do not have COVID-19 symptoms, are able to continue to attend school.

We have RAT tests at school, please ask at the Office if you would like some for home or information on how to get RAT kits can be found here: Request a RAT– Ministry of Health 

Mask wearing is no longer required however all children, staff and school community can choose to wear masks on site if they so wish.

Our staff will continue to wear masks in the Health Room.

All the other recommended public health measures will stay in place as we know they reduce the spread of infectious illnesses including COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene, encouraging everyone to cough or sneeze into elbows and, most importantly, staying home and getting tested if they have COVID-19 symptoms.

Our school community is welcome on the school site and there is no longer a requirement to register in the school office if you are coming into school..

Once again, thank you for your ongoing support in protecting our children and staff – you have been wonderful and we are very proud of you!

 Papakura St Vincent de Paul Charity Shop
Volunteers needed!

The Papakura St Vincent de Paul Charity Shop at 275 Great South Road is in need of volunteers to help run the shop. The hours the shop is open are 10am – 3pm Monday – Friday and 10 – 1pm on Saturdays.
The shop phone number is:- 09 296 5052
Please phone the shop number for more details if you are able to help give outreach service to this wonderful community group. Thank you.

School Term Dates 2023

Term One    10 weeks     Thursday 2nd February – Thursday 6th April
Term Two     10 weeks     Monday 24th April  – Friday 30th June
Term Three   10 weeks     Monday 17th July – Friday 22nd September
Term Four     9 weeks       Monday 9th October – Monday 18th December

sKids Holiday programme

“sKids Holy Trinity is open for the October Spring School Holidays! Visit: www.sKids.co.nz/holy_trinity to book now!”

Upcoming School Event for
Learning Communities Moana and Maunga

We have been successful with our application to the Tim Bray Theatre Company AND have been gifted 130 tickets through the ‘Gift a Seat’ programme to attend a Live Performance of  “The Whale Rider” in early Term 4. This opportunity will be for students in Learning Communities Moana and Maunga!
The Tim Bray Theatre Company has been making the world of children’s theatre accessible to everyone and inspires them through the love of the performing arts.
Our students will attend the show on Wednesday 19th October at Manukau. “The Whale Rider” is a beautifully rich story of whānau and tikanga and is masterfully translated into a live performance that will absorb the viewer, from start to end. A poignant tale of forging paths and self-belief, this is the show our children will love to see!

Upcoming School Events and Dates!

School CLOSED _ Queen’s Memorial Day/Public Holiday
Monday 26th September

CHINESE Language Week
Monday 26th – Friday 30th September

Tuvalu Language Week
Monday 26th – Friday 30th September

Term 3 HERO Digital Reporting published on line 
from Tuesday 27th September

Street Racket Physical Education Learning – all Learning Communities
Tuesday 27th September 9:00am – 12:pm

School Board  Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 28th September 7:00pm in the school staffroom

Term 3 Concludes
Friday 30th September

PTFA WAVE RAVE at Massey Park Pools for HTCPS students and community
Friday 30th September 7:00pm – 8:30pm

Term 4 Commences
Monday 17th October

Whakatau (new families), Gathering Liturgy and Assembly – led by the Senior Leadership Team
Monday 17th October 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall

Whale Rider Show – Learning Communities Maunga and Moana
Wednesday 19th October @ the Events Centre, Manukau

Upcoming Community Events

Tots to Teens Digi-Magazine

The latest Tots to Teens digi-magazine, for your newsletter, website or Facebook page is live…
https://issue2209.totstoteens.co.nz/
 

What’s in this issue for parents?

» Literacy rates… What’s happening?
» Dealing with sibling squabbles
» A nosey into allergy triggers
» Nadia Lim’s epic lunchbox ideas
» Tuning into some Kiwi music
» Wheely good Otago bike trails
» Activities to keep little minds busy
and (as always) EPIC GIVEAWAYS

Ask your tamariki to find this issue’s Te Reo Māori words including pūmatua, pāmamae, matihe, tina and whakakakau

We are proud to be Aotearoa’s favourite parenting magazine, with 375,000 free magazines distributed free each year nationwide.