Greetings, Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hao, Bula, Hola, Kumusta, Namaskārām,
Sat Shri Akaal, Vanakkam and Ayubowan
Dear Families
Term 3 has certainly been a busy term for Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School! As you have read through the Term 3 newsletters, you will have noted all the various activities and events students have been involved in both at school and within our wider school community. It’s also been great to see such wonderful engagement with our whānau at the different events – and even better when it is our whānau and students leading these times of unity and community!
Our school Gospel value of hiranga/excellence is a very apt way to describe our busy school term, celebrating the many ways we have demonstrated excellence across all aspects of school life.
We give thanks …
Thank you to our School Board, our PTFA, our priest – Fr Tony, our staff (teaching and support staff) and to our whānau, who lead us to achieving excellence for our children and for each other – together in kotahitanga, we can truly celebrate our faith, our learning, and our culture as a catholic school and as Christian people!
Bishop Steve’s Visit to our School!
It was so exciting to welcome Bishop Steve Lowe, Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Auckland, to Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School on Friday! Parish and school visits are a new initiative that Bishop Steve has implemented this year. He likes to keep the school visits informal and his main purpose is to meet with the children in their learning communities so that he can enjoy a short question and answer time with each group – chatting and talking with them and getting to know “his people”.
We were delighted to have Bishop Steve spend time with all of our students and staff. A key message that Bishop Steve shared was the importance of a Bishop getting to know his people and the people getting to know the Bishop. He spoke about a Bishop being like a ‘king’ (who looks after his people) and a ‘shepherd’ (who looks after his sheep) – he wears a mitre (a crown) like a king to remind him to look after his people, he has a crozier/a staff like a shepherd, to remind him to lead his people and he has a Bishop’s ring to remind him to love his people just like Jesus does. Bishop Steve wants to look after us, lead us and love us – he wants to teach us about Jesus and to speak to us about how to live the right way – the way that Jesus wants us to live.
We felt very blessed to have Bishop Steve with us for the morning. God Bless you Bishop Steve!
Cultural Performance Evening Celebration
What a wonderful evening of storytelling, music, dance and celebration! Our Cultural Performance Evening was a vibrant celebration of the many languages, cultures and traditions that make our Holy Trinity whānau so special.
We are incredibly rich in diversity, and it was wonderful to see our community come together to share, celebrate and preserve the languages and cultures that are an important part of who we are. Through waiata, music, dance and drama, our tamariki helped to keep these languages and cultural traditions alive and pass them on to the next generation.
We were so grateful for the wonderful turnout and support from our whānau. Your encouragement and presence made the evening even more special.
Ngā mihi nui to St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College in Drury for generously allowing us to use their school auditorium. Having a space large enough to bring our whole community together made such a difference, and we really appreciated their support.
And, of course, our tamariki were the real stars of the night! They performed with such pride, confidence and enthusiasm. We are so proud of the resilience, kotahitanga and aroha they and our kaitiaki showed throughout the preparation and performance.
What a beautiful reminder of who we are as a community — many cultures, many languages, one whānau.
From our School Board …
Tēnā koutou katoa, e te whānau o Te Kura o Te Maua, o Te Tamaiti, o Te Wairua Tapu.
I write to you with a heart full of gratitude, reflecting on the many ways our Holy Trinity community has come together in recent weeks, ways that truly embody the love and communion of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Firstly, I want to thank our Deputy Principals, Ana and Maria, along with all our middle leaders, for their outstanding presentation on student results at our most recent Full Board meeting. The detail, the clarity, and the deep care for every tamaiti were evident throughout. This mahi reflected not only their professionalism but also the dedicated work of all our kaitiaki for our akonga. The Board was greatly appreciative, and we acknowledge the many hours of tracking, analysis, and prayerful consideration that went into such a comprehensive picture of our children’s progress.
Secondly, I thank our whole community for your contributions to our Board Strategic Planning. We are now writing the strategic plan for the next two years, and the feedback we received through our consultation, from community groups, whānau, kaitiaki, and ākonga, has been invaluable. Your voices will be woven into our planning, ensuring that our direction is truly shaped by those we serve. This is whanaungatanga in action, and we are deeply grateful.
Finally, what a night we had last night at our cultural performance evening, hosted so generously at St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic College. Our Kapa Haka, Indian, Pasifika, Filipino, and Diversity groups all performed beautifully, and the massive audience filled the much larger space of La Storta. To Ana and Maria, thank you for your tireless organisation. To our kaitiaki and parent tutors, thank you for sharing your gifts. To our whānau, thank you for your support. And to all our ākonga, thank you for your hard work and for the joy you brought to our hearts. We also extend our sincere thanks to Mrs Bamber-O’Malley, Principal of St Ignatius College, for allowing us to use your wonderful hall.
In all these things, we see the Trinitarian charism of our school alive and active, unity in diversity, love in service, and faith in action. May God continue to bless our Holy Trinity family.
Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa.
Jason Farley
Presiding Member of the Board
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School
DRS Report
End of Term School Mass
As we come to the end of another very busy term, we had Father Tony King-Archer of St Mary’s Parish, Papakura celebrate our end of term Mass with us. We have a lot to be thankful for and Father Tony spoke to us of God’s boundless love and mercy for us. Special thanks to our Patrick Dunn Whānau who planned and led our Mass. What a beautiful way to finish off the term!
Visit from Father Michael Pui
Next week, some of our senior students will be very fortunate to host a special visitor. Father Michael Pui is the National Director of MissioNZ. He will be spending some time with our senior students talking about the work of Mission NZ and ways we can be involved as part of the Church. We’ll learn more about our contributions to celebrating “Mission NZ’s 100 year Anniversary” this coming Mission Sunday on 18th October.
Sharing our Faith Stories
With permission, we are sharing a wonderful ‘family faith’ story from Elaina Abin (Year 5) and her family who have recently returned from India …
I wanted to share a brief update following our family holiday in India. The trip was very meaningful for the girls, as they had the opportunity to visit their grandparents’ tomb for the first time, spend time with extended family, and take part in family and church gatherings.
I am especially proud to let you know that Eva and Elaina completed a handwritten copy of the entire New Testament, a project they worked on with great dedication and commitment. During their baby sister Elara’s baptism, the handwritten Bible was blessed by our Bishop and offered at the altar during the Mass, making it a very special and memorable occasion for our family.
The experience helped the girls strengthen their faith and deepen their understanding of commitment and perseverance. It was wonderful to see them take such pride in completing a project that required patience, discipline, and dedication over a period of 10 months.
As parents, we are incredibly proud of their achievement and wanted to share this special milestone with the school community.
Thank you for your continued support and encouragement of the girls’ learning and personal growth.
The Abin Family
Staffing News
We warmly welcome Mrs Amy Ostle to our teaching team for Term 4. Amy will join Learning Community Whenua and will work with our new entrant students who are commencing in the fourth term. Amy is a great addition to our staff and has been very active in our Holy Trinity School family through her involvement with the PTFA. Amy comes to us from the Early Childhood sector and brings with her a wealth of knowledge, experience and leadership in working with young children. We are delighted to have her as part of our teaching team and look forward to the many gifts and talents she has to share. Welcome Amy!
Teaching and Learning News
Duffy Books Role Model Assembly
Today, our school hosted a special Duffy role model guest, Halaifonua Finau, known as Nua to many. Nua shared his story of his journey to finding his dream rooted in his love of reading. He spoke about how reading takes him to different places and how this sparked his curiosity and imagination. He is an actor, producer, screen writer, story teller, dancer who works hard to bring Polynesian stories to the fore. His latest movie that he co-produced was ‘Red, White and Brass” which was based on a true story of his family and church community. Nua encouraged our tamariki to dream big and believe in their dreams. He spoke about hard work and having faith in God to guide us to where we should be. Nua presented “Caught Being Good” certificates which our children proudly received!
Teaching and Learning News
Term 3 Online Reporting
From Monday 21st September, Term 3 online learning reports for each student will be published for whānau to view on HERO.
To find your child’s report, click on the Learning Community page your child belongs to. This term, our curriculum focus for our “Preserve” concept learning has been Technology and The Arts – Dance. The report will include photos and videos of your child’s learning, along with the skills and understanding they have developed.
You may notice learning described as:
- Surface: What your child knows and can do.
- Deep: How your child connects ideas and shows understanding.
- Transfer: How your child uses their learning in a new way.
We encourage you to take some time to look through the report with your child. Talk with them about what they have learned, ask them to share their thinking, and celebrate their achievements. It is a wonderful opportunity for children to share their learning with whānau.
Learning Community News
Whenua
Learning Community Whenua held our first liturgy on our own this term. Learners were brave and showed great resilience while getting up in front of the whole school to say their prayers and Gospel reading. Huge thanks to our whānau and families that helped them practise.
We have also been very busy completing all of our transfer tasks and busy practising for our exciting cultural group night.
Next week we look forward to our Outdoor Education Day where we will be looking at road safety, how to stop, look and listen and cross the road safely.
Ngahere
LC Ngahere tamariki have been proudly bringing their learning to life through their Transfer Learning Tasks!
As part of our “Preserve” learning, learners have discovered that our Catholic stories are taonga that carry important messages for us to share now and into the future. In Technology, tamariki used the design thinking process and Book Creator to create digital storybooks that preserve and share the messages of our Gospel stories.
Through Dance and Music, learners creatively shared messages of our Gospel Values and Tūmanako (Hope) using movement, dance elements and musical ideas.
It has been wonderful to see our tamariki bringing together their knowledge, creativity and skills to show how they can help preserve and continue our Catholic journey as people of hope who learn, love and serve.
Outdoor Education Day – Learning Beyond the Classroom
Next Thursday, LC Ngahere is looking forward to our Outdoor Education Day! Tamariki will build confidence, teamwork and practical life skills as they learn to pitch a tent, put their Firewise learning into action by cooking sausages over an open fire, and support their Hauora (wellbeing) through Run, Jump and Throw activities.
We are looking forward to a fun day of learning by doing beyond the classroom and would like some more parent helpers for the day.
Awa
Learning Community Awa has been doing some fantastic learning about fire safety. We have explored the difference between safe and unsafe fires and learnt about the importance of having a trusted adult present when lighting a fire.
Learners created their own fire safety plans for home, including identifying a safe meeting point where they could meet their whānau in an emergency.
During our Outdoor Education Day, learners put their fire safety learning into practice by learning how to stay safe around a stove and hot elements. We also enjoyed putting our learning to use by cooking some delicious pancakes!
Moana
Over the past two weeks, our LC Moana learners have been busy sharing their learning, reflecting on their progress and celebrating the importance of culture and social justice.
In Technology, learners presented their transfer task prototypes and received feedback from their audiences. Many learners shared their work with junior learners from LC Whenua, Ngāhere and Awa. It was wonderful to see them explaining their ideas and thinking about their Catholic Social Teachings. As part of Social Justice Week, celebrated last week, learners created posters to share important messages about justice and caring for others.
To celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week), learners created posters featuring a special whakataukī or Māori proverb. They explained what their chosen whakataukī means, why it is meaningful to them. This was a great opportunity to celebrate te reo Māori and reflect on the importance of keeping its wisdom and messages alive.
In Literacy, we continued exploring poetry and poetic devices. Learners are developing their understanding of how vocabulary and figurative language, such as similes, metaphors and personification, can create meaning and make writing more engaging. They have also been practising using these language features in their own writing. In Mathematics, learners have been revising, revisiting and consolidating the learning they have completed throughout the term. They are also finishing their maths reflections, focusing on what they have learned, the progress they have made and the strategies they can use in the future.
PTFA News …
- PTFA meeting
- This will be held on Wed 23rd Sept rather than Tuesday 22nd.
- Read-a-thon prizes
- Next Wednesday 23rd Sept, the children are all enjoying the prizes from the Read-a-thon:
Whānau Prize Winners:1st (Movie afternoon) – Patrick Dunn2nd (Pizza Lunch) – Aubert3rd (Ice blocks) – Pompallier4th (Ice blocks) – MacKillop
- Next Wednesday 23rd Sept, the children are all enjoying the prizes from the Read-a-thon:
Chairperson
Holy Trinity Catholic Primary School
Parent, Teacher & Friends Association
HTCPS 10 Year Anniversary Celebrations!
Students Leaving at the End of 2026
Due to our need to manage our school roll for the maximum number of students, it is very important that you inform the school office immediately if you know that your child/children will be leaving Holy Trinity School at the end of this year, 2026 – other than our Year 6 students who will be transferring to new schools, to commence their Year 7 schooling. We have a number of children on the preference waiting list for 2027 commencement and we would like to ensure that we can confirm enrolment placements for them before the end of 2026. Thank you for your help in this matter.
sKids Spring Holiday Programme
Holiday HQ is coming to sKids Holy Trinity!
Join us for an Animalia adventure filled with exciting activities, games, crafts and fun!
28 September – 9 October 2026
sKids Holy Trinity
Only $40 per session
Book now and let the wild adventures begin!
Upcoming School Events
Term 3 Curriculum Reporting PUBLISHED on HERO
From Monday 21st September
PTFA Monthly Meeting
Wednesday 23rd September 7:00pm in the school staffroom
School Board Monthly Meeting
Thursday 24th September 7:00pm in the school staffroom
Outdoor Education Day for Learning Community Ngahere
Thursday 24th September @ school
Term 3 Concludes 2:50pm
Friday 25th September
Term 4 Commences 8:50am
Monday 12th October
School Whakatau/Welcome to new students and whānau
Monday 12th October @ 9:15am in Taamaua/school hall
HTCPS 10 Year Anniversary Celebrations
Friday 30th October – commencing @ 10:00am
Auckland Catholic Diocese Justice and Peace Commission
The Forum is entitled as “Working for the Common Good of all People” with the Theme ‘HOPE’
Spring Screen Break: 20–27 September
This September, families are invited to take part in Spring Screen Break — a 7-day opportunity to pause, reset our relationship with technology and reconnect with the people and activities that help us flourish. Rather than focusing on what we are giving up, Spring Screen Break is about what we can gain: more connection, conversation, creativity, time outdoors, better sleep and being more present with one another. Families can join the free challenge and access practical ideas and resources to make a digital reset achievable and positive. Find out more at www.springscreenbreak.com
Let’s make a little effort to be conscious about our tech usage and we really do reap the benefits of being more present and connected in real life.
Ngā mihi,
Vanessa McHardy M.A Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy
Light Education Training
Digital Wellbeing Coach
027 264 7200
Upcoming Community Events
Community Market Day
Community Market Day on Saturday 26 September, from 9am–12pm at The Gardens School.
We’d really appreciate it if you could help us spread the word by including the attached poster in your school newsletter, Facebook page, or other communications to your families.
The Market Day will feature a great range of local stallholders and is free to attend. It’s all about bringing our local community together and supporting local people and small businesses.
We’d love to see families from your school there!
Many thanks for your support.
The Gardens Residents and Ratepayers Group Incorporated.
Bruce Pulman Park School Holiday Programme
We would like to share information with your school whānau about the school holiday programme we have running at Bruce Pulman Park. Please find attached.Little Scientists Holiday Programme
Sustainable Papakura Workshops
Puzzle Exchange at the Sustainable Papakura Monthly Market – Saturday September 19 – 10.00am to 12.00pm
Repair – Fix those rips, tears, and broken zips. Repurpose – Transform old garments into something fresh and fabulous. Redesign – Unleash your creativity and create unique, sustainable fashion.
Planting with Purpose: Pots & Planters 
– Sunday September 27 – 10.00am to 1.00pm
Here is the link to register:
Basketball – Upcoming 2degrees Girls Got Game – FREE Hoops with Her South Festival!
This school holidays, Auckland Basketball Services is excited to bring the 2degrees Girls Got Game – Hoops with Her Festival to Bruce Pulman Arena, and we would love to invite all of the girls from your school!
This festival is about celebrating girls’ basketball, building confidence and creating a space where girls can play, connect and show what they can do. Whether they’re picking up a basketball for the first time or already lighting up the court, this day is for all of them!
We are also excited to have the NZ Breakers and BNZ Kāhu making a special appearance. You can find all the details below:
- 28 September 2026
- Located at Bruce Pulman Arena
- 10:00am – 2:00pm
- For age groups under 9, under 12, under 15 & under 18
- FREE ENTRY
To secure their spot, they can register using the following link: Counties Manukau Basketball – GameDay Registration
We would appreciate if you could send this out to all the girls in your school, so we can provide an opportunity for all the girls in the South region to get involved with basketball.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out. We look forward to seeing everyone there!!
Ngā mihi nui,
Isabella Dunn
Community Development Officer South / Pathways Administration
