Gratitude, the dictionary meaning for gratitude is the quality of being thankful, the readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. Often the English language is inadequate in articulating an experience that becomes drenched in emotion. This is what I have experienced over the past four weeks, while recovering from surgery. More specifically, the gratitude I felt towards the medical team who have gifted me with my hearing (or the return of) and my ability to fully breathe has been overwhelmingly indescribable.

Initially I thought hearing with one ear would be manageable, but that was not to be the case. Isolation and frustration were regular unwelcomed guests to my soul. It was four years to the day, that my hearing was "switched back on" and the feeling is  nothing less than remarkable. We take so much for granted, myself included, these last few weeks have been a wake up call to me. God has gifted us with a sacred temple, so finely tuned and balanced. Our bodies are our gift and our gratitude can be expressed to God by our love, respect and care for each and every part of our being. My prayer for you is that your eyes are open to the gift of your temple and that the gratitude you may show for material things is also shown for your body.

Many thanks to Beck for stepping into the Principal role in my absence. The lack of relief teachers made staffing particularly difficult for Beck, yet she consistently kept the students learning at the fore front of her decision making. I personally thank Beck for her leadership and know you join me in acknowledging her great work. As well I would like to thank all of Team Trinity for stepping up in support of Beck to cover the many facets of school life.

At the end of last term staff completed an evaluation of success, and areas to focus on from the Annual Improvement Plan. One of the areas that became a priority is student absentism. Our target for absentism is to reach what Catholic Education call "regular attendance". Regular attendance constitutes students attending school 90-94.9% of the time, this equates to 2-5 days absence in a term. I have a legal duty and pastoral obligation to encourage attendance and respond to absenteeism. Frequent absences are detrimental to a child's education and indicate the need to provide support and or pastoral care to enable children to attend school. If your child is absent from school  please contact the school to let us know. You can expect your child's teacher to contact you in regards to repeated absentism. Please note Trinity are bound by Catholic Education to follow the Attendance Policy, including taking action when repeated absentism is occurring. 

From time to time the comment "I was unaware of ........" is communicated to front office staff and or teachers. The forum for communication at Trinity is Compass. This is a system wide platform and we are choosing to channel all our communication through this one portal. You will receive school reports, parent teacher interview bookings, excursion notes and permission slips, flyers, event notices, messages from your class teacher, myself, the librarian and front office staff, all through Compass. You will receive two forms of notification from Compass letting you know there is correspondence; email and a message on the app, either way the message is the same. Please ensure you are informed of necessary information by regularly reading the communication from Compass. 

On Saturday night, members of the community, including Trinity staff will attend the Harden District Education Fund Trivia night. The Trinitarian community have generously donated an auction item - a Romantic Getaway to Canberra, package worth over $600. This gesture is a small way of showing our gratitude to Harden District Education Fund for their continual financial support. Thankyou for your generosity.

Yours in gratitude,

Caz Perryman

Leader Team Trinity

David Enever Concert

Last week Trinity students were treated to an afternoon of music with David Enever. The concert was well received by all staff and students. There were many opportunities to get up and dance, sing or even dramatise parables. David related many of the songs to our School Vision ‘To Know, To Love, To Serve’ and introduced our community to a new song he had written particularly for our 2022 theme, ‘To KNOW we are loved by God’.

https://davidenever.com/lyric-videos

RE in the Classrooms

This term 3/4 have started off looking at the referencing system of the bible in RE. Students have been learning what different components make up one page of the bible, including the verse numbers, chapter numbers, the story sub-headings and the author. The students have loved exploring the bible and being set challenges to locate, record, and compare bible references.  We are looking forward to using this knowledge to deepen our understanding of 'The Holy Trinity' and use evidence from the bible to back up our thinking. 

Whole School Mass

Next Thursday, 19^th May at 12.50pm, Year 5/6 will be leading a whole school mass centred around the theme of Peace and Justice. Families and community members are warmly invited to come along and join in the mass.

In these troubled times, we ask all families to continue to pray for world peace.

We unite, through prayer and action, to build one world of peace and justice for all.

Prayer for World Peace

We pray for the power to be gentle;
the strength to be forgiving;
the patience to be understanding;
and the endurance to accept the consequences
of holding on to what we believe to be right.

May we put our trust in the power of good to overcome evil
and the power of love to overcome hatred.

We pray for the vision to see and the faith to believe
in a world emancipated from violence,
a new world where fear shall no longer lead men or women to commit injustice,
nor selfishness make them bring suffering to others.

Help us to devote our whole life and thought and energy
to the task of making peace,
praying always for the inspiration and the power
to fulfill the destiny for which we and all men and women were created.

Thought of the Week

Peers Support - Promoting Harmony

This week we commenced our Peer Support Program for 2022. The whole school participates in Peer Support for thirty minutes each week. Two or three Year 6 Peer leaders facilitate a small group of eight students from Kindergarten to Year 5, who work together through several structured activities. We are working on a module called Promoting Harmony helping us define individual and community values, build relationships and improve decision making skills. The module runs for eight sessions.

Our first session on Tuesday enabled the children to get to know everyone in their group, agree on how they will work together and interact cooperatively with others. They also began to think about what is a value and something they value in themselves. We recommend you talk to your children about Peer Support every week, as it will help to reinforce the concepts learned in each session.

NAPLAN

This week Years 3 and 5 have been completing the NAPLAN assessment tests created by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. This annual assessment is completed by every school around Australia and provides some valuable data for us as a school to look at and use for our future planning. We are really proud of the way our students have applied themselves to these tests and are certain the results will reflect the effort being put into our learning spaces. For more information regarding the tests, you can contact me via email (jack.niddrie@cg.catholic.edu.au) or visit the NAPLAN website: https://www.nap.edu.au/home

Mothers Day Breakfast

It was lovely to see so many of our beautiful Mums, Grandmothers and special carers at our Mothers Day breakfast last Friday morning. Hope they enjoyed some 'pampering' - there were lots of fancy nails getting about!

K-2 Open House

Congratulations K-2 on a thoroughly entertaining Open House today, so much happening in the classroom! If you couldn't make it today, please look out for the uTube link on Facebook.

Archdiocesan Cross Country

This week we had five students travel to Canberra to compete in the Archdiocesan Cross-Country carnival. Congratulations to Bea Lucas, Ryan Sumich, Ruby Lucas, Dakota Medley, and Lana Sumich for their outstanding achievements at this level of competition. Our Trinity community is proud of their efforts and extend thanks to their families for supporting them on the day. Well done!

A special mention to Ruby Lucas who came 2nd at the Western Region carnival in her division, she was awarded a medal at our Open House this morning. Super Effort Ruby! 

Trinity Athletics Carnival

Our annual Athletics Carnival will be held, weather permitting, on Thursday 2nd June (Week 6) at Trinity top oval. In preparation for the carnival, we will complete the high jump events prior to the day, in sport time. Miss Wade and Mrs Doolan will finalise this event over the next two weeks. A carnival note, with further information, will be sent home in the coming weeks.

Mortimer Shield

The NRL Game Development Team will be hosting the 2022 Young Mortimer Shield Legends Day on Tuesday the 31^st of May, being held at Keith Cullen/Alfred Oval. Our Year 5/6 students are invited to attend this day. Further information and permission notes for this event will be sent out by Miss Wade, via Compass.

Archdiocesan Trials

All trials will be advertised through the school newsletter and Compass; however, parents are encouraged to check the C & G sport website and the Facebook page for information about upcoming events.

There are currently many trials open for 5/6 students on the sport cg page. Please monitor the page so you are aware of what’s on

Canberra Goulburn Sport Website: https://www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/

For more information or to register, please go to https://www.sport.cg.catholic.edu.au/nominations. Please check the C & G website and the Facebook page for information about upcoming events.

If any parent/guardian needs support with this, please contact Miss Wade.

Thank you for your support of sport at Trinity.

Miss Wade

Week 2

Class Awards

Kinder/1/2: Monty Lucas, Basil Russell

Year 3/4: Lana Sumich, Ben Pollard

Year 5/6: Charlie Jackson, Hamish Summerfield

MJR Awards

Kinder/1/2: Poppy Medley, Monty Lucas, Henry Johnson, Parker Betts

Year 3/4: Fletcher Betts, Lana Sumich, Ruby Lucas, Dakota Medley, Lawrence Johnson, Harry Edwards, Marley Oakley

Year 5/6: Spencer Betts, Bea Lucas, Bella Betts, Ryan Sumich, Shannon Kerrison, Michael Oakley, Thomas Edwards, Melanie Beal

Week 3

Class Awards

Kinder/1/2: Poppy Medley, Ivy Corkhill 

Year 3/4: Toby Stevenson

Year 5/6: Bella Betts, Raph Summerfield

MJR Awards

Year 3/4: Ruby Lucas, Dakota Medley, Lana Sumich

Year 5/6: Bea Lucas, Thomas Edwards, Michael Oakley, Ryan Sumich

This year all students from K-6 have been given a Home Reading Log where they are to record their reading each night.

It has been great to see the number of ‘Reading Nights’ children have recorded in their home reading log.

Once children reach a reading goal of nights they are rewarded with a sticker for their book from Mrs Perryman.

Keep up the great reading!!

Trinity school community staff and friends would like to wish the following people a wonderful birthday.

Catholic education election report card on major parties

Catholic education has released a federal election report card assessing the responses from the major political parties on education priorities.

The report card assess the Coalition, Labor and Green’s responses to the priorities of:

• Genuine school choice through fair funding and ensuring affordable contributions from families
• Enabling faith-based education through religious protections
• Improving capital funding
• Support for delivering national priorities such as quality teaching, early childhood education, mental health and wellbeing programs and Closing the gap initiatives for Aboriginal and Torres Islander students

 National Catholic Education executive director Jacinta Collins said the report card shows the Liberal National Coalition and Labor are on par in addressing Catholic education’s priorities, particularly on school choice.

 “We are fortunate that both major parties continue to support genuine school choice in Australian education and are committed to families who choose a Catholic education for their children,” Ms Collins said.

Responses sought from key independent candidates are also being evaluated.

The full report card and major party responses is available via www.ncec.catholic.edu.au/federal-election-2022

Authorised by J Collins, National Catholic Education Commission, Level 3, 156 Gloucester Street, Sydney.

ENDS