Dear Parents,

It was great to be able to gather together as a school community last Thursday evening for our annual Carols Night. It would be fair to say that the weather hasn’t been too kind to us in recent times, with the cancellation of Twilight Sports and the revised schedule for Carols Night. Despite the grey skies and cool weather, there was plenty of Christmas spirit! The children thoroughly enjoyed practising and performing their songs and were well received by our parent audience!

Student Leadership 2024

Over the course of the last few weeks our Year 5 students have been engaged in a number of activities geared towards building their capacity as school leaders. This has included participation in a full leadership day, written applications for school leadership positions and oral presentations for the position of School Captain. The 5/6 teachers have been extremely impressed with the way in which the students have engaged in the process. The level of detail in the written applications and the confidence in which they have addressed their peers and teachers in regards to their suitability for school leadership has been admirable. I truly believe our school community will be in good hands with the cohort of students representing our school in 2024.

While some students will inevitably be disappointed not to be selected for their preferred leadership position, all students will be recognised as leaders of our school. More than half of our 2024 Year 6 students will be `general leaders’ and will be expected to be great role models for our younger students. These leaders will also have opportunities to `step up’ throughout the year in various leadership roles.

This week Ms Ballinger and I met with the short list of students for School Captain. This process involved a brief group discussion before the students were invited to take us on a school tour, one of the important roles of the School Captains. This opportunity will not be limited to the School Captains next year but also other school leaders.

The 2024 School Captains and other leadership roles will be announced to the Year 5/6 cohort at school on Wednesday afternoon. We will acknowledge all of our 2024 school leaders at St Jude’s Church this Friday following our Gratitude Mass.

Stunning Stars for Christmas!

Knox Westfield invited our school to decorate two stars to be displayed at Knox Shopping Centre. The brief was ‘Starry Starry Night’, so we decided to paint one of the stars in the style of Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night. If you’re shopping at Knox keep your eye out and see if you can find them. Check out our blog for more details.

Caroline Laming (Visual Arts Teacher)

See our school blog for more information and photos.

New online platform - SIMON / PAM

The technical issue appears be resolved so parents will soon receive an email to invite them to create their Parent Access Module (PAM) accounts. Please check your junk or spam boxes for the following: noreply@yourschooldomain in the coming days. We will send out an Operoo email to confirm.

Staff news

We will also farewell the following staff as they progress their careers elsewhere in 2024:

Mrs Louise Cascianelli & Mrs Megan Rocha (will be working together at St Peter Julian Eymard, Mooroolbark)
Ms Sheridan Leeson (Admin - Sacred Heart Croydon)

I look forward to acknowledging their contribution to our school community.

We look forward to welcoming the following new staff to our school community in 2024:

Mr Justin Woodcock (currently teaching at St Tim’s, Forest Hill)
Miss Judith Sully - (currently teaching at Beaufort Primary School)
Mr Damian O’Bryan (returning to Melbourne, currently teaching in Perth)
Mr Rhett Masters (currently teaching at St John's, Mitcham)
Mrs Bree Schafter (currently teaching at Tecoma Primary School)

Our new classroom teachers are looking forward to meeting their 2024 students next Monday.

Classroom teacher allocations will be communicated on Monday following our `Move Up' session (meet the new teacher session) on Monday.

Baby News!

Congratulations to Mrs Jayme-Lea Jamieson on the arrival of Marley, a little sister to Cora, born last Friday.

Congratulations to Mrs Laura Crowe on the arrival of Grace, a little sister to Henry and Lucy, born in the early hours of Saturday.

While we were waiting in anticipation of Jayme-lea’s exciting news, Laura's news was a little less expected with Grace arriving prematurely. Both mums and babies are doing well!

We send our love and best wishes to the Jamieson and Crowe families as they celebrate this special time.

Gratitude Mass - Friday 8th December @ 10.00am

The students will travel to and from St Jude's Church by bus for a whole school end of year Gratitude Mass. Parents are welcome to attend.

Following Mass, remaining in the Church, the `hand over of student leadership ceremony’ will take place. We will also use this opportunity to farewell staff who will not be returning to Holy Trinity in 2024.

Move Up Day - Monday 11th December

The class groupings for 2024 will be announced to students. Students will have the opportunity to meet in their new class groupings and meet their new classroom teacher.

Semester Two Reports

School reports will be accessible online from Monday 11th December. Please click on the following link for more detailed information regarding accessing school reports: Online reports

Last day of School (Year 6 / Years Prep - 5)

Our Year 6 students will finish the school year on Thursday 14th December with a Guard of Honour commencing on the basketball court at 12.30pm. They will then attend Graduation Mass and Ceremony at 6.30pm at St Jude's Church.

Students in Years Prep - 5 will finish school on Friday 15th December at 1pm. There will be a Prep Graduation ceremony (Prep parents only) at 9am and a whole school assembly (all parents welcome) at 12.30pm. This will include the presentation of TORCH Bearer of the Term Awards.

Please note that supervision will not be provided by the school for students after 1pm on Friday 15th December (unlike Terms 1, 2 and 3). TheirCare will be open to provide a service from 1pm until 6pm. Bookings essential.

School Fees 2024

Please refer to the attached page in regards to the School Fee structure for 2024.

Newspaper Donations

Mrs Laming from the Art Room would be most grateful for donations of old newspapers that families no longer require. Newspapers will be put to good use in the Art Room. Please leave any newspaper donations at the school office.

School Blog

Our students are responsible for a lot of the School Blog content, so please take some time to appreciate their posts. It is also a great way to find out about school events such as Camp, Production, Sports Events, the Arts …. And much more!

http://blog.htws.catholic.edu.au/

Warm Regards,

Adrian Scutt

Principal

Time to eXcel

Class of 2023 - Invitation!