SECONDARY NEWS 

From the Assistant Principal 

Welcome back to Term 3

A warm welcome back to school is extended to all staff and students. It is pleasing to note that most students are wearing the correct school uniform.  We would appreciate these positive efforts being maintained. 

Please remember that ties are a compulsory part of the winter uniform, and some students are also not wearing their school shirt underneath hoodies.

Students are reminded to check the lost property bin. Several jackets and other pieces of clothing remain unclaimed from last term. Please clearly label all clothing with students’ names – this would enable items to be returned promptly.

Attendance Matters

Research indicates that:

• Regular attendance at school is fundamental to student learning. Students who attend school regularly are more likely to achieve educational success and increase their career and life options.
• Student attendance has been identified as an important aspect of a student’s wellbeing, and failure to receive an education has been identified as a risk of harm factor.
• Poor attendance patterns place students at risk of not achieving their educational, social, and psychological potential and disadvantage them in the quality of choices they are able to make in later life situations.
• Communities benefit from students who regularly attend school and are achieving. These benefits include greater student safety, community wellbeing, and a sense of connectedness for all.
• Schools, families, and communities can work together to send a strong collective message about the importance of going to school. 
• Promoting the benefits of regular attendance to students, teachers, early childhood centre staff, parents, and community groups will help create a culture where regular school attendance is the norm.

Whole-day attendance is very important, as is punctuality for school and classes.

Elevate Study Skills Sessions

On Monday, students in Years 9 & 10 participated in the final Elevate Study Skills sessions for this year.  Year 9's session will focus on Student Elevation, and Year 10's will focus on Time Management.

All Schools Cross Country

Congratulations to Luke Readett, who performed very well last week at the All Schools Cross Country. Well done, Luke.

EKKA

The Holy Trinity Show Team are in the final stages of preparation for EKKA. They leave early on Saturday morning for a very hectic week of competition. We wish them the best of luck. 

Mrs Townsend and Mr Townsend and the students have put in countless hours to prepare for this prestigious show. A group of very dedicated parents has well supported them.

Many schools from the eastern states will be vying for prizes in the school categories. Holy Trinity School has a well-earned reputation in this competition, often outperforming much bigger schools. We look forward to hearing about this year’s event in coming newsletters.

Artistic Excellence: 5 Holy Trinity Students Named Finalists in the 2026 'Let's Hang It!' Exhibition!

It is an incredible time for the arts at Holy Trinity School!

Out of an astounding 716 entries across 65 schools, only 60 artworks were selected as finalists for this year’s prestigious NERAM Let’s Hang It! Exhibition. We are thrilled to announce that five of our very own Holy Trinity students have been selected to showcase their work!

Exhibition Details:

• Where: New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM)

• When: On display now until Sunday, 9th August

   

Tamsin Pettiford was awarded RUNNER UP in the Senior Secondary Division Prize, Brooke Martel was given a Certificate of Distinction and Holy Trinity School was awarded WINNER- Most Outstanding School! 

Cast Your Vote! We encourage our school community to visit the exhibition or head online to cast your vote for the People’s Choice Award. Let’s show our talented young artists some love!

Congratulations to our five outstanding finalists - we are so proud of your incredible achievement! (Check out their artwork numbers below to vote).

• Sophie Foley- Burwood Ghost Town #42
• Dominic Kenny- Tidebound Heights #48
• Brooke Martel- Blush Hour #52
• Tamsin Pettiford- Sundown #53
• Charlie Parralla- Yeat #62

Vote People Choice Award https://www.neram.com.au/2026-unesap-peoples-choice/ 

PC Cup Celebrates Teamwork and Collaboration

Throughout Terms 1 and 2, our Year 10 students enthusiastically participated in the Year 10 PC Cup, a series of fun and engaging team challenges held during Wednesday Pastoral Care sessions.

Students were placed into randomly allocated teams and competed in a variety of group activities designed to strengthen important life skills such as communication, teamwork, problem-solving, resilience, and collaboration. Each challenge encouraged students to work together, support one another, and think creatively under pressure.

Congratulations to the Semester 1 winning team, "Untitled", made up of Georgia, Will, Lockie, Layla, Kadee, and Haylee (who was unfortunately absent for the presentation). Their consistent teamwork, positive attitude, and collaborative approach throughout the competition earned them the overall PC Cup title.

A big congratulations to all Year 10 students for their enthusiastic participation and willingness to challenge themselves. It was fantastic to see so many students stepping outside their comfort zones, building new friendships, and demonstrating the value of working together.

The competition isn't over yet! The PC Cup will return in Semester 2, with students being placed into new teams for a fresh round of challenges. We look forward to seeing more collaboration, friendly competition, and team spirit as students work together to claim the next PC Cup title.

Good luck...

We would like to wish the best of luck to all students representing the school in several upcoming competitions across academics and sport.

This Week

• Online Chess Competition: Best of luck to our players competing in the online tournament this week. 
• U14s & U16s Rugby League: Good luck to the rugby league teams who will play against O'Connor Catholic College on Thursday at 11.00 am at Kamilaroi.

Next Week

• Netball NSW Cup: Good luck to our netball teams participating next week.

• ACS Athletics: Best of luck to our athletes competing at the ACS Athletics carnival next week.

   

Thank you to the staff and parents involved in coordinating these events. We wish all participating students a successful few weeks!

GOOGLE CLASSROOM GUARDIAN SUMMARIES

STUDY SKILLS TIP

TOP TIPS FOR OVERCOMMITTED STUDENTS

Maybe you are an elite athlete? Or a dedicated performer? Or someone who has many talents across lots of different areas and doesn’t want to give up any of your activities? No matter the reason, the bottom line is you are time poor. You struggle to fit in everything you need to do for school, because of all of the other commitments in your life. The bad news is there is no magic solution that will easily fix this issue for you. You cannot create more time. The good news is that there are things you can do to make more efficient use of the time you have.

1. Don’t waste time in any of your classes at school. Make the most of every moment, so you have less to do at home, and set up a buddy system in case you miss any lessons. 

2. Prune your activities and see if there is anything you can cut to reduce the pressure.

3. Make a timetable so you can schedule in everything that you need to do and want to do.

4. Use all little pockets of time. If you are waiting before training, then use that time to complete some homework.

5. Always prioritise before you start work to ensure that the most important and urgent work is completed first.

6. If you are too tired when you get home from training it may be better to get to bed early and get up a bit earlier in the morning when you are fresh and do your work then.

7. You may need to sacrifice an occasional lunchtime when you know you will be too busy that night.

8. Let go of perfectionism it may not be possible to do everything as fully as you would like. Take smart shortcuts when you can.

9. Use any big blocks of time to tackle the time-consuming tasks that you haven’t had time for.

10. Some work like study notes, assessments or major works may be able to be left to the holidays.

Remember to be kind to yourself.  It is difficult to have enough time to excel in every aspect of your life! All you can do is make good choices with the time you have and make the most of that time and still try and get the best results you can given the time constraints you are working under.

Years 7 - 9 Assessment Handbook

Years 10 - 11 Curriculum Handbook (including Assessment Policy)

Please note this also applies to Year 9 Elective Subjects.

https://sites.google.com/arm.catholic.edu.au/htsstudentcurriculumhandbook/home

Ready2Learn

Pastoral Care teachers will be checking in with the students in their class each morning to ensure that they are Ready2Learn. All students have received the information below and were encouraged to show their families and discuss how to be Ready2Learn each day. Pastoral Care teachers will be able to help students start the day in a positive way. Please ask your child about this and support them to be Ready2Learn.

Students are being asked to ensure that they understand these elements and have all their equipment and uniforms by the start of Week 6. The infographic also outlines what to do if there is a problem with doing this and who you can go to for assistance.

Pastoral Care Teachers

 Year 7:    

7J – Mr Jack Jeffery

7M – Mrs Veronica McCormick

7R – Mrs Katrina Richardson

7W – Miss Lisa Wilson

Year 8:  

8K - Miss Kristina Majetic

8M – Mr Ricky Muggleton 

8T- Mrs Jane Taylor

8W – Mr Sam White 

Year 9:    

9C – Mrs Claudia Marshall

9E – Mr Jeremy East

9G – Miss Lauren Green

9M – Mrs Christine McLachlan

Year 10:  

10E – Mr Peter Ehsman

10G – Mrs Hannah Graham/Mrs Nicole Simpson

10S – Mrs Kristen Smith

10U – Mr Blake Uebergang.

Students and parents are encouraged to approach the relevant Pastoral Care teacher for assistance.

Contacting Staff

We ask that all correspondence with staff is via the Compass portal.

Living Well, Learning Well 

Student Wellbeing

Check In Tuesday with the Pulse Wellbeing App

Pulse is a tool for measuring the week-to-week wellbeing and engagement of all our students. It tracks the wellbeing of an individual so that the school can respond if needed. It also tracks engagement with the school so we can make intervene if necessary.