Principal's Message

Welcome

I extend a very warm welcome to all families and members of the Trinity College community as we commence the 2025 academic year. I offer my prayerful best wishes and God’s Blessings for a wonderful year ahead. A special welcome is extended to those students and families who are new to our College. I trust your relationship as an important part of our community will be an enjoyable and rewarding one.

Our College Support Staff returned to work several weeks ago attending to an array of administrative and operational tasks in preparing for the school year. Similarly, our Teaching Staff returned earlier than usual to participate in a series of Professional Learning Days and several Learning Area meetings in preparation for classes commencing this week.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the many members of our College community who have reached out and offered our Staff such a warm welcome as we commenced this academic year. It is always humbling to receive so many good wishes, encouragement, blessings and messages of support from families. As the College Principal, I am very grateful for such a sincere welcome and genuinely appreciate that it reflects the sense of community and genuine support that exists at Trinity College. 

Of course, Tuesday saw all our students, from Years 4 -12, commence their classes. Once again, they have been greeted with very hot conditions this week but deserve much praise for the way they have presented and the manner in which they successfully commenced their respective classes with little fuss. Likewise, our College staff should be acknowledged for the manner in which they greeted, directed and supported students and moved quickly into the rhythm of the timetable and the flow of classes and training.

On Wednesday morning students, staff and many parents gathered for a very special whole College Assembly in which we were able to experience and celebrate the very special tradition of ‘piping in’ those students joining our school for the first time; to recognise our respective student leaders for this year; and to acknowledge and wish well our Senior Year 12 Class. Our Head Prefect for 2025, Louis Burnett also added his own special welcome and invitation to our new students before speaking about personal leadership. “Leadership is not defined or confined by titles or badges. Rather, it is recognised through our actions, our abilities to reach out to others and through authentic service. We can all strive for such leadership!” 

Welcome and greeting is an important part of any community. As part of our Trinity College community, we were able to experience and celebrate the very special tradition of piping in those students joining our school for the first time. A Piping Ceremony is symbolic of recognising and embracing the arrival of another and honouring their presence. It was a lovely moment enjoyed by students, staff and the many proud parents present. It is important as a school seeking to be inclusive and welcoming, that such an invitation to community is always apparent and always respectful. 

Our College Assembly also afforded us a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our respective College Prefects for this year. In recognising their fine example, all students were challenged to be both inspired and personally challenged by the example of our student leaders in being Men for Others. We should be proud of their efforts and acknowledge their significant achievement because they have been wonderful role models.  In essence, they have demonstrated the Spirit of Excellence and Spirit of Service that is part of our College Ambitions.

To complete our first week back, our whole College community gathered this morning to celebrate our Opening Mass of The Holy Spirit. This special Eucharistic celebration, allowed us to give thanks for our sense of community and the opportunities available, bestow blessings on the year ahead and formally Commission our new Staff. It was a very special way to commence our academic year, and we pray for a happy and successful year ahead.

Live Jesus in our hearts

Mr Darren O’Neill 

Principal 

Welcome to New Staff

As is normally the case at the start of any school year, we welcome the following new members of staff and wish them well as they commence at our College. Our new Staff were formally Commissioned at our College Mass this morning and we wish them well for the year ahead.

Ms Vanessa Balla                    Teacher – Junior School 

Mr Jay Callaghan                     Teacher – Aviation and Digital Technologies

Mr Keeshawn Cook                Aboriginal Teacher Assistant

Miss Zoe Cukrov                      Teacher – Junior School 

Ms Gillian Fistonich                Teacher - Science 

Ms Chelsea Hedges                Education Assistant 

Mr Joshua Huynh                     IT Support Officer

Mrs Sally Kelly                           Executive Assistant to the Principal

Dr Nathan Leber                      Teacher – Religious Education

Mr James McPherson             Head of Junior School 

Mr Nicholas Nguyen               IT Support Officer 

Mr Antonio Sanfilippo             Library Assistant 

Ms Madison Shepherd           Teacher – Digital Technologies 

Mr John Simmons                    Teacher – Health & Physical Education 

Mrs Vanessa Strohmeier        Executive Officer -TOBA

Mr Jacob Sweeney                   PE & Sport Assistant

Ms Sophie Wilkinson               Education Assistant

Holiday Work

It has been a very busy holiday period with a number of maintenance and capital improvement projects being achieved, many with very tight timelines. Significant classroom refurbishments were completed on the ground floor rooms of the B Block, delivering bright and contemporary learning spaces that will be well utilised. Similar re-modelling work was completed on different office spaces and several areas of the college received new floor treatments and air-conditioning that will assist the ability to safely and comfortably move around student work areas and the campus generally.

Further to this, significant IT network upgrades, server replacements and similar were all delivered prior to students commencing and scheduled cleaning, maintenance painting was also undertaken. We also returned to freshly prepared school grounds and ovals and as is normally the case, there have been an enormous number of administrative updates and financial processes completed in preparation for the commencement of the school year.

In particular, I would like to acknowledge the work of Mr Geoff Searle (Business Manager), Mr David Mercer (Property Services Manager), Mr Daniel Baker (Head of Grounds), Mr Jon McElroy and all members of our Property Services Team and our Grounds Team, for their dedication and hard work over the past few weeks. Similarly, a big thank you to Mr Shaq Herath (Director of ICT) and the IT Team for their extensive installation work. The work done in the classrooms, other learning environments and our campus and associated playing fields can only be achieved through the ongoing support of our fantastic Support Staff.