Principal's Desk

Dear Parents,

With the Melbourne Cup long weekend ahead of us, it is a reminder that the year is coming to an end with the home straight in sight! There is much to do and celebrate in the remaining 7 weeks of school. There is a continued focus on learning in addition to the many events on the school calendar. We appreciate the support of parents during this busy but exciting time, mindful that the school calendar has many extracurricular events.

With the warmer weather upon us, there are regular reminders in regards to being sunsmart, including wearing hats, spending time in the shade and drinking water to

remain hydrated. We also encourage children to bring sunscreen to school and apply when needed, particularly on high UV days. Thank you in anticipation of supporting this important message at home. We have never been better educated in regards to the need to remain Sunsmart.

World Teachers Day - thank you!

On behalf of all the staff, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks for the wonderful spread of food provided last Friday for World Teachers’ Day. The variety and abundance of delicious treats were amazing, and you truly made all the staff at Holy Trinity feel appreciated and extra special.

A special thank you to the Parents’ Association for organising the morning tea, setting up the staffroom, and making it look so beautiful. Your efforts did not go unnoticed, and we deeply appreciate the time and care you put into making this day memorable.

We love being part of the Holy Trinity community and feel so fortunate to teach your children. Thank you again for your generosity and thoughtfulness—it means the world to us.

Showcase of Learning

Thank you for your support of our showcase of learning last Thursday. It was wonderful to watch the students engage with their parents or grandparents and proudly share their learning. The afternoon was also an opportunity for parents to touch base with one another. We are aiming to make this an annual event on our school calendar.

Class placement 2025

In preparing for the 2025 school year, our teachers will soon begin the process of placing the children into class groupings for the 2025 school year, in line with our Class Placement of Students Policy.

As I am sure you can appreciate, this can be a challenging and tedious task as we work diligently and carefully to create a balance of classes. We understand that some students and parents can, at times, express their disappointment upon the announcement of classes in early December, particularly in regards to friendships. I ask you to trust the teachers’ judgement and professionalism in making a decision that is in each child’s best interest. This doesn’t mean, and cannot mean, that each and every child will be placed with their preferred friends or teachers. However, if you have any relevant information regarding the placement of your child, please email me directly on principal@htws.catholic.edu.au to request a Consideration for Placement of Student Form 2025. This information will be taken into account when teachers are placing children in classes. The form needs to be submitted directly to me, not to the classroom teachers, by Friday 8th November, 2024. Any previous discussions with your child’s teacher/s, must be redirected to me via this form. Any considerations from previous years also need to be resubmitted using this form, as considerations from previous years may no longer be relevant. No forms will be considered after this time.

Please also note that the teachers are aware of the children’s friendships so requests for placing children with specific friends will not be considered. Social factors such as children not relating well together may be considered, but this reason must be submitted on the official form.

If you are not planning to return to Holy Trinity in 2025, please let the School Office know as soon as possible. We need to finalise our student numbers before establishing our class structure and allocating classroom teachers.

KABOOM Sport Incursion and Family Picnic - Wednesday 30th October (4.30pm-7.30pm)

This community event will take place on the school oval and will be an opportunity for families to gather and for the students to participate in some fun activities. Feel free to bring along a picnic dinner or purchase a sausage or a hamburger from our BBQ stall. A SIMON / PAM permission has been sent to indicate your child’s attendance for planning and catering purposes. Times are as follows:

4.30pm - 5pm - Set up BBQ (volunteers required - a separate form has been ea)
5pm - 6.15pm - KABOOM Incursion (arrive in time for a 5pm start)
6.15pm - 7.30pm - PICNIC on oval

Children are welcome to wear casual (active wear), not school uniform or house colours.

Colour Fun Run - Friday 15th November (2.15pm - 3.30pm)

Our Parents’ Association have been busy planning this much anticipated event. Further details to follow. Due to the popularity of the event, Friday the 22nd November has been set aside as a backup date if needed.

Christmas Family Night - Thursday 5th December (6pm-7pm)

This year we will conduct our annual Carols Night at St Judes Church - the great news is that this event will go ahead rain, hail or shine! Details to follow.

Robyn Hunter - Memory Book - FINAL CALL

To acknowledge Robyn’s contribution to our school community, a short service on Thursday 21st November at 4pm. All members of the community are invited to attend.

As some families have indicated that they would like to contribute to an acknowledgement of Robyn’s service, we have set up a CDF Pay for donations towards the seat. These donations are completely voluntary.

Donations for park bench in memory of Robyn Hunter

As part of the short service, we would like to present John Hunter with a memory book on behalf of our school community. I would like to invite families, both past and present, to write a short message to include in the book. The message can include your family name or be anonymous. Please feel free to pass on this message to previous members of our school community.

If you would like to assist with the collation of the messages and the creation of the memory book please let me know.

Please add your messages to the following Google Form. The form will close on Thursday 31st October to allow time to create the book. Robyn Hunter - memory book messages

Early pick up from school - recommended times

We understand that, on occasions, parents are required to pick up their child early from school for one reason or another. While we are always happy to facilitate this pick up process, the timing can interrupt the child's learning or clash with an extracurricular or Specialist activity. It can be challenging locating the child during an outside play time or when participating in an activity outside of their classroom.

To ensure a more efficient pick up process, could we please recommended (where possible) that children are picked up at 11am, 12pm or 2pm.

Emergency Contact Details

As there are quite a number of students for whom emergency contact details are NOT recorded on SIMON, we ask that you give this important task your urgent attention. In instances where we have needed to ring emergency contacts and the information has not been present in SIMON we have been able to draw on old information in OPEROO. As our access to Operoo will cease on the 31st October, 2024 it is imperative that parents record two emergency contacts in SIMON for each of their children.

These emergency contact details (other than parents) are extremely important as they will be used in the event that we cannot get in contact with a parent, which happens from time to time.

Please see further on in the Newsletter (HT Helpful Information Page) the instructions for updating emergency contact details via the SIMON Everywhere App.

2025 return to school dates

Please note the following dates regarding the return to school for 2025

- Tuesday 28th January

Staff officially return for the 2025 school year (no students)

- Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th January

Prep 2025 students begin (9am - 1pm both days)

Years 1 - 6 - Assessment days (details to follow later in the year)

- Friday 31st January

All students in Years Prep - 6 (full day 9am - 3.30pm)

School Blog - check it out!

I would like to continue to encourage parents to access our school blog to see what’s happening around our school, particularly specialist classes and extracurricular activities. Our students contribute to the posts on a regular basis - I strongly encourage you to `like’ a post of leave a comment. The students get a real buzz to know that parents are appreciating their posts!

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

Warm Regards

Adrian Scutt

Time to eXcel