We will never forget 2020

Dear families,

It is hard to believe that this is the final edition of the newsletter for the year, a year I am sure none of us will forget.

A lot has happened since the last newsletter including two very important events. Last Friday evening we officially farewelled our Year 12 graduates. Our Director of Faith and Mission, Mrs Anne Hughes, prepared a beautiful liturgy that featured a large number of staff and students as well as Fr Michael.

Following the liturgy we shared dinner on the lawn in front of the Jubilee Centre. The final part of the evening was the presentation of awards and the presentation of all students. While the event wasn’t the same without parents and carers sharing it with us, it was still a special event for the students.

As is the cyclical nature of schools, shortly after saying goodbye to our Year 12 students we welcomed our 2021 Year 7 students who had their Orientation Day. There were lots of excited faces as the students headed off to their first homeroom before beginning their classes.

At this time of year we always have mixed emotions with the excitement of welcoming new students and staff and also the sadness when students and staff leave us. In 2021 we have seven new staff joining us. Five of these will be teaching staff and two will join the Wellbeing Team including one full-time psychologist. I will introduce the new staff in the first newsletter of 2021, however, I did want to make mention of the staff who won’t be returning in 2021.

Long time staff member, John Sturm, announced his retirement earlier in the year so will be leaving us at the end of this year. John has promised to return to assist with the robotics and chess teams next year.

Our Music teacher, Ben Hester, has decided to take a year off to travel to Germany to teach in 2021. Luke Alexeyeff’s contract is finishing, Bridgette Earnshaw will be on maternity leave for all of 2021 and Kate Harvey will be focussing on her PHD and lecturing in 2021. I would like to thank all of these staff for the contribution they have made to Trinity College and wish them well.

In addition, Jayne Cogger helped out enormously this year, particularly during remote learning where she supervised and assisted all students who were unable to work from home.

When Bridgette Earnshaw left to begin her maternity leave, Margaret Lugg came onboard to take her classes and help prepare them for their examinations. The College is very grateful to both Jayne and Margaret for their contributions.

Finally, we will be saying goodbye to our two trainees at the end of this year. Jack Holland has been fantastic in the media and communications area. Many of the videos produced by the school this year had Jack to thank and his willingness to assist students and staff was appreciated.

While we didn’t actually get much sport completed this year, Lily Eldridge, our Sports Trainee, still worked tirelessly when we were on campus. Lily helped out with PE classes and took charge of the COVID protocols on the oval to help ensure our students and staff were safe using that area of the school.

Finally, I would like to thank all Trinity College staff for their efforts this year. We were all pushed to our limits in different ways with the events of 2020 and I am proud to say that our staff rose to every challenge presented to them.

Our students and families have also been amazing with their resilience and support of the school and I sincerely thank each one of you. I hope that the entire Trinity College community has a safe, happy and holy Christmas and I look forward to seeing you all again in 2021.

Regards

Paul Clohesy

Principal

Christmas Appeal