Dear Members of the Trinity Family,

Last Sunday we celebrated Father’s Day. Whenever you read or listen to Pope Francis’ messages on Father’s Day he always refers to St Joseph. The story of Mary and Joseph, and Jesus’ entry into a humble stable in Bethlehem, is layered with meaning. Pope Francis encourages us to look to the example of Joseph to understand what unfettered love truly means - and to mirror and celebrate that in the relationships fathers have with their children and those they mentor.

In his Apostolic Letter Patris Corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis describes Joseph in seven different ways: “a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father, a creatively courageous father, a working father, and a father in the shadows.” The Pope’s letter articulates the many roles fathers play in the lives of their child(ren) and families - none of which are easy when balancing the competing demands of life.

I genuinely hope that all of our fathers and father figures enjoyed their celebrations last Sunday. I also thank those who attended our Father’s Day Breakfast at the College last Friday. I apologise for not being there in person as I was in Sydney, but I am pleased we were able to host such an opportunity for our community.

To all of our fathers, grandfathers and father figures: thank you for being positive male role models to the young people in our community. Our world needs positive role models for our students to look up to - men and women - and I certainly recognise the role our parent community plays in this regard.

National Day of Action Against Bullying & Violence

Last week our senior leaders promoted a series of initiatives related to this year’s National Day of Action Against Bullying & Violence theme of “Growing Connections.” I commend this student-led initiative as it is vital we educate all in our community about identifying and preventing bullying behaviours. If any student at Trinity experiences bullying they are encouraged to report it as soon as possible to a trusted adult who can then offer the necessary support to ensure it stops. The Kids Helpline also offers a range of support services and useful advice that are accessible to young people and easy to follow.

Australian Catholic Bishops Conference - Social Justice Statement 2023

President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Costelloe, has launched this year’s statement which is titled Listen, Learn, Love: A New Engagement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

Year 12 Graduation Celebrations

Two significant parts of our Year 12 Graduation celebrations will occur at the end of this Term. The first is our Graduation Mass at St Carthage’s Cathedral on Wednesday 20 September from 6.00pm. All are welcome to attend this eucharistic celebration. The following morning, Thursday 21 September, we will host “Graduation Day.” This will involve our HSC academic prize giving ceremony and our Year 12 farewell assembly. Due to seating capacity limits, this is a ticketed event for Year 12 students and their two guests. I look forward to celebrating the wonderful class of 2023 and wish them well for their HSC exam preparations.

Student Enrolments

Trinity has some student enrolment vacancies in certain year levels for the balance of 2023. All enrolment enquiries are best directed to our Enrolments Officer via email - enrolments@trinitylismore.nsw.edu.au - or phone: 02) 6627 6647. Applications can be made through our College website. 2024 enrolments are now being received in strong numbers - please enrol as soon as possible.

Students 2024

A reminder to any current families with siblings to enrol for 2024 to please commence this process by completing and submitting an application.  Please also remember to email enrolments@trinitylismore.nsw.edu.au if your child is not returning to the College in 2024. It is essential that this information is known for planning purposes. Thank you for your support.

Child Safeguarding

The College, like all child-safe organisations, is investing significant time and resources into the implementation of the Child Safe Standards. Our website contains our Statement of Commitment.

Term 3 Key Dates / Events

The following events will take place in Term 3:

• Year 9 Camp: 6-8 September
• Year 11 Exams: 4-13 September
• Graduation Mass: 6.00pm, 20 September
• Graduation Day: 9.30am, 21 September
• Last Day of Term 3: 22 September

May Venerable Nano Nagle, St Marcellin Champagnat and Mary our Good Mother watch over our Trinity community in the fortnight ahead.

Jesse Smith

The recent weather has certainly reminded us that we have moved from winter to spring. At the time of writing this article, our Year 12 students have 12 days of school left. This group has definitely helped bring back some Mojo to Trinity since they joined us at SCU in Term 2. We will certainly miss them.

I am going to begin by congratulating two of our Year 12 students who have achieved great things since the last Lantern Edition.

Congratulations to Sophie Mayes who recently competed for NSW All Schools in the National All Schools Swimming Championships in Sydney. Sophie competed in eight events all up and won Gold Medals in the 200m Individual Medley and the 100m Freestyle, 4 x 50m freestyle relay, 4 x 100m freestyle relay, Silver Medals in the individual 50m Butterfly - 0.06 secs off a Gold Medal and a Silver Medal in the 17 - 19 Medley relay, a Bronze Medal in the individual 50m freestyle and a 4th in the 100m backstroke. Eight swims yielding seven podium finishes (7 medals). What an amazing effort. Sophie is very dedicated to not only her swimming but to her dance and education. Congratulations Sophie on all these achievements.

Congratulations to Maya McGrath from Year 12 who has been selected in a program called Pursu32. The Pursu32 program provides talented regional athletes with exposure to high level expertise in coaching,  nutrition, performance planning, skill technique and body control. Working through two camps, one in Sydney and one in the snowfields assist these athletes to be NSWIS ‘READY’ to progress to elite competition in Olympic sports. Maya completed the first camp at the NSW Institute of Sport last weekend and said she learned a lot about her strengths as well as areas to develop in the future. Maya too is very dedicated to not only her hockey but to her dance and education. She has spent many weekends in 2023 flying to Sydney to train and compete.

Rounding out this trifecta of great senior success is Toby Barlow who has been in Sydney this past week for basketball. Toby was the Captain of the NSWCCC Open boys basketball team who competed in the NSW All Schools Carnival against NSWCHS and NSW Independent Schools. Toby has had an extended stay in Sydney as he has also been playing in selection trials for the NSW Under 20’s basketball team. The squad gets smaller following every trial weekend and Toby remains in the selection mix still in reach of his goal to be chosen in the final team. Congratulations Toby and best wishes for the next round of selections.

Photo of Toby Barlow with Jackson Ware in 2022 as members of the NSWCCC Basketball Team.

Brooke Hanson
In Week 7 we were blessed with a visit from Brooke Hanson – 2004 Olympic medalist and six times World Short Course Champion. Brooke gave a wonderful presentation on what it took her to continue to do over many years and many setbacks to unleash her talent on the Olympic stage. Each student now has the opportunity to complete an Olympics Unleashed Goal-Setting Card that Brooke provided. I have some spare cards in my office if you missed out.

Last week we recognised No Bullying Day with some chalk activities and a visit from our local Police Youth Engagement Officers Clare and Jay. As you can see from the image below, the students who engaged in the activity thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks to Julie Fryer our Director of Pastoral Care who organised the day along with our College Captains Gwyn and Kai. 

And to top it off we had a great roll up of fathers and grandfathers at our breakfast last Friday. Thanks to the dads and granddads who attended.

Congratulations to McColl House for winning the 2023 Trinity Olympics. This event was run over numerous weeks and included competitions in beach volleyball, 3 on 3 basketball, dodgeball, five-a-side soccer, Limbo - just to name five of the sports. The Trinity Olympics was organised by the College Captains to redevelop the House Spirit following two years of the pandemic, a flood event and a couple of school relocations!!!! Thanks so much to Gwyn, Joe, Layla and Kai for all your extra hours in organising this fun event and engaging so many of our students.

McColl House Captains Ava Coombes and MacKinnon Connelly proudly displaying the Trinity Olympics Cup.

Ava, MacKinnon and special guest presenter Brooke Hanson.

Sean Baldwin

Dear Members of the Trinity Community,

Year 11 End of Course Exams 4 September  - 12 September 2023

Please see linked the timetable for the Year 11 Examination period which continues until 12 September. During this time, Year 11 students are only required to be at the College for their exams, there will not be any Year 11 timetabled classes. We wish Year 11 all the very best for their exams.

HSC Term 3 Holiday Study

Year 12 students are encouraged during the Term 3 holidays to plan and make use of the SCU Library space which they are now accustomed to attending for HSC preparation and study.  This space provides the required atmosphere and is available to our students through our university partnership.   The Library will be open from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm throughout the Term 3 holidays.  Students are reminded of College expectations when accessing this public space.

Year 12 HSC Written Exam Timetable

HSC written exams will start on Wednesday 11 October 2023 with English Paper 1 and finish on Friday 3 November 2023. Please find here the link to the complete HSC written Timetable with additional information including the Exam Equipment List. Each Year 12 student will have access to their personal exam timetable through studentsonline.nesa.nsw.edu.au. This timetable lists the students' written exams. It also lists any other exams they are entered for, including oral exams for languages, performance exams and submitted works.

Subject Selection Process

The Timetable Committee continues its work processing all student preferences for Year 9 and 11 2024.  As indicated at the beginning of the process, the 2024 timetable lines will be lines of best fit - i.e. they are populated with subjects that attract sufficient student numbers to make them viable to run and they suit the majority of students in the year level in terms of minimising clashes. Unfortunately it will not be possible to run every course offered in the same way it will not be possible to ensure every student receives every preference they submitted. This process is a challenging one so we appreciate your patience as we continue this important work ahead of announcing the 2024 lines in Term 4.

Our School Wide Pedagogy

The College is on an ongoing journey of school revitalisation with the actioning of our school-wide pedagogy. Pedagogy is a way of teaching and enacting the learning and teaching process. At Trinity we believe in the following principles that underpin what we do and how we do it.

This week we would like to introduce our Engaging Pillar.

Educational Rationale:
The engaging principle is based on the rationale that all learners at Trinity can learn. “Learning with the Heart, Lighting up the Future” (Trinity’s Vision for Learning) is engaging learning through intrinsic motivation, (L. Curzon, 14 points of Motivation). Learners who are actively engage in their own learning have a growth mindset - lighting their own path, that leads to increased ownership of learning.

Engagement in learning provides students with self efficacy as learners to bolster a student's ability to try and fail. Learning is seen as a process of trying and failing, a part of growing as an individual, (Thorndike, Connectivism). This can also be seen in Gagne’s work, Nine levels of Learning, where the motivation to learn is intrinsically linked to gradual development of independence in learning, where the explicit steps for success are clear and students become active learners who are engaged and accountable for their own learning.

Dewey, (Pragmatism and Flexible Curriculum), argued that the aim of education is to promote growth, through which learners would be able to adopt a wide range of purposes and means of achieving goals. In the broadest sense, engaging education promotes social awareness, civic engagement and commitment to personal excellence.

The Engagement Theory is that students should be meaningfully involved in their learning through interactive and worthwhile tasks (G. Kearsley. B. Shneiderman). The theory promotes the learner to work collaboratively and to take intellectual risks. This enables the student to have an authentic real world focus that is reflective of their interests and passions and meets the future challenges.

Definition:

Engaging is active involvement in the learning process that promotes self motivation, independence and curiosity. It is engagement that extends beyond the classroom to the community and the greater world.

We learn with the heart and light up the future by:

• valuing learning that is both collaborative and future focused.
• promoting student agency.
• providing choice and opportunities for learners to discover their strengths and weaknesses.
• facilitating ongoing relevant applications of authentic learning experiences.

The English, CAPA, Mathematics and LoTE Key Learning Areas focused on the Engaging Pillar in their classrooms during Semester One. This semester, the TAS and Religion Key Learning Areas are concentrating on the Engaging Pillar in their classrooms.

SHINE CONFERENCE
Our Year 9 and 10 Youth Ministry classes attended the two day Shine Conference last week.  This year’s theme “The House" encouraged each student to participate in all activities with energy and openness whilst feeling like they were ‘at home’ with God. Shine is always a wonderful opportunity for our students to connect with other students from across the Diocese, experience prayer and worship with the Wildfire Worship team and spend some time reflecting on their own faith journey.

YEAR 9 CSYMA CLASS, 2024 - Applications open this week
Year 8 students who are interested in joining the CSYMA (Youth Ministry Class) next year will be able to apply this week. A Google form Application has been sent to student emails. 

The CSYMA programme of study offers students the following:

• Youth leadership formation within the curriculum
• Prayer and reflection opportunities
• Service and outreach experiences that will help to develop each students gifts
• Growth in faith through action
• Youth Ministry excursions
• Involvement in organising and conducting the College’s liturgical celebrations

Further information can be found at www.csyma.com.

Applications close at the end of Term, Friday 22nd September.

Annette White - Director of Mission

Accompanied by Mrs O’Reilly and Mr Smith who graciously offered their time to supervise, saw the History Extension and Modern History students from the 17th - 19th August, including myself, fly to Sydney where we were given the great opportunity to roam Sydney and immerse ourselves in its life. But, most importantly, we would witness what historical knowledge it had to offer.

Upon arrival in Sydney, we dropped our things at the hotel and went straight to our first ‘activity’, being granted an incredibly moving experience at the Sydney Jewish Memorial and War Museum - which serves as both a memorial space for those Jewish individuals lost in the Holocaust, and a learning experience for those who sought to understand the atrocities and the circumstances surrounding this period of history. Arguably, the most memorable moment of the trip would be listening and speaking to a Holocaust Survivor - Mark Spigelman. A child Holocaust survivor during the atrocity, he would speak in detail of his memories fed by his reoccurring nightmares as a child, and his family story which can be found in parts of Art Spiegelman’s ‘Maus’ (1986). Mark Spigelman is indefinitely a man who holds a unique and telling story that is worth looking into - especially regarding achievements throughout his life. After this experience, Modern History students were able to strengthen their skills via a ‘Workshop’ on the subject’s core, and the group moved into the museum. A volunteer guide expertly showed us a range of informative, yet harrowing details on the holocaust. Notably, I remember a fascinating section that spoke of the Indigenous Elder ‘William Cooper’ who heard about Kristallnacht, leading a protest alongside the Australian Aboriginal League in Victoria to confront the actions of the Nazis. Ultimately, it was an unforgettable experience.

On 18th August, we moved on to our next experience, walking in Hyde Park, past the Australian War Memorial, to the Hyde Park Barracks. It was a great interactive experience, using headphones to become completely immersed. It included both audio and visual elements and primary sources from the convict's time at the barracks. It was interesting to learn not only about its construction but also about the convict work life, immigrant women, and the effect on the Indigenous communities.

Although the excursion only lasted 2 days, it was a great time for both students and staff - whether it be at either of the two museums, walking around the harbour, or shopping at Westfield, it was a great way to get away from all the stresses of school, and it was great of the school to organise this opportunity for us.

Millie Grace - Year 12

YEAR 12 WORK STUDIES

Recently Year 12 Work Studies have been out on a few different excursions, Thursday we took the bus and went to Ballina for the day looking at different opportunities in the workforce. We picked a good day as the weather was amazing.  First up we checked into the Ballina/Byron airport.  We listened to talks from the various departments including the Head of Security Terry Christmas, Coordinator of Airport Security, who was very informative about how the borders are controlled from narcotics and other things like terrorism. We also learnt about the use of the dogs as a means of detection. Peta Atkins, Airport Reporting Officer,  Nicholas Cooper, Airport Operations and Compliance Manager and Scott Underhill, also spoke and gave us an insight into how the baggage handling operations work.

We then moved along to Air Services Australia, which is responsible for the disaster management at the airport including any fires or incidents that occur, including first aid if necessary of any passengers in the terminal.

To finish the day we listened to James Rogers who is the Operations Manager Food & Beverage at the Ballina the RSL club. We were taken on a tour around the venue, had a sneak peak at where our formal is to be held and inspected behind the scenes in the kitchen.

All the venues were invaluable to visit and we learned a lot of new things that broadened the picture for after school a little bit. There are some interesting career opportunities that we can get into and work our way towards. 

This Semester Trinity is competing in The Horn Cup, named after Adam Horn. He filled the position of Information Communications and Technology (ICT) Manager at the College until November 2018, when he unfortunately lost his battle with cancer. During his time at the College, he put forward many innovative, creative and leading technology solutions that took the College into a new era of teaching and learning.

The Esports competition aims to provide students in Years 7 to 11 with the opportunity to engage in a safe, inclusive, supportive, and organised school-based competition while promoting positive gaming behaviours and digital wellbeing. Mario Kart, Just Dance, Rocket League, and Smash Bros are among the categories.

The timetable includes:

1. Qualifiers
2. Heats
3. The Semi-finals
4. The Finals
5. The Grand Finale

Currently, we are running the Mario Kart qualifying sessions during lunchtime that have seen some outstanding results across all year levels and later this week we will be moving on to the first qualifying sessions for Just Dance.

The plan is to continue the Horn Cup as an annual event and to use this as a platform to also compete in the FUSE Cup in 2024, which is an international school Esports competition. The gamer shirts have been generously donated by School Locker in association with Microsoft Surface and New Balance to students and staff involved in the competition. They have also kindly donated the equipment needed to run this fantastic opportunity for students, as well as some amazing prizes for the winners.

On Friday, August 18th, children in Years 7-10 took part in the Kids' Cancer Project's Write a Book in a Day. Every year, thousands of writers from all around Australia participate in Write a Book in a Day. The challenge not only improves collaboration, creativity, and time management skills, but it also allows participants to make a difference in the lives of children with cancer. Write a Book in a Day is a fundraising campaign for paediatric cancer research, with each team generating donations for The Kids' Cancer Project.

The event began at 8 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. This year, we had 5 teams participate. On the morning of the event, the parameters were provided to each team. The parameters were as follows: two primary characters, a non-human character, the setting and an issue with five random words that they had to incorporate into their story.

Each team had to fundraise $240 for kids with cancer all around Australia. This was a great way to raise money for children in need while also spreading awareness about cancer in young children. All teams managed to both illustrate and write a book for children with cancer to read. It was a day full of excitement, fun, participation and a little bit of sugar.

Teams have raised $1900 so far and have until Saturday 30 September 2023.

Ayla Crotty (Year 9)

Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a program for all primary and secondary students providing the opportunity to solve authentic, open-ended challenges that foster creative, divergent thinking whilst developing collaborative enterprise, excellence and teamwork. Challenges are set in the following disciplines; The Arts, Language Literature, Social Sciences and STEM.

The Tournament process provides a platform for excellence and equips participants with twenty-first century skills and strategies. Tournament of Minds offers real-world benefits as it looks beyond academic achievement and understands that the pursuit of excellence knows no boundaries.

This year we had three teams compete in the Regional Finals. The Minions consisted of seven members; Summer O’Connor, Amelie O'Connor, Darcy Healy, Oliver Wright, Ayla Crotty, Indigo Scanlon and Eva Skeet. They competed in the Language Literature Division and received Honours for their amazing performance on creating a statue in London of Roald Dahl’s BFG and Sophie. Indecisive consisted of five members; Georgina Cappe, Angus Thamm, Mae Thamm, Ashlin Tuthill and Tiff Nolan. They competed in the Social Sciences division and received a Merit certificate for their time portal idea connecting the Chicxulub Asteroid to the Chernobyl disaster. The third team Peace and Love included; Isobel Rose, Brooke Wilson, Emma McCluskie, Layla Preston, Scarlett Sauer-Gardner, Arabella Francis-Standish and Madeleine Donnelly. They competed in The Arts division and they received a Merite certificate.

All teams needed to perform one spontaneous challenge which included 4 minutes of planning time and 1 minute to present to the judges. Overall, all of the teams were amazing and should be proud of their achievements.

Resources to Promote Help Seeking in the Lead up to the School Holidays

For All

• Be You support services and infographic access here
• 13YARN Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Support – Crisis line

For all students

• headspace How to stay healthy over the holidays
• headspace Tips for a healthy headspace
• headspace Healthy headspace Action Plan
• headspace How to help a friend going through a tough time
• Reach Out Helping friends
• Reach Out Ways to chill for cheap
• If your friend is not okay click here
• e-headspace flyer click here
• How to handle a tough time, PDF here.
• You can find a variety of other headspace factsheets
• 13YARN Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Support – Crisis line

It can also be useful to have some information available about what to expect when receiving support online or phone, such as:

• Reach Out’s video about ‘What happens when I call a helpline?’
• Reach Out’s factsheet ‘How to call a helpline’

Work and Study Support

• headspace Work and Study Programs support 15-25-year-olds to plan a career, find employment or work towards further education access here: Work and Study Program and Career Mentoring Program.

This information would also be helpful for parents of Yr. 12 students

For all parents

• Headspace Keeping healthy over the holidays - for friends and family
• Telephone support: Parentline NSW 1300 1300 52- Information relating to older children can be found here
• Parentline has tips and advice around a range of topics that can assist parents in supporting young people
• Head to Health is a go to place to help you find information, services and resources to help yourself or your young person.
• Reach Out has tips to support teenager wellbeing
• BeyondBlue has some tips on Supporting healthy home and habits
• Beyond Blue also has some practical tips on how to start conversations when you are worried about your young person.

Grief resources for students and parents

• Adolescents and Grief for parents and carers click here
• Telephone support: Grief line 1300 845 745
• Understanding Grief and Loss click here.

For Staff

• Beyond Blue Grief and Loss – Supporting Self and others (pdf attached)
• Reminder of EAP supports available and how to access during the holidays
• We would encourage you to remind staff of the importance of making use of EAP (or GP/private mental health professional).
• We also have some excellent Educator Wellbeing resources available on the Be You website.