From the Parents’ Association

Staying connected and supporting one another whilst navigating Lockdown 6 has been invaluable to many parents and guardians. Our unique perspectives and individuality enable us together to enrich our parental toolkits. Distance Learning creates its own challenges, and those challenges are unique to every household. Thank you to our school for providing ongoing support and guidance to our parents, guardians and students.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has limited the opportunities available for us to meet in person – for the moment at least. The safety of our community is of the utmost importance to us and adhering to current restrictions has meant that we have been unable to proceed with many social functions. At the time of writing, we have the Oaks Day Luncheon and the Founders’ Day Fair on our calendar, and we hope these can still go ahead.

Trinity’s 14-day quarantine brought new challenges and the PA was able to support our community in many different ways. The PA Committee purchased Deliveroo vouchers for teaching staff and ESS to extend thanks on behalf of all parents during this exceptional time for our school. In addition, Deliveroo generously gifted all families a $15 voucher to spend during this time. Speaking for my family, this was a key highlight during quarantine – thank you, Deliveroo! Distributing the vouchers without the support of the Community Engagement Office would not have been possible so many thanks to Lucy Cohen and Felicity Quilty for their assistance.

Support from within our community was fantastic during the quarantine period with the TGS TLC group receiving generous donations which meant they could provide kindness and TLC to affected families and staff. The care packages consisted of vouchers and online deliveries (due to quarantine, the normal delicious meals and goodies donated could not be distributed). Thank you to Alice Noonan and Angela Gill (Co-Convenors of TGS TLC) for their tireless work. They gave their time generously throughout quarantine and provided ongoing compassion and support to our community.

With entire households unable to go outside for 14 days, pets were also impacted, especially dogs as families could no longer take them for walks. The MLC Community Care group provided 150 volunteers to walk the dogs of Trinity and Ruyton families and staff. The volunteers took more than 60 dogs for their daily walks. I extend an enormous and heartfelt thank you to Annette Dal Sasso (MLC and Trinity parent) for coordinating this initiative which embodied the wider community spirit. Without this wonderful support it would not have been possible to provide a bright moment for Trinity dogs from across all sections of our school. I would also like to thank the MLC volunteers who donated their time to walk the pets of the Trinity community.

During the quarantine period, the information and support from the school was invaluable. Many thanks to the Senior Leadership Team at Trinity who provided daily information updates. A central instant messaging WhatsApp group was established for Class Reps from the ELC to Year 12. This group created a vehicle for information from the school to be quickly disseminated to parents in what was often a rapidly shifting environment. Class Reps at each year level then posted information on the year level WhatsApp groups and coordinated questions back to the school. Thank you to Lisa Williams (Senior School Class Rep Coordinator), Diana Nelson (PA Nominee to School Council) and Melissa Gallace (Junior School Class Rep Coordinator) for liaising between our Principal Adrian Farrer, Mark Glover (Trinity’s Director of Business) and the central WhatsApp group. In addition, I would like to thank the Class Rep parents from across the school for their positivity and for facilitating their year level group chats. This group was instrumental in ensuring relevant information was distributed quickly and consistently.

The Trinity Friends of Music (TFOM) are currently arranging a special farewell for Michelle Stanic (Director of Music) who, after 36 years at Trinity, is retiring at the end of this year. Michelle will be greatly missed and the TFOM invites our community to be part of the farewell. Please contact the group via PA@trinity.vic.edu.au for details.

On behalf of the Trinity PA Committee, I wish everyone the very best during these challenging times and encourage you to stay connected.

The TGS TLC group gave their time generously throughout quarantine and provided ongoing compassion and support to our community.

Heidi Pfeffer

President of the Parents’ Association

Banjo is waiting for his friend to come and walk him Schatzi from MLC has come to take her Trinity friend for a walk

Indie Fitzy

Griffin keeps a watchful eye on the door

Banjo (on right) with his new MLC friend Lottie is enjoying her freedom in the park

Pip is COVID-safe and ready to go!