Dear Parents,

Thank you to the parents who assisted with the working bee last Sunday. We had a wonderful turn out which enabled us to complete all tasks in a relatively short time. It certainly makes a difference to the appearance of the school and enhances the facilities of the school.

Next Friday sees the school walkathon taking place.  We are currently seeking assistance with the BBQ and if anyone can volunteer their time to assist can they contact Mr Hart.  Cooking will commence at 8.30am.  If any parents would like to join us on the walk, the scheduled times for departure are:

• 4-6 leave at 9:15 am
• 2-3 leave at 9:30 am
• P-K-1 leave at 9:40 am

I am currently finalising staff for the 2020 school year and over the next few weeks will be working with staff to allocate students to classes.  Soon students will be asked to nominate three friends they would like to be with in 2020.  While we try to have every child with at least one friend, there are times when this is not possible.

This year we will be using a program called ‘Class Creator’ to place students in classes. Students with high needs will be placed in classes that the learning support team and myself think best suits the needs of the child.  Before class lists are generated teachers populate a survey outlining a child’s academic ability; their social skills, behavioural issues, friends and students they may need to be separated from.  In addition to this, the program also ensures we have a balance of boys and girls.

Parents, including staff, are not able to request a certain teacher for their child.  If students have had issues with a fellow student previously we will consider keeping them apart.  If a staff member and a parent have clashed in the past I will consider where we place the child.  It would be pointless putting both the teacher and the parent together if the beginning of the school year is going to be marked by negativity, as it would make for a long year.

Classes and teachers will be sent home as usual with school reports at the end of week nine.

Maths problem

Congratulations to Brody Press who was this week’s winner. This week’s problem is below and is aimed at our younger students.

You Take The Cake

Gina likes the tasty brand of icing sugar to decorate the cakes she bakes. One packet of Tasty icing costs 25 cents. How many packets could she buy for $2.00? See if you can work out more than one way to solve the problem. Did you notice a pattern? If so, describe it.

MTS Cheerleading

At a meeting of cheerleading families last week it was decided to hand over the running of the club and the training of students to Sirens in Mitchell.  MTS cheer was finding it hard to attract coaches due to the required accreditation and this of course raised legal issues.

MTS Cheer will still exist as a separate group but simply train in Mitchell with Sirens handling all of the administrative tasks. Personally,  for the long term viability of the club, I feel this was the right decision.

I would like to thank Kelly Ciampa and Mel Beeton for the many hours they have contributed to MTS Cheer. I know the children involved love being part of the cheerleading club at MTS and it is wonderful they can stay together going forward.

Community Council Meeting

Next Tuesday evening  (5 November) we are holding our regular Community Council meeting.  We will be looking at the proposed budget and school fees for 2020.  I welcome any parents to come along.

Lost Property

A reminder please for parents to label your child's uniform clearly.  We have a number of lost property items that have no name which unfortunately cannot be returned to their owners.  When this is the case, after children have been given the opportunity to claim an item, those pieces are placed in our clothing pool for resale at the second hand uniform shop.

God Bless

Peter Hughes