Part 5 - The Reading Room

My name is Carly Flemington,

I am the Defence School Mentor (DSM) here at Mother Teresa.

With my husband in the ADF and a mother of 2, I know first hand the challenges and impacts the ADF life can have on our families, from postings, changing schools, deployments, living away from loved ones and making new connections.

As DSM, my role is to advocate for you and your family within the school environment. I am here to assist your children and family with any issues that may arise during your time at Mother Teresa School, by providing assistance and guidance to your children as they settle in to our school and support them during challenging times such as deployment, changes in family circumstances, friendship issues and any other situation where they just need a friendly ear and someone to chat to. 

I am also here to support the family, so if there is something I can help you with please reach out.

I run a Defence Kids Club once a week during at lunch time, after eating time. This is open to all the Defence students, from Kinder to Yr 6.  It’s an opportunity to meet and mix with the other Defence children and gain support from our community. We do art / craft activities, play board games and active games. Most weeks the Defence children can bring along a non-Defence friend if they wish. This club is not compulsory. 

It is a pleasure to welcome you to our school and I look forward to meeting you and your family very soon.

About The Defence School Mentor (DSM) Program

The DSM program provides funding to schools to minimise the impact of the mobile lifestyle on Defence students' education. This funding provided by the Defence Forces allows for the employment of a DSM to work within the school to raise awareness of the Defence lifestyle and to support students of Defence families.

The program, administered by Defence Member and Family Support (DMFS) (formerly known as Defence Community Organisation), reflects the commitment by Defence to support its members and their families and recognises the partnership between education authorities, Defence and schools.

Mother Teresa School is a proud participant of the Defence School Mentor Program and our DSM provides support in the following key areas:

• Welcoming
• Integrating
• Support during absence
• Farewelling

The Defence School Mentor may provide support in the following areas: 

• Assisting new children and their families to integrate into the school and local community,
• Monitoring the social and emotional wellbeing of Defence students,
• Assisting students develop self-confidence, self-reliance and resilience,
• Supporting teachers to monitor Defence student's transition and any personal challenges they may face (such as friendship, peer group or classroom difficulties)
• Referring students to services, or school and community programs that meet their needs,
• Enhancing awareness and appreciation of the unique Defence lifestyle in schools and communities, and
• ​Providing support to children during times of parental absence.

Part 3 - Maths

At Mother Teresa School we use the Australian Curriculum and current research to ensure children grasp and apply concepts that are required by the end of the year. We use a hands-on approach with concrete materials to help embed these concepts as well as daily reviews.

How you can help – activities and games

Numeral recognition and counting

• point out numbers on letter boxes and houses.
• Play card or board games that involve numbers such as snakes and ladders.
• Counting races – forwards and backwards.
• Practise counting to 10 on your own portable number line your hands. Face your palms towards you with the left thumb always being number 1 and count all the way to the right thumb which is 10.

Subitizing

The capacity to visually recognise the size of a small set of objects without counting – dominoes and dice games.

Measurement

Kitchen work – which is heavier or lighter, which container holds more? How can we work this out?

Outside work – which stick is longer? Which tree is taller?

Who can build the tallest tower?

Patterns

Play with beads, blocks, and stamps. Create patterns with craft work. Look for patterns in nature.

Position

Play games using positional language such as Simon Says put your hands on top.

Part 2 - Literacy Ideas

Welcome to the Mother Teresa School Kindergarten Orientation News Centre. We have set up this platform to reach out to all families, especially new families, with all the relevant information about our orientation process. We would love all members of the families to get involved in their child’s preparation for the first day of school. Over the coming weeks, there will be games and activities for the whole family to enjoy and information about the school, school readiness, and upcoming dates. Check the newsletter weekly via Compass or the school website. 

Orientation Dates

I look forward to meeting you, please look out for our next update in our next newsletter.

Carmel Maguire