Dear Parents and Carers,

This week marked the beginning of the season of Lent, which included two important rituals in the Catholic Church. On Tuesday, we were blessed with the presence of Father Troy, who burned palm leaves in preparation for Ash Wednesday. On Wednesday, staff members distributed ashes to the children, symbolic of our commitment to "turn back to God" during this season of Lent.

A big thanks to Mrs Anne Leet, who coordinated these events.

Year 6 Leadership Assembly

Our community gathered today for our Year 6 Leadership Ceremony. This provided an opportunity for our Year 6 students to make a pledge to support the staff and students at MTS. It was great to see so many parents able to attend, supporting the children as they enter this exciting year.

Reconciliation Retreat

Many of our students from Year 3 attended the Reconciliation Mercy Day Retreat at Holy Spirit Parish today. This is a special day of prayer and reflection where the children made their final preparations for celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

During the day Father Troy Bobbin and Fr Eden Langlands spent time with the children and talked briefly with them about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the ceremony.

Staff Meeting Next Week

Next week,  the MTS staff will combine with Holy Spirit, Good Shepherd, and St John Paul II College to share some of the successful initiatives occurring at each school. A shared learning experience. This is an exciting step in galvanising the relationship between our schools in the Gungahlin region. 

NAPLAN Next Week 

Week 6 and Week 7 will see Year 3 and Year 5 students undertake their NAPLAN testing.

It is extremely important that all students arrive at school on time to ensure we are able to begin our testing on time each day, this is particularly important for the Year 3 students. If you can avoid removing students for appointments or similar during the testing times it would be greatly appreciated.

Please ensure your child has a set of headphones, preferably wired rather than bluetooth, at school during the entire testing period.

You can still access the NAPLAN familiarisation site at home: NAPLAN Public Demonstration Site using the link below:

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/public-demonstration-site

 Mother Teresa NAPLAN Timetable

Morning Drop Off and Afternoon Pick Up

A reminder that supervision for our students is from 8:15am. While most schools only have supervision from 8:30am, we have always provided this to give our parents a better opportunity to get to work on time. Please ensure that your child is not dropped off prior to this time, unless they are attending before school care. In the afternoon students need to be collected by 3:30pm at the latest. For students consistently being collected later, our staff will suggest registering them for after school care or to find alternative arrangements

Wishing everyone an enjoyable Canberra Day Long Weekend.

Craig Hart

Assistant Principal