Dear parents,

As this is my last correspondence with families for 2020, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a relaxing and restful new year.  I know the break is certainly something staff have been looking forward to after such an extraordinary year.  For all of us, it was a time of uncertainty and stress but also a time of thinking about those close to us as well as caring for others.

School life in the later stages of term one and term two reflected the uncertainty of society with remote learning taking place, which for some students lasted beyond one term. Thankfully school life for the students has nearly returned to normal with excursions, camps and sporting events happening towards the end of the year. Unfortunately, many events were unable to proceed or were limited in their scope and parents were unable to fully interact in the life of the school.

I thank ALL staff for their work throughout the year in continuing to implement quality learning experiences for the students.  Considering the interruptions this year, there has been strong growth throughout the school.  I thank the students, especially our Year Six leaders, for the way they have adapted to changes to life at school which was very different to what they were expecting.  Our year six students have been wonderful role models and as they leave MTS we wish them all the best at high school.

Thank you to our parents who, despite the restrictions, supported MTS in a number of ways.  It seemed a long time between the Wine and Cheese Night at the start of the year and the Carols Night two weeks ago.  We still had parents assisting at sporting events, on excursions and at our working bee.  I again thank the Community Council for their efforts this year.

We have several members of staff moving on and on behalf of the school I wish them all the best in their new roles.  Those leaving are Kristina Hudina and Jason van Deas from year four and Kirsty Brooke from our Diverse Learning Team.

Personally, I am looking forward to some down time and look forward to a busy 2021 which will again see lots of action across so many areas including the building of a new room for our Diverse Learning Team.

Maths Problem

The last maths problem for the year was correctly answered by a number of students with Lacey Press having her name drawn out.

I know Mrs Williams has prepared some wonderful maths activities/games for parents to play with their children to stop what we call the ‘Summer Slide’.

Have the children put down their digital entertainment and try some of these games as a family.  Great fun while learning mathematics!  Thank you to Mrs Williams for putting this resource together. The links for this resource will be available on our website under the "Curriculum" tab and is also included in this newsletter.

Term 4 Awards

I would like to congratulate our Term 4 Academic Award winners who were presented with their certificates on Wednesday.

A reminder that school starts for all students on Monday 1 February, 2021.  Please stay safe over the holidays and I will see everyone back at MTS healthy and full of energy.

Regards,

Peter Hughes