Dear parents,

There have been a number of changes to staffing that will commence prior to the end of the term. These are outlined below.

1 Coral  - Miss Kristina Hudina will complete her role in 1 Coral at the end of week 6 and her place will be taken by Mrs Fiona Matchett who will teach the class two days a week for the remainder of the term. Mrs Francis will return to the class in a full-time position in term three.

2 Emerald - Miss Samantha Beake will commence on a full-time basis in week eight for the remainder of the year to cover Mrs Kari Turnbull, who begins maternity leave. Mrs Spencer who was also working one day a week will also finish up at this time.

3 Cobalt - Mrs Sarah Macarthur will return from maternity leave and will replace Mrs Amy Spencer one day per week commencing in week 8.

5 Pearl - Mrs Williams will be absent for reasons explained to parents of this class for the remainder of the term. Mrs Reeves will continue two days per week however Mrs Leah Bayin will be replacing Mrs Allana Grant for the remainder of the term.

Mrs Christina Page has commenced as our new student welfare officer and Mr Justin Norgrove has been appointed to be our new groundsman/janitor.  I welcome both Christina and Justin to our school.

NAPLAN

Over the last two weeks students from years three and five have participated in the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN). While the majority of testing was done on-line, the year three writing component was still handwritten. The results normally arrive during the second half of term three.  While parents receive their child’s individual results, the school receives valuable data regarding school performance and more importantly growth.  Examination of the results allow us to set targets that will be reported against in two years time.  This means the targets set for the year three students of 2021 will be reported against when their year five results arrive.

Our setting of targets is also influenced by the standardized testing done across the school using a range of Progressive Achievement Tests (PAT) that students complete in both term one and term four.

Previously we have advised parents that because of COVID, NAPLAN was not conducted last year meaning there is no data for our current year four class to gauge their growth when they complete the tests in 2022.

The target we are working towards this year that was set in 2019 are:

• In Numeracy, to move the students currently sitting in band 4 (39% - Year Three) to bands 7 and 8 by Year Five.
• Improve students’ writing across the school by using the NAPLAN Marking Guide – Elements of Writing; to teach as assess each writing element explicitly while linking it to the Seven Steps for Writing Success. Linked to this will be an increased focus on word processing and keyboarding skills. Our aim is to move our Year Three students where approximately 76% are in Bands 4 and 5 to Bands 7 and 8 by Year Five.

Public Speaking

Congratulations to the following students who have made the finals of the MTS public speaking championships.  Finals will be held on Tuesday 25th May and will start at 9.00am in the school hall.   Unfortunately, we are only able to invite parents and family members of the students competing to attend.  Please remember if you will be attending that you must sign in on arrival and check in via the Check in Canberra app.  Thank you Mrs Shelley for organising this event.

Year 4

Nikos Vassiliotis, Thevinca DeSilva, Lachlan Hawes, Lorrelle Reichman

Year 5

Lachlan Hayes, Patricia Sukardi, Mikela Ruberto, Danika-Zeta Jonathan 

Year 6

Jonty Duvall, Matteo Johnson, Isabelle Steinman, Savannah Hawes

Beanies

The weather was certainly cold this week and beanies and coats were needed!  If you do not already have one, we have a good supply of the MTS School beanies for sale at the front office for $15.00.

Math's Problem

Congratulations to Brody Press who was last week’s winner. This week’s problem is below.

Extreme Adventures

Rock Climbing is a worldwide extreme sport. Mount Everest, located in the Mahalangur Mountain Range in Nepal and Tibet, is one of the most popular and challenging climbing destinations. Its peak is 8,848 metres above sea level. How many kilometres above sea level is Mt Everest?

God Bless

Peter Hughes