Dear parents,

I welcome all families back to MTS for the start of term three.  It is an anxious time in many cities and towns dealing with COVID cases. Fortunately, Canberra has been spared for over a year from any community transmission and from a teacher’s viewpoint we hope this continues to be the case.

Information regarding current COVID restrictions in place for ACT schools was sent to all families on Tuesday via Szapp.

Farewell

Today we held a farewell for Lucille Duvenhage who has been at MTS for the last nine years.  On behalf of the school, I thank Lucille for her contribution to so many aspects of life at Mother Teresa.  We wish her all the best in her new position and assure her she will be missed!

New ELC Director

We would like to welcome Amy Thomas as our new ELC Director.  Amy commenced on Tuesday and will be working three days a week until the beginning of week five when she will be here full-time.  Amy has a wealth of experience in the early childhood setting with her most recent role seeing her working with government pre-schools across the ACT assisting staff to support students with complex and challenging behaviours and also from EALD backgrounds.

St Vincent de Paul Winter Appeal

Thank you to all students and families who supported pyjama day yesterday. Mrs Leet will provide more details in her report.

Wakakirri

We wish all the students participating in Wakakirri next Wednesday Night at the Canberra Theatre the best of luck.  After many months of rehearsals, it will be a special moment to perform in front of a large, live audience.  Thank you to all the staff and parents that have assisted in any way to enable the performance to take place.

Parent Satisfaction Survey

Each year we send home a survey to parents to gauge their satisfaction with various aspects of Mother Teresa School. Prior to this year parents were sent a link that enabled them to complete a survey designed by Survey My School whereas this year Catholic Education moved to a programme called ‘Tell Them From Me’.

This year our response from parents was very low with only 50 respondents which is a very small sample given we have over 710 students. Historically our response rate was much higher with 283 parent responses in 2019 and last year we had 249 respondents. This year the survey was open for three weeks.

Over the next four newsletters we will share the responses to the survey. The entire report has been placed on the school website. It can be found in reports and publications under the ‘Our School’ tab.

Monday Afternoon Chess Club

A reminder to all students that chess coaching commences next Monday after school.  The cost is $8.00 per week, payable by the term.  Fees for Term 3 are $72.00 payable to the front office by 14 August.  If your child would like to come along or you would like more information, please contact the front office.

Maths Problem

With the Olympic games starting in Tokyo next week,  Australia are sending their second biggest contingent of athletes to an overseas Olympics.  It has the highest number of First nations athletes ever with 16 and a record number of women with 254 in the team. There are over half all athletes that are female ( 53.5%).

The graph above shows the total number of athletes and the increase in participants over half a century.

You must tell me five thing you notice when looking at the graphs.

Entries must be to me by Wednesday morning and can be put in your note bag or emailed to me at peter.hughes@cg.catholic.edu.au.

God Bless

Peter Hughes