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Next Wednesday, 2 March, is Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the day Lent begins and occurs forty days before Good Friday. It is called Ash Wednesday because, being forty days before Good Friday, it always falls on a Wednesday.
Next Wednesday, all four Gungahlin Parish schools (Mother Teresa, Good Shepherd, Holy Spirit and John Paul College) will celebrate Ash Wednesday with an online Mass, streamed live from the Church. All Year levels will ‘zoom’ in and it will be a special way to commemorate Ash Wednesday. Due to COVID restrictions, ashes will not be placed on a person's forehead, nor can parents or visitors attend the Church.
Parent Interviews
As mentioned during the parent information sessions, the teachers will be available in Week 6 for brief 10-minute interviews. The booking request will be sent out via Compass early next week, with all meetings to be held via Teams. The purpose of the meeting is to check-in, set goals and provide a comment on how your child has settled back into school; an information sharing session.
As the Kindergarten teachers have spoken to many of their parents, following the assessment session, they will contact parents if there is a need for a follow-up interview. Please remember, if you have a concern please raise it with your child's teacher early.
COVID Update
Thank you to all our families for reporting close or positive COVID cases via our covid email address. The current reporting protocol for schools is when a school receives five or more cases in a class group, within a few days, we are required to advise CE who then notifies ACT Health for directions. The current action involves a letter from ACT Health to be sent home to families in the identified class that include the following recommendations
- Continue to monitor for symptoms. Get a COVID-19 test if your child or you develop any symptoms and isolate until you or your child receive a negative result.
- If you or your child has symptoms and tests negative on a Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), please take a PCR test. If the PCR test is positive, you should follow the guidance for people with COVID-19. If the PCR test is negative, then return to school when well.
- A child can continue to attend school if they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms. We remind families that anyone with symptoms of COVID-19 must not attend school.
School COVID Protocols
While the use of masks has been relaxed in the general community they are still required to be worn by all staff and visitors when entering the school. Children are welcome to wear a mask if they wish.
Younger children should not be accessing the play equipment before or after school.
Parents should not stand around and chat when dropping off or picking up a child. It is critical we continue to minimise contact around the school.
New hand sanitiser stations are now located outside each classroom for easy access by staff and children.
Canberra Check in (Check in CBR App)
A reminder that schools and early childhood centres still require check-ins with the Check in CBR App when entering the front office
Socks, Socks, Socks
As a follow up to our news story last week regarding the Harris girls initiaive to recycle socks to reduce landfill, a collection box will be put outside the hall first thing in the morning by our KidzBiz team for your donations.
Neighborhood Issue
This week the manager of the units located across the road from the school contacted the school regarding the following issues:
- Non-resident parents with children parking in the grounds at the front visitor parking and in the common areas blocking other cars from getting through;
- Non-resident parents with children driving through the driveway at speed and almost hitting children walking or playing in the complex.
The unit management has the right to contact the City Traffic Rangers to book any parent parking illegally. I understand parking is a critical issue around the school however we must be considerate of the requests from local residents. Your help with this issue is appreciated.
Community Council
On Tuesday evening we held our first Community Council meeting for the year. Whilst it was a virtual meeting, it was lovely to see the number of parents keen to learn about the school and ways in which to get involved.
Current Positions
- Chair: Damien Kelly
- Deputy Chair: Lindsay Hackett
- Secretary: Jodie George
- Council Funds Treasurer: Lisa Murphy
- Parent Reps: Natalie Zanco, Simon Morgan, Amelia Grace
- Fundraising & Social: Adelle and Dave De Zilva-Stewart
- Staff Rep: Janene Sadler
- ELC: Amy Thomas
- AP: Craig Hart
- Principal: Carmel Maguire
Items discussed
- Thank you for the sensory activities painted in the playground
- Clothing Pool - great service to the community
- Facebook Updates - encourage families to join class groups
- Netball - the need for hoops for practice sessions
- Strategic Plan for Council initiatives - building, grants etc
- Formation of Committees - what do we need
- Scholastic Bookclub - to commence in Term 2
- Uniform - review school policy and current uniform code and colours of shorts
Morning Bell
This is a reminder that our morning bell goes at 8.45am. Anyone arriving from 9.00am must be signed in at the office by a parent as they will be considered as a late arrival or could be marked absent by their teacher. Teachers are required to complete the rolls by 9.00am. I encourage parents to please make every effort to be on time.
Canteen
The canteen will be open for online lunch orders in Week 5. Please note that students from Years 4 to 6 will collect their lunch orders at 10:20am, while Kindergarten to Year 3 will collect theirs from 11:00am.
There will be no over the counter sales at this stage.
Kindergarten Health Checks
Kindergarten Health Checks will take place around Term 3 this year. Kindergarten Health Check envelopes have been sent home. Please complete the questionnaire and return in the envelope provided to the Kindergarten teacher. Questionnaires are due back to school by Friday 4 March.
God Bless
Carmel Maguire
WHOLE SCHOOL FOCUS
The Whole school focus theme for this year is ‘Do small Things with Great Love’ and the Bible reference that supports our theme is Ephesians 2:1, in which St Paul says:
“We are God’s work of art,
Created in Christ Jesus to live the good life
As from the beginning he had meant us to live it.”
LEADERSHIP & FOCUS ASSEMBLY
Thank you to our Year 6 teachers and students who presented a beautiful and meaningful Leadership and Focus Assembly on unity. The students did an amazing job at presenting what unity looks like at MTS and how they are going to lead the school by living our motto ‘Do Small things With Great Love’. Year 6 Leaders of Mother Teresa School made a pledge and in so doing they understand that they have now undertaken a very important role in our school. They will always try to be a positive example to others and seek to look after all the children in our school.
Confirmation 2022
Thank you to all our Year 6 students and families who attended the enrolment and commitment masses last weekend. The Ministry Masses start this weekend and don’t forget to bring your item of food for the ‘Food Pantry’. Please ensure you have enrolled online and sent in your payment to the school by next Monday 28th February. Please pray for our Year 6 Confirmation Candidates, their teachers and families as they embark on this important time in their faith journey.
YEAR 4 GRADE MASS
Many thanks to Year 4 teachers and the students who celebrated their first Grade Mass for the year. All the students were very reverent, and it was a special time for Harrry French who made his First Eucharist. As always Father Mark was so welcoming of the children and especially Harry. He captured the significance of Eucharist in our lives today.
WEDNESDAY & LENT
Fr Thon will be celebrating Mass on Wednesday 2 March with the teachers and students via Teams. It will be a particularly different way of receiving the ashes as they will be sprinkled. The teachers will be distributing the ashes to their class and all students will receive a cross sticker as the symbol meant to show that a person belongs to Jesus Christ, and it also represents a person's grief and mourning for their sins – the same sins that Christians believe Jesus Christ gave his life for when he died on the cross.
This week the season of Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, which also marks the beginning of the annual Caritas Australia Project Compassion Appeal. Donations to Project Compassion allows Caritas Australia, the Catholic Agency for International Aid and Development, to work with local communities around the world to alleviate poverty, hunger, oppression and injustice.
We encourage you to put your compassion into action this Lent through your prayer, fasting and almsgiving by supporting Project Compassion. On Wednesday each student will receive a set of envelopes for their weekly donations. The ELC will be given Project Compassion boxes.
8th Sunday Year C
28th February
“What a person says comes from what is in the heart."
The Story
Sometimes we don’t understand why other people do or say things.
It’s important that we don’t judge people because we can never really understand their thoughts or the reasons behind their actions. Only God can see into the human heart.
In today’s gospel, Jesus tells the people to be careful about who they follow, and to make sure that they are on a good path. However, Jesus’ main message to the people is not to judge others. God asks us to accept people as they are, and to recognise that we all have faults of our own. Rather than criticising other people, Jesus reminds us to work on our own hearts so that we can say and do good things.
The Scriptures
A reading from the holy gospel according to Luke 6:39-45
What a person says comes from what is in the heart.
Jesus used some sayings as he spoke to the people.
He said: "Can one blind person lead another blind person? Won't they both fall into a ditch?
"Are students better than their teacher?
But when they are fully trained, they will be like their teacher.
"You can see the speck in your friend's eye. But you don't notice the log in your own eye.
How can you say,
'My friend, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you don't see the log in your own eye?
You show-offs! First, get the log out of your own eye.
Then you can see how to take the speck out of your friend's eye.
"A good tree cannot produce bad fruit,
and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.
You can tell what a tree is like by the fruit it produces.
You cannot pick figs or grapes from thorn bushes.
Good people do good things because of the good in their hearts.
Bad people do bad things because of the evil in their hearts.
Your words show what is in your hearts."
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Watch the video and sing along together:
Something to Think About
Can you think of a time when you might have judged another person? What happened?
Can you think of a time that someone has judged you unfairly, or misunderstood what you were trying to do? How did it feel?
HOLY SPIRIT PARISH
Please click on the link below to stay connected with Fr Mark, Fr Thonn and the Team at Holy Spirit Church. https://www.holyspiritgungahlin.org.au/category/parish-newsletter/
Please bring an item of non-perishable food to fill our empty pantry so that our Vinnies team can continue to help the community. Here are some suggestions …..
pasta, sauces, tinned fruit and vegetables, tea and coffee, cereal, sandwich spreads, long-life milk, crackers etc….
Peace and Best Wishes.
Anne Leet (Religious Education Co-ordinator)
The Maths Challenge is back!
The challenge this week is just for the Year 5 and 6 students.
Starting today (Friday 25/2) the teachers are participating in a bit of friendly competition relating to how many steps we take each day. Each day the teachers will fill out a spreadsheet of their total steps for the day. The totals for each teaching team (eg Year 3, Kindergarten) will be averaged across a six week period and the highest average will be the winning team. (Fingers crossed it is Year 5!)
Year 5 and 6 students, your job using the (Friday to Tuesday next week) data from your year level’s teachers is to determine which teacher has taken the most steps for each day. Over the 5-day period, you need to work out the average number of steps of each teacher and the whole group of teachers over each day and across the 5 days? You might also like to use the 5 days data to estimate how many steps you think each teacher and the group of teachers will take across the whole 6-week period. It will be important for you to also think about how you might best present this information.
As you will need to wait till Wednesday morning to ask your teacher for the data, you will then have until Friday morning to submit your answers to Mrs Blackwell. The winner will be announced during Assembly time next Friday. Happy data analysing!
Helping Kids to identify and express their feelings
Sometimes our children have big feelings and it is difficult to know how to respond as parents. Big feeling are often expressed as behaviour that can be best described as challenging! As a parent you have an important role to play in developing your child’s emotional skills and helping them to learn healthy ways to express their feelings. We know that children who learn to cope with and express their feelings are more likely to have good mental health and wellbeing, be more resilient and able to cope with change and setbacks, display less behavioural problems and be more confident and have a positive sense of self. So the earlier we can build a child’s ability to identify their feelings and implement healthy coping strategies the better!
Here are some great tips from the Kids Helpline that can help your child to learn about expressing their feelings:
- Tune into cues - Sometimes feelings can be hard to identify. Tune into your child’s feelings by looking at their body language, listening to what they’re saying and observing their behaviour. Figuring out what they feel and why means you can help them identify, express and manage those feelings better.
- Behind every behaviour is a feeling - Try to understand the meaning and feeling behind your child’s behaviour. You can help your child find other ways to express that feeling once you know what is driving the behaviour.
- Name the feeling - Help your child name their feelings by giving them a label. Naming feelings is the first step in helping kids learn to identify them. It allows your child to develop an emotional vocabulary so they can talk about their feelings.
- Identify feelings in others – Provide lots of opportunities to identify feelings in others. You might ask your child to reflect on what someone else may be feeling. Cartoons or picture books are a great way discuss feelings and helps kids learn how to recognise other people’s feelings through facial expressions.
- Be a role model - Kids learn about feelings and how to express them appropriately by watching others. Show your child how you’re feeling about different situations and how you deal with those feelings.
- Encourage with praise - Praise your child when they talk about their feelings or express them in an appropriate way. Not only does it show that feelings are normal and it’s ok to talk about them, it reinforces the behaviour so they are likely to repeat it.
- Listen to your child’s feelings - Stay present and resist the urge to make your child’s bad feelings go away. Support your child to identify and express their feelings so they are heard. When feelings are minimised or dismissed, they will often be expressed in unhealthy ways.
For more information please visit Kids Helpline website for additional resources or contact Bron or Ryoko, your school counsellors if you have concerns about your child’s ability to express their emotions or you need support to develop healthy coping strategies.
https://kidshelpline.com.au/parents/issues/helping-kids-identify-and-express-feelings
Counselling Services at MTS
Mother Teresa School is provided with the services of a school counsellor from Catholic Care. This year Bronwyn Whyatt and Ryoko Koyasu will be working in the school. Either Bronwyn or Ryoko will be available on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday. Their work is supported by our Student Welfare Officer and our Defence Service Mentor.
Parents who feel their child would benefit from seeing the school counsellor need to fill out a referral form which is available by clicking on the link at the bottom of the page.
The work of the counsellor is also supported by the school’s student wellbeing team which runs programs such as Kool Kids, Seasons for Growth and organises activities linked to our Mental Health Week every year.
Link for online referral:
https://catholiccare.force.com/housing/s/school-referral-form
The Link is also available via a QR code
