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- Principal's Message Term 3 Week 2 - 2022
- ACT Chief Health Officer Message
- Religious Education - Term 3 Week 2 - 2022
- MTS Class Awards - Week 2
- Excitment in Year 1
- Futsal Congratulations
- Term 3 Grade Overviews
- CSPA - Parent Survey on Student Wellbeing and Learning
- Qkr! - New Payment Option - MTS
- MTS Year Book 2022 - Cover Art Competition - Extended Closing Date
- Colgate Community Garden Challenge 2022
- MTS Pupil Free Days - Kids Biz News
- Book Week 2022 - Save the Date!
- Community Service Announcements
- Community Council Entertainment Book
- MTS Year Book Student Photo Permission
- Scholastic Book Club News
This week we farewelled Rhiannon Farrell who had worked between the school and ELC over the past nine years. Rhiannon is moving to Holy Spirit to begin her teaching career. "I will look back on my time at MTS fondly. From the early days of PD week retreats to the love I felt when I got sick. I am lucky to have had such a beautiful community supporting me for most of my adult life."
Next Pupil Free Day
School Fees
The Term 3 school fees have been emailed out this week. I encourage families to set up a regular Bpay payment using your unique parent code found on the account. By setting up a Bpay payment plan you have complete control of your payment plan where the direct debit approach is coordinated by the school. School payments are due by 25 August, unless paying via a payment plan.
Tissues & Wipes need re-stocking
Thank you to the families who have sent in tissues and antibacterial wipes for our classrooms. Parent supplies supplement the supplies purchased by the school to maintain regular use. We are working hard to keep up our supplies so that hand sanitizer is located at each classroom door.
COVID Reminders
Families still need to advise the school should a child be at home with COVID via our specific email address, covid.motherteresa@cg.catholic.edu.au then followed up with a Compass absentee notification through the Compass Parent Portal.
RAT kits are still available from the office should you require kits for regular testing, particularly if your child is a close contact.
Important COVID Information and Protocols
- Household Contacts – Staff and students are required to follow the Public Health (Diagnosed People and Household Contacts) Emergency Direction 2022 when they are deemed a household contact. It is strongly recommended that a household contact works or studies from home where it is practical to do so. A household contact must wear a face mask in any indoor setting that is not their own home, if they are aged 12 years and over. A household contact must wear a face mask in any indoor setting that is not their own home, if they are aged 12 years and over. Only students in Years 7 to 12 will be required to wear a mask when attending school. Mask wearing for students in primary schools is at the discretion of the student and their parents/carers, and is not recommended for children in Pre School to Year 2. Where a student attends school they must undertake a COVID test in the 24 hours prior to returning to school and then every 48 hours if ongoing attendance is required and may only attend a school if they have no symptoms
- Physical distancing - Physical distancing should be maintained on school sites where possible
- Staying home when sick and hygiene requirements - Staff, students and visitors must not attend school or ELC sites if they are unwell and will be sent home if they have any symptoms of COVID-19. All staff, visitors and students should at all times maintain appropriate hand and respiratory hygiene.
- School Activities - Parents and carers are not permitted to attend (during school hours) activities and after hours can only attend such activities where they are outdoors, outside of school/ELC hours, or ticketed. Parents and carers must follow COVID smart measures at all times on school/ELC sites (physical distancing, hygiene practices, staying away if unwell). Events on school ELC/ sites that involve the general public can only be held outside of school/ELC opening hours, must have a COVID Safety Plan in Place, and must comply with the COVID Safe Events Guidance.
Preparations for the 2023 NAPLAN cycle - change in date
This year all schools in Australia successfully transitioned to NAPLAN online testing. Furthermore, on Monday 14 March 2022 Education Ministers announced a number of improvements to the National Assessment Program. One of the improvements was moving NAPLAN to Term One from 2023. Moving the test forward means this valuable data set will be available earlier in the year to inform teaching and learning programs and to give parents information about their child's performance earlier.
In 2023 NAPLAN will be held from Wednesday 15 March to Monday 27 March.
God Bless
Carmel Maguire
Congratulations to the following children who have received a class award from their teacher this week.
Year 1 students have had a very busy and exciting start to the term!
First on the agenda was a trip to the Canberra Theatre to see the on-stage production of the classic novel 'The Twits' by Roald Dahl. As the teachers read this novel to the students last term, it was a wonderful connection for the students to make as well as having the opportunity to see the story presented through drama and the use of special effects. The children loved it and were also excellent representatives of our school out in the community.
Earlier this week was Fairy Tale Dress Up day! The students completed some fun activities and team challenges with each of the teachers to launch their unit all about Fairy Tales and telling stories. The Year 1 teachers love to get into the spirit of a dress up day and enjoyed sharing in this learning with the students.
On Thursday many of our students from Years 5 and 6 represented MTS at the ACT Schools Futsal Championships. We were fortunate to be able to participate as we had previously paid the registration. As usual, all of our children represented themselves, their families and their school with great distinction, displaying their skill, teamwork and sportsmanship for all to see.
We had two teams win their way through to the finals, with our Year 5/6 boys coming agonizingly close to making the big dance, losing in a heartbreaking penalty shoot-out. The 5/6 girls were successful in winning their grand final 2-0, where they displayed great resilience to defeat the same team who triumphed in the pool stages. A huge congratulations to the girls for this achievement.
A huge thanks must be extended to the many parents who coached and managed teams on the day and Mrs Henshaw, Miss Allen and Mrs Stubbs who ensured the day was a success.
Craig Hart
To make it easier for payments to be made at Mother Teresa School, we have introduced the use of Qkr! by Mastercard, a secure and easy way to order and pay for school items from your phone at a time and place that suits you.
Please refer to the attached document for instructions on how to download the app to your phone. I have also included several screenshots from my phone so you will know what it looks like once registered.
This will become our preferred option for many school payments in the future. Additional payment options will be added as required eg, sporting events.
TerraCycle has partnered with Colgate® and Chemist Warehouse to give seven schools the chance to win a community garden kit for their school grounds. Between 24 February - 31 October, Australian schools are invited to join the Terracycle recycling program for oral care waste. Each unit of oral care waste (toothpaste tubes and caps, manual plastic toothbrushes, electric toothbrush heads, toothbrush plastic packaging, floss containers) equals 10 garden points, the more units of oral care waste recycled the better chance of winning. There are seven grand prizes to be won and each is valued at $4780.
The grand prize pack contains:
* Two garden beds made from TerraCycle recycled materials
* Bench with planter boxes made from TerraCycle recycled materials
* Bug Hotel
* $100 Bunnings Warehouse gift voucher
* $100 Australian Seeds Voucher
* Plantastic! A to Z of Australian Plants Book
A collection point for parents has been placed out the front of the hall which has already collected over 200 pieces of oral care waste. Children are also encouraged to bring their waste to school as a collection point will be located near the student reception desk. Toothpaste tubes don't need to be empty but please ensure everything is dry.
Support Mother Teresa School in ACT and purchase your Entertainment Membership from us today!!
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Mother Teresa School in ACT
Adelle DeZilva
mtscommunitycouncil@mail.com
Dear Parents
Over the years Mother Teresa School has produced an Annual Yearbook/Magazine that is available for purchase by parents and students. This annual publication is only produced as a magazine and is not available electronically.
This year three enthusiastic parents, Tanya Bolton, Lindsay Pennock and Kayla Kruger, who all hold a current Working with Vulnerable People Card, have volunteered to coordinate this huge task. The coordination involves the sourcing of photos, page design and creation, publication and sale of the magazine to the parent community.
Earlier in the year you may recall I asked parents about the use of photos on various forms of social media. The production of our Yearbook/Magazine has presented a different issue. To design the pages that capture important events that occur across the school year, together with specific class pages, the parent team will require access to our collection of school photos saved in the Mother Teresa School Google photo drive. The photos saved in this drive are taken by school staff or provided by parents who may be present at specific events during the year. The parent team require access to the photo drive so they can design the pages on their personal computers at home using CANVA Pro, a web-based publishing program.
In line with the current Catholic Education Privacy Policy, I am required to seek parental permission to allow the coordinating parent team to have access our stored school photos of individual children. While we would like all the children to be represented in the magazine, including a copy of their class photo, I want to respect any family’s privacy concerns.
I will seek the help of the MTS staff to add your child if you are happy for your child to be included in the magazine.
Should you NOT want the parent team to have access the MTS photo collection, I need you to please let me know.
Please advise by emailing carmel.maguire@cg.catholic.edu.au by Wednesday 27 July ONLY IF:
- you are NOT comfortable with the parent team having access to our school file of your child’s photo for the production of the Yearbook/Magazine and/or
- you do NOT want you child included in the 2022 Yearbook/Magazine
- you would like more information related to Canva
Kind regards,
Carmel Maguire
Principal
Scholastic Book Club
The Issue 5 catalogue is now available. The cut-off date for orders is Sunday 7th August.
Issue 5 has a free book offer – spend over $30 to receive one free book, over $50 to receive two free books or over $70 to receive 3 free books!
Parents can order online via the LOOP parent portal on the Scholastic website, no orders or cash will be accepted by the school. Late orders are charged a flat rate for home postage.
Books will be delivered to children in their classroom once they arrive at the school. A reminder that missing or damaged orders can be reported to Scholastic using their online contact information, and that out of stock items already paid for are usually credited to the LOOP account. Parents concerned about missing, misplaced or damaged orders are advised to wait until the catalogue is closed and use the home postage option. MTS Community Council parent volunteers will be running the Book Club, so please ensure any inquiries are directed to them via the office email, rather than to school staff, teachers or librarians.