Dear Parents

As a Catholic learning community,

all at Mother Teresa School are called

to care, to dream, to innovate, to inspire!

Sacramental Retreat with Year 6 Teachers

On Thursday Fr Troy led a retreat day for the Year 6 Teachers and RECs of Mother Teresa School, Good Shepherd Primary School and Holy Spirit Primary School at Gungahlin Lakes. It was a great day of discussions and a good opportunity for both priests to get to know the teachers who will be guiding the Confirmation candidates. Thank you to all the teachers for being there and participating in the day as they begin their journey with the children preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Catholic Schools Youth Ministry Australia (CSYMA)

The 2023 school year is only 3 weeks old but already our Year 6 students have participated in a Journey with Jesus Retreat, the first phase of the CSYMA Junior prorgram. This retreat was a first for the students and staff at Mother Teresa School. The students were very excited to be participating in their retreat. A fabulous day was had by all.

We are extremely blessed to have Luke Maher and his team of Youth Evangelisers who minister to our schools in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn facilitate the day.

Year 4 Amethyst & 4 Indigo Prayer Focus

4 Amethyst and 4 Indigo will be hosting their Prayer Focus on Courage on Monday 20 February at 1pm. Parents from those classes are able to attend if they wish.

Shrove Tuesday

Next week on Shrove Tuesday teachers will provide a small store bought pancake for the students in their class.  If your child has allergies, please provide an alternate option for them on the day and inform their class teacher.

Kindergarten Health Check Forms

Last week all Kindergarten families should have received an envelope for the Kinder Health Checks which are to be conducted later in the year.  Forms are due to be returned no later than Tuesday 21 February 2023.  If you have not already done so, please return the envelope to your class teacher.

School Clubs/Activities Update

WHOLE SCHOOL FOCUS

The Whole school focus theme for this year is ‘Walking Together’ and the Bible reference that supports our theme is Luke 24:13-35. The Emmaus Story.

We will show the value of Compassion towards those we meet in our class and on the playground by following 

‘The Mother Teresa School Way’:

• Empathise
• Include others
• Recognise and respond to others’ needs
• Express care
• Describe feelings
• Take action to assist others
• Allow others to be themselves

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time 19 February 2023 - Year A

“Love your enemies.”

The Story

Jesus’ message today is that he expects us to be forgiving, generous and loving – even when others treat us badly. This is a big challenge! It is easy to love people who love us, but not so easy to love people that are unkind to us. If people hurt us, we sometimes want to hurt them back. But this is not God’s way.

Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOvPjQnAg-Y

Journey with Jesus retreat

On Friday our Year 6 students and teachers participated in a faith-filled experience. The day is packed with games, activities, dramas, videos and talks that all explore the Gospel messages of God’s love, salvation, and forgiveness.

The students spend the day learning about what we need in life for our journey with Jesus. Using a backpack full of items, we learn that on a journey we need a water bottle, which represents the essential and unconditional nature of God’s love, a torch which represents salvation and the light of Jesus in our lives and a first aid kit to represent healing and forgiveness when things go wrong.

At the end of the day the students reflect and respond on their journey so far. They enter a time of prayer, and it is beautiful to see the students coming forward with open hearts to invite Jesus into their lives.

As the Journey with Jesus retreat day ends, the students are clear on the message that it is not in fact the end of their journey but just the beginning and they leave the day eager to see what God has planned for them!

PRAYER FOCUS:

4 Indigo & 4 Amethyst will be hosting their Prayer Focus on Courage on Monday 20 February at 1pm. Parents from those classes are able to attend if they wish.

CONFIRMATION ENROLMENT & COMMISSIONING MASS

Thank you to the parents who attended the Parent Information Session on Tuesday it was great to see you all there. Please ensure you bring your enrolment form along with a copy of the baptismal certificate and your child’s prayer card this weekend.

• Saturday 18 February @ 5pm Mass & Sunday 19 February @ 8am & 9:30am. enrolment and commissioning for students preparing to make Confirmation.

STAFF COMMISSIONING MASS

• Saturday 18 February @ 5pm Mass there will be a commissioning for staff from the Gungahlin Catholic Schools.

• SHROVE TUESDAY

  

  The day before Ash Wednesday, is often called ‘Pancake Tuesday’. Older people might remember it as ‘Shrove Tuesday’. To prepare for Lent’s fasting some people cook all the meat they have. Another custom on this day is to ‘feast’ on pancakes.  This year the classroom teachers will be providing pancakes for their class.
  
  Ash Wednesday LITURGY

  22^nd February

  10:00pm- School Hall

  We would love to see you there!

  PROJECT COMPASSION

  At Mother Teresa School, we are trying to reach out to others and bring hope to those who are less fortunate than ourselves during this time of Lent by raising money for Project Compassion.  We encourage you to talk to your child about the importance of giving to those in need and to give generously.  Each class has a Project Compassion box available for the children’s donations. 

  We invite all families to contribute by sending in the envelops each week.  Please talk to your child/ren about this important project and aspect of Lent. Let us remember though that it is not how much we give, but the compassion that accompanies our giving.   

  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 received a set of envelopes for their weekly donations. The ELC will be given Project Compassion boxes

   

  Peace and Best Wishes.

  Anne Leet (Religious Education Co-ordinator)

   

Mr Hart has announced that there will be a revival of our school houses.  We have new names, new points systems and now have shields for each event.  Whoever can get the most counters for their house each term will earn a prize at the end of the term.

We are proud to introduce: Jackman (Yellow), Alcott (Red), Irwin (Green) and Barty (Blue). 

These are inspiring Australians that have qualities we at Mother Teresa strive towards as a community and an individual.

Swimming Results

U/8 - Emma Liew, Matthew Van der Sanden and William Young

U/9 - Jasmine Reed and Jameson Evans

U/10 - Ruby McNamara, Noah Patterson and Harvey Butler

U/11 - Page Gahan and Raeland Loney

U/12 - Piyushi Bandara and Will Ciceran

Congratulations to all the people who participated in the competitive races and a big thank you to Mr Russell, teachers and parents who helped on the day.

Alcott has taken out THE FIRST SHIELD! Congratulations to all those in Alcott (Red).

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.

School Student Support Referrals and Counselling

To direct our families to access the best support available through Mother Teresa School, we are setting up the following process to assist with referrals and the most appropriate use of our resources.

1. Enquiry (teacher or parent) – Request a referral form from the office
2. The principal will talk with you and guide you to the appropriate support

Support types:

• • • • Diverse Learning Teacher and team,
      • Student welfare officer (individual or small group guidance and/or mentoring support),
      • Defence School Mentor,
      • School counselling (individual or small group)
      • External agencies

If school counselling is recommended the School Counsellor will contact the parents and go through the online CatholicCare referral process if school counselling is suitable. Once the online referral has been submitted and consent is signed, the School Counsellor can begin working with the student.

Dear Parents,

Thank you for providing your student with a Chromebook for their learning.

In order for the Chromebook to be used at school, please set up the following:

• Personal Account

We recommend parents to sign into the Chromebook using a personal account first. It can be their own account, or the account they created for the student.

The first account will automatically be the owner account of that device. By doing so, the family will still have full access when they can't access their school account. 

How to Set up your Chromebook

• School Account

Once the Chromebook is set up with a personal account being the owner, please add the student school account as a user. Please do this at home.

The student needs to use their school account to sign into the Chromebook. In this case, the student account is still managed by CE, but the device isn't. 

Instructions: https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/1059242?hl=en

Your child has a record of their school account. It is in the form of their school email address

Eg. mrobin02@cgstudents.catholic.edu.au and a password they nominated with their teacher. For Year 4 students, this password has been changed this year to something they nominated.

If parents would like to apply extra supervision, they can set up Family Link.

However, at this stage CECG ICT are not in the position of supporting parents with Family Link on BYO devices. Some information and instructions are below:

https://support.google.com/families/answer/7101025?hl=en

https://support.google.com/families/answer/7680868?hl=en

https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9900467