Dear Parents

As a Catholic learning community,

all at Mother Teresa School are called

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

Staffing News

This week we welcomed Mrs Amy Slaven who commenced in Kinder Crimson on Monday. It is wonderful to have Amy as a staff member and parent within our community

As advised last week Sue McCluskey is leaving Mother Teresa School to take a position at the Department of Defence. Sue has been at MTS for the past nine years and I know will be missed by all, especially me. Sue's last day will be Friday 12 May. Mrs Steph Reed, who currently covers two days in our student reception and three days as CSA will move across to take up the front office reception position, until the end of the year. We have advertised to replace Steph's classroom support hours.

Year 4 Excursion to the Cotter

The Year 4 children all had a wonderful day on their excursion to the Cotter Dam to learn about Canberra’s water history and supply network, local environment, the complex engineering involved with the Enlarged Cotter Dam Project, as well as the Indigenous and European heritage in the area. This excursion also provided the students understanding of the key processes in the water cycle and how water cycles through the environment.

Enrolment Time

The Catholic Schools enrolment period officially commenced on Monday and concludes on Friday 26 May.

Please encourage friends and family to complete enrolment forms, available on our website.

We have already received a significant number of Kindergarten enrolments for 2024.  Please let interested people know about our enrolment period and encourage them to get their enrolment forms in before 26 May.

Enrolment time for all Systemic Catholic schools occurs from Monday 1 May until Friday 26 May. This includes our Systemic Schools of St John Paul II College, Merici College and St Francis Xavier College, and the Holy Spirit and Mother Teresa Early Learning Centres (ELCs) for our pre-schoolers.

Please spread the word! 

Uniform Shop Opening 2023

Principal

Social media and safety

Nowadays, social media is a part of our daily lives and kids are spending more and more time online. Whilst, social media can provide many benefits for kids, such as keeping in contact with friends and family, opportunities to explore different ideas, learn with others and develop digital media literacy, it can also expose our children to risks. 

By staying informed and educating ourselves and our children about how to stay safe online and the steps to take if things get unsafe, we can support our children to keep their time online safe.

Parentline provides us with a list of guidelines to help our kids stay safe online:

• Encourage them not to share passwords with friends
• Change privacy settings to make sure their information is private and limit who can connect with them
• Encourage them to connect only with people they know offline
• Set a good example - role model safe, healthy and positive online behaviours
• Use strong passwords and update them regularly
• Asking a trusted adult before posting any personal information online, including for competition entries
• Be involved and stay involved – take an interest in the sites they are visiting and get to know them
• Teach them about the consequences of sharing something online
• Keep identifying information to a minimum - eg. do not reveal their location
• Contact the Police immediately if you become aware of grooming on social media
• Be aware of what your child is doing online and who they talk to
• Monitor your child’s time online - keep computers or devices in shared areas
• Encourage them to talk with a trusted adult about online issues
• Use filters or parental controls to manage content your child has access to
• Educate and empower – help your child develop strategies to deal with issues (eg. reporting to an adult) 

Your child might ask you to sign them up to a popular game or online social media site.  If this occurs, it’s important to check the minimum age requirements and to continue supervising your child’s use.  Parentline and Common Sense Media provide us with some useful information on the age requirements for different online platforms:

• ​​​​​​ ​​​Multi-player online games –
• Moshi Monsters, Club Penguin, World of Warcraft, Minecraft (ages ranging from 5-12+)
• Media sharing -  YouTube, Tik Tok (ages 13+, and/or requiring parent permission)
• Social media networks – Facebook, Instagram, Discord (ages 13+)
• Microblogging - Twitter, Tumblr (ages 13+)
• Video conferencing -  Skype, FaceTime (18+ or adult permission)

Importantly, if you do see unsafe content or behaviours online, report it:

• The Office of the eSafety Commissioner
• Crime Stoppers:Make a report online or call 1800 333 000
• Police:Contact your local police station

For more information visit:

Social Media and Safety | Parentline

Being safe on the internet | Kids Helpline

Online safety | eSafety Commissioner

Common Sense Media: Age-Based Media Reviews for Families | Common Sense Media

Congratulations to Arianna, Charlotte, Aurelia and Savannah on competing at the Feile Tir an Noir competition and winning some places. 

We would also like to congratulate Zara who performed at halftime at the Canberra Gunners basketball game.

Well done to Ariana A who helped present the Children's Book of the Year Awards category. She was very excited to meet the creators of some very special books including Bruce Whately (who won alongside Jackie French for their book Diary of a Rescued Wombat: The untold story), Stephanie Owen Reeder (highly commended for her book with illustrator Astred Hicks, Swifty the Super-Fast Parrot) Barbie Robinson and Ian Robertson (highly commended for Charles the Gallery Dog).

  

Council of Catholic School Parents (CCSP) invites all families to join in an online book reading by author and scientist, Corey Tutt, from his book The First Scientists. On the evening of 30 May, from the comfort of your home, families can connect online to hear Corey read to their children while also picking up a few tips to help improve your child’s literacy skills.

Apply now for the Future of Education Equity Fund 2023.

Apply now for the Future of Education Equity Fund for the 2023 school year.

Eligible low-income ACT families can receive one-off payments for financial assistance to help cover the costs of their children’s educational expenses such as sport equipment and activities, music lessons, school uniforms and excursions.

The Fund is open to eligible students enrolled in preschools (attached to a school)
through to Year 12 in the ACT.

Further information and the online application form is available here.

Scholastic Book Club

The Issue 3 catalogue is now available. The cut-off date for orders is on Saturday 6^th May.

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.