Dear Parents

As a Catholic learning community,

all at Mother Teresa School are called

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

We have come to the end of another busy term and reached midway through the year. So much has been achieved and I am sincerely grateful to the staff for their commitment and dedication.

Staff News 

Today we farewelled Justine Henshaw. We will formally farewell Therese Cronin and Andrew Keighran at the end of Week 2 next term. 

Justine has worked at MTS for over 9 years teaching a range of class groups and taking on various areas of responsibility including Maths and Sport. Her enthusiasm and passion to provide meaningful and engaging experiences for her students will be missed. We all wish her well as she ventures to take up a teaching position out west at Lake Cargellico

Next term we welcome

• Mrs Bernadette Matthew will be taking over in 3 Sapphire.   
• Mrs Samantha Burgess has been appointed to 5 Silver working Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. We are still to finalise the Wednesday arrangement.

Other Term 3 arrangments 

• Mr Andrew Keighran will continue in 5 Ivory for the first two weeks of the term while we continue to recruit staff.
• Miss Sophia Caputo will be away for the first two weeks travelling with family. Mrs Therese Cronin will be taking the class during that time.
• Miss Rebecca Cartwright will be away for the first three weeks to travel overseas. Mrs Alanna Grant will be covering the class with Mrs Hayley Cuttle taking the class on Wednesdays.  

Reports 

Reports were issued via Compass yesterday. For families departing Mother Teresa, it is very important to make copies as your access to the Compass portal will be locked 

Humpty Dumpty Musical

The Year 1 and 2 children put on a superb musical directed by Mrs Susan Curbishley. Did Humpty Dumpty fall or was he pushed? We will never know. 

Indigenous Perspectives

On Thursday 29 June, we welcomed Dion Drummond and his cousin Phil to perform for us at Mother.  Dion is one of Australia’s most experienced Indigenous performers.  He is a dancer, singer and storyteller.  Dion and Phil shared stories about the different traditions of their Torres Strait Island and Aboriginal heritage.  They invited some lucky students and teachers to join them on stage at various times and encouraged the audience to participate by teaching them words and actions to songs.  Everyone enjoyed the show!

                                

MSP School Photos 

MSP has advised that we will get delivery of the school photos at the beginning of term 3. As soon as we receive them we will ensure they are distributed straight away to those families that have placed an order. 

Are You Leaving MTS

We are receiving lots of enquiries for enrolment in all grades across the school. If you are aware of a possible move, please advise as soon as possible. This will help with our planning for Semester two 2023 and beyond.  

Student Behaviour Expectations

Enrolment Time

The Catholic Schools official enrolment period has concluded however it is not too late to submit an application. All families with siblings attending our ELC need to also enrol to secure a place. 

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

Please spread the word! 

ELC refurbishment and car park arrangements  - UPDATE

With the ELC refurbishment expected to comment during the holidays this will impact the drop off and pick up zone at the front of the school.

This will mean that ELC parents will need to park in the car park and school afternoon pick-up for everyone will be at the back of the school near the covered walkway.  

Uniform Shop Opening 2023

Principal

If you are looking for some holiday reading for your child. Please see the lists below which might interest them. 

As all members of our community are aware our parking/pickup situation, like that of most schools, is pretty terrible! Nobody, including the ACT Government seems to have any fantastic ideas of how we can make it better – two schools and a childcare centre on one road will always cause traffic congestion. So, as parents, how can you help and at the same time provide some benefit to your children? Active travel may just be the answer you are looking for. For many years I have been involved with coordinating the Ride to School program at MTS, which now comes under the umbrella of Transport ACT and like me they are often asking the question of how we can get more kids to ride or walk to school and thus reduce the amount of traffic around our schools. Like me, they also don’t have miracle answers but do have some things to help, including the Safe travel partway markers painted on the footpaths (the blue teardrop shaped symbols with a person walking inside them), last-one in and out guides and very handy maps to show the safest and easiest travel routes to our school.

I understand that dropping off and picking up works in the routines of many busy families, however there are many benefits to allowing older children to make their own way to school when they are able. Maggie Dent, one of Australia’s leading parenting educators recently shared one of her Parental as Anything podcasts on the subject of ‘Should I let my child walk to school on their own.’ The podcast only goes for about 10 minutes and is really worth a listen if you think your child may be ready for this step. Maggie offers suggestions of how to prepare your child for this step. With the holidays approaching this might be the perfect time to practice the route and prepare your child for this new travel option. Of course, this may not work for all families or our younger students but if you think your child may be ready for this step, have a listen to Maggie’s podcast.  

Maggie Dent's Parental As Anything podcast episode link

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).