Dear Parents

As a Catholic learning community,

all at Mother Teresa School are called

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

Staffing News

Following much thought Mrs Amy Thomas, our ELC Director, has resigned to pursue a new opportunity and direction in her career. Amy joined our team in 2021 during COVID-19 and led our ELC during a very difficult and challenging time. Amy has a passion for the Early Learning Education area and is keen to share your experience.

Thank you to Mrs Fiona Matchett for stepping into Kinder Scarlett for this term with Mrs Kate Higgins. While we have engaged a replacement we are still waiting for their TQI teacher registration to come through. So for now Fiona will continue in K Scarlett for the first week of next term. I will communicate with parents during the holidays should the arrangements change.  

Fun and engaging events around the school

Dance Fever

Thank you to KidsBiz Team for the coordination of our disco. The children all had a wonderful time!

Cheese & Chat 

The MTS Community Council would like to say a very warm thank you to everyone who came for a social chat last Friday night while the years three to six children were enjoying their disco.  A special thanks to the Community Council Team, who made sure we had a delicious selection of cheeses, nibbles and drinks while we enjoyed a lovely evening getting to meet new people in our school community. We even managed to fill a whiteboard with some great ideas and suggestions to make our school community an even better one! 

We hope you have a lovely school holiday break and we look forward to the upcoming events on the social calendar such as the Entertainment Book and Family Portraits Fundraiser and Paint & Sip Night that the Council are lining up for Term 4!

Year 3 Day Out!

Year 3 enjoyed their Battle Ninja excursion last week. The day was full of challenging obstacles and team building experiences. The children threw themselves into every challenge. They showed resilience, courage and supported each other along the way. They climbed fences, jumped through tyres, tried their luck on the Ninja wall and trekked through mud pits. The teachers and students were all exhausted by the end of the day! It was a fantastic day organised by Lee and his team at B.Firm. 

Rock Bottom - The Musical

Congratulations to our Year 3 and 4 students on an outstanding performance and to our amazing Susan Curbishley who directed the performance. Our actors displayed incredible talent as they delivered the very humour lines that created many moments of laughter.

NEEDS OF LAY CATHOLICS TODAY

What do adult lay Catholics need today to help them live a committed Catholic life amid the circumstances of modern society? To find out and to help improve their services to our Archdiocese, the Canberra Circle of The Catenians, an international association of lay Catholics, is conducting an Archdiocesan-wide online survey.

Please help by completing this brief, anonymous, tick-box survey via this URL.  Thank you. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CLTZGMW

Contact: Phil Murray, President, Canberra Catenians 0419 695 927 or phil13murray@gmail.com

The MTS Yearbook is Back!

The Mother Teresa School Yearbook has been confirmed for 2023 and our committee we would love your help to make sure it is the best it can be.

The committee is calling on parents, carers, teachers and students to provide photos they have taken throughout the year. The committee al looking for photos from sporting events and carnivals, school activities, awards, camp, excursions and any other photos you would care to share. 

The Yearbook has always been wonderfully received in the school community and is a great keepsake for your child/ren to reflect on their journey here.

The Yearbook is no easy task to produce. It is a costly exercise and takes long hours assembling pictures, words, stories, graphics etc, to compile into something that caters to all families and reflects the values of Mother Teresa School; so please help the committee in their mission to make sure everyone and everything is celebrated.

If you have attended school events (sporting, social etc) and you like taking photos, the committee would love for you to send a few photos for use in the yearbook (appropriate permissions will be sought).  

If you can help with the above, please reach out and contact the Yearbook team via the yearbook email mtsyearbook00@gmail.com

2023 MTS Year Book Student Photo Permissions **Important Please Read**

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.

Our Yearbook parent team, 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.

As part of your enrolment and our school processes parents are asked about the use of photos on various forms of social media. The production of our Yearbook/Magazine 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 requires 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 to the MTS photo collection, I need you to please let me know.

Please advise by emailing carmel.maguire@ch.catholic.edu.au by Friday 22 September  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 your child included in the 2022 Yearbook/Magazine
• you would like more information related to Canva

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 adviseas soon as possible. This will help with our planning for 2024.  

Student Behaviour Expectations

Uniform Shop Opening 2023

Principal

Aarushi P - Mother Teresa School is an amazing school to go to if you want to go just look at this information. The students at MTS are kind and spectacular. The Teachers at MTS are terrific and compassionate. You can do sensational sports and arts too! My favourite parts of MTS the four house colours and the celebration. Don't you agree that we are lucky to attend such a great school?

Carter B - Mother Teresa School is amazing and kind and loving. MTS is caring and we do small things with great love. The teachers are always smiling and they are funny. You can do chess, art, soccer anything you like. The grounds are spectacular and sensational like the teachers. Why dont you come to MTS! It is spectacular. 

Victoria P - Mother Teresa School is a great school because there are lots of great and smart students and teachers. The students at MTS are happy, smart and we always do small things with great love. The teachers at MTS are always happy and caring because they help the students if they need help. The things you can do at this school are music, sport and we sometimes go on fun excursions! The best things about MTS are lunch and recess because we can play on the play equipment. MTS is the best school because you can do a lot of things!

Hamish L - Mother Teresa School is a magnificent School. Kids at MTS are spectacular, polite and amazing kids. Teachers at MTS are brilliant teachers. I can help people if they are hurt. I can play with my friends and play soccer on the oval. MTS is absolutley magnificent. 

This information is for parents of students currently enrolled in Year 3 and new students going into Years 4, 5, 6 in 2024.

At Mother Teresa School teaching and learning in Years 4, 5 and 6 involves a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program. Students in Years 4, 5 and 6 bring their home-owned device to and from school each day and use their device to support some of their learning throughout the school day. The devices are used to complement the curriculum, and are used purposefully. Technology provides different opportunities for collaboration, creativity and independence. Technology does not take the place of good teaching.

Our BYOD program is currently in transition from iPads to Chromebooks, with the vast majority of Year 4 students bringing Chromebooks in 2023. If you are purchasing a new device, we ask that it be a Chromebook.

Teachers have reported that Chromebooks are much better suited to the research, publishing and typing needs of student learning compared to iPads.

BYOD devices other than Chromebooks and iPads are not supported at Mother Teresa School. 

Devices do not have to be brand new. Please contact the office if sourcing a device is difficult.

Please see below for device requirements.

Further information about the BYOD program, policies and setup instructions will follow later in the year but we know parents are keen to find out about specifications now.

BYOD Chromebook specifications - Years 4 - 6

The transition of BYOD (Bring your Own Device) to Chromebooks continues in 2023. If purchasing a new device, we ask that it is a Chromebook. A Chromebook is a kind of laptop running Chrome OS, an operating system made by Google. Chromebooks are made by a range of known technology brands like Lenovo and ASUS. There often is not a lot of difference between brands. 

You may like to shop around and see if there are student or education deals around or keep an eye out for upcoming shopping events like Black Friday (October/November), Cyber Monday (November), Boxing Day (December).

When purchasing, please be aware of the following specifications: 

• 4GB Memory (RAM) minimum
• 32GB Storage for use in primary school is fine, many will have 64GB anyway
• 11-13 Inch screen minimum 
• personal preference
• please consider the size and weight of the device - your child is transporting the device to and from school each day - not too heavy or large
• consider if it fits into their school bag (this was an issue we discovered in 2023)
• At least 8 hour battery life 
• Must have the ability to connect to headphones, whether it be via a port or bluetooth - whatever your student has access to
• Must have a camera
• A touchscreen can be useful for some students (but it's optional) 
• Stay away from Chromebook tablets without keyboards - these are not recommended
• In terms of price, don't spend too much on the Chromebook. A budget of up to $500 is reasonable. One of the deciding factors in moving from iPads to Chromebooks was the comparable/cheaper price.
• A protective case or cover for the Chromebook is required
• Headphones or earphones are required
• Some students have a mouse (optional)
• Warranty should be a consideration when purchasing a device
• We recommend that you consider adding the device to your insurance policy

Chromebooks do not require active firewalls, or anti-virus and anti-malware software. When the Chromebook is connected to the school network via specialised BYOD WiFi, it will utilise the online security settings set up by Catholic Education.

Help us be green and earn green by recycling your hard-to-recycle rubbish.

Mother Teresa is proud to share that we’ve set up a TerraCycle recycling hub for common things we toss in the rubbish that can’t be recycled locally. The best part? Just by dropping off rubbish, you help us raise funds for our school!

The recycling hub is located out the front of the school hall. Students, parents and staff are invited to use it.

The more we recycle together, the more Mother Teresa earns.

How it works

• Members of the Mother Teresa community (like you!) drop off hard-to-recycle rubbish at our recycling hub.
• Once we have a full box, we send it to TerraCycle (using a free shipping label).
• TerraCycle awards us points that we can redeem as a cash donation.
• We’ll use the dollars we earn fund sustainability projects around our school.

Here’s what you can drop off:

• Empty pens, highlighters, and correction fluid containers
• Used plastic sandwich wrap, and snack packaging
• Used toothbrushes, empty toothpaste tubes, and dental floss containers

Tips for dropping off recycling

• Start collecting accepted items in a box at home and bring it in once it’s full.
• Items don’t have to be sparkling clean, but please remove as much product (e.g., crumbs from snack bags or soap from pump bottles) as possible.

About TerraCycle

TerraCycle is on a mission to eliminate the idea of waste. It develops ways to collect and recycle rubbish that is not generally accepted by traditional municipal recycling services, including face masks, toys, mascara wands, and much more.

To learn more and get involved, visit terracycle.com.

Any questions about the recycling hub at Mother Teresa? Reach out to cheryl.l.harris@hotmail.com. And remember, the more items you drop off, the more money we can earn, so feel free to collect for friends and family too!

It’s a great time to get an Entertainment book in the lead up to the holidays- multi-city means you can use your vouchers anywhere too (not just in Canberra)!!

Order Books Here

This limited-time exclusive Bonus Holiday Pack includes:

• 1 x Complimentary Adult Cinema Voucher (Adult eSaver Voucher valid at participating Event,  Birch Carrol & Coyle, Village Cinemas) valued at $25
• $50 Hotel voucher courtesy of Entertainment Travel
• $50 Cruise voucher courtesy of Entertainment Travel
• $20 Sea Link ferry or harbour cruise voucher
• $20 Go City Explorer Pass voucher
• And a Free Upgrade to a Multi-City Membership (bonus value up to $110)!

Plus, every Membership purchased goes into the draw to win an epic cruise holiday on the azure waters of Fiji, valued at over $7,282!

Campaign Dates: 21st September-4th October

After our last Paint & Sip night was so much fun and such a successful night, the MTS Community Council have organised to run another amazing evening. Save the Date- Saturday the 18th November and we will have booking details available when we return from the holidays.