Dear Parents,

Since 2013 all Australian schools have to regularly report to the Federal Government on student attendance. In a recent report from the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership entitled ‘Attendance Matters’ the report states that 75% of students from Years 1 – 10 attended for 90% of the time. While this sounds good it also means that 25% of students miss at least 10% of designated school days. That means they miss at least 20 days or one month of school.

Attendance across the student body at MTS is good. Attendance rates are published in our Annual Report which is available on the school’s website. Our rate for all year levels is above 90%. We do however have a small number of students missing a substantial number of days from school. This obviously impacts student achievement as they will miss key concepts introduced or consolidated at school. As the paper states, ‘Teacher quality is the single most important factor influencing student achievement (Hattie, 2009). However, the relationship between teacher quality and student achievement is mediated by the amount of time students spend in the classroom. Irrespective of the reasons for absences, non-attendance affects student outcomes.’

As I have mentioned before, we also have concerns for children who are consistently late. We have some children who turn up well after 9am every morning and this also significantly impacts on their learning.

If you have any troubles getting your child to school for whatever reason I ask you to contact the school and we can work together to ensure a more consistent rate of attendance occurs.

Wakakirri

It was great to hear that our Wakakirri performance has been chosen to perform in the finals on the 3^rd September.  On this night they will be performing alongside five other school, two of which will be competing in division one with MTS.  I wish them the best of luck.

School Fees

School fees have been emailed home ealier this week and are due on 30 August.  If you have not received your fee statement would you please contact the front office.  

Maths Problem

Congratulations to Brody Press who was the winner of last week’s problem.

The article above outlines the recent Australian Maths Challenge undertaken by a large number of students at MTS with outstanding results. The competition comprises of four questions each of which has four sections. The first question in each section is the easiest and they then get progressively harder. For the next four weeks I will put the first question from each problem.

Clock Reflections

Phil and Bill were travelling on a tourist bus. There was a 12-hour digital clock at the front of the bus which displayed times from 1:00 to 12:59. They noticed that there was a reflection of the clock in a mirror just above it. Usually the display on the reflected clock was meaningless, but sometimes it actually showed the correct time, as in this example: 

If the reflection of the actual time is the same as the actual time, then the actual time is called a mirror time.

8. List all the mirror times that start with 8.

Sports News - Snow Sports

CJ McAviney and William Stewart competed in the ACT/Southern NSW Interschools Snow Sports Championships at Perisher last week. CJ went in the alpine skiing and Willam went in the Boarder Cross and Gates events. Both boys enjoyed the experience and I’m sure they will be back next year for more powder action.  Below is a picture of Will on the slopes.

God Bless

Peter Hughes

Front Office Reminders 

• Absentee Notes—If your child is absent from school due to sickness, holiday or other reason, please ensure a note is submitted via Szapp, our website or provided to your child’s classroom teacher on their return.
  
  
• Sickness—If your child has been sick and has been vomiting or had diarrhoea then they must be excluded from school for at least 24 hours after the symptoms have ceased.
  
  
• School Start & Finish times
  
  
  • School supervision starts at 8.15am with classes beginning at 8.45am
  • Lunch break is from 11.00am to 11.55am
  • Recess break is from 1.25pm-1.55pm
  • School finishes at 3.00pm with supervision at car line finishing at 3.30pm.
  • Parents who cannot collect their child/children by this time should arrange for after school care with Kidsbiz. In the case of any
    emergency which prevents you from collecting on time, please contact us so that we can make arrangements to ensure the safety/supervision of your child/children.
    
    
• Late to school procedure:-
  
  • If you are dropping off your child to school late please remember to sign in at the front office (any time after 9:15am). 
    Every student needs to have their late slip with them to hand on to their class teacher upon arrival at their classroom.
    
    
• Early Pickup procedure:-
  
  
  • If you are planning to collect your child early please try to let the class teacher know beforehand so that your child/children are at the front office waiting for you.
  • If you have an unplanned early pickup please contact the front office and let us know what time you will be arriving so that we can have your child/children ready. 
  • Please remember if this happens, we will do our best to locate your child but this is not always possible especially if they are out of class or on lunch or recess breaks.
  • In addition, if you are collecting your child early and you have requested they arrive at the office at a specific time, please ensure that you arrive at that time to collect them.  It is not appropriate that children be removed from class to be collected and then sit at the office and wait for extended periods of time for you to arrive.
  • A sign out slip will need to be completed for each child leaving the school prior to the end of the school day.