We have had a lovely two weeks back at school, the children have been working hard getting into their routines. 

New MTS Staff

I am delighted to announce we introduced Miss Heather Hall to the children today. Due to current staffing challenges Mrs Leanne Davison, due to her availability, will now be teaching in 2 Lime with Miss Hall. Leanne will teach on Mondays to Wednesdays and Heather will be in on Thursdays to Fridays. Leanne also dropped in to meet the class and the Year 2 Team. We are waiting for the paperwork to be approved before I can announce another new teacher to work with Mrs Alice O'Brien in Year 1, from next Thursday.

Car Parking

Please observe the no right turn sign when leaving the school grounds in the morning and the afternoon. It can cause a bottleneck that prevents the smooth flow of traffic on the main road. With the numbers increased in our ECL attending the before and after school program we are seeing more traffic at the front of the school. Please keep the slip lane free, next to the ELC, for our ECL families between 2.45pm and 3.15pm.

Meet the Teacher

It was really disappointing that it was a wet morning for our open classroom visits. With a number of teachers away today it made it very challenging. We will host another visit later in the term for people who missed out on meeting their teacher today. I know several of the children and parents were very disappointed. 

Awards

There are no awards this week; we will commence in Week 3. 

Kinder Health Check

On Monday the Kinder Health Check envelopes will be sent home to all Kinder families, the 2025 Kinder Health Check includes:

• A physical health check of vision, hearing and growth(height,weight and BMI)
• Two questionaires - the Parent Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) and the Strenghts and Difficulties Questionaire (SDQ)

The physical health check results and any parent concerns associated with the questionaires will be provided to the family's GP (if nominated and consent received)

Parents of children with high-risk scores in the PEDS and/or SDQ will be contacted by ACT Health to follow up if a GP is not nominated.

Parents will receive the results of the physical health check on their My Digital Health Record (MyDHR) if they are reqistered and have proxy access, otherwise they will receive the results by post.

The Child and Adolescent Immunisation Team will arrange the collection of the completed forms by the 3rd Feburary 2025. The health check will occur later in the year, we are waiting on dates.

Food Allergies

We have a young boy in Year 2 who has a serious anaphlyaxis reaction to cheese, cheese spores, and cheese-based products. As we are now eating in the classroom for 10 minutes at 10.50am we are trialling no cheese in just 2 Lime for this term. Please remember we do have lots of children with allergies to many types of nuts; avoid peanut butter and Nutella as a sandwich spread. 

Appointment of a New Counsellor 

I am happy to inform you that Lauren, our new school counsellor from Catholic Care Marymead, will be starting at Mother Teresa on Tuesday 25^th February. Lauren will be working from Tuesday to Friday each week. New referral forms will be available on request from the office.

Reminders 

Do not forget to complete the following

• Kinder to Year 6 - IT Agreement via Compass Events
• Kinder to Year 6 - Photo permissions via Compass Events
• SeeSaw - Kinder to Year 3
• PG Movies - Year 2 to 6
• NAPLAN Year 3 & 5
• Netball for Year 3 & 4
• Netball for Year 5 & 6

Class Overviews will be sent out via Compass so parents can review what is being taught this term. 

Kind regards 

Carmel Maguire  & Craig Hart

Principal & Assistant Principal