Principal's Report - Term 4 Week 5 2021
Dear parents,
Welcome back to school Years 3, 4 and 5! Again, I thank everyone for their cooperation and patience as we deal with the consequences of splitting our student body into cohorts. The biggest impact is afternoon pickup which, while inconvenient, seems to be working well even in wet weather. The strategy of splitting students into cohorts and minimizing interaction between students, particularly when inside the building has meant that at St Anthony’s, Wanniassa, they only had to isolate a small proportion of the school population after a COVID close contact entered the school.
Swimming Survey
During the week I presented the results of the swimming survey to the Community Council. One hundred and fifty people responded to the survey with 58% voting not to continue with swimming lessons and 42% voting for the continuation of the school swimming program.
From 2022 the school will not be organising swimming lessons for students in Kindergarten to Year 2. This follows a decision several years ago to cease these lessons in the middle and senior primary sections of the school.
Asian Languages
Mother Teresa School currently offers Indonesian as part of our teacher release. Next year this will be changing to Japanese. While the children do learn some spoken language, learning about Japanese culture will also be a major focus.
In the ACER review this year the school was encouraged to establish more partnerships with organisations outside our school. As none of the high schools our year six students feed into have Indonesian as a language, we looked at what language may offer the opportunity to link with a local high school. A large number of our students move to Daramalan. They have a Japanese program so having Japanese as a language at MTS allows students who enjoy the experience to continue with Japanese beyond year six. We aim to set up a relationship with them to enrich the program we intend to offer.
Studies show that studying any language in a primary setting builds the confidence and attitude that allows them to more successfully undertake studying any language in high school.
We thank Mrs Jacqueline Ramesh who been teaching Indonesian at MTS for the past three years and wish her the best for the future.
Compass Parent Portal
A reminder that we are now only using Compass as our communication app. If you have not already done so, please download the Compass app to your phone. Individual parent logins have been sent with a temporary password. Please search for "Harrison - Mother Teresa School" when prompted for the school. If you have any issues with logging in please contact the front office.
Uniform Shop
The uniform shop be open Monday, Wednesday & Friday mornings from 8.30am with Covid restrictions in place as follows:
- The Wimmera Street large sliding door on the side of the hall will be unlocked and one parent at a time can enter through the door to the uniform shop door
- Masks must be worn at all times when/if entering the building
- No parents will be allowed into the shop with the volunteers
- If there are lots of parents waiting you will be provided with a piece of paper to write down what you are looking for and your contact details, the items (if available) will be sourced and then left at the front office for you to collect.
Maths Problem
I have managed to catch up with all the students who correctly answered the math’s problems during lockdown and given them their prizes. This week’s problem is below.
Two numbers multiply to make 360. One of them has a zero on the end. What might the two numbers be?
How many solutions can you find? Can you see a pattern between the two numbers?
God Bless
Peter Hughes