Dear Parents,

It has been a challenging week across the school for a number of staff members. On Monday we had six staff represent the  MTS community at Maryanne Hawes' mother's funeral in Braidwood. Sophia Caputo's grandmother passed away last Saturday surrounded by family, with the funeral occurring on Tuesday. Rebecca Hunter's mother passed away on Tuesday with Rebecca at her side; the funeral arrangements are still to be finalised. Please keep all the staff in your prayers as they grieve the loss of a loved one.

+ Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord and may perpetual light shine upon them +

Maryanne and Rebecca will be away for the remainder of the term and Sophia will be away next Tuesday.

Staffing News

Congratulations to the following staff on their recent appointments to Mother Teresa School.

• Mr Jason Smith and Mrs Kathleen McGuire have both been granted permanency as we begin our recruitment rounds for 2025. 
• Miss Paris Morris and Miss Monica Couger have just completed their final practicum experience in Year 4 and Year 1. They are just waiting on their TQI Permit to Teach to enable them both to take up teaching positions from Term 4, at Mother Teresa. Both girls are very excited to be joining the team.
• Mrs Amy Slaven will leave her beautiful Kinder Crimson children on Monday, her last day, as she prepares for her new role as Director of our ELC. Miss Monica Couger has been assigned to take over from Amy at the commencement of Term 4. Fortunately, Monica has had the opportunity to meet the group during the week. Sincere thanks to Amy for her care and commitment to the children and for sharing her expertise with the Kinder team over the last 15 months.

Special Visitor 

Throughout this term, various political candidates have been asked to visit local schools in the area. On Tuesday a group of Year 6 Mother Teresa School leaders and Ms Carmel Maguire, the Principal, met with Mr John Mikita, Candidate for Yerrabi. John shared with the children why he chose to become a candidate, our voting system, and heard from the children what they saw as local issues in the Gungahlin area. John enjoyed an informative tour of the school and observed high-impact teaching strategies in action.

Year Book 

Our Year Book is now on sale. Please visit the Qrk! app to place your orders. Books cost $25.00 each

Grand Friend's Day

This year our special day will be on Friday November 15 (Week 5 Term 4). At this stage we can't confirm the makeup of the day, due to the planned hall refurbishment. More details will follow early next term, as we may still have access to the hall.

Do's and Dont's

• Term 4 means a change to the summer uniform.
• Hats are required when outside.
• Shoulder-length hair or longer should be tied back, with no jewellery except studs and a watch.
• Children to move to their designated areas once the afternoon bell goes and stay off the equipment.
• If waiting to be picked up from the basketball courts car line, children should be seated under the covered walkway. Devices and balls are to be stored in school bags. 
• The front drive-thru is for the ELC families.
• Parents, please monitor your child's use of social media. 

Last day for Term 3 is Friday 27 September with school returning on Monday 14 October for all students at MTS.

God Bless,

Carmel Maguire

Principal

WHOLE SCHOOL FOCUS
The Whole school focus theme for this year is ‘COME HOLY SPIRIT’

This term at Mother Teresa School we will use the theme that:  We are called to Innovate.

“I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. Psalm 139:14

Our value for the next week is: RESPECT

We can show this the Mother Teresa School way by:

• Treating people, the way we want to be treated
• Playing by the rules and take turns
• Telling the truth
• Listening to other people’s ideas
• Being considerate of other people’s feelings

STUDENT FORMATION RETREAT
On Thursday, the 19^th of September, Maddie Greenwood our Youth Ministry Officer, Year 6 students in the CSYMI Youth Ministry team ran a retreat for Year 1 called ‘Presence of God’. Students in Year 1 learnt about the presence of God through activities, inputs, student testimony and prayer. They prayed about where they had seen/felt/heard God look after them through others and shared the ways they can spread joy and love to others.

The Year 6 team led icebreakers, activities, prayer and inputs, and Kaima shared her testimony with the students about how she has felt God’s presence in her life.  Year 1 had an opportunity to respond as they made heart artworks saying ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart’.

Peace and Best Wishes,

Anne Leet
Religious Education Co-ordinator

This term the shop will be operating Wednesday and Friday from 8:45am to 9:15am, with payment by QKR! app and cash. The QKR! by Mastercard app can be dowloaded via Apple or Google store.

Please ensure your car is off the basketball court by 8.50am as we must close and lock the gates for safety. 

Donations of uniforms that have no rips or stains and are freshly washed are always welcome to be dropped off at the front office.

Last Tuesday Aurora Domigan’ s father, Joel Domigan and current Defence serving member was awarded the Australian Conspicuous Service Cross. The ceremony was held at Government House, and the award was presented by Her Excellency the Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Australian Conspicuous Service Cross is awarded to those for outstanding devotion to duty or outstanding achievement in the application of exceptional skills, judgement, or dedication in non-warlike situations. The recipients of this award are announced in the Kings Birthday Honours list and the Australia Day Honours list.

Many students may recognise Lieutenant Colonel Joel Domigan from our ANZAC day service earlier in the year; Joel was our guest speaker and spoke of courage and being inspired by the bravery of our past servicemen and women, to be brave ourselves, and to be the best we can be.

We would like to congratulate Joel and his family on your great achievement, and may we be inspired by your achievements to be the best we can be, and continue to do small things with great love.

On Tuesday, 10 of our exceptional track and field athletes travelled to Woden Park to represent Mother Teresa and the North/Gungahlin region at the ACT Athletics Carnival. The athletes faced some fierce competition on the day but all competed to the best of their abilities. Many students were able to record PB's throughout the day. A special congratulations to Emily E who finished 3^rd in the Discus, William M who finished 2^nd in the 1500m and Lachie R who finished 1^st in the 800m.

By allowing your child to walk, ride or scoot to school, you’re doing your bit to reduce traffic congestion around school gates, making it safer for everyone and helping reduce risk of injury.

Part way is ok! Is your child ready to walk, ride or scoot to school but it is too far; or there are major road crossings to be negotiated? Have you considered drop-off points away from the school gate which provide safe, convenient footpath access to the school grounds? Your school has a map which shows where your local part way drop off points are. This can prevent your frustration with the traffic chaos at the school gate and allow your child to start the day the right way – with some moderate-level exercise, arriving at school energised and attentive. You will save time by avoiding the crawling school-zone traffic. A calmer start to your day and a benefit for your child. Who can say no to that!

Catholic School Parents Archdiocese of Canberra Goulburn (CSPACG) Council will hold their AGM in Term 4 and are seeking representatives from all regions to fill vacancies.
Please discuss this with your school’s Community Council and consider nominating a representative from your school.
The Council meets four times a year with two meetings in-person and two online. This is a great way to learn more about advocacy, representation, engagement and support for our Catholic school parents and carers.
Nominees should complete the form below and return it to parents@cg.catholic.edu.au by 31 October.
For further information, contact CSPACG Executive Officer, Sarah Rose.

Link:  Parent Representative Nomination Form 2025.pdf

Contact: sarah.rose@cg.catholic.edu.au or 0447 888 326 (Family Engagement Officer)

Service area leader: tim.elliott@cg.catholic.edu.au

MyWay+ is coming! Transition set to commence

The next major phase for MyWay+ is about to commence from Friday 20 September ahead of the next generation ticketing system going live this November.

Over the last few months significant progress has occurred in the design, development and testing of the new MyWay+ system.

We are now at the exciting point where system installation can commence. This includes removing the existing MyWay equipment on board buses and installing the new MyWay+ validators both in buses and along the light rail alignment. System user testing will also take place with over 200 Canberrans providing feedback on the new system and its journey planning functionality.

To enable these critical activities to take place the current MyWay and NXTBUS real time systems will no longer be available from Friday 20 September.

Bus and light rail services will continue to operate as per the scheduled timetable and frequency, however people will not need to pay during the transition period to MyWay+.

A fare free travel period was always planned as part of the MyWay+ transition. We didn’t want to try and run two systems at the same time given it will take at least six weeks to fit out the whole bus fleet and install new ticket machines at locations such as along the light rail alignment.

Key changes taking place from Friday 20 September 2024:

• Travel will be free - The MyWay ticketing system will no longer be available. Travel on buses and light rail will be free. Customers will not be required to tap on and off during this fare free travel period.
• Timetable Information will be available online and at major stops and interchanges - NXTBUS will no longer be available. This includes on board buses at bus stops and stations as well as the SMS service.
• Bus services will continue to operate to the scheduled timetable. Where possible, static timetable information be available at bus stations.
• Light rail will continue to operate to the scheduled frequency. Next stop information will still be available for light rail (onboard and at stops).

 Further details on impacted services are available online at https://www.transport.act.gov.au/news/news-and-events-items/september/transition

To support our families there are two programs families may be interested in. The first is Vinnies Kids Club. See flier 

Please email sophie.dash@cg.catholic.edu.au or carmel.maguire@cg.catholic.edu.au 

This term our school will be teaching Protective Behaviours to students using current resources from the Daniel Morcombe Curriculum and Education 2 Empower Publishing. We understand the content of Protective Behaviours can be confronting for some students and we are therefore keen to ensure there is an opportunity for families to engage with the contact before lessons are taught. To achieve this an overview of the program is attached and weekly updates will be provided.

Water Polo ACT have started up a schools competition.

The competition runs on a Friday night from 6-8:30pm. Students from years 3-6 are eligible to play. Please see the attached flyer for details.

If you are interested please contact kieran.russell@cg.catholic.edu.au