30 November (Term 4, Week 8)
CEO/PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Dear Parents and Carers,
By now I imagine you have all had the chance to view the Mater Dei’s Got Talent video production. What an incredible display of creativity, joy and fun by our students and their very talented staff. I took great joy in watching the video a second time with my wife and telling her all about the Mater Dei children. One of the disappointments of 2020 is not being able to have our usual events and I had been looking forward to inviting her to witness how extraordinary they are. Maybe next year!
As you can appreciate, a production of that size and quality does not come simply, and whilst there are numerous staff members who deserve thanks for their production support I want to especially shout out to Ally Cane, our wonderful music teacher, who left us last week in preparation for the birth of her child. I know the whole Mater Dei family will have her family in our thoughts and prayers over the next month or so.
Discussing the pending birth of a child is very timely considering we are now in the season of Advent. This is a time of preparation for the birth of Jesus at Christmas when God became human to forever change the course of history with the Christian story. May we spend the next month in the lead up to Christmas reflecting on the blessings our God has bestowed upon us, especially through family and friends. It is, indeed, a wonderful time.
Kind regards
Mark Raue
CEO/PRINCIPAL
NOTES AND REMINDERS
Thank you to Mrs Gorey and the Development Team for their amazing work getting our Mater Dei School Facebook page up and running this year. The feedback from families has been overwhelmingly positive and it has been a lovely way to engage with our families when we have had such a difficult year with minimal events. This Facebook Page is primarily to showcase all things amazing happening at Mater Dei and the messages section of this page is not monitored or responded to on a regular basis. If you would like to contact the school for any reason please continue to call reception or email admin@materdei.org.au
UPDATE OF PERSONAL DETAILS
This year we are asking all families to update their Personal Details online though an insights survey. We only require one survey to be completed per household. Once surveys are received, we will manually update details on Compass in preparation for 2021. In the case of separated families, one or both parents may complete and as this is updated manually, we will adjust the student's records accordingly.
For any families who would prefer a paper copy to complete, these will be sent home in Week 9. You are not required to complete both, please just complete EITHER the online or paper version and send in via your child's diary.
Please complete by Friday, 11th December 2020.
Steps to complete via Compass (Steps 1-3 are for App users only)
- Click on the student
- Click on the 3 lines in top left corner
- Click Open in Browser
- In the newsfeed you will see a green notification "Insights Cycle Open" with the name "Personal Details update for 2020"
- Click on "Click here to proceed and answer all questions"
THE ADVENT SEASON
Advent, the beginning of the Church’s Liturgical year, began on Sunday, November 29th. Advent encompasses the four Sundays and weekdays leading up to the celebration of Christmas. We celebrate Advent by putting up an Advent Wreath and lighting candles each week. The use of the wreath and candles during Advent are a longstanding Catholic tradition that was originally adopted by Christians in the Middle Ages as part of their spiritual preparation for Christmas.
The wreath and candles are full of symbolism tied to the Christmas season. The wreath itself, which is made of various evergreens, signifies continuous life. The candles also have their own special significance. The four candles represent the four weeks of Advent and one candle is lit each Sunday. The first, second and fourth candles are purple and represent Hope, Love and Peace. The third candle is pink and symbolises Joy. The Advent season is a time of preparation of our hearts and minds for the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas.
SCHOOL RULES
Many families may have heard of PBIS or PB4L as a positive behaviour framework that many schools use to form their Student Wellbeing and Behaviour Systems. This year, Mater Dei School has established a staff PBIS (Positive Behaviour Interventions & Supports) Committee to review our current Student Behaviour Policies and reflect and review current processes. The first step of this Committee was to review our school rules and so from 2021, our rules will have a new look and have changed to the below:
- Be Kind
- Be Safe
- Be a Learner
The discussions within the Committee led to the agreement that the term "respectful" could be represented in the “kind” rule and when explicitly teaching expectations. However, we believe it is extremely important to have a rule which focused on learning as this is a key component of our vision and purpose as a school.
These modified rules will be a part of a relaunch to the students in 2021.
PAST EVENTS
MATER DEI'S GOT TALENT
Thank you to all the parents who bought a link to view! It was amazing to watch and we appreciate all the feedback. The URL link finished yesterday and USBs which were ordered prior to Wednesday 18th November will be issued on Friday Week 9. Anyone who missed purchasing a USB will have the opportunity to buy online – see Compass post later this week for details, however this will not be provided until next year.
P&F - CANTEEN CHRISTMAS DAY
The P & F would like to thank all the families for kind donations and supporting the canteen in 2020. We’d also like to say a special thank you to all the volunteers who have helped with our parent-run canteen, because without you this canteen would not be possible.
UPCOMING EVENTS
INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR PEOPLE WITH A DISABILITY
International Day for People with a Disability (IDPWD) is marked every year on the 3rd December. In the past, this has been a time for Mater Dei to showcase and share the abilities and talents of our amazing students and thank our local community for the support they have given us. This year is no different however once again due to COVID this looks a little different. This year the Development Team will share a video on our Mater Dei Organisation Facebook page on Thursday 3rd December.
We would like to say Thank you to our families:
- for putting your faith in us to provide quality teaching and learning opportunities
- for all the support you give us each and every day
- for smiling even on difficult days
- for supporting each other
- for giving us the gift of working with your young person/s.
OTHER IMPORTANT END OF YEAR DATES
COMMUNITY NEWS
NARELLAN TOWN CENTRE - SCHOOL CHRISTMAS COMPETITION
Mater Dei is participating in a local school's Christmas Tree Competition at Narellan Town Centre.
If you plan to visit Narellan Town Centre between 28 November and 23 December 2020, be sure to head to the information desk outside of H&M and vote for our spectacular Grinch-themed tree decorated with our student's smiling faces! Alternatively, you can vote online here (strictly one vote per person):
https://www.narellantowncentre.com.au/school-christmas-competition
