10 May 2021 (Term 2, Week 4)
CEO/PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
Dear Parents and Carers,
Last Friday I had the privilege of experiencing my first Lipstick Luncheon at the Campbelltown Catholic Club. For those unfamiliar with the event, it is one of Mater Dei’s most significant fundraising events and over 400 women gathered to celebrate Mothers’ Day and focus their combined energy on supporting our organisation. The event was not held in 2020 because of COVID-19, so it was wonderful to be back at The Cube and enjoying good company, food and entertainment.
The stars of the day, as you could imagine, were our students and Young Adults who danced, provided hospitality and spoke of their life at Mater Dei – in ways that won the hearts of the audience. Our brilliant Development Team and the generous Organising Committee delivered a superb event and the money raised will go towards improving student opportunities and facilities. Mater Dei is, indeed, blessed to be supported by so many people who like you and I, only want the best for our students and families, which is what they deserve.
Kind regards
Mark Raue
CEO/PRINCIPAL
GENERAL
MOTHER'S DAY
Yesterday was a day to show our gratitude and appreciation for the unconditional love a mother gives to her children and family. I hope all the mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers in our community had a wonderful Mother’s Day and thank you for the love, encouragement and support you give to your family. The women in our lives often take on so many roles to help their loved ones such as nurse, driver, chef, teacher and support person. Thank you for all you do to support your families and loved ones.
COVID UPDATE
Just as we thought things we heading into a direction of some sort of normality, COVID restrictions again changes. Luckily for us, it has a relatively small impact on the day to day life of Mater Dei School. We continue with our increased personal hygiene practises and remind staff, students and their families if you are unwell to please stay home until you are symptom free. All events remain unchanged at this stage, however if any further restrictions are put in place families will be notified via Compass.
PBIS FORTNIGHTLY FOCUS
The PBIS Fortnightly Focus is how we can be kind, safe learners on the Playground. Students will be participating in lessons all week which have many role-play activities. Across the school, students are still learning to use our new phrases, ‘have a go’ and ‘look, listen, do’ but are focusing more on how we can show these on the Playground.
AWARD WINNERS - 30 APRIL 2021
Congratulations to the following award recipeints who received their award at our last Principal's Assembly:
Bronze Award Winners
- R-Win A 5/6MacKillop
- William W 3/4Polding
- Jayden F 1/2Gregory
- Angelina A 1/2Gregory
PBIS Playground Award
- 1/2 Gregory
WINTER UNIFORM
The grace period for our Winter Uniform has now ended and all students should be wearing full winter uniform, including blazers for our secondary students. This is also a timely reminder to our families to please ensure you are aware of the Uniform and Grooming guidelines for Mater Dei School, which are located on page 52-53 in our Parent Handbook.
MAP MY SCHOOL COMPETITION
7/8 Gregory are working on an estimating and measurement unit in Mathematics focusing on the concept of area. The Students are engaging in mathematical experiences to enter in a ‘Map My School’ competition through Team She Maps. The aim of the competition is to use an online software program called ScribbleMaps to create a digital map of the school, showing the amount of shade vs buildings, and manually calculate the area for each. The learning goal is to be able to calculate the area of different spaces and compare them using percentages. So far 7/8 Gregory students have learnt what percentage means and completed an activity to shade and label percentages on a 100 square grid. The students are excited to find out ‘how cool is our school’.
ENGINEERING FOR ALL PUBLICATION
The Engineering for All (EfA) team is very excited to announce that we have been published internationally in The Journal of Special Education. This publication highlights the value of the research undertaken at Mater Dei. The EfA team investigated the effects of Universally Designed Engineering curriculum on students with intellectual disability. The project also promoted student self-determination through building Engineering Habits of Mind. Since completing this project, Mater Dei continues to embed Engineering units of work across all of our K-10 classes. If you would like to read the article, you can do so at the following link (due to this being a paid publication, we are unable to share).
SCHOOL DOCUMENTATION
Just a reminder that Compass now has a range of forms and compass support documents for parents to access. These are accessible through the Community Icon (2 heads) then clicking on School Documentation. This will be updated will additional information over time. Forms currently include:
- Update of Personal Details
- Consent to Release information
- Application for Leave/Exemption
- 2021 Changes to Afternoon Arrangements
- Health and Medication forms and procedures
SYNCING SCHOOL CALENDAR TO PHONE
If reading the Newsletter on your device and you wish to sync the School Calendar with your own calendar:
- Click on the Hamburger icon (3 lines) on the top left of the screen, underneath the School banner
- Select "School Calendar". Here you will be able to view upcoming events.
- To sync with your own calendar, click the "Sync Calendar" button.
PAST EVENTS
WOLLONGONG DIOCESE CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP
On Monday 26th April, three Mater Dei students attended the Wollongong Diocese Cross Country Championships in Nowra. This was the first time Mater Dei has been represented at this carnival. The students were amazing running the 3km very steep, difficult course. Congratulations to the following students:
- Jack Conroy won the Senior Boys Multi Class event with a time of 14mins and 53 seconds.
- Cooper Cottler won the Primary Boys Multi Class event with a time of 24 mins and 55 seconds
- Sommer McClelland won the Secondary Girls Multi Class event with a time of 25 mins 56 seconds.
All three students have been selected to represent the Wollongong Diocese at the Combined Catholic College Championships at Eastern Creek next month.
LEGO EDUCATION PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
On Wednesday, 28 April, teachers participated in a professional development session about 'Lego Education WeDo', an exciting new digital technology resource that we have recently purchased. These Lego Education kits promote the development of Science and Engineering knowledge and skills through the designing, building and testing of Lego models. There is also the opportunity to develop skills in coding and programming through the use of the WeDo app, where block coding is used to put together a sequence of steps for the Lego models to follow which ultimately leads them to solve a problem. During the professional development session teachers had the opportunity to explore the kits and put together some exciting robotic creations including Milo the Science Rover, a glowing snail and a moving windmill. Teachers are now very excited to begin using these kits with some of our students to support learning across a number of Key Learning Areas.
LIFE EDUCATION
Over the past two weeks, Years K-8 got a visit from the Life Education educator. Students learned about a range of things including building positive friendships and maintaining friendships. A big thank you to Janet who was our educator!
STAGE PLANNING DAYS
Over the first two weeks of Term Two, teachers have had the opportunity to spend a whole day engaging in stage planning days. This has provided the valuable opportunity for teachers to work collaboratively with the other members of their stage to plan upcoming units of work. Engaging together like this is a vital part of ensuring that we continue to include the most relevant practices so that we can deliver the curriculum in a way that is engaging and effective.
MOTHER'S DAY STALL
Thank you to our P & F for organising the Mother’s Day stall, and especially to Maree Buda who coordinated this event. I’d like to extend a special thank you to our AMAZING mothers who helped our students with their purchases on Tuesday 4h May.
LIPSTICK LUNCHEON
We held our 12th Annual Lipstick Luncheon Event on Friday 7th May at the Cube at Campbelltown Catholic Club. Both our Dance Troupe and 1/2 Gregory students wowed the audience with their spectacular dance routines. In addition, our School Captains Sommer and Patrick showed great leadership while performing their duties as Assistant MCs at the event. The theme for this year’s event was Gratitude, and we were especially grateful to all the guests who came to show their support of Mater Dei. Also a big thank you to our Mater Dei Development Team for making this event possible in light of the ever-changing COVID restrictions.
FUTURE EVENTS
SCHOOL PHOTOS
School Photos will be taken this Friday, 14 May (Week 4). All students are reminded to wear full winter uniforms on this day, including blazers for Secondary Students (no sport uniforms). Don’t forget to send your child’s photo envelope with them on the day.
NATIONAL SIMULTANEOUS STORYTIME 2021 - 19 MAY (WEEK 5)
National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is back again for its 21st year! NSS is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association. Every year a picture book, written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator, is read simultaneously around the country. This year the book that we will be reading is called ‘Give me some Space!’. It is a story about Una, a young girl who dreams of a life in Space. Una uses her Science and Engineering knowledge to help her think about how she might be able to get to Space to fulfil her dream. Keep an eye out for more information and photos about this exciting day!
STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY
On Friday, 21 May (Week 5), school staff will be participating in Staff Professional Development focussed on developing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Competency. These workshop sessions are in preparation for National Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3).
UPCOMING CANTEEN DATES
Upcoming Canteen dates are Friday, 28 May (Week 6) and Friday, 4 June (Week 7).
ENVIRONMENTORS
EnvironMentors will be visiting Mater Dei Kindergarten to Year 6 students on Thursday, 3 June (Week 7). This incursion will focus on encouraging students to become more environmentally aware about recycling and waste reduction. The modules are designed to engage students in fun learning activities.
PRIMARY & SECONDARY CELEBRATION OF LEARNING
Our Celebration of Learning this year will be split over two consecutive Fridays. Secondary will occur on the Friday, 4 June (Week 7) and Primary will be on Friday, 11 June (Week 8).
Guests will have the oppoturnity to choose from four options. Two options include classroom visits to provide an opportunity for guests to spend some time in the classroom, see work on display and view some lessons in action and work with our students. There will also be an option of a BYO picnic lunch on the Playground. So as to not overcrowd our classrooms, nor overwhelm the students, we kindly ask that visitors be limited to TWO guests per student (including children over 5).
A Compass post will be sent out when the Insight is available with more information on options times and details.
Our staff and students look forward to welcoming you on the day.
P&F UPDATE
Our P& F Committee met last Monday, 3 May. The main focus was discussing the future of our Country Fair. Parents/Carers are asked to complete the Insight survey via Compass or paper copy sent via diaries last week and return NO LATER THAN Monday, 17 May. The survey will help the P&F make a final decision on the Country Fair.
Our next P&F Committee meeting will be held on Monday, 7 June (Week 8)
G'DAY MASS AND ATHLETICS CARNIVAL
Our Athletics Carnival and GDay Mass will be happening again in Week 9. We are hoping to be able to invite parents and guests to come watch how talented our students are. More information to come as we get closer to the day.
SACRAMENTAL MASS
A reminder that the Bishop will be attending our Sacramental Mass which will be held on Saturday, August 14 at 3pm in the Mater Dei Chapel.
COMMUNITY NEWS
