Term 1, Week 6 (7 March 2022)
CEO/PRINCIPAL'S ADDRESS
Dear Parents and Carers,
Another week, another crisis! Hope this newsletter finds you dry and safe. The weather has been atrocious to say the least, and it is not over yet. The decision made to close our school last Thursday and Friday was a difficult one, as I knew this would cause significant disruption for our families. It was with a heavy heart that today, I had to do the same. Although this was communicated late this morning, the safety of our students and staff is our prime responsibility.
I have been monitoring the weather forecasts like a hawk today, and due to the predicted conditions for this evening, we will be closed again tomorrow.
Tonight we were to be holding the first Parents and Friends meeting of the year, but after consulting the President this morning, I have decided to postpone it for one week. It would not be wise to have people travelling to Mater Dei after dark in the volatile conditions. The first meeting of every year is normally the Annual General Meeting when elections for the Executive are held, but more importantly, it is a chance to welcome new parents and carers who may not have had the chance to be with us before. We will post details of next week’s meeting on Compass in coming days.
It seems trite of me to talk about resilience in such ongoing conditions. Like with the COVID-19 pandemic, the constant rain, flooding and disruption will not last forever, and brighter days will eventually appear. We all live with that hope that things will get better, and history shows that they always do. The events in Ukraine also give us perspective about what life and death circumstances are really like. In the mean-time continue to monitor our usual communication channels to stay alert to any need to close our site because of unsafe conditions.
Parents and Friends Association AGM POSTPONED until Monday 14 March, 7.00pm in the school hall. All welcome.
Kind regards,
MARK RAUE
CEO/PRINCIPAL
FROM THE DEPUTY PRINCIPAL'S DESK
A PRAYER FOR ETHAN S
Please join our community as we continue to pray for our student, Ethan S, and his family. Ethan continues his recovery in hospital after a significant medical emergency.
A GoFundMe Page has been set up for Ethan and can be found here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sk6k4c-help-ethan-recover
Go gently,
Eryn Lonergan
Deputy Principal
ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL'S UPDATE
Dear Families,
Thank you to all our families for their support with the early pick up and school closures last week and today. We understand this is not an ideal situation but staff and student safety are paramount in these difficult and unpredictable weather conditions. We pray for all members of our community who may be flood affected.
As restrictions have now eased, we are excited to welcome our families back onsite later this week to our Secondary Assembly. A reminder to families attending, they will need to wear a mask when coming onsite.
Please keep up to date with any changes via Compass, SMS and MD Families Facebook page. If you need to contact the school at any time, please email schooladmin@materdei.org.au
Regards,
Kylee Laugesen
Assistant Principal
COVID-SMART MEASURES
KEY MEASURES FOR THE REMAINDER OF TERM 1
As per CSNSW COVID-smart measures for the remainder of Term 1:
Rapid Antigen Home Tests - Tests provided are to be used at your discretion such as if your child is symptomatic or if a case is advised
Mask Wearing – No longer required for students. In line with community settings, workers (including visitors and volunteers) who support students with disability in specialised settings are still required to wear masks while working with students indoors, and also outdoors when physical distance is not possible. Therefore, Mater Dei School Staff will continue wearing masks in these circumstances.
Events & Activities - The school will consider on-site activities, such as special events, assemblies, and other gatherings to ensure accordance with COVID-smart guidelines and will announce preparations as these events arise. Restrictions around off-site activities will still be in place for the remainder of Term 1. Work Place Learning and Year 7/8 Sport with Magdalene is scheduled to commence with measures to minimise risk.
Visitors - Visitors are permitted on school site Parents may sign students in (later arrival) and out (early departure) via reception and access the Compass Kiosk to do this.
Student Drop Off and Pick Up Arrangements - Arrangements remain the same, however drop off time for Parents will be open from 8:45-9:15 am and collection time is 3:00-3:15pm
Staying home if unwell - Any student or staff member who is unwell and/or displays symptoms of COVID-19 (even mild) will be asked to go home and complete a RAHT or PCR test.
- If a positive result - See Positive Covid Cases for actions required.
- If a negative result - Staff/Student must still not come to school until well and symptom free.
- If symptoms are prolonged and another condition is diagnosed, such as hayfever, Student/Staff member can return to school with a medical clearance noting the condition.
POSITIVE COVID CASE – ACTIONS
Notify the School
Any staff (including contractors) or student who tests positive to COVID is required to follow NSW Health requirements under the Public Health Order for testing positive including:
- Immediately notify the school of any positive result to a COVID test (PCR or RAHT) by emailing schooladmin@materdei.org.au or contacting School Reception on 4655 7481 during school hours.
- Ensure an attendance note is then added to Compass as “Medical – Illness”
- Report a positive RAHT result to Service NSW
Self-Isolate
Currently, the requirement is:
- isolate for 7 days following the positive test
- leave isolation after 7 days (and can return to school) unless symptoms are still present (including, a sore throat, runny nose, cough, or shortness of breath).
- If symptoms are still present, remain in isolations until 24 hours after symptoms have resolved. If a person continues to have symptoms, they are able to leave isolation with a medical clearance.
School Actions
A generic letter is distributed to alert the school community that there has been a case and to monitor for symptoms. Depending on circumstances, and the movements of a positive individual in the two days prior to the positive test or symptoms, this notification may go to the entire school community or to particular cohorts. Upon notification of a positive case who attended the school within the two days prior to positive test or systems, an additional regular clean will also take place.
If those in contact with the positive case (e.g. staff and students in the same class) have no symptoms, they can continue to attend school in line with NSW Health advice.
CLOSE/HOUSEHOLD CONTACTS – ACTIONS
Close contacts are now household contacts only. A household contact is a person who lives with someone who has COVID-19. Household contacts are required by NSW Health to isolate for 7 days unless the person has previously tested positive to COVID and ended their isolation for this in the past 28 days.
If a student is absent from school due to isolating as a close contact, ensure an attendance note is added to Compass as “Other explained absence”.
SCHOOL NEWS
PBIS FOCUS
The PBIS Focus for this week is Emotional Wellbeing. Both Primary and Secondary will be accessing our new online Wellbeing Matrix on Prowise to complete various lessons throughout the fortnight. Students will be looking at what emotions are and how different responses can mean different things.
WELLBEING
The school wide behaviour expectations chart has been a huge success with our new students so far. The chart is in every classroom at Mater Dei and this ensures that consistency flows throughout the school. Students begin on ‘Ready to Learn’ and have the chance to movie up to ‘Great Choices’ and ‘Fantastic Choices’. When students need a breather, they may move down ‘Think about it’ – students given time to reflect on their behaviours and then ‘Teacher’s choice’ – teacher may choose to give the student a breather or send them to a buddy class to reflect on behaviour.
Any teacher on any class can use the chart effectively to ensure all students are being kind, safe and a learner.
LENT
As a Catholic school, in the Benedictine Tradition, Mater Dei acknowledged Ash Wednesday with placing ashes on each other’s forehead to remind ourselves and to show others that we believe in and follow Jesus.Ash Wednesday is the start of the Lenten Season and concludes on Easter Sunday.
PROJECT COMPASSION
At Mater Dei during Lent, the school supports Project Compassion, organised by the charity, Caritas. This particular project raises money for people who are significantly disadvantaged both in Australia and throughout our close international neighbours. Project Compassion focuses on teaching knowledge and developing skills so people can gain some independence. https://www.caritas.org.au/project-compassion/
Mater Dei will be collecting gold coins this Wednesday, 9th March. The students will be watching short video clips showing them how their Gold Coins donations make a difference to people’s lives.
PEDAGOGY NEWS
At Mater Dei we implement Prompting Hierarchy as an Evidence-Based Practice. A prompting hierarchy is a structured systematic method of assisting students to learn and use new skills. Prompting hierarchies provide each student with a greater number of opportunities to communicate. They will reduce the student’s level of frustration, anger, and adult dependency. There are two different types of prompt hierarchies: Most-To-Least and Least-To-Most.
SPORTS
Mater Dei’s 2022 Representative Sports Pathway kicked off on Monday the 28th February, with our first Swimming Trials at Camden Pools. Selected students participated in the trials who were nominations by their Families based on the child’s swimming ability. Fifteen students participated across three different events.
From these trials, ten students were successful in gaining selection to represent Mater Dei at the Wollongong Diocese Swimming Championships.
Joshua M was selected to represent Mater Dei in the Primary Championships on Thursday 3rd March which unfortunately had to be postponed due to flooding.
The following students have been selected to represent Mater Dei in the Secondary Championships on Friday 11th March:
Aidan H, Leishiya A, Maya B, Zack P, Charbel C, Justin B, Jacob C, Jack C, Zac L
We are so proud of our students and wish them the best of luck!
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
STUDENT BIRTHDAYS AND SPECIAL EVENTS
A reminder to families, we are currently not able to share any food at school including birthday cakes. If your child is celebrating a special event, we kindly ask families not to send in homemade treats or birthday cakes.
We understand these are important milestones and are more than happy to distribute individually wrapped, pre-packaged items such as lollipops, freddo frogs and cake bars.
YEAR 6 POLO SHIRTS
This year, our Year 6 Students have the opportunity to purchase a School Polo. Students will be allowed to wear the Polo during 2022 as an optional part of their sport uniform. Please fill in and return the note available on Compass before Friday the 18th of March.
SECONDARY STUDENTS BLAZER ORDER
All students in Years 7-12 are required to wear their Mater Dei Blazer as part of the daily winter uniform. Any new students, or students who have outgrown their blazer should contact Yeronga Uniforms to organise a fitting.
- Blazer orders begin on 28 February 2022 and the final day for ordering is 19 March 2022.
- Special orders for girls winter trousers (optional) begin on 28 February 2022 and end on 12 March 2022.
EVENTS
PAST EVENTS:
STAFF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Professional Development is an important part of being a teacher, to stay up to date with current research and practices. Last week our teachers engaged in a Self-Reflection focusing on the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) Seven Standards. The Standards use agreed indicators of teacher quality to guide the preparation, support and development of teachers throughout their careers. Our teachers are now formulating their own focus goals for 2022 that will lead them into high quality effective teaching that improves student learning outcomes.
FUTURE EVENTS:
POST SCHOOL INFORMATION NIGHT - YEAR 10 - 12 FAMILIES
Our Post School Information night will be held in our School Hall on Wednesday, 16 March starting at 6pm, we aim to finish at 7:30pm but will remain to answer any questions you may have. All Year 12 families including students MUST attend and it is highly recommended that Year 10 and 11 students and their families also attend so they can begin to prepare for the transition to post school life in the future.
Fred Etuk (Team Leader) from NDIS and his team will be in attendance. Fred and his colleagues work in the Campbelltown area. NextPath staff will also provide information on the services and Programs on offer. We will also present information regarding students transitioning from school out to their communities.
Many students and their families feel concerned about where to after Year 12. This night aims to inform families and provide them the tools to make decisions and begin planning for about life after Mater Dei School.
WORKPLACE LEARNING
Our Workplace Learning (WPL) started off strongly on Monday and Tuesday with students eager to go to their Workplace sites and to meet their new hosts. These students had very positive experiences and were all aglow in their reports of their interactions. However, the rain came on Wednesday, therefore no WPL occurred on this day. We look forward to getting the students back to their Hosts this week!
YEAR 7 & 8 SPORT
Unfortunately, the recent weather has held us up for another week to go to Bujutsu and Lawn Bowls. Our students are ready and eager to begin in Week 6 if possible. They have engaged in a social story so they know what to expect and are looking forward to meeting our Magdalene friends.
SHARED LEARNING WITH ST GREGS
Beginning in the next few weeks students from Years 5/6 from St Gregs will be coming to Mater Dei to participate in shared learning with our 5/6 students. Mater Dei students will be using the flexible learning space to share their knowledge of Engineering with St Gregs students. We look forward to welcoming them onsite and hope that this program can continue into the future.
MATER DEI CHARITY GOLF DAY
WORLD MATHS DAY INCURSION
Wednesday 23rd March 2022 is World Maths Day
To celebrate this event Mater Dei will be hosting an incursion at school on Tuesday 22nd March 2022 for our Kindergarten to Year 10 students.
World of Maths, take enormous pride in their workshops and pour a lot of love into their hand-made activities.
Their approach is all about making sure learning is fun through real-life examples, by understanding instructions and applying problem-solving skills.
They will be providing hands-on activities which have many benefits for students. And it’s not just about reinforcing maths concepts – their activities encourage participation, boost confidence and spark a love of learning. Their focus is on everyone ‘having a go’.
HELPFUL REMINDERS
PARENT FORMS AND SCHOOL DOCUMENTATION
Just a reminder that Compass now has a range of forms and Compass support documents for parents to access. Parent Forms are now located on Compass using the following steps:
(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
- Click on Community Icon (2 heads)
- Click on School Documentation
- Click Parent Forms
ATTENDANCE EXEMPTION FORMS
Any families who wish to apply for attendance exemptions to attend therapy services in 2022, please download the Application for Leave Exemption form on Compass, complete and return to schooladmin@materdei.org.au
AFTERNOON ARRANGEMENTS 2022
In the event of either of the following:
- Student to be collected by a different family member or family friend over 18 years of age
- Student to be collected INSTEAD of usual taxi arrangement for specified day
Parent/Guardian is required to advise the school of the change, and MUST include the full name of person collecting, PRIOR to 2:30pm on the day of the change. This may be done via one of the following options:
- Noting change in student diary
- Phoning School Reception on ph. 4655 7481
- Emailing schooladmin@materdei.org.au
If your child needs to be collected by a service provider, a Parent/Guardian is required to complete a Collection by a Service Provider form (available on Compass) and email it to schooladmin@materdei.org.au
This form must be received PRIOR to 3pm on the day before the new arrangement is to take place.
If unable to provide the full name of the staff member collecting, the Parent/ Guardian is required to arrange the Service Provider to notify the school via schooladmin@materdei.org.au email by 2:30pm on the day the student is to be collected.
COMPASS CALENDAR TO YOUR PHONE
Any parents or carers wishing to sync the School Compass Calendar to their iPhone will need to set up a Google account and then following the below steps:
You can sync Google Calendar with the Calendar app that comes on your iPhone or iPad.
- On your iPhone or iPad, open your device settings.
- Scroll and tap Passwords & Accounts.
- Tap Add account Google.
- Enter your email address Next.
- Enter your password. If you don't have the latest operating system and you use 2-Step Verification, enter an app password instead of your regular password.
- Tap Next.
- Emails, contacts, and calendar events will now sync directly with your Google Account. To sync only your calendar, turn off the other services.
- Open the Calendar app on your iPhone to find your Google Calendar events.
To sync with an existing account, tap the account and turn on Calendars.
SECOND HAND UNIFORMS FACEBOOK PAGE
Mater Dei School also has a Buy Swap Sell Second-hand Uniform Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/uniformsmaterdei/. Parents and carers are encouraged to submit and respond to their own listings if they wish to sell, buy or give away pre-loved uniforms.
JOIN US ON OUR SOCIALS
IMPORTANT DATES
