Term 1, Week 2 (6 February 2023)

Dear Parents, Grandparents and Friends of Mater Dei,

During the school vacation, you would have received notification from the Chair of the Board of Mater Dei, Mr Michael Lavorato, that Mr Mark Raue relinquished his position as Principal/CEO. In that communication you were also informed of my appointment as the interim Principal/CEO until this vacancy is filled.

Firstly, I wish to thank Mark and congratulate him for his dedication and commitment to Mater Dei, and for all he has done to lead the Mater Dei community during the past few years. It has been expressed to me on numerous occasions over the past couple of weeks, how much the community will greatly miss his leadership, presence, support, understanding and friendship. Our kind wishes and God’s blessings go with Mark for a healthy, rewarding, successful and enjoyable time ahead in this time of change in his life’s journey.

From my perspective, I want to thank the Mater Dei Board for offering me the opportunity to lead this wonderful community as the Principal/CEO over the next few months. I see this position as a privilege, while understanding that it will be both a challenging and rewarding experience.

Anyone who witnessed the return of the students to school last week, could not but be impressed by the excitement of the students, and the love, care and commitment of the parents, other family members and staff towards these young children and young adults. It was also great to welcome our new students, especially those children starting Kindergarten, and to welcome their parents and other family members into the Mater Dei community. As part of our community, we want you to feel welcome and included, and acknowledged, appreciated and respected for all you to do to support your children and young adults.

The ongoing development, learning, welfare and wellbeing of all the students attending Mater Dei, will be enhanced with a close relationship and partnership between home and school.  One of our major goals is to continue to build this relationship and partnership.  

Like our wish for Mark on his departure from his role at Mater Dei, we ask for God’s blessings during 2023, and look forward to a successful and rewarding School Year ahead.   

Best regards,

PAUL McCANN
CEO/PRINCIPAL

There is a common saying in starting a new job that you can ‘hit the ground running’ and this has certainly been the case for me over these past weeks in joining this wonderful community. The energy and enthusiasm from staff right across the Mater Dei Organisation is infectious and this was given a further burst with the return of students and families last Wednesday. It was also a wonderful opportunity to welcome new families and children for their first day at Mater Dei School. I acknowledge and thank all staff for their work in preparing for the return and welcome last Wednesday. There was a buzz of excitement in the air well before the first car arrived in the drop off line. I particularly thank the School Executive for their patience, assistance and guidance in showing me the ropes. They are certainly an impressive group of leaders and educators with a broad range of expertise. I look forward to learning the names of the students and meeting parents and families over the coming weeks. 

Thank you for the warm welcome that I have received in many ways. I am always open to communication from parents and I encourage you to reach out to your child's classroom teacher with any news for celebration or concerns for your child. 

My first weeks here at Mater Dei have resonated with me the words of Mother Teresa; “Peace begins with a Smile. Everytime you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing”. I am grateful for this beautiful gift of welcome and peace as I begin my journey of walking beside each of you at Mater Dei.

JENNIFER FOLDES
DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

2023 LEADERSHIP AND NEW STAFF

The School Leadership is led by the CEO/Principal, Paul McCann through the Deputy Principal, Jennifer Foldes and we extend our warm welcome to both Paul and Jenny into these roles. Each position of the School Leadership has particular areas of responsibilities including being Stage Leaders for specific groups of students. Please see our organisation chart below.

We would also like to welcome our newest staff members to our School:

Laura Hooper, Madeline Mansfield, Alyssa Marco, Peta Howley, Rebecca Dunn, Chelsea Hughes and Mark Sheddon.

Origins of Good Samaritan Education

Good Samaritan Education was established by the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, we share a vision of Catholic education. 

Good Samaritan Education is built on the firm foundation of the educational ministry of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan which began in 1861. From the very beginning, commitment to the education of young people was at the heart of the Sisters’ mission.

St Patrick’s College Campbelltown, is one of the other GSE schools.  Each term, we have a small number of students from year ten, visit us on Tuesday afternoons, as part of their Community Service Program.  This will begin during Week Three.  Students from both schools benefit from this ongoing program.

Opening Mass

Our families are warmly invited to attend our Opening Mass, which will be held on Friday, February 24 at 9:30am, in the Sister Carmela Ritchie Hall.

On Monday 30^th January, all Mater Dei staff gathered in Camden for our Professional Development Day. The day proved immensely valuable for staff and provided a wonderful opportunity for us to meet new colleagues, prepare for the year ahead and reaffirm our commitment to the babies, students and young adults that we support.

We were joined by Maisy, our Wellbeing Support Canine who will be joining Mater Dei School this year. Maisy’s training and preparation is going well, and all staff are excited to have her join us in Term 1.

Undoubtedly the highlight was the incredible and empowering speech delivered by 3-time Paralympic Gold Medallist, Australian champion and Disability advocate Kurt Fearnley AO. Kurt provided a tremendous amount of insight and perspective, and for many staff this was truly a moment that will never be forgotten.

PBIS is an evidence based whole school process tp improve learning outcomes for students at Mater Dei. PBIS aims to establish positive social expectations for all members of our school community.

Students in K-6 will undertake weekly PBIS lessons.

What does it look like at Mater Dei?

Throughout our school, you will see signs in both classrooms and outdoor areas. The focus of these signs are our school values which are:

Students in K-6 also take part in PBIS lessons that have a specific focus every fortnight. These lessons aim to teach students the appropriate behaviours that are expected at our school.

For students in 7-12 they will learn about the appropriate behaviours that are expected at our school as part of their curriculum based lessons.

Our PBIS focus for this fortnight is on returning to school and how we can follow our school’s behaviour expectations, Be Kind, Be Safe and Be a Learner.

In 2022, Year 11 had been involved in Project 5, which aimed to transform skills, engagement and perceptions through individualisation.  An evolution of growth for students, families and staff in their self-determination skills.

Being self-determined means acting or causing things to happen by setting and taking the steps necessary to achieve one’s goals (Shogren, Wehmeyer, Palmer, Forber-Pratt, et al., 2015). 

This year we would like to continue this process with both year 11 and 12, allowing the students to create their own goals and focus on developing skills in the workforce.

Students will create goals based on their own idea of what they would like to further develop to become a more independent and confident member of society. These goals will be evaluated, and students will determine if they need more time to develop the goal or move forward onto another goal.

Representative Sport
We will be holding trials for both our Representative swimming and cross country teams. Students must be in Years 3-12, to be considered for selection. Selected students will then compete at the Wollongong Diocese Championships. Parents will be required to transport their child to and from the Championships. If you are interested in your child trialling for either team, please email rebeccah@materdei.org.au 

Swimming: students can nominate for 50m freestyle, backstroke or breaststroke.

Cross Country: Primary students will run a 2km course, secondary students will run a 3km course.

If your child is in Year 7 or Year 10 this year, you can now provide online consent for their routine school vaccinations.

In Year 7, students are offered free vaccines for diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (dTpa) and human papillomavirus (HPV). In Year 10, students are offered the meningococcal ACWY vaccine.

Vaccination will only be provided at school if consent has been received. 

How to provide consent:

1. To complete online consent for your child’s school vaccinations, visit: https://nswhealth.service-now.com/school
2. Follow the steps to log in to your existing ServiceNSW account. This is the same account you may already use to renew your driver’s licence. If you don’t have a ServiceNSW account, refer to ServiceNSW to create one. 
3. Update or confirm your personal details in ServiceNSW as required. 
4. Complete the School Vaccination Consent Form for your child/ren. You will need to:  
1. Enter your child’s personal details 
2. Provide the Medicare card details for you and your child  
3. Read the linked Parent Information Sheet and privacy statement 
4. Provide consent  

If you or your child do not have a Medicare card, consent can still be provided by requesting a paper-based consent form directly from your child’s school.

The benefits of providing consent online:

• easily update your child’s details
• receive SMS and/or email notifications when vaccinations are given
• faster upload of vaccination records to the Australian Immunisation Register (AIR). 

For more information on routine school vaccinations, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/schoolvaccination or call the Liverpool Public Health Unit on 9794 0855.

If you require information in your language, please visit www.health.nsw.gov.au/immunisation/Pages/school_vaccination_language.aspx

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

Parent Teacher Conferences will occur across four days from Monday 20th February to Thursday 23rd February 2023 from 4:00-6:00pm. 

Conferences may take place in person on site at Mater Dei School, via online Zoom Meetings or phone calls.

Bookings must be made online via Compass and will open on Friday 10th February 2023. A Compass notification will be posted once open.  Instructions on how to book will be posted on Compass.

The above is all subject to change based on current COVID guidelines from NSW Government and any changes will be posted on Compass.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact school between 8:30am and 4pm.

Mater Dei's P&F Annual General Meeting is being held on Monday, 6 March 2023.

The P&F Executive Team - President, Treasurer and Secretary will be elected as well as the Country Fair Coordinator and Canteen Coordinator for 2023. 

The evening will begin at 7pm in the School Hall with light refreshments and a chance to meet other parents and carers, followed by some brief reports from the outgoing executive and the election of the 2023 executive team. 

We hope you can join us and if you would like any further information please email - pandf@materdei.org.au

This year's Post School Information Night will be held on Wednesday 15th March at 6pm.

Year 12 families are expected to be present. Year 11 and 10 families are encouraged to be present.

Please bring NDIS plan

Students are very welcome to attend.

2023 AFTERNOON ARRANGEMENTS

In the event of either of the following:

• Student needs to be collected by a different family member or family friend over 18 years of age
• Student needs to be collected by parent INSTEAD of usual taxi arrangement for a 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 2:30pm 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.