Term 3, Week 8 (5 September 2023)
FROM THE PRINCIPAL'S DESK
After 32 years in secondary education, I experienced my first Book Week Parade a few weeks back, dressed as none other than a member of “Team Incredible”. What an absolute delight it was to be part of yet another day of fun and high spirits at Mater Dei right from the very first student arrival in the morning. There was much excitement amongst the students to see the range of characters arriving, however, I do believe that the staff may just have had as much fun in putting their costumes together as well. The red carpet parade in the hall captured the event and sense of enjoyment perfectly. I would like to also acknowledge Nathan Donoghue for his outstanding role as emcee.
As we welcome family and visitors to the school for our Celebration of Learning days, I once again acknowledge the commitment of our staff for the quality and range of teaching and learning that occurs at Mater Dei. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation from 9/10 Polding at the assembly last week with their acting and dancing skills on show. Congratulations again to the students who were presented with awards for learning and various sports.
Mrs Michelle Fogarty has made the decision to finish her employment at Mater Dei. I take this opportunity to thank Mrs Fogarty for her contributions both in and beyond the classroom and know that she will be missed. We wish her all the best with her future endeavours.
Today I had the opportunity, along with the Mater Dei Leadership Team, to welcome Mr Matthew Cleary to Mater Dei as the new CEO. Matthew was accompanied by Mr Michael Lavorato, Board Chair, and said that he is very much looking forward to meeting all members of the community across the Organisation. I extended a warm welcome on behalf of our students, staff and families and know that you will be looking forward to the opportunity of meeting him as well.
Kind regards,
JENNIFER FOLDES
ACTING PRINCIPAL
SCHOOL NEWS
MISSION & VISION
The Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.
The circumstances of the Virgin Mary's infancy and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are cited by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church. These accounts, although not considered authoritative in the same manner as the Bible, outline some of the Church's traditional beliefs about the birth of Mary. Mater Dei = Mother of God
Students from St Patrick’s College and St Gregory’s Junior School continue to visit and will be onsite this week. These visits provide insight and enjoyment for both students and staff from each school.
At the beginning of Week 9, we will be having ten students and two staff members from Lourdes Hill College, Brisbane. This school is one of our fellow Good Samaritan Education Colleges. The visitors will be onsite at Mater Dei, visiting the School, the Early Childhood settings and also the Therapy team! This is always a positive experience for both schools!
Humility is the quality of living life to the full, of dealing with reality, of accepting it, and of being formed by it.
Joan Chittster OSB
GOOD SAMS FOUNDATION EDUCATION GRANTS 2024
We are delighted to offer GSF Education Grants for students attending Good Samaritan Colleges in 2024. Please see attached flyer.
Applications for 2024 grants are now open and close at midnight on Thursday 28th September 2023. All applicants must complete the application form and provide a reference from our Relieving Principal, Ms Jenny Foldes. Please note applications will not be received after the closing date.
SPORT NEWS
NATIONAL ALL SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY
On Saturday 26th August Lilly-Rose and Jack represented NSW at the National All Schools Cross Country in the ACT. Lilly-Rose won Bronze in the 10 year girls MC event and her team won Gold, Jacks team won Silver. Jack was then selected in the NSW cross country relay team, where his team won Gold. Congratulations!!!
WOLLONGONG DIOCESE FOOTBALL GALA DAY
On Thursday 24th August, some of our primary students represented Mater Dei in the Wollongong Diocese Soccer Gala Day in a Junior and Senior team. It was fantastic to see all the students in the Junior team getting involved and just having a go. They really worked as a team to share the ball and even took turns at being the Goalkeeper. The other schools who participated were so encouraging towards our students and they all seemed to have fun. Some of the highlights from the day for our Junior team students were “Kicking the ball” and "Scoring a goal”.
The senior team had a blast representing Mater Dei at the Soccer Gala Day with all of our students showing great sportsmanship, shaking hands with the other players after each game finished and working as a team. Our students huddled together before each game throwing their hands in the middle shouting “Mater Dei on 3”! A highlight was seeing all the schools we versed cheering us on and coming over to us after the games telling us how well we played, even a teacher told us we were like the Socceroos!
A fantastic day out for some of our students with lots of smiles, red faces and laughs throughout the day.
Good Luck to our students who will be representing Wollongong Diocese at the Combined Catholic College Athletics Championships and the Mackillop Athletics Championships over the next couple of weeks.
PEDAGOGY
Mater Dei students are always encouraged and supported to continue to grow their learning. Through explicit teaching and modeling each student is guided to achieve goals across all areas of learning including reading, writing and mathematics just to name a few. Many different strategies and resources are implemented to support each student’s learning. In the photos you can see Donna S and Emma using an ipad app to match the letter sound to the letter. Miss Duffy is modeling how to form the letter q then verbally supporting Lucas to write the letter himself. Annabella is writing the sentence she has verbally told that has been scribed for her to copy. Jay Jay is sorting into two groups according to criteria of healthy or sometimes foods. Chase is using a stimulus image to write what he notices then to write a question about what he wonders about the image. All of these strategies and resources assist the students to work more independently and to scaffold their tasks into smaller achievable steps. Well done to all of our students who continue to learn everyday at Mater Dei School.
WORKPLACE LEARNING UPDATE
Students have settled very well into their Semester 2 work placements.
We have a variety of business industries that host and support our workplace learning students such as hospitality, motor vehicle, beauty, retail, warehousing, veterinary care, plant nursery and childcare. We also have our on-site pre-vocational skills program running this semester. Students are developing industry specific knowledge and skills within the work place as well as enhancing transferable skills such as communication, independence, building confidence, and working within a team.
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
P&F COUNTRY FAIR
We are getting very excited about the upcoming Country Fair on Sunday 22nd October 2023. This is the P&F's major fundraiser for the year and we need your help to make the day run successfully.
Please return your volunteer forms by Friday 22nd September via your child's diary or you can email it to - pandf@materdei.org.au. Lots of work will be done by the Country Fair Committee during the school holidays in preparation for the event.
P&F COUNTRY FAIR RAFFLE
The Country Fair Raffle is now live and has 10 amazing prizes on offer. There are over $9000 in prizes to be won.
Please click on the link or scan the QR code attached to purchase your tickets and read more about the prizes on offer - https://www.raffletix.com.au/?ref=c5p2n.
YEAR 7 & YEAR 10 VACCINATIONS
Public Health Unit Liverpool will be at the school on the 21st of September to administer any catch up vaccines to students in Year 7 and Year 10.
Vaccination will only be provided at school if consent has been received. To complete online consent for your child’s school vaccinations, visit: https://nswhealth.service-now.com/school
A step by step guide to how to consent can be found here: https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/immunisation/Pages/online-consent-school-vaccination.aspx
Any Year 10 students who did not receive a vaccination on the 14th of August would have received a paper-based consent which can be used instead of the online consent form.
If you have any questions or concerns please contact Mrs Christy Smith during school hours.
LABELLING UNIFORM ITEMS
Just a reminder to families to please label all items of clothing as this greatly helps us in finding the owner of any missing items.
COVID - CURRENT MEASURES IN PLACE
Given we are a high risk, disability setting, we wish to remind families of the mandatory 7 day isolation requirement remains in place at Mater Dei for all staff and students who test positive to COVID (including if you are a close contact).
Students should not attend Mater Dei if unwell or displaying COVID symptoms and only return after completing isolation and/or when symptom free.
2023 SCHOOL DROP OFF / PICK UP PROCEDURES
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.
MAISY'S CORNER
EVENTS
PRIMARY CELEBRATION OF LEARNING
On Friday 15 September, we have our Primary Celebration of Learning. Families will be invited to visit the classroom and engage in a learning experience with their child, followed by an assembly and picnic lunch with their child. To finish off the day, families who had not yet visited their child in the classroom will have this opportunity to do so.
NEXTPATH CONTINUOUS LEARNING HOLIDAY PROGRAM
IMPORTANT DATES
HELPFUL REMINDERS
PARENT FORMS AND SCHOOL DOCUMENTATION
School documentation and common forms are stored in Compass for parents to access at any time. Parent Forms can be found by following these steps on your Compass App:
(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 2023, please download the Application for Leave Exemption form on Compass, complete and return to schooladmin@materdei.org.au
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.
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COMMUNITY NEWS
DISABILITY MACARTHUR
Disability Macarthur run a Peer Support Junior program that offers care for young people with low to high needs disabilities form 5 years old to 17 years old.
The program has three programs it runs which are:
- After School Care
- Saturday Programs
- School Holiday Vacation Care.