Term 3, Week 10 (19 September 2023)
SCHOOL NEWS
MISSION & VISION
It’s been a busy term with visits from many of our local and Good Samaritan Education Schools! Last week, we had ten girls from Lourdes Hill College, in Brisbane join us for four days. The students were accompanied by three staff and they all thoroughly enjoyed their stay. The students participated in Physiotherapy sessions, visited our Early Childhood settings and many classrooms! The girls also delivered some resources that they made for our students. It was wonderful to have them here at Mater Dei.
We also finished this week with our regular Term Three visitors from St Patrick’s College and also our fortnightly visits from St Gregory’s Junior School. Our Year 5/6 classes will be visiting St Gregory’s next term! Mater Dei has strong connections to our local and Good Samaritan Education schools and will continue to do so during Term Four.
Last week, students in Years 7 through to 10 participated in a Reflection Day. The theme was Our Gifts from God. Students were given opportunities reflect on how their gifts and talents were blessings from God. We were lucky enough to be joined by staff and students from our neighbouring school St Benedict's Catholic College, as well as our Good Samaritan sister school Lourdes Hill College in Queensland. The day began with ice breaker games and getting to know our visiting students. They discussed their likes, dislikes, and talents. Students worked in small groups to achieve a task, and showcased their many skills. All students made an affirmation box and filled it with positive affirmations cards for their personal use. We concluded with a solemn liturgy in the school Chapel, thanking God for our many gifts and talents and praying that he continues to bless us all with more.
CURRICULUM
The new Auslan K-10 syllabus is now part of the NSW curriculum. For the first time, schools have the option to offer Auslan to students. Schools can plan and prepare to teach the new K–10 syllabus in 2023, 2024 and 2025. The new syllabus will be implemented in NSW schools in 2026.
The aim of Auslan K–10 is to empower students to become effective communicators in Auslan through developing linguistic competence and cultural understanding.
Students:
- learn to interact, understand and create texts effectively in Auslan
- reflect on their own language, culture and identity and those of others, including the Deaf community
- develop an interest in and appreciation of communicating in Auslan in a culturally appropriate manner
- foster an appreciation and respect for the diversity of cultures.
SPORT NEWS
PRIMARY REPRESENTATIVE ATHLETICS
On Monday 18th September, seven Mater Dei students represented the Wollongong Diocese at the Mackillop Athletics Championships at Homebush. Corrado, Marco, Maria, Marius, Lilly-Rose, William and Rosie participated in the heat and were able to produce some amazing results.
- Rosie - 2nd 100m, 3rd long jump
- Maria - 3rd 100m
- Corrado - 3rd 100m
- Marius - 2nd long jump
- Lilly-Rose - 1st 800m
These five students have now been selected to represent Mackiilop at the NSW PSSA Championships next month.
PEDAGOGY
There are many ways that children learn. There are many evidence-based and research-based strategies, high-leverage strategies as well as many different environments in which children learn. Some of these include teacher modeling and demonstration. However if you were to ask a Kindergarten student what they remember or what was the best part of the lesson they will probably say, ‘doing’ something. This is more than likely when they are using their senses to physically touch, see, smell, listen and sometimes taste? Science provides a great opportunity for students to learn and remember in this way through investigating and experimenting. Kindergarten students have been learning about the properties and uses of materials. In particular they have investigated materials such as wood, metal, plastic and fabric. Not only have they classified example objects made from these materials but also identified why certain objects are made from specific types of materials. Recently they experimented to decide what material is best to keep you dry if it was raining. Another real life example of objects made from specific materials for specific reasons are hats. Kindergarten enjoyed the physical opportunity to use their senses to reason why a shower cap is made from plastic, why a beanie is made from wool, why a work hat is made from hard plastic. In their next science lesson the students will use their senses to investigate and experiment with different types of shoes. I’m not sure who is more excited, the students or Mrs Twine!
WELLBEING
As a school, we are constantly reviewing school attendance records. The Department of Education expects student attendance rates will be above 90% (the state average is 93%). If your child's school attendance is below 70% is of concern to us and you will receive a letter from the Leader of Wellbeing raising this concern with you.
A particular area of concern for us is the number of unexplained absences our students have on record. When a child is unable to attend school it is the parent/carer’s responsibility to contact the school on that day to inform them and to provide the school with an explanation for their absence.
The following are generally acceptable explanations for student absence:
- Sickness or accident, where the child is not well enough to attend school.
- Medical and dental appointments, where out of hours appointments are not possible or not appropriate.
- Bereavement or attendance at the funeral.
- The child has an approved exemption.
If your child is absent for 4 days in a row we request that you provide a medical certificate that provides medical clearance to return to school.
How To: Add an Attendance Note for an upcoming Absence
- Click ‘Add Attendance Note (Approved Absence/Late)’. <Image 1>
- A Note screen will open. Select the applicable reason from the drop down list; add any additional information if applicable in the Details/Comment box. Select the start and finish date/time of the absence and click ‘Save’. <Image 2>
How To: Add an Attendance Note for an Unexplained Absence
- If your child has been marked Not Present without an explanation, you will be required to add an Attendance Note. You will see an alert on your home screen. <Image 3>
- Click the alert and it will take you to your child’s ‘Unexplained’ attendance tab where you will see any sessions listed for which they were marked as Not Present or Late. <Image 4>
- Select the session (or sessions) that you are adding a note for and then click ‘Explain with Attendance Note’. This will cause the Attendance Note screen to pop open. <Image 5>
Select the applicable reason for the absence and add in the relevant details/comments. Click ‘Save’.This will assign the attendance note to the sessions you selected and they will update to no longer show as unexplained absences.
VACCINATIONS - THURSDAY 21 SEPTEMBER
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.
NEXTPATH CONTINUOUS LEARNING 2024 INTAKE
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
MUFTI DAY
Our next Country Fair Mufti Day is the Friday, 22 September which is the last day of Term 3 and we are requesting donations of gift cards. In particular we would love donations of Wish (Woolworths group), Coles/Myer and eftpos gift cards. These can be sent in any day during the last week of term. Please place them in an envelope labelled - "Country Fair Donation".
Thank you to all our families for your support and generous donations throughout the year!
CANTEEN
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.
P&F COUNTRY FAIR - CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS
As per previous newsletters, if you available to help with our Country Fair, please return your volunteer forms by Friday 22nd September via your child's diary or you can email it to - pandf@materdei.org.au.
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
We celebrated Maisy’s 1st Birthday!
All of the students were excited to share this special day with Maisy. The students showered Maisy with lots of birthday messages, drawings and cards.
EVENTS
FOUNDATION DINNER 2023
“Let your Ability shine”
The 2023 Annual Foundation Dinner which took place at The Cube, Campbelltown Catholic Club on Saturday, 9 September, was a wonderful night. It commenced with our ‘Mater Dei Marvels’ in action, helping Batman solve a crime, showcasing the special abilities unique to each student at Mater Dei.
The Mater Dei choir were our star performers of the night, who sung “One Call Away” and signed “Heroes”. They were followed by Dance Troupe performing “Confident”.
With thanks to our Entertainment Sponsors Camden Hire and Wests Group Macarthur, this year we were fortunate to have Tim Campbell as co-MC, along with a surprise appearance by Guest Entertainer Anthony Callea.
This year the goal was to raise funds to refurbish the Outdoor Learning Environment for Mater Dei Preschool, and our guest speaker was Pamela Templeton, Director of Early Childhood Education. Pamela shared her extensive journey spanning several decades within the education and disability space.
PERFORMING ARTS NIGHT
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.
JOIN US ON OUR SOCIALS
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.