25th October 2019

A Prayer for World Teacher Day

Giver of all wisdom and greatest of all teachers,

Look upon our teachers with love Grant them the resolve to nurture our eager minds

and to never give up on us who fall behind. Bless their hearts

for they rejoice when we succeed and encourage us when we fail And bless them with gentle patience for the path of learning is never easy Kindle a spirit and passion in them

it is the flame that ignites the love of learning in us Help them see the potential in each student

Their belief in us means much more than the grade we make Instil in them a commitment to keep on learning

It shows us to not fear new knowledge and experiences Inspire them to touch the future

They influence how big a dream we dream for ourselves Bless our teachers who have come before

For their work endures to this day Let the light of your example shine upon all teachers

To build up with their words To love with their mind

To share with their heart. Amen

Happy World Teachers Day to all at Mater Dei.

Thank you to our amazing parents, parishioners and friends, for we could not succeed in our important roles without your wonderful support!

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK – CHRIS BARTLETT

It is with great excitement that we prepare for our Spring Fair this weekend, particularly as the tents and rides take shape on the school oval. This is an important community event where we celebrate our connectedness and belonging to Mater Dei Primary School. The weekend will provide an opportunity for every family member to be present at the festivities. There will be opportunities to mix with friends, make new friends, support the school in generating funds and be part of student learning by joining in the bush dancing that students have practised this term. There will also be an opportunity to “dunk” particular school identities during the day as well. So get that throwing arm warmed up!

I see these social events as an integral part of our being at Mater Dei. We have the business of attending to the syllabus and learning dispositions during the term weeks, but have an opportunity to be informal and share our commonality of choosing Catholic Education for our students. It is a bit like being part of a club where you might play sport, music or engage in hobbies. Despite the business of the club there are always opportunities to come together socially. Sharing experiences and bringing values and actions together builds culture. In social environments like our fair, we can strengthen our communal bond and build social capital and culture. A strong hallmark of our school is the sense of community. This is due to how well we engage at our whole school events. Later this term we will host other events such as our Graduation Mass and Christmas Concert. All of these occasions are opportunities to build community. I look forward to a wonderful day on Saturday and thank in advance our Fair Committee and P&F for coordinating and running our Spring Fair.

Hoping to see you all there!

FROM THE AP’S DESK – JULIE HENDERSON

Celebrating the Journey (CTJ) Day On the pupil free day, Monday October 21, St Thomas More’s hosted three other Toowoomba Catholic Schools including Mater Dei, Holy Name and Our Lady of Lourdes for the annual Celebrate the Journey (CTJ) Day. Each of the four schools shared learning about their Lighthouse Projects through displays and multimedia presentations. Mater Dei teachers presented their findings from their Visible Learning impact cycles which were conducted with students during Term 3. The day is designed as an opportunity for professional collaboration and networking across schools. Teachers shared the stories

of their learning journeys; celebrating successes and acknowledging challenges. There was also the opportunity for teachers to view other teachers’ rooms and have professional conversations about successful strategies and ideas that support effective teaching practices.

World Teachers’ Day is celebrated in Australia on the last Friday of October each year; with celebrations occurring on Friday 25 October this year. The day provides an opportunity for us to reflect on the contribution that teachers make in the lives of our learners and their families. With our focus on making learning and thinking visible at Mater Dei, we acknowledge the willingness of our teachers to try new approaches and strategies that support students to become “confident, collaborative, knowledgeable and skilled learners”. Our teachers are modelling dispositions such as being reflective, flexible, resilient and collaborative that all learners need to be successful. We commend their efforts to have a go and push outside their comfort zones; valuing the learning that comes from the journey and thank them for their courage. We celebrated our teachers with a shared morning tea on Friday 25 October and we encourage students, parents and other members of our Mater Dei school community to take the opportunity to express their appreciation to our teachers by simply saying “thank you”.

FROM THE APRE’S DESK – VANESSA HORTON

World Mission Month October is World Mission Month. Pope Francis has declared October to be an Extraordinary Missionary Month, marking a worldwide occasion of prayer, sharing stories of mission, formation and charity. This year Catholic Mission have focused their financial support in Ghana. Ghana is a country in western Africa just north of the Equator. Each year at Mater Dei we have events to raise funds for Catholic Mission throughout the month of October. Earlier this month at our assembly we launched our Socktober Challenge. Each of our year levels are creating a ‘Soccer Ball made from Recyclable

Materials’, to kick some goals for Ghana. These creations will be used to compete in our Sock it to Poverty challenge on Friday November 1st @ 1.15pm, on the oval. Students are encouraged to wear Crazy Socks on the day for a gold coin donation which will go towards our fundraising efforts for Gana through the Catholic Mission! At our assembly last week, we shared together the World Mission Rosary as part of our final prayer, to join with people all over the world praying the Rosary together throughout the month of October and to thank God for blessings we have received.

Day for Daniel Today we celebrated ‘Day for Daniel’. The Daniel Morcombe Foundation was established in honour of Daniel Morcombe to make Australia a safer place for all children. Throughout this week teachers delivered lessons from the Daniel Morcombe Child Safety Curriculum (DMCSC). Day for Daniel is Australia's largest child safety awareness and education day, thank you to everyone for WEARING RED and donating a gold coin!

Parish Family Mass Don’t forget our Parish Family Mass on Sunday November 3rd @ 9.30am in St Theresa’s Church. This mass is being lead by our Junior years classes. Everyone is very welcome to join us for the Eucharistic celebration with Fr Brian presiding. This is our final Parish Family Mass for the school year, and we would love to see as many of our Mater Dei families involved as possible. There will be morning tea following this mass, and you are welcome to bring a plate to share. See you there!

Advent Liturgy Please note that we have had to change the day and time of the Advent Liturgy, to work around events during this last week of celebrations. The Nativity play prepared by the Prep team and our specialist teachers will be incorporated into this liturgy too: Tuesday December 3rd at 12 midday in the WMC.

Important Dates: Sunday November 3rd Parish Family Mass

St Theresa’s @ 9.30am Monday November 11th Remembrance Day Liturgy

William Morris Centre @ 10.10am Thursday November 14th APRE Network Day Friday November 22nd Year 6 Retreat Day Friday November 29th Final Assembly Tuesday December 3rd Advent Liturgy Friday December 6th End of Year Mass followed by the Graduation Ceremony William Morris Centre @ 9am

CLASS AWARDS T4W2 Congratulations to the following students for receiving a class award:

T4W3 Congratulations to the following students for receiving a class award:

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION WHOOPING COUGH We have confimed cases of Whooping Cough (pertussis) of our students as well as suspected cases and confirmed cases of siblings of our students. If you suspect your child is unwell please see your doctor and follow the guidelines below.

Queensland Health requires that a person with this infection be excluded until 5 days after starting appropriate antibiotics or for 21 days from onset of cough. Contact your Public Health Unit for specialist advice. EXCLUSION MAY APPLY for those in contact with the infected person. Contact your Public Health Unit for specialist advice regarding exclusion of non- or incompletely vaccinated contacts.

Graziella Augusto Flynn Spry Myles Simbahan Florence Nason Maxwell Pattison Tom Williamson Charles Suey Edward Beverland Claire Longmire Isabella Kentish Millie Goldsworthy Samuel Taylor Megan Treloar Annie White Bella Phelan Magnus Keeley Fynn Bertolotti Patrick James Magnus Keeley

Grace Muller Tara Shridhar Samuel Mullins Mason Muller Archer Brownsdon Reegan Kelly Rosemanry Wilson Emma Heasley Caleb Foster Charlie Deuble Corey Mulheran Mia Stewart Jack Spry Gavin Kelly Emily Longmire

STAFFING / BUDGET / ENROLMENT These are the three key areas that become the main administration focus of the school during Term 4. Each has impact on the other as we plan into 2020. Staffing: Staffing positions are being developed and finalised with some positions pending advertising and appointing. A full list of staffing will be published in the final newsletter of the term. Budget: Our budget is in the final draft format and will be very similar to this year’s budget. The draft fee schedule will be presented to the board before the next meeting for finalisation. Considerations will be to:

• Reduce consumable / booklists costs and transfer them to a consumable levy. • Keep CPI increases to approx 1.5 % • Keep the annualised fee structure with an introduction of a small discount for full up front payments

Enrolment: Student number directly impact on budget and staffing. Class numbers are being finalised now as we appoint teacher places across the school

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT SURVEY Just under 30% of our families completed the School Improvement Survey conducted by RADII. Unfortunately, the best results are achieved when 30% or more families respond. I am hopeful that we are able to achieve this in 2020. The results along with the staff and student feedback has pointed towards some key areas of improvement for the future:

• Grounds and facilities: Oval improvements, PJ Doyle toilets maintenance and cleaning • Consistent implementation of Behaviour Management practices • Improved communication – modes, frequency and content • Educational opportunities to improve: Reporting (report cards and interviews); Extra curricular; Parent

engagement / understanding; Excellence in achievement; Faith and RE celebrations Actions to improve these areas will be targeted in the work of the school board, staff and P&F association.

FINAL FEE STATEMENT Our final school fee statement will be issued in the next week. This will include any outstanding school fees and oncosts that have occurred recently. It is highly important that these are attended to promptly before the school year closes. The school still has budgetary commitments to fulfil into January 2020, so the settling of all accounts is critical to address these financial commitments.

If you have any trouble meeting financial commitments please contact Chris Bartlett so that the school is aware and discussion to address fees can occur.

A MESSAGE FROM THE CLOTHING POOL REGARDING SECONDHAND UNIFORMS The Clothing Pool is in need of plain metal coat hangers please. Any spare coat hangers can be delivered anytime to the office or to the Clothing Pool on Thursday mornings from 8.30 - 9.15am.

As the transition time for the old sports uniform has come to an end, we are no longer accepting donations of sports t-shirts with the old school logo, the older tracksuit tops and bottoms without a logo, the Centenary hoodie, and spray jackets with the old logo.

Please only donate official school uniform items that have been purchased from Hannas. Please ensure that the clothing is in good condition, with no tears, holes, large stains, missing buttons or pulled hems.

Thank you for your support and donations this year. Thanks for helping us to provide our community with great pre-loved uniform options.

DONNA PRESTRIDGE Swimming Trophies Please return all swimming trophies to school as soon as possible so they can be engraved for the 2020 carnival.

Junior Swimming Carnival The carnival for all students in Prep – Year 3 will be conducted on Monday 2 December at Fairholme pool. Nomination forms will be sent home shortly and should be returned no later than Tuesday 12 November. Please ensure your child is able to independently change back into their uniform (don’t forget to pack their underwear) at the completion of the races. The program for the carnival will be available in the week before the carnival. Please contact me – madonna.prestridge@twb.catholic.edu.au if you have any questions or concerns.

SWQ Primary All Schools Touch Carnival Last Sunday a number of Year 5 & 6 students travelled to Dalby to compete in the SWQ All Schools Touch Comp. They all played their hearts out on the touch field and survived a mini twister on the sideline! Many thanks to Megan Brown, Jenna Taylor, Hannah Arndt, Michele Lever, Laura McDonagh and Dylan Philp for coaching and managing the teams, both before and at the carnival. Most of these students will travel to Redlands for the Queensland All Schools Touch on 9 – 10 November.

Mater Dei Comets MD beat Our Lady of the Southern Cross 6-0 MD beat St Mary’s (2) 3-0 MD were beaten by Roma 2-1 MD beat Glenvale SS 8-0 Unfortunately we lost the semi to St Mary’s (1) 2-1

The Mater Dei Monsters played really well as a new team together with an even mix of grade 5 and 6 players. They went down in a very tough game 1-0 against TAS who won the carnival overall. Their second game was another nail biter going down 1-0 to Our Lady of the Southern Cross Dalby. The third game was equally tough against Glennie going down 3-2. The girl’s teamwork really started to kick in during this game. Their final game was a convincing win over St Saviours 8-0, one try short of making the semis on for and against. The girls are really looking forward to teaming up with the boys to play in the mixed division at Redlands in a few weeks.

The Mater Dei Ducks put in a tremendous effort on Sunday, facing off against some challenging schools. Despite only playing together for the first time, they all banded together to play cohesively as one, winning our first game 5-3. With their confidence high, the boys went on to win the next 3 games comfortably.

As the day went on, the hot weather had taken its toll by our fifth game against St Marys 1. The boys fought hard, giving their all, however went down 6-1. This landed us in the semi-finals against Roma. Again, despite our best efforts, Roma came out on top 5-1. Well done boys, you've made us all proud.

REDGUM BOOKCLUB

Dear Parents

We are participating in Redgum Book Club this term and the flyer has been sent home with your child. Every order will earn resources and books for our school.

The Redgum Book Club catalogue is now all online. The online catalogue will continue to be packed with quality books and educational game options (from international and local publishers), bestsellers and gold coin options. Please open the link to view the current catalogue.

Redgum Book Club Term 4 Books start from $2 with hundreds more titles on their website. www.redgumbookclub.com.au The catalogue is now open and closes on the 4th November. Orders will be delivered to the school by 22nd November. New Release titles in the current catalogue include:

• Frozen II – The ultimate companion to Disney's highly anticipated second instalment of the Oscar winning film, Frozen. Due for release in December Frozen II

• Definitely Do Not Open This Book – From Australian Author, Andy Lee, this fun story will delight children and adults alike Definitely Do Not Open This Book

• The Pug Who Wanted To Be A Reindeer - A festive adventure starring a loveable little pug with a heart of gold The Pug Who Wanted To Be A Reindeer

• Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball - Book 14 of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, from international bestselling author, Jeff Kinney Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Wrecking Ball

• Minecraft Annual 2020 - A look back at the excitements, surprises and new potential for fun and creativity that came about in Minecraft's tenth year Minecraft Annual 2020

• The Monster Who Wasn’t – From Australian Author, T C Shelley, comes a brilliantly rich fantasy adventure that will make us all believe in monsters - be they good, bad or somewhere in between The Monster Who Wasn't

• Eddie Woo’s Magical Maths – Australian Author, Eddie Woo’s bumper book of maths fun, stuffed with things to draw, puzzle, invent, order, unscramble and code. Eddie Woo's Magical Maths

How to place an order: • Order online and pay by credit card www.redgumbookclub.com.au • Email orders@redgumbookclub.com.au

If you have any questions, email Lesley on schools@redgumbookclub.com.au

TUCKSHOP TUCKSHOP VOLUNTEERS

Tues 29th October Thurs 31st October Tues 5th November Thurs 7th November Vicki Rowbotham Anne Johnnston

• NO TUCKSHOP • MELBOURNE CUP

DAY

Renae Egan Nikki White Alison McConnel Helen Bradshaw Mandy Ivory Aleisha Wilson Vicki Rowbotham Glynis Druce

A huge THANK YOU to the people that have signed ups to volunteer for a day or more in the tuckshop. We are still looking for a couple of people in the last week of Tuckshop if you are available please: Simply follow the link below and sign up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0e45a9a629a1fc1-mdps7

Please see the following link to access our Volunteer Declaration Form If you have any questions, please feel free to call me on 0408 986 383.

We had an exciting day in Tuckshop today celebrating our regular volunteer, Vicki Rowbotham’s Big Birthday!!

PREP NATIVITY PLAY CAN YOU HELP? OUR ANGELS AND OTHER NATIVITY CHARACTERS NEED YOU!

This term in drama and music lessons, the prep children will be learning a nativity play to perform at the end of the term! The Nativity Play will be a part of our Advent Liturgy on Tuesday the 3rd of December @ 12pm in the Hall. We are looking for volunteers who may be able to help with some simple costumes for our children please. If you are at all crafty and/or able to help with some simple sewing, your help would be greatly appreciated! Please let your class teacher or our Drama teacher (Amanda.Holzheimer@twb.catholic.edu.au) know ASAP.

Thank you!

DATE CLAIMER – SPRING FAIR

EXTEND OHSC

EXTEND UPDATE.

Monday 28/10/19

Tuesday 29/10/19

Wednesday 30/10/19

Thursday 31/10/19

Friday 1/11/19

Popsicle Stick Stars Dribble Knockout

Colouring In Competition The Floor is Lava

Kinetic Sand Touch

Vanilla Cake with Berries Line Tag

Painting Duck Duck Goose

The Extend Superstar is… Charlotte ...for doing a fantastic job helping to set up and for being kind and respectful to educators and friends.

What’s Been Happening? At Extend we have been busy playing group games of basketball and handball. We have worked on our understanding of rules in different games, as well as teamwork, fairness and developing strategies that will help us in our game defense and offense. As always we have been lucky enough to have Beth engage with the children in extravagant cooking activities, we have made french onion dip from scratch with a carrot, cheese and cracker platter and this week we will be making a vanilla cake topped with berries. Hope to see you all soon. - Holly, Team Leader.

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Our office staff have created a page on our website to post notices that appear at the end of our newsletter. To view these notices parents are encouraged to follow the link:

http://www.mdpstwb.catholic.edu.au/documents/communitynoticeboard.html

These notices can now reach a broader audience as they are not restricted to our parent portal. All notices are to be related to activities that benefit Mater Dei Students, support Catholic schools and are suitable for our Catholic school ethos.

• Vera Lacaze • National Tree Day • Guides Xmas Tree Fundraiser • Triple P Parenting Program