22nd November 2019

The Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated every year on November 21, commemorates in the Catholic Church "that dedication of herself which Mary made to God from her very

childhood under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit who filled her with grace”.

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK – CHRIS BARTLETT

At this time of year our staff meet with me to reflect on their professional goals and project their intentions for the following year. It is a great time for our teachers to identify areas they have worked on to improve their professional capabilities in the classroom and how they can contribute to the building collective and collaborative practice across the school. It is also an opportunity to identify further areas of development to work on in the new year. These practices are no different to what is expected of our student learners, so it is important that we apply the same rules to ourselves as teachers.

One of the activities our teachers do is undertake the AITSL Professional Standards Reflection Tool (AITSL – Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership). This tool guides teachers to plot where they sit on the scale of proficiency for teachers - Graduate / Proficient / Highly Accomplished / Lead. By completing this reflection tool teachers can easily plot where their areas of development and excellence are. This is an important step in setting annual goals.

Another component to the AITSL Professional Standards is the recognition of teachers who consistently demonstrate all the criteria for Highly Accomplished (HA) or Lead Teacher (LT). Through a Nationwide process, teachers can submit very comprehensive applications to gain HA or LT status. This is a highly scrutinised process which has very few applicants successfully gaining the status each year. Last year, was the first time Qld schools opened up this process for teachers.

Recently we were advised that Angela Martlew was successful in her applications for Lead Teacher Certification. Angela is the first primary school Lead Teacher in Queensland Catholic schools and one of only seven in Catholic schools nationally. This is a very high achievement for Angela and our school staff who support genuine practices that enable teachers to reach their highest potential. St Mary’s College Toowoomba also had a successful teacher applicant to receive Lead Teacher Certification. Two out of seven appointed applicants in Australian Catholic Schools from the Toowoomba Diocese is an awesome achievement. We look forward to providing many other opportunities to grow and recognise excellence in teaching at Mater Dei. Congratulations Angela on this outstanding achievement.

FROM THE AP’S DESK – JULIE HENDERSON

This week we welcomed our 2020 Prep students and their families to the primary school environment at our Prep orientation sessions on Thursday 21 and Friday 22 November. For our new learners this took the form of a morning session in Prep for prospective students while parents attended a presentation about the Mater Dei way of learning. In our efforts to make learning visible for our new families, parents viewed a video clip of existing students talking about their learning. Students explained the significance of Learning Intentions for understanding what they are learning and why and how

Success Criteria and work samples support learners to see what success looks like. Learners across the school introduced the concept of The Learning Pit, peer and teacher feedback and the role of Learning Dispositions to support learning. Students described the NAPE self-assessment strategy whereby they rate themselves in their learning as either a novice, apprentice, practitioner or expert as well as how Bump It Up walls are used to inform next steps in learning. Teachers and members of the administration and leadership team also provided organisational information to support the transition from Kindy into our Holy Angels Early Years Centre.

FROM THE APRE’S DESK – VANESSA HORTON

Remembrance Day Liturgy Thank you to our Early Years classes who presented such a moving Remembrance Day Liturgy on Monday. The commemoration was a reverent and heartfelt tribute to those who have served and continue to serve our country in honour of preserving our freedom.

St Vincent De Paul ‘Christmas Appeal’ At this time each year we turn out thoughts to those less fortunate than ourselves as we prepare to celebrate Advent. We are seeking your generous support towards our annual ‘St Vincent de Paul Christmas Hamper Appeal’ through donations of non-perishable items such as canned hams, Christmas puddings and cakes, canned fruit and sweets. If you can contribute just one item, we have the capacity to provide over 400 offerings to help make our local families Christmas just that little but brighter.

Collection points will be:

Prep – 3: The P J Doyle Centre - Learning Support Room Year 4 – 6: St Theresa’s Parish Meeting Room

We sincerely thank our very generous Mater Dei community for the valued contributions made to this appeal throughout the next two weeks.

Final Assembly On Friday November 29th we will have our final assembly for 2019. This assembly involves the handover of leadership from our year 6 students to our year 5 cohort in preparation for their important role at Mater Dei for the 2020 school year. During this ceremony the house flags and yearbook will be passed on and we will also acknowledge the awardees of our Instrumental program Musicianship Awards, Chess Awards will be presented, the Reid Capp Award will be declared, our Exemplary Leadership awards will be announced and we be farewelling staff who are leaving Mater Dei. All are welcome!

Advent Liturgy On Tuesday December 3rd our Prep and Year 3 classes will be leading us in the Advent Liturgy, our timeless retelling of ‘The Birth of Jesus’. The students are thoroughly enjoying the preparations for this beautiful event and we welcome all of our Mater Dei family and friends to join with us as the season of Advent begins. The liturgy will commence at 12 midday in the William Morris Centre.

End of Year Mass On Friday December 6th at 9am we will celebrate together as a whole school community our End of Year Mass in the William Morris Centre. Fr Brian will be presiding and students from Prep – Year 5 will lead us in our Eucharistic celebration. Our mass will be followed by the Graduation Ceremony when we will farewell the year 6 leaders.

Important Dates 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 T4W5 Congratulations to the following students for receiving a class award:

Congratulations to the following student for receiving a Good Samaritan award:

T4W6 Congratulations to the following students for receiving a class award:

Congratulations to the following student for receiving a Good Samaritan award:

SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

BOOKLISTS Hard copies of 2020 booklists will be distributed today, Friday 22 November, to classes. Please follow up by locating booklists in your child’s homework folder and contacting your child’s class teacher should they not arrive home safely for parental perusal. Book orders will again be managed by Brown’s Office Choice who require orders to be placed online.  Mater Dei receives a rebate from Brown’s should orders be placed by the cut-off date. This year, Brown’s will also contribute to The Toowoomba Hospital Foundation for each booklist order that is placed before the cut-off date. To ensure both the school and the Hospital Foundation receive the maximum benefit, we strongly encourage parents place their orders by the cut-off date: Wednesday 4 December 2019.

STAFFING This week a panel of Mater Dei and TCSO (Toowoomba Catholic Schools Office) representatives shortlisted applicants for the APRE position at Mater Dei in 2020. Today the shortlisted applicants were interviewed with a recommendation being forwarded to TCSO for approval. The successful applicant will be published with the full staffing schedule in next fortnight’s newsletter.

We will also receive a relocation to the Mater Dei teaching staff with Miss Holly Gilbar moving from St Patrick’s Allora. Holly comes to us with two years teaching experience at St Patrick’s and a foundation in Visible Learning practices that she will continue to contribute to and grow with at Mater Dei. We wish Holly all the best in the next stage of her career, and warmly welcome her to our school community.

Maggie Carroll Theo Gillott Helena Saunders Cade Graham Mia-Rose Schwerin James McConnel Lucas Montgomery Charlotte Mulhall Piper Coggan Oliver Martyr Angelina Vasta William Horton Piper Smith Zahra Rice Abigail Webster Jackson Smyth Alfie Lever

Charlie Carter

Frederick Coggan Alice Pattison Ava Collins Lily Waters Lilly Walsh William Holzheimer Daisy Egan Charlie Gladwin Olivia Saunders Genevieve Hyde Harrison Ehrlich Oliver Wright Macy Martyr Charlotte Fitzgibbons Mia Fedorczyk Zara Dampney

Patrick James

MINOR WORKS PROJECTS Over the Christmas break a couple of minor works will be occurring:

• The street signage will be repainted and configured to get consistency at each entrance • The carpets in PJ Doyle will be replaced • The administration and staff room will be refurbished make the work spaces more effective • An arborist will undertake tree work to address overhanging limbs and dead branches throughout the school • Protective shades will be installed at the front of the instrumental music rooms to protect the rooms from direct

sunlight and heavy storm rain from the west. We currently have a grant to fix the school bore submitted for consideration. If this is successful work will occur to try and get the bore to be an effective source of water for the school oval.

We are very grateful to the work of the P&F who assist the school by funding the majority of these projects to keep our school safe and well presented.

FEE SCHEDULE The school fee schedule for 2020 will have a couple of new initiatives incorporated. The school board discussed and endorsed the schedule that will be published in separate communication. Please ensure you are well informed by reading the document when it is emailed.

2019 BUDGET With the end of our school financial year fast approaching it is very important that all families settle accounts before the last day of Term 4. This will enable the school to stay on track with the 2019 budget and assist the planning and finalisation of the 2020 budget.

GROUNDSMAN Please note that we have been reviewing our groundsman contract with Cliff Hamilton, which included an audit of jobs required and how these could be addressed effectively into the new year

As a result Cliff has declined to continue his contract groundsman work with us. We thank Cliff for the many years of work in the Mater Dei community. In the meantime, we will utilise Michael Newland from MOJO Pest and Maintenance to cover the bare essentials as we negotiate further contract models for 2020 and beyond.

TUCKSHOP CONVENOR Anne Denman has been our tuckshop convenor for 3 years and has tendered her resignation for 2020. Anne has been a long-term parent and member of the Mater Dei community and has been of great service to many families throughout this time. We thank her for her dedication to the running of our tuckshop and the many other catering occasions when we gather together to celebrate as a school community.

The school will be running an advertisement next week to seek interested applicants for this position in 2020 and beyond.

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

Earn and Learn We were very excited to unpack our goodies from the Earn and Learn Program recently conducted by Woolworths. We ‘purchased’ a wide range of goods which will be used by students both in the library and the Drama program. Special thanks to Emma Davey and Aleisha Wilson and their families for their kind assistance in collecting and collating the stickers.

Touch Mater Dei recently competed in the Queensland All Schools Touch Carnival at Redlands as two of 193 teams. The mixed team coached by Hannah Arndt were very competitive in their division and lost their semi-final 4-3. Jenna Taylor coached the boys’ team all the way to the Division 2 Grand Final where they narrowly went down 2-1, finishing the weekend as 18th in the State!! The coaches were incredibly proud of the teamwork, skill and determination displayed by these Year 5 & 6 students and as Jenna said so beautifully, ‘they tried so hard and made their coaches, each other, their parents and their school

proud. I’m so glad they came away loving their touch!’

We would also like to say a massive thank you to these wonderful coaches who put in many hours coaching the teams, both before and during the carnival. Congratulations to all involved for the wonderful way you represented Mater Dei.

The mixed team wore new shirts kindly donated to the school by the Lever group (Lever family) and Crackerjack Chicken (Dowling family). They looked fabulous and we are very grateful to both companies for their generous support.

Junior Swimming Carnival A draft program will be sent electronically early next week. Please monitor your correspondence as there will be a very short turnaround time for any changes. We will also require timekeepers at the carnival if you are available to help (high school students also welcome).

TUCKSHOP

TUCKSHOP VOLUNTEERS Tues 26th Nov Thurs 28th Nov

NO TUCKSHOP IN THE LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!! Kate Biggs Michelle Vanzella Jess Henderson Marissa Irvine Vicki Rowbotham Kylie Beverland Vicki Rowbotham

Huge thank you to all the wonderful Volunteers that have helped out with Tuckshop this year.

Please join us for Coffee and Cake at Impressions on Scott on the 4th December 2019 at 8.30am.

If you could please text me with RSVP by 29th December 2019, Anne Denman on 0408 986 383.

How wonderful it is to see the gorgeous Prep students as they grow through the year.

LIBRARY It is that time of year and we are asking for help to get all school resources returned to the library. If you are unsure if your child has any outstanding loans or if you are confident an item has been returned, feel free to pop into the library or contact library staff. We would always prefer to check before you search the entire house just in case an item never made it out of the library or has been returned from elsewhere within the school.

If you receive an overdues reminder, please do not send in payment to cover those costs unless you have been invoiced. This allows us to properly track and account for all expenses related to overdue resources. Items outstanding at the beginning of 2020 will be added to your school account.

Meredith Thompson Teacher Librarian

Walking in the Light - Video Clip The final step to capture the essence of our school song, ‘Walking in the Light’, is to film the video clip! This will be done before the end of the year, capturing footage of what a day in the life of a Mater Dei student looks like. Filming will occur in the last week of term and we will gather footage from classrooms, around the school and at special events such as Carols night, Advent liturgy and Graduation. The footage will be pieced together over Christmas for release early in 2020. We thank our Performing Arts teachers, Ebony Rosier and Amanda Holzheimer, who are working as a team to help produce and direct this project. We can’t wait to share the final product with you!

THE GOOD SAMARITAN’S TABLE

As yet another year draws to a close, and we anticipate the excitement of preparing for the Christmas Season, it is important that we look back with gratitude for all that we have received.

The Good Samaritan’s Table has continued its wonderful work of providing meals to those in our community who have experienced sickness, hardship, worry or grief. This year, like all others, has seen many members of our community accepting this generosity with humble gratitude.

Many families would want to acknowledge the care and compassion that over fifty volunteers have provided to our Mater Dei community this year to prepare meals. So, to those volunteers, on behalf of the receiving families and the Good Samaritan’s Table team, we acknowledge your thoughtfulness and kindness as Christ-like and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

“May the harvest of your good actions

Bring forth plentiful fruit each day.

May your basket of blessings surprise you

With its rich diversity of gifts

And its opportunities for growth.”

Joyce Rupp - Out of The Ordinary

With heartfelt thanks, from The Good Samaritan’s Table team.

h h b k h

FROM THE SCHOOL COUNSELLOR During Term 4 we will be asking students to complete a computer game called Rumble’s Quest – it is a valid and reliable measure of social-emotional wellbeing for primary school students. Rumble’s Quest will ask children questions, which will measure:

• Attachment to school • Emotional and behavioural self-regulation • Social confidence • Supportive environments • Working memory (ability to keep information in your mind for a short time to be able to use it for further

processing) • Ability to focus a task and sustain attention • Ability for inhibitory control (to stop yourself from doing something) and respond flexibility

The results of this measure will be used to plan support programs and track how effective the programs are that we are using in our school to help our students be the best they can be.

Further information about Rumbles Quest is available at this website https://www.realwell.org.au/tools/rumbles-quest/ including a demonstration video that shows you what the game looks like.

If you have any concerns about the game or would like to discuss your child’s participation, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Anne Woodcroft-Brown, School Counsellor.

Thank you! Anne Woodcroft-Brown School Counsellor Anne.Woodcroft-Brown@twb.catholic.edu.au

CHOIR PARTY! We have reached the end of the year and it is time to celebrate! To say thank you to each of our choir members for their commitment throughout the year, we will be having a little party on Tuesday 26th November at lunch time (1.05pm) in the hall outside specialist classrooms.

Mrs Greenhalgh, our Japanese teacher, has very kindly offered to bring in some home-made sushi to share. If you are able to please bring along a small plate to share also, this would be most appreciated.

We are unaware of any food allergies at this stage, so if there is something that your child cannot eat, please let us know before the party via email.

Thank you to all families and their children for being part of our Mater Dei Choir in 2019 – we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and look forward to many more exciting events in the new year!

Kind regards,

Ebony and Amanda

MATER DEI DRAWING COMPETITION

MATER DEI CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Jingle all the way to the Mater Dei oval on Tuesday 3rd December for our Annual Christmas Carols!

Grab your picnic rug and settle in to enjoy some entertainment with family and friends as another amazing year at Mater Dei draws to an end.

The P & F will be running a bar and BBQ so bring some cash.

All the children in the school will be involved in singing carols with their cohort, starting with the Prep classes. Children are to be sitting with their class by 5:15pm.

Everyone is invited to get into the Christmas spirit by donning your most Christmassy outfit!

When: Tuesday 3rd December 2019

Where: Mater Dei Oval

Bring: Picnic rug

Dress: Christmas shirts, hats, antlers, etc

Time: Arrive from 4:30pm

Children to be sitting with their class at 5:15pm

Singing to begin at 5:30pm

Sausages and drinks available for purchase!

Don’t forget that Mater Dei was generously donated two beautiful art works by Di Elsden that you would have seen on display at our Art show as well as at our Spring Fair. These will be drawn at the Christmas Carols and tickets will still be available on the night at $2 each or 3 for $5.

POPPIES IN A VASE

EXTEND OHSC

EXTEND UPDATE.

Monday 25/11/19

Tuesday 26/11/19

Wednesday 27/11/19

Thursday 28/11/19

Friday 29/11/19

Drawing Challenge: from the drawing book Chalk Drawing

Apple Fruit Donuts Musical Statues

Balloon Cards Obstacle Course

Fireworks in a Jar Rob the Nest

Lemon Volcano Experiment Dodgeball

The Extend Superstar is… Vivi! For going above and beyond in helping pack up and doing a fantastic job at being kind to your friend’s and educators.

What’s Been Happening? Recently, we have been so lucky to have been able to collaborate with Mrs.Prestridge, who has allowed us to use her equipment such as the netball poles, trampoline, mats and balancing beams. This has allowed for new learning and play-based experiences at our service. The children have been making their own scoring cards to score the jumps and performances of their friend’s, which have allowed the children who are waiting for their turn to still participate and have an active role. This week we will be making apple donuts with different coloured icing and sprinkles as a special treat for our snack. We will also be taking a look at science through our fireworks in a jar and lemon volcano experiments. I look forward to seeing you there! - 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.

• Girls Football Holiday Camp • Girl Guide Christmas Trees