Principal's Address 

Dear Parents/Carers,

I would like to warmly welcome all our families to the 2020 school year. I hope you enjoyed the blessings of the Christmas season and that the New Year brought with it some time for rest and relaxation.

I am mindful that we have families in our community who have been impacted by the bushfires during the holidays and encourage you to make contact with me at the College as soon as possible if you require assistance with school fees or support at the College for your child/ren.

We have received a number of communications regarding the Novela Coronavirus, which I have forwarded to parents/carers. I will continue to share these so that our families have the latest advice about responding to this global epidemic.

Our year at Mater Dei has begun very well with Year 7 students commencing last Wednesday along with Year 11 and Year 12 and the remaining year groups returning on Thursday.  In addition to our Year 7 students, we welcomed several new students into other year groups and six new staff for 2020.

During the holidays Mrs Ruthven, who is a Maths teacher at the College, submitted her resignation. We take this opportunity to thank her for her contribution to the College over the last two years and wish Mrs Ruthven every blessing for her move to Brisbane with her family.

At Friday’s Academic Assembly I thanked and farewelled Mrs Judy Baron as outgoing Leader of Boarding at Mt Erin Boarding School. We have appreciated her expert leadership over the past five months as an interim leader until the appointment of the new Leader of Boarding, Mr John Bussenschutt, who was also introduced on Friday.

Last week we also welcomed Mrs Lutze back from Leave on a part time basis this semester, together with the following staff members who have been appointed for 2020:

• Mrs Ashlee Fennell – PDHPE Teacher (replacing Mrs Curran in 2020)
• Mr Jonathon Scanu – TAS and Visual Arts Teacher (replacing Ms Thomson whose beautiful baby boy Hugo arrived during the holidays)
• Mrs Ashleigh Eldridge – job sharing with Mrs Lutze this semester
• Mrs Catherine Lamb – English and Literacy Teacher
• Mrs Anna O’Brien – Humanities and Literacy Teacher
• Mr Jake Raves – Numeracy and PDHPE Teacher

We look forward to having our new staff as a part of the Mater Dei family this year.

I congratulate the following members of staff who have appointed to Leadership roles for 2020:

• Ms Mel Cramp – Leader of Students
• Mrs Rebecca Sadler – Leader of Pedagogy
• Mr Rod Buik – Leader of ConnecTED Learning

I acknowledge Mrs Bright who continues in the role of Leader of Mission this year, while Mrs Gill is on leave. We congratulate Mr and Mrs Gill who welcomed their baby daughter Charlotte during the holidays. I also acknowledge Mrs Walker who continues as KLA Leader of Religious Education for 2020 and Mr Britton will remain in the role of Assistant KLA Leader of Science this year.

We are blessed to have such capable and experienced leaders of learning at the College.

As the term has begun, I have really enjoyed welcoming the students as they arrived at school and farewelling them in the afternoon. At our gathering assemblies on Wednesday and Thursday morning last week, it was important to remind them of the College’s high expectations around uniform and appearance, behaviour and commitment to learning. 

Research shows that high expectations are one of the vital factors for success and students benefit when there is a strong three way partnership with parents, students and teachers that is underpinned by a commitment to College standards and requirements by all stakeholders. We value that strong partnership, which we see in action every day.

On behalf of Mr Lawrence, I would like to thank parents/carers for their strong support of the new student mobile phone management process which was introduced last week. It requires students to place their device in the ‘phone pockets’ in each classroom during class time and retrieve them at the end of each lesson. We have appreciated the messages of support from our families for this initiative, which they are applauding as a way to support our students’ learning.

Mater Dei has a proud reputation as a vibrant learning community. Our emphasis on the use of technology as a learning tool ensures that students are exposed to contemporary learning strategies and Year 7, Year 10 and new students have already received their laptops.

The beginning of a new school year presents opportunities for all of us to refocus our attention on our purpose and priorities as a Catholic College. Our Vision Statement captures this succinctly:

Mater Dei Catholic College strives to be a nurturing community which

• is founded in Catholic faith, justice and love
• is inclusive
• is learner centred
• seeks excellence and wisdom

We are now in Week 2 and a number of very significant College events are taking place. Congratulations to the graduates who were recognised during last Friday’s Academic Assembly, especially our 2019 Dux Clare Arragon.

We appreciated the attendance of our invited guests and parents/carers and acknowledge the work of Mr Fitzpatrick and staff in their organisation of this special celebration of success.

~Click on images to enlarge~

The Opening Mass on Tuesday was a beautiful celebration led by Fr John that encouraged us all to “be the change you wish to see in the world.”  As well as Fr Plunkett, CEDWW, Invited guests representing the Presentation Sisters, Mt Erin Leader of Boarding Mr