Mary Queen of Heaven Newsletter – Term 2 – Week 6

We are really fortunate at Mary Queen of Heaven to have a growing team of experts.  Below is a list of staff we have to support children and families.  Any one of these staff members may contact you at any time to communicate ways we are supporting your children. We pride ourselves on open communication, sharing concerns, ideas and strategies to ensure the support we are offering meets the needs of all of our learners.

Speech Therapist: Mealnie Raffa

Learning Diversity: Loretta O’Dwyer

Wellbeing Leader: Sarah Brown

Learning & teaching leader: Dani De Luca

Literacy Leader: Dani De Luca

Numeracy Leader: Sarah Brown

Literacy Enhancement: Lisa Michielin

Numeracy Enhancement: Gabbi Stickland

27/05/2024 – School Closure Day (Professional Development).

Staff will be engaged in Professional Learning around the pedagogy of listening and the Science of Reading.  We are eager to learn more to ensure we maintain best practice for all in our community.  BIG Childcare will be running their service on this day.

10/06/2024 – Monarch’s Official Birthday – School Closure Day

11/06/2024 – School Closure Day

28/06/2024 – Last Day of Term 2.

1pm finish

At times, families in our school face hardship and require our community to rally around them and help where we can.  To this end we are establishing a group called ‘Heaven Sent Meals.’ 

Please contact the office if you’d like to go on the roster for this community service, and be called upon to assist when required. 

‘Heaven Sent Meals’ will kick into action when we are notified that a family is experiencing hardship and they are offered this service.  When the family accepts, we will let our ‘Heaven Sent Meals’ group know and meals can be delivered to our school,  be placed in the freezer and given to the family in need for a period of time.

Meals need to be in a disposable container and a full list of ingredients as well as cooking instructions to be labelled with the meal.  In true Mary Queen of Heaven spirit some of our staff have already volunteered to join this group.

Our Stage 2 build is just around the corner.  In the coming months you will see lots of action in and around our school with the commencement of stage 2.  Whilst stage 2 will be completed in July next year,  some aspects of the project will be delivered by term 4 to ensure we have beautiful spaces to accommodate all of our learners for next year.  Please be assured that the program will ensure the safety of all and we will endeavour to minimise interruptions to learning and traffic where possible.  Child Safety protocols will be embedded in all aspects of the new building program.  All visitors to the school and site will have Working with Children Checks.

We congratulate our inaugural Parish School Advisory Board members Petar Jurcic, Emma Scott and Andrew Bouzikas.  Together with Daniela De Luca and Renae Gentile, they will represent our school and act in an advisory capacity.  Thank you to Petar who will Chair the Board for Mary Queen of Heaven.

Last week we were visited by Emma from Junior Rockers.  Junior Rockers offer an in school instrumental programs for individuals or small groups.  If there is enough interest from families in our community we will be able to offer an instrumental program at our school.  Please visit https://juniorrockers.com/ and select our school to express interest in this program for your child/ren. 

Our term 2 fundraiser is a Tony’s Pies Pie Drive.  Tony’s Pies offers quality family and small pies at a discounted cost for our school.  Please share the information with family and friends.  The more we sell, the more money we make for our school community. They are a great investment for the freezer during these Winter months.

In term 3 we will be holding our annual Father’s Day Raffle.  Last year we offered some amazing prizes.  If you have any items that you’d like to donate to Father’s Day Raffle hampers, please kindly bring them to the school office or call Kate 73795600.  

Items may include:

Restaurant vouchers

Gym vouchers

Sports apparel

Wine

Cologne

Mary Queen of Heaven is committed to Reconciliation, and strengthening the relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-Indigenous peoples. We have now started the process of creating our first Reconciliation Action Plan. A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is our formal commitment to this process. Our RAP will document the way in which we will strengthen these relationships, as well as create more opportunities for Reconciliation within the classroom, around the school and within our wider community.

We have now established our first RAP Working Group. The purpose of this group is to drive our RAP deliverables and ensure their implementation. The group will ensure integrity, sustainability and accountability during our RAP journey. 

It gives me great pleasure to announce our inaugural RAP Working Group at Mary Queen of Heaven:

• Renae Gentile – Principal
• Dani De Luca – Deputy Principal / Literacy Leader
• Jess Maitland-Smith – Classroom Educator and ATSI Leader
• Kate Mitchell – Office Administration
• Alysha McLean – Classroom Educator 
• Tameka Robertson – Classroom Educator 
• Emily Ward-Pahl – Parent
• Casey Hovenden – Parent 
• Aaliyah – Student

Jessica Maitland-Smith

Mary Queen of Heaven ATSI Leader

Early in term 3 we will celebrate the Feast of St Anne and St Joachim (The Grandparents of Jesus) by inviting all grandparents in for a morning tea and a classroom visit.  

Please add this date to your diaries and extend an invitation to grandparents for this day.  Please note, this is for GRANDPARENTS ONLY as we cannot accommodate grandparents and parents with our limited space. 

Friday 26th July, 2024

9am-10:30am

Art Exhibition! 

Thursday 21st November 2024

We are so excited to bring you our inaugural Art Exhibition. 

Please SAVE THIS DATE and invite your friends and family to join us.  More information will be shared in time.

Welcome to another SPS Speech Box for 2024.  This Speech Box discusses visual schedules and how they can be used at home to support your child’s development.  Feel free to include it in your next school newsletter. 

Using visual schedules at home

Visual schedules can be incredibly beneficial for children, especially when it comes to supporting their daily routines. A visual schedule is made up of pictures or words showing a sequence of events to be completed. It could be a schedule for getting ready for school in the morning, completing after-school activities, like homework and swimming lessons, or a weekly schedule showing what will happen across the week. There are several advantages to using a visual schedule in your home:

Independence:

Visuals schedules provide a clear, predicable structure for children. If a child uses a visual schedule, then they know what is required of them. A child who can see that they need to get dressed, eat breakfast and brush their teeth is more likely to start to do these things independently.

Visual schedules may provide children with a sense of autonomy and responsibility. They can start to follow the sequence of events without you having to keep reminding them.

Predictability

Children are more settled if they know what is going to happen and when it will happen. A visual schedule allows a child to know what to expect during the timeframe and what will happen next.

Flexibility

The advantage of visual schedules is that they can change each day. For example, if a child has swimming on a Tuesday afternoon, or a playdate on a Friday, then these can be added to the schedule so that the child can mentally prepare for the event. 

Language and literacy development

Children will learn concepts such as ‘later, first, next, last’ during your discussions about the visual schedule. If you add words to the pictures you use on your schedule, children may begin to recognise these words and start to use them independently. Visual schedules can be created at home by:

Using pictures, drawings, or electronic devices to represent each step of a routine or activity. Placing visuals in a particular order to show the entire routine or the order in which steps/tasks need to be completed.

Supporting your child to use and understand the visual schedule, before gradually reducing your assistance so they can independently use and follow their visual schedule.

Visual schedules can be as complex or as simple as your child and your family needs them to be. They can add stability to your everyday life, even when you feel like you are rushing around!

If you would like further information, please contact the SPS Speech Pathologist at your school.

Kind regards,

Mala Ferdinando
Speech Pathology for Schools

www.speech.edu.au