Dear Parents and Community,

We want to thank you all for another amazing term! It has been a pleasure leading this school community and seeing our students shine whether that be in daily teaching experiences or whole school events. Mrs Hope is continuing with her leave for term 4, so I will continue in the role. 

The highlight of this term was defiantly our school concert, everyone who I have spoken to has spoken so highly of students and staff for the quality of performances and the professionalism of the event. We apologise for the parking situation and will ensure to make considerations around this in the future. I want to take this time to formally acknowledge the staff who led the evening on behalf of the school community; Bree Nairn, Michaela Austin, Shaun Hayes, Emily Milne, Georgia Curran, Nicole Shipton, Kirra Middling and Aaron Thompson. On the night a huge thanks goes to Graeme Clancy who coordinated the evening and Adrian Young for his amazing lead in the sound booth. We had over 700 community members who joined us on the night and it was amazing to showcase our school, staff and students. 

CODE BLACK 

On Wednesday we communicated we had a code black. Our amazing school followed our procedures and everyone stayed safe. We had community members enter our school ground which saw police follow. Police stayed and searched the school grounds before leaving. We know police continued around our school perimeter after hours however our school community was safe. Thank you for trusting us throughout this process. I have included the codes and reasons below for your reference;

NEW BUILDING 

Yesterday we were able to walk the building site and see the progress. They are hoping if the rain stays away we will have a roof on in the next three weeks. It has been amazing being a part of this project and hope you enjoy the finished building in the new year. We are currently working with departmental OT’s and Physio’s to make sure we purchase the right furniture. 

Thanks again for your continued support in making Mudgeeraba Special School a collaborative partnership that works together for positive outcomes for all of our learners. 

Kind regards
Natasha Markwick
Acting Principal

For a number of years, Mudgeeraba Special School has been working to become the first ever Glasser Quality Special School in the world.  This goal is now within reach, and next week 3 members of Glasser Australia will visit our school to undertake a co-verfification process.  In this process they will speak with our staff, students and their parents to discover all of our quality teaching and learning practices.  It will be a fantasic opportunity to showcase our amazing "quality" school!

The co-verification process will go for three days and each day will focus on different aspects of quality at Mudgeeraba Special School.  The first day will look at our journey to become a Glasser Quality school and examine how our leadership structures and whole school systems help to develop relationships built on trust and respect.  The second day will focus on how our individualised learning programs help create a need satisfying environment for our students and support them to do relevant, meaningful work which will enhance their quality of life.  It will also examine how strong relationships with our parents and members of the community help to strengthen our programs and ensure they are aligned to the needs of the community.  The third day will focus on our professional learning and how our staff are working toward continual improvement in their practice.  It will examine what we are currently doing, whether it is working, what are our options and what is our plan moving forward.  Throughout the co-verification we will also look at Mudgeeraba Special School is a joyous place.  A place that students, staff, and families want to come to.     

In 2021, Mudgeeraba Special School was selected to be a part of the regional Inclusive Teaching of Reading Steering group. This year, Knowledgeable Others and Speech and Language Pathologists from Mudgeeraba Special School have been attending professional learning and cluster meetings to learn and develop the best practice for reading in the early years. The pilot is based on The Simple View of Reading which is a theory that attempts to define the skills that contribute to early reading comprehension. According to the original theory, an individual's reading comprehension is the product of their decoding skill and language comprehension. On Thursday 8^th September, the Effective Teaching of Reading group met for professional learning and collaboration in word reading. The focus leading into Term 4 will be on comprehension. We are looking forward to deeply imbedding these practices in 2023.

This term, all staff at Mudgeeraba Special School have been assigned a new 20 cell Pragmatic Organisation Dynamic Display (PODD) book. PODD is a comprehensive and complete communication system for individuals who cannot meet all of their communication needs with speech alone. Mudgeeraba Special School supports multimodal communication and models many forms of AAC throughout the school day across environments. The versatility of the new PODD straps allow staff to change from wearing their PODD books to their iPad, to model Proloquo2Go. The new PODD includes personalised school places, activities and language that can support learners with implementing strategies from the Get Happier Project. If you have further questions about PODD, please connect with your classroom teacher.

On Thursdays several of our Junior Secondary students travelled to the Runaway Bay Sports Super Centre to participate in the Regional Athletics Championships. The event provided the opportunity for our students to participate in running and group challenge sports games against a wide verity of other schools within the south east region. We would like to congratulate all of the students that attend for participating with positivity and making sure they encouraged not only each other but all of the other athletes in attendance.

The week 9 Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) focus has been on travelling down the Encouraging Road and supporting others to do their best. Students have engaged in a variety of activities, and game-based play, designed to provide regular opportunities for students to support each other. This week we joined the Junior Secondary 3 class during their focused lesson where the students explored different ways they can show their support to their peers through verbal (good job, you can do it, well done, keep going) and physical (thumbs up, high five, clapping, smiling) encouragement.

In week 10 the school will be engaging in an open roads review before celebrating Pirate Day on Friday 16^th of September.

Medical students at Bond University have been gaining experience at our school.  Check out their story at:

https://bond.edu.au/intl/news/72346/future-doctors-swing-new-healthcare-program