Mudgeeraba Special School eNewsletter

Dear Parents and Community,

I want to express my gratitude to each and every Grandmother, Grandfather and special guest that attended our Grandparent's day. We filled the assembly, which was designed to hold 96 people. We enjoyed exhibiting our classrooms and giving you the chance to have a high tea prepared by our students while getting to know other members of our school community. We can't wait to host many more school activities in the future because it really demonstrated how invested everyone is in our school.

Updates on staffing for 2023, Our head of curriculum, Bree Nairn, has made the decision to return to the classroom. Bree's strength will be a great loss to our Executive Team, but we are happy for her and know that the students she teaches will be fortunate the next year. The HOC application period ended yesterday, and interviews will be held the following week. When we are aware of the results, we will keep you informed.

We hope to let you know who your teacher and teaching aide team will be in week 10 when we send home report cards because we are still finalising enrolments, which has an impact on class design.

2023 Meet the Teacher

The Meet the Teacher event will look different in 2023. Before the start of the new school year, the event will take place. This will provide you the chance to get to know your teaching staff, tour the classroom, and socialise with the rest of the school. We plan to have it on January 18, the Wednesday before school resumes, at 4:30. Before the year is up, we will offer families more information. With everyone having the opportunity to do so before day 1, we hope to ensure that everyone has a successful first day.

2022 Gold Coast Student Volunteer Finalists

We are so excited to announce that we have been selected as a finalist for the Gold Coast Volunteer of the Year Awards. We are overjoyed to report that we have advanced to the Gold Coast Volunteer of the Year honours roll as a finalist. On December 2, the entire school community will attend the awards ceremony. It is a true testament to the teachers who have guided our volunteer activities throughout the years and forged deep connections with the community. This programme demonstrates just how many outstanding skills our students have to give. I want to thank the students who worked so hard in these programmes to make this happen. As a result, our partnerships have remained solid over the years. We appreciate the Mudgeeraba Showgrounds' assistance with our Gold Coast Student Volunteer application.

Kind regards

Natasha Markwick
Acting Principal

Event

Term 4

Week 8

Monday 21 November: Volunteers Morning Tea

Term 4

Week 9

Monday 28 November: Senior School Markets

Thursday 1 December: Lower Middle Christmas Concert

Wed 30 Nov - Fri 2 Dec: Schoolies Camp

Term 4

Week 10

Monday 5 December: Whole School Assembly

Wednesday 7 December: Graduation Lunch and Assembly

Thursday 8 December: Junior Christmas Concert

Friday 9 December: Last day of school for 2022

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During 2022 Somerset have partnered with our school to add value to our school programs. Their Year 11 cohort have made friendships with young people across our school campus and they once again offered to be part of our Christmas Letter Exchange. Students at Mudgeeraba Special School undertook a writing process to write to Santa and the Year 11 students at Somerset replied. We would like to thank Brad Walker, Somerset College and the below pictured Somerset Year 11 students for their continued support and partnership with our school.

Pineapple Day for Mudgeeraba Special School marked the 40th year since our school was officially opened on the 6th November in 1982.

Staff and Students celebrated by wearing tropical inspired colours and patterns and fostering the love of writing by each student using the stimulus question of:

Why is Mudgee Special?

Our students participated in the making of a pineapple image, using their writing samples. Each class had an Author's Chair representative to share the writing work of their class. The blocks across the school also participated in pineapple inspired games like pass the pineapple, a seated version of tunnel ball, corners and the freeze game using dance.

Mudgeeraba Special School values our Partnerships. This year Junior Secondary students have been working closely with Year 11 St Michaels students through the Health and Physical Education Curriculum lens. They have been undertaking weekly visits to play sporting games with the Year 11 students leading the activities. It has been a wonderful success with all students forming friendships and engaging through sport.

Junior Secondary students travelled to Brisbane to experience the excitement of the Virtus Oceania Asia Games.

The Virtus Oceania Asia Games 2022 (OA Games 2022) was an international multi-sport competition in the Oceania Asia region for elite athletes with an intellectual impairment and were held in Brisbane at the Queensland Athletic Centre. Our students were lucky to recieve tickets from Paralympic Australia. They worked with our region, providing tickets to schools and promoting 'Come and Try Sessions'. Junior Secondary Students participated in come and try Australian Football League (AFL).

Find out more on the Virtus Oceania Asia Games 2022 website.

All students and staff had a wonderful day.

It was great to connect with so many of our community partners at our partnership breakfast on Wednesday 9 November, and thank them for their ongoing support. Thank you to our Guest Speaker, Renee Cohen from the Gold Coast Titans, for talking about the amazing and inspirational work she is doing. She is truly changing the lives of so many young people. Thank you also to our students who showcased their fantastic vocational and hospitality skills, as well as our staff for all of their amazing work.