Other Schools Visit Mater Dei

During the school year we are privileged to have students and staff from other schools visit Mater Dei.

In May we had a visit from students and staff from Mount St Benedict College. Below is a beatifully written story by Mary Jane Trujillo (Mount St Bernedict Teacher) after the visit together with some lovely photos taken during the visit.


Girls from Mount St Benedict Year 8 have all been involved in a service learning program developed by Ministry Coordinator, Mr Mark Smith, at two special schools, St Edmund's School in Wahroonga or Mater Dei in Camden.

The girls spend a day working and interacting with students. St Edmund's is a Year 7-12 co-educational special high school for teenagers with a wide range of disabilities including sensory impairment, intellectual disability and autism. Mater Dei is an organisation that provides early intervention therapy services, education and residential programs for babies, children and young people with an intellectual disability or developmental delay.

I went to Mater Dei with the girls and learned so much about the school. Mater Dei is a Good Samaritan school that was an orphanage from 1910 to 1957. It has a historical house, Wivenhoe, built in 1812. It became a special school in 1958 with dormitories converted into classrooms. Being an old building, it has limitations with narrow hallways and hard-to-heat rooms.

Bennies girls joined Mater Dei students for recess and in classrooms. They became teacher assistants, from kindergarten to high school, helping with reading, and with whatever the teacher needed. It was amazing how quickly they adapted to whatever situation they were given. One teacher said she was so impressed with how patiently Amy gently guided a student in forming the letters of his name. Some were a bit overwhelmed with the wide range of disabilities and needs of the Mater Dei students, while others said they forgot they had special needs as they were just like them. They saw many diverse learning materials in the special needs classrooms, including laptops and interactive whiteboards. In the specially designed playground the girls saw how equipment helps special needs children. Autistic children love the sensory playground with water play and visual stimuli. A portion had to be closed to accommodate the new building but will be replaced when the building is finished.

Two houses at Mount St Benedict, Arcadia and Subiaco, are partnered with Mater Dei and have raised money to support them. This year for Easter they sold $1600 of chocolate Mater Dei Peace Eggs!

During the "Building the Education Revolution" Mater Dei received two grants, one for K-6 and one for high school to build an assembly hall and labs. They made the bold decision to expand the building project and replace the classrooms. A three storey building with bright, light filled classrooms accented in bright colours are nearly ready to move in. Old classrooms will become science and TAS labs. Each level has wide hallways, enviable storage, and large areas for varied learning and assembling.

It was great to be some of the first people to visit this fantastic new learning space and to learn and experience the fantastic work and teaching done at Mater Dei. Not only did we learn about special needs children, we were able to see how our fundraising efforts help the school.