Mount Ommaney Special School eNewsletter

A Message from Mike Curtis - Principal

As Term 1 comes to a close, I want to reflect on what has been a busy but incredibly productive start to the year. I am proud of our staff - especially our new team members - who have embraced the MOSS way and become valued members of our school community.

Our newly renovated pool has been a highlight this term, offering wonderful swimming experiences for one sector of the school. Next term, another sector will enjoy their turn, and we’re updating supporting equipment to ensure equitable access for all students. A huge thank you to Eric and Ginnine, whose HPE lessons in the pool have been a success, with fantastic student engagement.

Our new engagement coaches and student support coach have hit the ground running, providing valuable support to teachers across the school. Their focus has been on beginning teachers receiving intensive coaching, as well as experienced teachers new to special education. Those familiar with special schools but new to certain sectors have also benefited from tailored support. The impact has been outstanding.
We’ve implemented a new referral process using the Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), which has been incredibly effective. Andrea, our student support coach, oversees referrals, which are triaged by the Student Engagement Team. This ensures students receive the right support—whether from engagement coaches, therapy teams, or behaviour intervention. This system is closely aligned with our AIP goal of providing timely, individualised support.

Expanding community access opportunities has been a priority, and with that comes the need for more transport. While our current bus is dedicated to senior programs, we’re excited to add a people mover in Term 2. Additionally, Juliet has been working with Variety – The Children’s Charity of Queensland to secure a donation towards a third bus. Fingers crossed for a positive outcome!

Our new leadership structure is working well, ensuring clear roles, accountability, and direction. Middle leaders and specialists are well supported by ELT members, and our two HOD-Cs, Emma and Jenni, have done a remarkable job rolling out Version 9 of the Australian Curriculum and streamlining planning and moderation.

Finally, our long-awaited building project is progressing, with design, approvals, and tendering phases well underway. We expect Department of Education approval to call tenders next month, with early works—such as Endeavour Street parking and administration refurbishments—set to begin towards the middle of this year. Major developments, including a new hall and additional classrooms, will follow. The final stage of this process will require ministerial sign-off before construction on these key areas can commence, expected in late 2025. Once approved, the hall and new learning spaces will provide much-needed capacity for our growing school community, supporting students and staff with improved facilities and learning environments.

It’s been a fantastic start to the year, and I look forward to what we achieve together in Term 2!

A Message from Chrissy Hamilton - Deputy Principal

At MOSS we understand the importance of student and staff wellbeing. This term, our Wellbeing team completed the Staff Wellbeing Action Plan for 2025. This work began last year under the guidance and support of our Regional Wellbeing Consultant, Dr. Connie Allen, and is a focus area in the Department of Education’s Equity and Excellence Strategic Plan 2024 - 2028.

We are currently working on two priorities for 2025, and these priorities were identified and collaboratively chosen by staff. Our first priority is to promote work/life integration though organisational wellbeing. This will be achieved by building staff capacity in using Microsoft software to enhance time management skills, and in developing organisational ways of working, that suit each staff member’s personality/working style. Our second priority is to promote social and community engagement by providing social connection activities for staff. Our fist social activity this term, was a ‘Get to Know You’ games - a lot of fun was had by everyone! Many thanks to the wellbeing team for a great afternoon.

Being happy, healthy, and confident at work, creates a sense of belonging and a positive teaching and learning environment that benefits all our staff and students.

A Message from Katie Bartholomaeus - Deputy Principal

Professional Learning

Our staff have been very busy this year engaging in a range of Professional Learning sessions at school.

The topics have included:

• Introduction to AAC and PODD.
• Intensive Interaction and student engagement.
• Australian Curriculum V9 and developing ICP’s and PLGs
• Navigating OneSchool
• Writing Individual Student Risk Control Measures.
• Excursion Planning
• Team Teach – De-escalation strategies.

These were presented by our Heads of Department (HODs), our Engagement Coaches and our DoE Therapists. It is always fantastic to see so many teachers and teacher aides committed to continual learning and professional growth to best support our students. We are planning more practical sessions for our staff for Term 2.

Transition from ECDP to Prep

This year is the first time we have trialed a staggered start for our new Prep students. We trialed the Prep students starting at 10am and finishing at 2 pm for their first week. We also implemented that only half of the students came on the first day, the other half on the second and then then all together for the remainder of the week. It gave the students a gentle start and space to form new relationships with staff. It allowed the staff to give more individual attention and learn about the students support needs and form connections with both the students and parents. For the parents it meant they could avoid the busy drop off and pick up and focus on transitioning their child to school in a quiet, calm and supportive way. It was a great success!

Communication

This year we would like to develop a Communication Policy for our school. Positive communication between home and school is fundamentally core business for everyone here at MOSS. At the end of 2024 I ran a professional learning session on the importance of communication with families and then surveyed the staff about their thoughts and feelings around communication; how often they communicate, what type they use (DoJo, email, phone) and when they use them. I would now like to work with families and get their perspectives on communication here at MOSS. In Term 2, I will be asking for any families that would like to be involved to attend a session and reply to some survey questions. Watch this space!

Have a wonderful break and Happy easter.
Katie

Professional Learning Sessions

A Message from Melissa Farrell - A/HOSES - ECDP

Term 1 at the ECDP has focused on CONNECTION and BELONGING.

For our children the connection and sense of belonging they feel with their teachers has a profound impact on their learning and engagement. Teachers are not just educators; they are pivotal figures who can help create a safe and supportive environment where our children feel understood, valued, and capable of achieving their best.

The ECDP team have spent this term taking the time to build meaningful relationships with children and families — sharing important insights, strategies, and resources to ensure each child's needs are being met, as well as showing empathy, patience, and respect to foster a sense of trust. This trust allows our children to feel more comfortable taking risks in their learning and can lead to increased self-confidence, improved social skills, and enhanced learning outcomes.

In essence, when children with special needs feel like they truly belong in the classroom, they are empowered to engage, grow, and achieve.

I want to thank the ECDP team for their dedication to building meaningful connections between families, teachers, and students, which is key to fostering an environment where all children, regardless of their challenges, can thrive.

As our school continues to grow, we are excited to expand our curriculum team to better support our students and staff. We have divided the responsibility of the school’s curriculum between the primary school (Years P-6) and the secondary school (Years 7-12) to make sure contextual curriculum units are age relevant and engaging.

Additionally, we are pleased to introduce two part-time Student Engagement Coaches (HICP and DYL-P) and a Student Support Coach, who are working closely with staff and students to enhance skill development, increase engagement, and improve learning outcomes.

Our school-wide curriculum improvement focus this year is on refining moderation processes within the planning, teaching, and assessment cycle, as well as enhancing pedagogical practices across all year levels. To support these priorities, professional development opportunities will be available for both the curriculum team and all staff throughout the year.

Family Engagement Initiatives

A key priority for our curriculum team is fostering collaboration with families to strengthen understanding of curriculum frameworks and pedagogical practices, ensuring greater consistency between home and school learning environments.

This term we started by offering parent information sessions about Curriculum at MOSS. We covered the two learning pathways at MOSS, Highly Individualised Curriculum and Different year Level – Partial, what learning looks like at MOSS and the Semester 1 curriculum contexts and learning goals. We also held Senior School Parent Sessions and ‘Meet the Teacher’ afternoons. These curriculum information sessions were well attended, and it was lovely to meet and connect with so many parents and family members! If there are specific topics you would like more information about, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Special Events

It has been a dynamic and eventful term, filled with meaningful celebrations and activities. We came together to observe Harmony Day, participated in a Junior Secondary-focused Clean Up Australia/MOSS Day, raised funds for Epilepsy QLD on Purple Day, and, for the first time, celebrated ‘International Read to Me! Day.’

International Read to Me Day, held annually on March 19th, highlights the importance of reading aloud to children, fostering language development, creativity, and a lifelong love of books. This year, members of our Leadership Team had the wonderful opportunity to visit classrooms and share some of their favorite stories, including Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Pasta, Pig the Grub, and What Paramedics Do. Following the readings, students engaged in a variety of sensory, imaginative, role-playing, and group activities—creating a lively and joyful learning experience!

As we wrap up an incredible term, we extend our gratitude to our students, staff, and families for their ongoing dedication and support. We look forward to another exciting and enriching term ahead!

Emma Lancaster and Jenni Hakl

Clean Up Australia Day

We would like to introduce ourselves. We are the Engagement Coaches at MOSS. Our role is to support teachers to engage our students in their learning experiences. We are working closely with staff to differentiate for their learners.

We are passionate about:

all of our students being able to communicate using their ‘now’ abilities while developing their ‘future’ system.
students engaging in meaningful, motivating learning experiences.
progressing our students to meet their full potential.
building teacher capacity while empowering our staff to be successful when engaging their students.

**Louise Ruzic - HICP Engagement Coach**

A message from Juliet Young - EPO (Education Program Officer)

Delta Therapy Classroom Canine Sessions

The school is thrilled to continue this valuable program which will be rolled out across all hubs this year. This program was very successful last year and all students with permission will be able to access multiple sessions with Tessa and Missy this year. Observed outcomes from this program include students developing their ability to take turns, increased participation in activities and a willingness to engage with something new and different. Thank you to Tessa for her time and flexibility to deliver this program to our students. It’s making a real difference.

Parent Morning/Afternoon Tea

We ran a morning and afternoon tea combined with curriculum information sessions earlier this term. These were well attended and provided an opportunity for new and existing parents to connect with others in their child’s hub. Having two sessions with different timing allowed more parents to attend depending on their schedules.

Donation of New Trailer

Rotary Club of Brisbane, Centenary, have very kindly donated a brand-new trailer to our school which will benefit not only our groundsmen but can also be used to transport equipment when attending camps or excursions. The trailer came with locks, covers and signage to acknowledge this generous donation. A huge MOSS thanks to Rotary for their continued and much valued support of our school.

Volunteers and Student Placements

We currently have 6 volunteers across the school including the ECDP. These volunteers provide a valuable extra pair of hands in classrooms and their help is very much appreciated.

ECDP have had 4 UQ audiology students over the past two weeks. Feedback from both the audiology students and the ECDP is that this has been a very worthwhile experience for everyone.

Rocks Riverside Community Garden

I recently spent some time at the garden chatting to members and collecting some beautiful large pumpkins that were grown on the MOSS plot. The plan is for our seniors to make pumpkin soup and invite members of the garden to the school for a tour and to enjoy the soup. We are all keen to further our connection and this is one way we can start to do that.

Members of the garden help on our plot when we are not able to attend and are currently building a shade structure to provide some sun protection on hot days. We are very grateful for their continued support which facilitates our visits and accessibility for all our students. Thank you to all at the RRCG.

Positive Behaviour for Learning (PBL) at MOSS!

This semester students have been re-introduced to our PBL Mascots.

Blaze the water dragon teaches our students to “Be Your Best”.

his term students focused on activities and learning around “I use my voice”. They were exposed to learning about what their voice looks like and what other students might use as their voice. They were given opportunities to practice using their voices in different places and with different people.

Buck the kangaroo teaches our students to “Be Safe”.

This term students focused on activities and learning around “I move safely”. They learned how to move safely in their classrooms, during transitions on the pathways, during personal care routines, when using walkers or standing frames and more. They practiced recognising when others are not moving safely.

Rosie the horse teaches our students to “Be Respectful”.

This term students focused on activities and learning around “I wait my turn”. They listened to songs, watched videos and read social stories. Students were given opportunities to use visuals and practice at different times of the days when completing different activities.

As students practiced these specific behaviours they collected stickers on their charts. When they filled their charts they were able to come down to the office to celebrate, choose a prize, receive a post card to take home and get their picture taken. This term we are hosting our first PBL Whole School Celebration and are looking forward to celebrating on the last day of term. Here are some of our students receiving their awards.

We’ve reached the end of a big term and are ready for the holidays. I’ve put together a list of idea’s to add to your. I hope your holidays give you a good break from the normal routine, and a chance to relax a little with your family.

Reval’s Easter Eggstravaganza

Saturday 19th April from 3pm. Easter egg hunt at 5pm
FREE entry
Mt Gravatt Park in Upper Mount Gravat 1850 Logan Rd (Park in the Bowls Club)
Entertainment including jumping castle, face painting, and games. There’ll be an appearance from the Easter Bunny as well as a free Easter egg hunt and free hot cross buns.

Hide and Sea at Tulmur Place, Nicolas St Precinct, Ipswich

Monday 7th -Friday 11th April 10am-2pm
FREE
Interactive marine display where kids can meet and touch many different aquatic animals as well as a friendly pelican. There will also be a variety of children’s activities.

Brisbane Motor Museum

959 Nudgee Rd Banyo
www.brisbanemotormuseum.com.au

Displays which constantly change (every 4 months) of a large range of vehicles. V8’s, sports cars, vehicles from yesteryear. Lots of fun for anyone who has even a passing interest in cars.

QAGOMA is hosting the Asia Pacific Triennial Kids exhibition with interactive exhibits for kids.

https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/exhibition/asia-pacific-triennial-kids

Queensland Museum Rail Workshops Ipswich

FREE entry - https://www.museum.qld.gov.au/rail-workshops/whats-on

Brisbane City Council

Brisbane City Council have a number of free activities on over the holidays - www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/things-to-see-and-do/whats-on-and-events/school-holiday-events

Cooking ideas

Pizza – make the bases with 1 cup Greek yoghurt, 1 cup flour. Mix together and keep adding more flour until it’s not too sticky and rolls flat. Add any toppings you want.

Chocolate and coconut balls (no bake) – mix together 1 packet of crushed Marie or Milk Arrowroot biscuits, ¾ cup desiccated coconut and ¼ cup cocoa powder. Mix through 1 tin sweetened condensed milk. Roll into balls, roll in more desiccated coconut and put in the fridge to firm up.

G Hub

A Busy and Exciting Term in G Hub!

Term One has been a whirlwind of learning, laughter, and engaging activities, with each child bringing their unique personality to our vibrant Hub. We appreciate the individual shine each student brings and strive to nurture their growth in all aspects of learning.

Our Drama sessions with Colette and Emma have been a highlight, encouraging creativity and humour as students express themselves through movement and storytelling. Eric, our dedicated HPE specialist, has kept us on our toes with obstacle courses, ball games, and other dynamic activities, ensuring everyone stays active and engaged.

Despite the disruption caused by the effects of Cyclone Alfred, our enthusiasm for learning remained undiminished. Once back at school, our students quickly reconnected with their routines and continued making wonderful progress.

We’ve also enjoyed some fantastic special events! Read to Me was a delightful experience, with Katie entertaining us with Pig the Grub, much to the students' amusement. Harmony Day saw us celebrating the rich cultural diversity of our community, embracing inclusivity and togetherness. Purple Day helped raise awareness about epilepsy. All these occasions were accompanied by fun and messy sensory activities. Of course, we also took time to celebrate some special birthdays!

As we look ahead to the next term, we are excited for more learning adventures, creativity, and discovery. Thank you for being part of our journey—we can’t wait to see what’s next!

All the G Hub Team

G1 Gallery

D & E Hub Term 1 Newsletter Item

Term 1 has seen students settle into their new class routines and make new friendships as we learn about school in 2025. It has been a busy term starting our curriculum for this semester, beginning our Personal Learning Goals and Harmony Day celebrations - and let’s not forget the cyclone days. It was lovely to have one of the members of the admin team come and read their favorite books to the hub. All the students were engaged, excited and participating.

For English and Visual Arts

This past term has seen us engage in a variety of texts relating to school, the classroom, families and home. We have explored picture books, stories, cartoons, videos and traditional oral texts relating to our topic. We have explored the characters, settings and events of the story and connecting and comparing these to personal experiences. Students have used language to express their likes and dislikes of the texts and experiences. Students have also been busy creating art pieces in response to the texts and engaged in writing experiences to retell, interact and share ideas about the text and express preferences. Texts we have explored have been ‘My Class is a Family’ and ‘In Every House on Every Street’. We will have new texts to explore at the start of term 2.

For Maths and Digital Technologies

Students have been busy connecting with numbers in a variety of ways and with a lot of hands-on learning. We have also been exploring the topic of Australian Money and financial literacy in the modern world. We have set up/going to set up classroom shops where students can use their imaginative play skills to purchase items from the shops and learn about exchanging money for items in the ‘shop’. This allows students to explore a variety of purchasing and exchanging situations in a familiar environment. A lot of the students have loved visiting the classroom shops and spending their ‘money’.

Drama has seen students engaging in voice off activities. They all love participating and interacting with the drama teachers on a weekly basis. Students love the music that accompanies the various drama activities that uses props such as scarves, hats and flowers alongside using our bodies to move and express ideas. In PE students have been exploring a variety of gross motor activities and games including throwing, throwing to a target, kicking, rolling and bouncing.

Everyone in D and E Hub wishes you all a safe and happy holidays and are looking up for a very busy and fun-filled term 2.

It’s been a big term in A/B Hub!

We’ve reconnected with our PBL expectations, had a strong focus on communication, started our P.E. and Drama lessons, and adapted to new classroom routines.

As well as working towards our Personalised Learning Goals, we’ve had a strong curriculum focus. In English and Visual Arts, we have engaged in meaningful and differentiated learning experiences focused on storytelling through words and art. In Mathematics and Digital Technologies, we’ve been building our understanding of money in the modern world. Auslan has also been embedded in our routines and transitions.

Here’s to exploring more quality picture books, painting, collage, sensory experiences, sociodramatic play, real-life experiences, and signing. We’re all looking forward to deepening our engagement and learning in Term 2. Bring it on!

K/L Hub learners have different learning journeys underway. L3 and L4 are working on integrated units for English and Visual Arts, Maths and Digital Technology, and Auslan. K classes are working on an integrated English and HASS unit titled ‘Caring for Country’, an integrated Science and Design Technology unit about living things and their needs, with a focus on gardening, as well as extending their understanding of number, particularly place value, and time in Mathematics. Across all hub classes we’re delivering comprehensive literacy, including daily opportunities for writing, shared/guided reading, individual reading and high-quality phonics instruction to support decoding and spelling skills. Supporting student communication is a priority. There is an emphasis on explicit teaching of social interaction skills and scaffolding student’s communication to engage successfully in social relationships with peers.

Students in L4 have explored themes about the beach and marine life within their integrated learning areas of English and Visual Arts. They’ve developed literacy skills in phonemic awareness, vocabulary and comprehension through multimodal presentations of texts. Students expressed themselves through visual means and sensory-based learning activities as they created pictures of a puffer fish, crab, turtle, and collages of a beach scene using a variety of materials e.g., textured papers, patty pans, paints, glitters, sand, bubble wrap, popsicle sticks etc. They used their imagination as they communicated ideas, preferences, and narratives about their visual representations. They produced interesting texts about they could hear, see, touch or do on the beach using their communication systems and alternate pencils e.g., word prompts/cards, magnetic letters; as they strung letters to form words or sentences about the topic learnt.

L3 has been showcasing their creativity by developing a blue bike-themed story, Billie and the Blue Bike. Through this book, students are learning about money, counting, and determining the cost of various items. They have been engaging in hands-on activities, such as role-playing shopping scenarios and using pretend money to make purchases. This interactive approach has helped them develop essential math skills while making learning fun and meaningful. Students are exploring financial responsibility by understanding the value of saving and making smart spending choices.

During play sessions, L4 have demonstrated safe play skills in waiting and turn taking as they shared play equipment in the playground and gym. In HPE, students have demonstrated being safe in swimming sessions. Besides learning basic swim skills like kicking, floating and blowing bubbles, they have loved diving into the water to retrieve dive sticks and sinking toys, swimming underwater through hoops, playing with balls, and balancing on the large float mat with their friends! Swimming has been a favourite weekly activity across the hub. It has been especially great to see students develop their confidence in the water, and take the next step with water safety.

As well as swimming, K/L hub have looked forward to non-verbal drama sessions where emotions, roles and scenarios have been explored through dramatic play. Importantly, these sessions develop self-awareness and emotional connection. It has been especially exciting that Savannah and Luke from K1 have been acting as leaders in some sessions, assisting Colette to develop the dramatic action. Peer teaching has been a highly successful strategy in this context. Sometimes students may spend time observing, before initiating active engagement in drama experiences. As a hub, we are very excited about the growth and development of our students through non-verbal drama. Students have really enjoyed the restaurant role play, before moving on to the hairdressing salon!

Classes K1, K3, K4, and L3 have enjoyed utilising the outside space under J Block and the adjoining garden, during breaks. Trampolines, spinners and a new swing, as well as games and basketball have kept students busy. Many students also rate bikes and scooters as a favourite lunchtime activity.

Students have participated in other school wide activities such as Harmony Day, International Read To Me Day and Epilepsy Day. The highlight in L4 was a visit from Mike, our principal who came to read the book ‘Pasta!’ to the class! It was a fun-filled session as the class attempted to pronounce the different names of pasta using an Italian accent, match pictures of the different types of pasta and create hairdos using pasta! L3 and K3 enjoyed a reading of Pig the Stinker, complete with props to give Pig the Stinker a bath. K1 and K4 had a blast with Miss Louise reading ‘The Very Noisy Bear’, complete with instruments, including a real trumpet! Students loved exploring the different instruments and using their voice to share songs with the microphone. Fun filled shared reading experiences supporting literacy skills, and reminding us of the importance of sharing books with our young people at school and home, even as pre-teens or teenagers.

KL Hub have embraced embedding our fortnightly Positive Behaviour for Learning focus. The whole hub loves to celebrate our success with our fortnightly PBL assemblies. One student from each class receives a certificate to acknowledge they have done a fantastic job of demonstrating the fortnightly PBL focus. One of our mascots comes along too! Buck the kangaroo for ‘be safe’, Rosie the horse to remind us to ‘be respectful’ and Blaze the waterdragon when the focus is ‘be my best’. The hub loves to finish off with some dancing fun too.

K1, K3 and K4 are deep into an integrated HASS and English unit about ‘Caring for Country, focussed on developing information report writing skills, while exploring the concept of place. Students have been exploring significant places at school and in the community, to recognise the features of places. Some of our learners are identifying the natural, built and constructed features of places by exploring the school environment, play based experiences, multi-modal content and constructing models/dioramas and artwork. Our learners are engaged in lots of discussions about how people might use different places, why some places are special to people and how we can care for different places. There has been an emphasis on Indigenous perspectives and the importance of country to indigenous Australians. Clean Up Australia Day, earlier this term, was a great real life opportunity to practise how we could take care of our own school and local community, on Yuggera and Turrabul country.

K block classes are also getting into the garden by exploring what living things, plants and animals, are in our school environment. Did you know one of our classrooms had a surprise visit from an echidna earlier in the year? Our school grounds offer sanctuary to many birds, insects and reptiles too. K3 has been on an excursion to Daisy Hill Koala Centre, with K3 and K1 also venturing out. We are currently investigating what plants and animals need, and how they exist together within the environment. In the next part of our unit we will focus on designing a solution to a problem we identify in the garden environment. This could be a bee house to attract native bees to help with pollination, or designing a mini greenhouse to help seeds germinate, or perhaps a way to attract native birds to our garden. Maybe a scarecrow to scare birds away? Our student’s will have some agency in what they decide to design and create to help the garden based on their observations.

Food Scrap Friday has arrived in KL hub! We’re focusing on composting and creating a worm farm to help enrich the soil. Every Friday is now ‘Food Scrap Friday’ if you are in K1, K3 or K4. Please send in your food scraps in an airtight container/bucket to be added to the compost or worm farm. Reducing waste and enriching the soil is a practical way we can ‘care for country’.

While KL Hub learners have been actively engaged across all curriculum learning experiences this term, each student’s highly personalised goals have been firmly in the spotlight. Tailored experiences and targeted teaching addressing each student’s personalised goals is helping students across KL hub really flourish, build health and wellness and be their best every day. A big thank you to our families for their unwavering support during Term 1.

We wish you all a safe and restful Easter holiday.

K1 Gallery

K3 Gallery

L3 English Gallery

L4 Gallery

CHI students have been busy engaging in different learning experiences with half of CHI Hub engaging in Primary curriculum subjects and the other half in Secondary curriculum subjects.

In Primary School Maths, we have been looking at symbols, digits and counting. We have set up shop-based play to practice using money in familiar places. The cupcake shop in H2 was very popular with staff and students visiting from other classes to buy the yummy cakes. In English and Visual Arts we are taking inspiration from our narrative texts. After reading “Out in the Moana” we used a variety of painting and printing techniques to create artworks based on ocean creatures. After reading “Going to the Footy”, we explored lines and spots inspired by the Indigenous artwork in the illustrations. Found objects such as straws and bottle tops were collaged onto transport related shapes.

In Secondary School English and Geography, we have been learning about Places that are special to our classmates as well as sharing photographs of our own special places. It has been exciting to see who in our class has similar interests and where they like to visit outside of school. Swimming and other water-based places have been high on everyone’s list.

In Science we have been bringing the outside into the classroom growing sprouts and beans in cotton wool and chia seeds and celery in water. We are keeping a watchful eye on our growing seeds and making comments using, Aided Language Displays and our AAC systems. We have been using ordinal number and duration vocabulary such as “first, next, then, after and finally” when transitioning between activities in our daily routines.

Term 1 H2 reflections:
This term has been all about building connections, fostering a sense of belonging, and finding our rhythm with new peers and staff. It has been wonderful to see the children in H2 beginning to see each other as partners in their learning journey for the year.

Throughout the term, we explored learning through two fantastic books: Out in the Moana and Going to the Footy. These stories opened up multiple avenues for engagement across different learning areas, including literacy, mathematics, visual arts, digital technologies, and AUSLAN.

Out in the Moana gave us countless opportunities for shared reading, visual storytelling, and interactive sensory experiences. To bring the ocean to life, we created a water trough and experimented with different textures, including blue jelly—a delightful sensory experience for our sensory-seeking learners. Some children enjoyed crafting beautiful clusters of fish, while others enthusiastically contributed to our collaborative ocean mural, which now adds a vibrant touch to our classroom walls.

Sensory exploration played a big role in our learning. Dipping hands into blue jelly, soapy water, and icy water provided a rich, multi-sensory experience, allowing children to engage at their own pace. We also incorporated plenty of counting activities with fish, using this story as a fun and engaging way to reinforce early numeracy skills.

Going to the Footy led us on an exciting exploration of transportation. The children experimented with toy cars and paint by making tracks by cars dipped in paint and creating unique artworks. We also designed a "garage" using masking tape to help students sort and organize vehicles of different sizes. These hands-on experiences encouraged engagement and learning.

Another highlight was our time with the therapy dog, where students had the chance to sit alongside, touch and feed a therapy dog Missy with the guidance of her handler. This was a heartwarming experience that supported emotional regulation and confidence-building.

To extend our understanding of money and real-world transactions, we set up our own class café! The children practiced essential pre-baking skills such as pouring, whisking, mixing, and sifting using toy utensils before moving on to the real thing. Our muffins turned out beautifully. Then our children to experience a role play done by staff about how to use money in a café scenario. The café is still open, and students have the opportunity to revisit the cafe at their own pace and in their own time.
Alongside all these wonderful experiences, our weekly drama classes and bi-weekly HPE sessions have been a hit, encouraging engagement, creative expression, and movement.

As we wrap up Term 1, we can’t believe how quickly the weeks have flown by! It has been a term filled with laughter, exploration, and meaningful learning experiences. We’re excited to see what Term 2 has in store!
Enjoy the school holidays, and we look forward to another exciting term ahead!

I1

In Maths this term, we have been exploring number recognition and real-world numeracy through the texts Going to the Footy and Out in the Moana. Students have enjoyed engaging in hands-on activities that connect numbers to everyday experiences, such as recognising and using them in familiar settings. Through interactive games and discussions, they have deepened their understanding of numeracy by making connections between numbers in stories and their daily lives, strengthening their confidence in using maths meaningfully.

J Hub

In the Senior School at MOSS we use an Inter-programming model, similar to that of a Secondary School timetable, where our young people are engaged in different programs and subject areas with a range of staff members across the week. This means programming is tailored towards the young person’s interests and provides a flexibility and range of options. The inter-programming model has allowed us to make great progress in building friendships and making new connections both at school and for our Year 11 and 12 students, in the community. We’ve worked on our social and employability skills, which has helped us get to know each other better and learn to work as part of a team. We are applying these skills through our enterprise programs (Hospitality, Play Dough Making and Dog Biscuit Production) and attending programs in the community.

Each week, we've been engaging in a variety of sports, including ten-pin bowling, cycling, and basketball. These activities have helped us develop important social skills, such as sharing, negotiating space, and collaborating effectively with both our peers and adults. Additionally, we've been improving our physical health while having a lot of fun along the way. Next term, we will continue to explore fun and creative ways to stay active and healthy, with the goal of making physical activity a lifelong habit.

The year 10 students and their families have been completing their PATH (Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope) plans with the Senior School teaching team. It is a powerful, person-centered planning and goal setting tool which the identifies each young person's needs and interests. It is then implemented throughout the senior years to prepare our young people for a successful transition to the exciting world beyond school.

Community Access Gallery

Enterprise Gallery

Computer Recyling Gallery

J Block General Gallery

Sport Gallery

2025 School Calendar

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2025_school_calendar.pdf

Day	Date	Event
Fri	4 Apr 25	Last Day of Term 1
Fri	18 Apr 25	Good Friday Public Holiday
Mon	21 Apr 25	Easter Monday Public Holiday
Tue	22 Apr 25	First Day of Term 2
Fri	25 Apr 25	Anzac Day Public Holiday
Mon	5 May 25	Labour Day Public Holiday

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MOSS Newsletter - Term 1 2025