2024 Term 3 - End of Term Newsletter

Principal’s Report

Dear Families and Carers,

The last time I wrote to you, I emphasised how we should try ‘to stop and breathe and appreciate the present’. I want to continue with this whilst also emphasising how I have noticed the evolution of this throughout the term. 

The theme for Catholic Schools this year is, ‘Follow Me!’, which is Jesus’ simple invitation to walk with Him as disciples on a journey. Staff recently participated in our Formation day which focused on this journey and how we give back or ‘serve’. This invitation is not a mere call to walk alongside Jesus but a summons to be taught by Him and transformed by Him – just like it was for his Apostles and first disciples who left their fishing boats behind and followed Jesus. The words which resonated the most with me on the day, was when the former Bishop stated, “The best thing we can do to serve is to deliberately waste time with another’. What a wonderful gift to give someone- our time. I believe our staff also demonstrated this beautifully as they collaborated in taking their mission to ‘serve’ one step further on the day with blood and plasma donations, and making soup to donate to Soul Café. We ‘wasted’ much time together this day, and it was glorious. 

Eamon, Max, Nate, Andrew, and Paul also took the next steps in following Him. The students participated in their Confirmation at Sacred Heart Cathedral with Vicar General and St Dominic’s dear friend, Fr Greg Barker. The boys and their families all took part in lessons in the lead up to the ceremony and engaged in the service on the day devoutly. Congrats to each of our newly confirmed students.

It is also with some sadness, we heard the announcement of the end of his service to the diocese with the resignation of head of Schools, Steve Lemos. Steve has served our schools well for the past four years and will return to Sydney to spend more time with his family at the end of the year. We thank Steve for his dedicated service and look forward to a special farewell with him in Term 4. Good luck Steve.

May the holidays be blessed and restful. 

Faithfully,

Rachel

Assistant Principal Report

Personalised Planning Meetings Term 3

Thank you to all the parents that joined their child's class teacher or case managers online for our PP meetings in Week 6. This is a wonderful time to collaborate, discuss successes, identify challenges and put strategies and student centred goals in place. Catholic Schools NSW has released a new PP tool. Staff have been completing some training and learning how to navigate the online platform. Your child's plan will be sent home early next term. As soon as you receive a copy, please read, make any adjustments that need to be made, sign the bottom of each page, and return one copy to your child's class teacher or case manager. Any questions please reach out to the class teacher in the first instance, or reach out to us.

Year 5-12 Camp

We were both lucky enough to support our students at our recent Point Wolstoncroft Camp. All staff were impressed with the resilience and effort that each student demonstrated throughout all of the activities at camp. You should be very proud of your children for trying new activities and stepping out of their comfort zone. We are very grateful to the staff who dedicated their time and energy to organising and implementing such amazing experiences for our students - Thank you!

School Holiday Ideas

As school holidays are fast approaching, we thought we would take this opportunity to share some activities and ideas to keep our busy poppets entertained during the two week break.

September School Holidays: What’s On in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie & Hunter - Newy with Kids My favourite is the scavenger hunt – you can complete it on the iPad and it is lots of fun.

School Holiday Program for Kids with Disabilities - What's On Newcastle (nsw.gov.au)

Youth School Holiday Program - Active Inclusive

We are hoping for sunshine during the break so you can get out in nature and recharge your batteries.

Schools Safeguarding

Supporting your child to navigate the online world, safely- watch the webinar now!

Supporting your child to navigate the online world, safely can be challenging.

However, it’s a challenge you don’t have to face on your own.

Recently, all parents and carers would have received a Compass notification inviting you to attend a ‘Cyber Safety and Wellbeing Webinar’ featuring The Cyber Safety Project.

If you missed the live streaming of the webinar, that’s okay, as a recording of it is now available to watch up until 22 September. Just click on the link below.

https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/eQtw_J2Ckhq7n-_X8EhakBIaAj0Limz017lou7RPPBwF2lb2b_3A72Y7BUF0J-N_.gHfhgHlapSEyui9X

A very big thank you to the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle’s peak parent body the Federation of P&F Associations and The Office of Safeguarding for co-hosting this informative webinar that every parent and carer should watch!

Online Resources:

There are a number of online resources that can be helpful for our students to access learning about social, emotional development and keeping ourselves safe. Check out some of the suggestions below:

Kids Helpline:

https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/issues/what-do-if-someone-hurting-you

https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/issues/seeing-scary-stuff-news

https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/issues/being-ok-being-different

Coordinators Report

As Term 3 ends, we can take a moment to reflect on all the wonderful experiences and achievements that students and staff have experienced. Our students never cease to amaze us with their resilience and sense of adventure. This has been most recently showcased at the Point Wolstoncroft camp. We had a wonderful display of enthusiasm, fun and determination by our campers in Week 8. It was threatening to be a wash out, but all our activities fell in the sunny parts of the day. Archery, Camp fire damper making, Kayaking, Rock climbing and bush walking were some of the achievements made by our students. For those Secondary students who experienced staying over the night for the very first time we congratulate you for how well you conducted yourselves and are so very proud of this huge achievement. We look forward to doing it all again next year. Well done to all!

Primary and Secondary students have been able to engage in several physical activities such as gymnastics, bowling and hockey. These experiences encourage our students to develop physical skills but also social interactions and trying new things.

We have been successful in several grant applications allowing us to purchase new sporting programs and equipment which we look forward to ordering and receiving at the back end of this term and into next. A particular thanks to Port Waratah Coal for their generous contributions and Sporting Schools Australia.

Staff engaged in a Spiritual Formation Day this week to give us time to reflect and engage in acts of service. We try to instil these values in our students every day, so it was a great opportunity to remind ourselves that we each have a responsibility to serve those in our community and walk the road of others, just as Jesus did before us.

We hope everyone has a peaceful and refreshing break, sharing the sunshine and making memories. Term 4 will be busy so enjoy this time to take each day slowly.

Andrew and Cate

Religious Education

As we farewell Term 3, I am delighted to report on some incredible achievements at St Dominic’s Catholic College.

We have celebrated many special occasions this term including our Father’s Day Liturgy, our Sacrament of Confirmation and a special formation day for staff.

We celebrated Father’s Day on Friday the 30^th of August with a liturgy. It was heartwarming to have so many visitors in our school to celebrate all the male role models in our lives. Families enjoyed and joined in prayer, song and dance as we gave thanks for the strong men who guide us each day.

On Sunday the 14^th of September five of our students celebrated making their Sacrament of Confirmation. They gathered at Sacred Heart Cathedral after weeks of preparation to take part in a ceremony acknowledging Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit into their hearts. Congratulations Eamon Webb, Nate Parker, Max Cross, Paul Bobeth and Andrew Strickland. A big thank you to the families coming together to guide their children in their faith journey.

One Monday the 16^th September, staff participated in our own formation day. This consisted of following in the footsteps of Jesus and helping those in need.  Half of our staff went to donate blood for those sick in hospital and the other half prepared 60 hot meals to donate to Soul Hub on Hunter Street. Secondary students also had the opportunity to learn about and be part of supporting a community event on Saturday. They put together some lolly bags to be handed out to those who donated blood/ plasma over the weekend. A great lesson in service to our community and being the face of Jesus to others.

Many thanks to the staff, students, families and community of St Dominic’s Catholic College. Without you, none of this would be possible.

God bless.
Lil Maher

Pink

It has been a busy, yet fantastic Term 3 in Pink Class. The students are to be commended on their ability to adapt and adjust to having a new teacher and the new routines that naturally accompany this change.

In English we have been continuing our progress with the Promoting Literacy Development (PLD) program, learning new spelling patterns and sounds. In conjunction with this we have been reading rich texts that have allowed us to explore perspective, characterisation, and parts of speech.

In Maths, we have been able to make big (4 digit) numbers using digital and non-digital MAB blocks, recognise growing and repeating shape and number patterns, multiply through forming arrays, divide through sharing and measure and compare the lengths of different items/objects.

In Religion we have been learning about forgiveness and the special sacrament of ‘Anointing of the Sick,’ where Jesus can perform miracles to cure and heal the sick people.

In Creative and Performing Arts this term we have been focussing on Drama. The students have enjoyed becoming different characters in their re-enactments. They have also enjoyed exploring some different types of drama such as Mime and Puppetry.

I am incredibly proud of Pink Class and their achievements this term and I look forward to another great term of learning and fun in Term 4.

Aqua

Term 3 has been an actionpacked Term in Aqua Class offering plenty of opportunities for our students to hone their skills in a variety of settings. Our classroom activities continue to move from strength to strength with the students' academic attainment moving on an upwards trajectory.  This term has allowed our students social and emotional development to be bought to the fore with a variety of extra curricula activities on offer which have aligned perfectly with our classwork.

Our sport program was highly beneficial in preparing our students for our Olympic Day. We were selected as the host country of France and completed numerous activities based on the nation. A highlight being our cooking classes where we experienced French cuisine with the croissants proving to be a big hit! We enjoyed following Australia’s phenomenal Olympic campaign which supported amongst other things our maths program. The students enjoyed keeping tallies on the medal count, completing graphs for track times and compiling statistics on our Olympic Champions. The students also took part in a gymnastics and a hockey program which gave them the confidence to try new things. This culminated in our Olympics Day which was a great success with all students contributing to what proved to be a fantastic day.

Book week was used as a stimulus for creative writing and proved to be effective in supporting our already established PLD Program. We drew upon our imaginations this term and wrote some interesting stories which the class enjoyed immensely. The students were enthused with the theme of magic for Book Week and thoroughly enjoyed reading a selection of stories as a group. The costumes were fantastic and our parade I’m sure will be a highlight of the year.

For our science program we studied a unit on Living Things. The students have a great knowledge and understanding of this subject and I was impressed when they carried out a variety of investigations. As part of our program, we went on an excursion to Kookaburra Farm Stay. This was a great opportunity for students to gain a real-world experience of classroom learning and allowed them to practice their social and emotional skills in a different setting. All students impressed and thoroughly enjoyed the day.

Once again, we have had a highly successful term with many memorable moments. We wish everyone a safe and happy holiday and look forward to finishing the year strong in Term 4!

Green

What a fantastic Term for Green Class! As we wrap up another Term, we celebrate the incredible efforts and achievements of our students.

Green class has had a fun filled and very busy term, with the addition of a new teacher. Tayla Mullen has joined us filling the role of Miss Teagan Ross. Students have shown respect and maturity in adapting to this change in their classroom and school environment. We are blown away by the positivity and resilience of each member of Green class during this transition period.

Maths

Throughout this term in Maths, we have been learning about place value, number patterns, fractions and addition, subtraction and multiplication. We have enjoyed doing exploratory activities that increase our knowledge in these topic areas and relate it in a meaningful way to our everyday lives. These include hands-on resources like hundreds charts, craft activities and interactive games such as addition and subtraction balloon popping. The students have really enjoyed the interactive, hands-on approach to maths.

In week 9, students attended McDonalds Jones Stadium for ‘Socktober’ which raises money for the Youth of Mongolia. We are very proud to have experienced this external event together with such a positive attitude. 

In PD and PE, students have enjoyed identifying strategies that best support us as we grow, learn and change. The entire concept within PE has had an integral part in the students learning. Gaining knowledge around Indigenous culture, implementing ATSI/cultural games and activities. Students gained an understanding that people participate in physical activity for many other reasons other than for improved fitness and health.  Students have been developing their fundamental movement skills, hand eye coordination and motor skills.

Holistically, we have been learning about how we can deal with safe and unsafe conflicts with our peers. We have brainstormed a range of strategies that we can use to help resolve the conflict in a safe and respectful way. Maintaining focus on healthy relationships and a range of options we can nurture our relationships.

Religion

In Religion we have been learning about values. As a class we have been able to identify key values as a member of a Catholic school and demonstrate how we live those values in our day to day lives. We focussed on Hebrew Scripture and the messages Jesus gives us to follow as disciples.

English

Green have been exploring a new program called ‘Inquisitive’ which highlights different topics throughout each lesson, including astrology and Irish orphans. This program focuses on the themes of belonging, hope and opportunity and links to develop and extend the students' skills in listening, reading, viewing, speaking, writing and creating. We have been reading the Novel ‘The Witches’ which has been a crowd favourite. Miss Mullen and Ms Haddow even went as a Witch and a mouse to Book Week. Students have enjoyed their structured Promoting Literacy Development lessons with a focus on independent reading and editing of written passages. Students have also been working on their sentence writing and individualised PLD work, showing great progress and success every single week.

Well done Green students. For all your hard work you have earned yourselves a break. Enjoy your Term 3 holidays and we will see you bright and ready to learn in Term 4.

Mrs Lil Maher and Miss Tayla Mullen

Yellow

Term 3 for Yellow Class has been full to the brim with fun activities both inside and outside the classroom.  We really enjoyed getting outside and moving with Camp, Hockey and the St Dom’s Olympic Games. These experiences allowed the students of Yellow to show their athletic ability and learn some new skills.

Inside the classroom we have been engaging in a range of hands-on scientific STEM activities. This included introducing a new friend, Crabby the Crab, to our class to learn about living things. We learnt how living things can be a conductor of electricity as we used Makey Makeys and Playdough to utilise electrical currents form the Earth to create a game controller to play Mario. To demonstrate how flowers and plants take in nutrients and water we put string in food dyed water and watched it rise as it would through the stem of a plant. These have been some of our more memorable experiments throughout Term 3.

Term 3 has been fun and active and I look forward to seeing Yellow Class students continue to grow and engage in Term 4.

Secondary

Class Teachers          

Congratulations on another fabulous term across Secondary, we are thrilled with what has been and can't believe we’re almost ready to enter Term 4!

In Religion, Secondary have been looking at how Christ served as a teacher and utilised stories to impart lessons. We have explored the similarities between Jesus’ use of parables and the storytelling methods employed by First Nations peoples for teaching.

Well done to the students from Primary and Secondary that attended Point Wolstoncroft in Week 8 for yet again, another successful camp! Students had a ball and were super engaged in what the day had to offer.

We spent the day together going kayaking, playing games and participating in damper making or archery. We also want to congratulate some of our Secondary students who opted to stay overnight at camp for the first time, this was such a fun time for all.

Lastly, some of our Stage 4 students have engaged in Woodwork this term, working on a hands-on project to create a tic-tac-toe board game. Students began by planning and designing their project, then sanded the wood, applied paint and varnish, measured and cut leather pieces, attached these to their game pieces and used Canva to design a rule book to accompany their game.

Great job! We’re excited to showcase the finished product to the rest of the school and challenge other classes to a game. We hope everyone enjoys the final two weeks of this term and has a restful and enjoyable holiday break.

Pastoral Care

We had a fantastic turn out to our McDonald’s fundraiser last month, we raised a total $250 which is going towards sensory items for our school. I wanted to thank everyone again who supported this fundraiser. It was so nice to see lots of families come to have dinner together and socialise.

Next month, we will be hosting our first cookie dough fundraiser. This online initiative allows you to purchase cookie dough easily. Parents can effortlessly share this through social media, featuring their child's unique fundraising page. Remember Christmas is coming up, what an excellent gift it could make. Please look out for more information in the upcoming weeks.

I've introduced a sensory table to our front playground to help meet the students' regulation needs. It appears to be a big success with our children. By stimulating their senses, this offers valuable hands-on experiences that enhance cognitive, physical, and social-emotional development.

I hope you all have a fantastic break to recharge for the end of the year.

Thanks Jenna Haddow

Administration / Finance

Finance

Thank you to all those families that have already finalised their fees.
A reminder that your account must have regular payments of either weekly, fortnightly or monthly (as you advised at the beginning of the school year) and reach 'zero balance owing' by 30th November 2024.
If you are having any financial difficulties with your payments, please contact the office to make an appointment to speak with Rachel Jones.

Important Dates and Reminders

TERM 3

Week 10
Friday, 27th September - Last day of Term 3 for students

TERM 4

Week 1
Monday, 14 October – First day of Term 4 for all students
Tuesday, 15th October - St Dom's Bites Canteen
Wednesday, 16th October - Healthy Harold school visit
Thursday, 17th October - Healthy Harold school visit

Week 2
Monday, 21st October - PP's sent home
Tuesday, 22nd October - St Dom's Bites Canteen
Wednesday, 23rd October - FACE Online Meeting 5pm-6pm

Week 3
Tuesday, 29th October - St Dom's Bites Canteen
Friday, 1st November - Hunter Valley Zoo Excusion

Week 4
Tuesday, 5th November - St Dom's Bites Canteen
Thursday, 7th November - Newcastle Museum Incursion
                                        
Week 5
Monday, 11th November - Remembrance Day Liturgy
Tuesday, 12th November - St Dom's Bites Canteen