2023 Term 4 - Mid Term Newsletter

Principal’s Report

Quite the buzz around St Dominic’s this term…perhaps it is the anticipation of the summer holidays approaching, and the celebration of the birth of our Saviour. However, before we celebrate Christmas, at St Dominic’s we celebrate our wonderfully talented and amazing staff on World Teachers Day. I am thankful for the incredible care and work our staff achieve each day with our students, and with each other. Please join me in congratulating them.

We were blessed with a visit from our Vicar General, Fr Greg Barker, who is always a welcome and familiar face at St Dominic’s. Fr Greg visited classrooms speaking with children about their learning, braved holding the stick insects, his memories and recollection of names and faces from his last visit, and the opportunities to visit again– after specifically being tracked down by two senior students requesting he visit again soon. Fr Greg also preceded the 24^th Diverse Learning Mass at his home Parish of Boolaroo-Warners Bay. The afternoon was a wonderful celebration of inclusivity, diversity and talents of our students across the diocese. Fr Greg’s homily was a beautiful celebration of the acceptance and gratitude of each person’s unique gifts and talents. We look forward to seeing Fr Greg again soon.

Thank you to the families who were able to attend our PEG meeting in week 2. We were able to focus on the Seesaw platform and the benefits of the communication avenues between home and school. Please do not hesitate to reach out to your class teacher to find out more about accessing Seesaw for your class.

Thanks to Lime for the guessing competition across the school and the brownie for the closest guess! It was delicious!

Take care,

Rachel

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Assistant Principal Report

Fundraising:

Bunnings BBQ was a HUGE success! A massive thank you to everyone within our school and local community that assisted with the BBQ – from donations, time helping on the day or just dropping in the say ‘Hi ‘and grab a snag! It was one of the most successful days that has been held at Kotara Bunnings. We are looking forward to using this money to put towards ongoing resources and facilities for our students.

Movement Room and Sensory Space Resources:

Recently we have been able to purchase a variety of resources and equipment for students to use across the school to assist with sensory and emotional regulations. The purchase of this equipment was done in consultation with staff and the therapist team, who support classes daily. The equipment has been placed in the movement room, sanctity, individual classroom and within the different play spaces. It has been great to see the impact it has had on students’ ability to regulate and then participate in learning and play based activities with their peers.

Reports:

Term 4 is a chance for our staff to reflect on the learning outcomes, achievements and the progress each individual student has made in their class. This is then articulate this in our Semester reports. Staff are working on reports and as we are entering the second half of this term it is an honor to read the reports.   Reports will be available and the begging on Week 10 via Compass.

13 November  – World Kindness Day

https://www.randomactsofkindness.org/world-kindness-day

World Kindness Day – Have you considered volunteering?

Monday 13^th November is World Kindness Day.  Kindness has the power to change the world.  We all have the power to make people happy.  We do this in our actions and our words.  Examples include giving someone a compliment, saying hello and genuinely asking people how they are going.

Volunteering our time is another way of being kind, and having our parents volunteer at our school is one way to make your children (our students) very happy. 

If you have ever considered volunteering at our school, please let us know so we can direct you to the volunteering registration form.  Or you can access this yourselves by going to https://www.mn.catholic.org.au/people/volunteer/

18-26 November – Social Inclusion Week

 Social Inclusion Week is about showing that we not only care about our own personal safety and wellbeing but that of others too.  It’s about encouraging all Australian’s to be inclusive of all cultures, age groups, gender, nationalities, and abilities. 

Below are some resources that might be useful :

• Kids Helpline has a great resource for kids aged 5-12 years - Being ok with being different
• Kids Helpline has a great resource for teens aged 13-17 years - All about respect
• Short and easy to understand video on Human Rights for everyone - What are Human Rights

20 November  – World Children’s Day

World Children's Day was first established in 1954 as Universal Children’s Day and is celebrated on 20 November each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among children worldwide and improving children’s welfare.

On 20^th November 1959, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of Rights of the Child and on the same day in 1989, The UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

At St Dominic’s we are passionate about the rights and the welfare of our children and as such, you may have seen the “Child’s Rights” poster displayed in our front office or around the school.

World Children’s Day reminds us be attentive to our children, be amazed and learn from their bright, imaginative and curious minds.  They are our future.

Coordinators Report

Our students have shown great flexibility during this term when we had some visitors on our big playground that we also share with St Columban’s. Some plovers came to visit and had some babies and were very protective of their young, so we needed to fence off some of the playground for our safety. During lunch and recess, we develop our social and communication skills, playing with friends and learning how to share and take turns.

We have a busy term ahead with excursions including library visits, swimming, the park, work experience and tennis. This is a great way to generalise our skills that we are working towards at school and extend them when out in the community. We are also planning some incursions at school that we can all participate in together, including a fun Christmas Day at the end of the term.

Our Mini Woolies has returned to operation and getting some excellent use by our students in Lunch Club each day.

Stage 6 information session was held in week 4 for all secondary families. If you were unable to attend or require more information, please contact Secondary Coordinator, Andrew Drinkwater andrew.drinkwater@mn.catholic.edu.au

Red

Angela Morris and Sharon John
Class Teachers

We are so proud of the way all students are progressing, especially during our literacy activities, focusing on our PLD (Promoting Literacy Development) program. Students enjoy the play-based activities that are set up each morning to encourage sound/letter development, as well as beginning reading and writing skills. Our morning English session also incorporates a story and activity based on a story. Students are learning to sequence the story, identify the characters and setting, and recognise the difference in the beginning, middle and end. One of our favourite activities is creating an alternate ending to the story – you might like to try this at home when reading.

We also engage in play-based activities based on Mathematical concepts after lunch each day. We have drumming music playing in the background which helps to regulate our bodies after playing outside with our friends. Hands on activities encourage the students to engage in their learning and can develop a deeper meaning of what they are learning during group lessons. As we are developing turn taking and social skills in kinder, engaging in smaller groups to build on our sharing is a valuable way to work as a team.

During Religion lessons this term we are discovering the unit Loving Like God. We are exploring concepts of love and relationship and focussing on ways of loving and caring for others as part of God’s plan for people to live happily and peacefully together. It invites us to consider how we can be more like God in the ways we care for ourselves and others. As Red Class members we are working towards safe hands and kind words. The last section focuses on God’s special gift of love to the world with the birth of Jesus and an introduction to the concepts of Advent and Christmas as special times for Christians to thank God for his love. It is hard to believe that we are talking about Christmas already, however, we are sure it will come around quickly.

Blue

Who can believe it is Week 5? So much already achieved and so much more to do! Swimming lessons has been a great success and an event we look forward to every week. 

We were lucky enough to attend Storytime at Mayfield Library again with our friends from Teal Class. We thank Catherine and Joanne for supporting our students.

The boys in Blue have been learning and playing in all subject areas and I am constantly amazed at all they have achieved. They are great mates and look after each other every day.

We have been reading the ‘Diary of a Wombat’ and were able to learn about writing a diary entry and how to collate data and graph our results. Wonderful robots have been made to support our investigations in Digital Technology and we look forward to learning more about coding.

It's going to be a great term with lots more adventures to go. Stay tuned to see what we come up with next.

Blue Crew

Teal

Welcome to the final Term of Teal Class for 2023.

We have kicked off Term 4 with a variety of activities in the community. Between Tennis, library visits, swimming, and our upcoming sailing we have been very busy bees. Students have demonstrated incredible communication skills and respect when interacting with members of the community. They have specifically enjoyed swimming.

In English we have been exploring Indonesia as Australia’s neighbour. We have enjoyed learning about the active volcanoes and the delicious food. We utilised our cooking skills to make our own Nasi Goreng.

In Religion we have learnt about the Holy Trinity. We have practised our sign of the cross and identified how important it is to have support systems in our families, our community, and our faith.

With so many creative souls in Teal Class our classroom is decorated with bright and unique artworks (even some spooky ones).

I am very much looking forward to beginning Christmas craft and seeing how festive we can get our room - look out Teal Class!

It has been a pleasure to spend 2023 with these fantastic students and having the privilege of watching them grow. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy holiday with your families.

Mrs Lil Maher

Secondary

Class Teachers          

This term, Secondary has been busy and very productive! All our students have been excitedly participating in Sailing (weeks 2, 4 and 6) and tennis as well as enjoying various outings during Community Access. The general consensus has been that the visit to Cims Café was a highlight… mainly due to the hot chips! They are all looking forward to their upcoming Blackbutt excursion, Christmas shop and treasure hunting in the Op Shop.  These outings provide an excellent opportunity to practice social skills and consolidate what has been learnt in maths and TAS.

Café Club continues to be busy each Wednesday, with our budding Baristas and Chefs delighting the staff each week. Students make different treats each time, but their Bruschetta is a definite hit with all staff!

Students, in conjunction with Secondary staff, are currently planning their end of year activity – stay posted for more details on this! This will be funded from the profits made in both Café Club and St Dom’s Bites Canteen – well done on making a profit!

We have had yet another wonderful experience sailing on Newcastle harbour with the crew from the wind of joy sailing charity. We had very calm conditions in the harbour however big swell meant we did not venture out to the open seas, however we all thoroughly enjoyed our time exploring the harbour.

My New Gallery

Administration / Finance

Fees

Our office has recently emailed out the October 2023 school fee statement and remind  families who have outstanding balance to contiune to monitor payments to ensure a zero balance is reached by the 30th November 2023. Please contact our office if you are unable to meet this obligation.

School Starting Dates for 2024 Reminder

Please note that the first day for Years 1 - 12 will be Thursday 1st February.
Tuesday      30/1 - Teachers Return - Curriculum Planning
Wednesday 31/1 -  Teachers only - School Governance Day