Term 2, Week 8 2023

Dear Families,

Welcome to Week 8! I hope you are keeping warm and staying well during the start of this wet winter period. Over the past few weeks we have seen a spike in student absences due to illness. Thank you for keeping your children at home when they present with cold or flu-like symptoms and for advising the school when they are sick or if they test positive to COVID. This is vital to minimising the spread of infection and in the best interests of the health and safety of the school and wider community.

Last Thursday our 8 new MID YEAR RECEPTIONS joined us for their first transition visit. This was a wonderful opportunity for our new students to meet and get-to-know our current Receptions and their teachers, Ms Nofi and Mrs Siviglia. There were lots of happy faces and good times shared, drawing, constructing, doing puzzles and having fun outside on the playground. The Transition Program will continue for the next two weeks and Martina, Nick and I look forward to meeting with their parents this week for an Induction session. We warmly welcome Amelia, Fynn, Harlow, Henry, Lenny, Ollie, Rosie, SooHyeon and their families to our Dominican School community and wish them well as they get ready to begin their learning journey with us next term.

I am delighted to announce that STAGE 2 OF OUR MASTER PLAN is on track to commence early in Term 3. This $3,000,000 building project will involve the redevelopment and refurbishment of the upper level of the main building, with the support of a $1,000,000 capital grant and the approval of Catholic Education SA. The project will be in line with our state-of-the-art Stage 1 Early Years Ground Level Build completed in 2022, featuring contemporary, innovative and high quality facilities and spaces. It will include four new Learning Spaces, Maker Space, Think Tanks, Learning Nook, Literacy Hub, Sensory Room, Multi-Purpose Common Area, Integrated Library and Kitchen, Outdoor Deck, Performing Arts Space, Instrumental Music Tuition Rooms, Teacher Preparation Area, Meeting Room, and Student and Staff Toilet Amenities. Rua Hashlamoun and Michael Lambert, our architects from Brown Falconer presented the final plans to the School Board at our last meeting and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Please see below for the floor plan and interior design. This is the culmination of a lot of hard work, and I take this opportunity to thank our Brown Falconer Architects, Monica Moore (CESA Project Officer) and Jo Freer (Finance Officer) for their ongoing collaboration and commitment, along with the endorsement of the School Board and Catholic Education SA. This Friday the project will go out to tender with an anticipated start for works in Week 3 of next term. Our Pupil Free Day on Friday July 7 will provide us with the time required to ensure that the upstairs level is cleared and learning spaces are re-located, in readiness for the start date. This is a significant celebration for our school community and one to be proud of as we continue to strive for new levels of excellence.

On Friday, we received exciting news from our CESA Director, Dr Neil McGoran, of the appointment of our NEW PRINCIPAL, Angela Scodella. Angela is an experienced Catholic leader who brings a demonstrated commitment to ensuring excellence in faith, learning and wellbeing to this role. She will be a great asset to Dominican School. We look forward to welcoming Angela as our Principal to commence Term 3 and to her leadership of our school community to… Inspire Hearts and Minds to be the best we can be.

Have a great week.