Term 3, Week 2 2021

Dear Community Members

Welcome to Term 3. I am sure you would all agree it hasn’t been the best way to commence a new school term! However what we have achieved as a school community needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. I would like to thank all families…all students…all teachers…and all school staff who have collaborated so well during the lockdown period to ensure that remote learning was successful.

It was great to welcome students back to school today. I remind you that significant restrictions remain in place for the next 7 days. Please refer to my email that I sent yesterday afternoon for further details about these restrictions. I will keep you up to date as new information comes to hand.

It is my pleasure to welcome 5 new students to our Dominican Community this term;

Welcome to Emma Sibbin, Kayne McGahey, Mykaylah Simpson, Scarlett Jovanovic- Klis, and Teliyha Heinjus. We hope that your Dominican journey with us is full of rich learning and great friendships.

This term our Literacy Intervention programs will commence. This is a significant initiative for our school and I would like to thank our Pedagogical Coach, Mr Nick Ryan for his leadership in ensuring these programs are successful in improving learning outcomes for students. Please read Nick’s report on these programs in today’s newsletter.

Today we will be sending home the Term 3 Calendar as is our usual practice. This calendar will need to be a ‘work in progress’ given that we are unsure of what events can take place moving forward. So pop it on the fridge door and I will keep you updated as much as possible.

As we continue to navigate our way through uncertain times I can assure you that the safety of every student remains our absolute priority at all times.

Thanks again for your ongoing support of Dominican School.

Have a great week!

Kind regards
Phil Holmes, PRINCIPAL

St Dominic's Day Celebration

Welcome back to Dominican School. May the grace of God be with you, bless you, shine upon you and give you peace.

Tuesday August 3 is the Feast Day of St Dominic, our Patron Saint, and on FRIDAY AUGUST 6 we will celebrate ST DOMINIC’S DAY.  To mark the occasion, students are invited to come to school dressed in our Dominican colours of black and white, and to contribute a gold coin donation to support the work of the Sophia centre established by the Dominican Sisters.  We will gather for R-6 Class Prayer Services and all students will be engaged in writing a Thank You Card to a Very Important Person in their life who models the love of Dominic.  We will also have a lamington recess.  This day provides us with a special way to honour and give thanks for the life of St Dominic and the way we live his mission today through our Dominican Pillars of Prayer, Study, Community and Ministry.  We look forward to celebrating Dominican School as a place of great faith and learning where we live VERITAS to grow in God’s Truth & Love

Made In The Image Of God

MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD is the curriculum for teaching human sexuality education in South Australian Catholic Schools. It is grounded in the Catholic understanding that all humans are made in the image of God, deserving the utmost dignity and respect, and that sexuality is a fundamental dimension of the human person.

Later this term the MITIOG Human Sexuality Curriculum will be taught in your child’s class. Prior to the commencement of the teaching program, you will receive an overview of the content specific to your child’s year level.  You are encouraged to discuss any queries or questions with the class teacher, as well as any ideas about supporting your child in this area.  We look forward to working in partnership with you.

Alison Tanti-Clark

Literacy is an essential component of students schooling, with these skills being utilised in a number of curriculum areas and a useful skill to develop life-long learning. To ensure that all students are being provided the best opportunities to develop themselves as learners, we have invested significant resourcesi into developing an early intervention literacy program here at Dominican School.

Intervention is critical in the early years, but it is not limited to them and is important that students are offered these opportunities throughout their schooling. This Semester, we will begin our intervention programs with selected students from Year 1 to Year 4, who will work with our Education Support Officers (ESOs). Our ESOs have undertaken an intensive two-day professional development course to allow them to administer a high-quality intervention program MultiLit. MultiLit has had many years of development to ensure students will experience success throughout the program and develop ‘The Big 5’ essential literacy skills to successfully read.

Our selected Year 1 and Year 2 students will participate in the MiniLit program, focusing on developing their ability to understand basic letter and sound knowledge and connect this with their phonemic awareness. Our Year 3 and Year 4 students will participate in the MacqLit program, focusing on letter-sound correspondences and strategies to develop their decoding and reading ability. Both of these programs will explicitly teach and develop students’ skills in ‘The Big 5’.

The students who will participate in these programs have been carefully selected by classroom teachers and will work in collaboration with the ESOs and the Leadership Team to ensure that all students are given opportunities to be the best they can be. Parents of these students will receive a letter home to provide more information regarding their child’s participation.

Nick Ryan, Pedagogical Coach

Last week (prior to lockdown) we had a modified mini Olympics at school! We started with a torch relay, followed by four events - archery, table tennis, javelin and gymnastics.

We then went into lockdown and continued our Dominican Olympics at home. In the attached video see Charlotte participating in the Australia vs France skateboarding event. Brilliant work, Charlotte! 

Keep an eye out for our Dominican superstar athletes on the big stage in the future!

Martina Kovacev

Dominican Quiz Night, Saturday 28th August!

Families are kindly asked to contact the school office by 9.30am if your child will be absent or late.

Please leave the students name, class and the reason for the student’s absence.

You can do this by:

• Phoning 8114 3600 (select option 1 and leave a message)
• Emailing absent@dominican.catholic.edu.au

We acknowledge that we are on the traditional country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. We recognise and respect their cultural heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land. We acknowledge that they are of continuing importance to the Kaurna people living today.

Approved by Kaurna Elder Uncle Lewis O’Brian 2004