Week 3, Term 1 2024

Dear Parents/Caregivers, 

Welcome to the start of the new school year at Dominican. It was wonderful to see everyone's smiling faces as we returned to school.

125 Year Celebrations

This year marks our 125th anniversary of our school, where educators have provided quality Catholic education to thousands of students in the local area. Throughout the year there will be a variety of ways that the school will celebrate this milestone in the school’s history. Dates of some significant events will be advertised in the coming weeks.  It would be great to see as many families as possible support these community events.

Welcome

A very warm welcome to the following new staff members who have joined our wonderful school community – Sophie Teakle (5/6 class teacher), Michael Hunjet (3/4 class teacher), Chelsea Fiore (Year 1 class teacher), Olivia Andrew (Year 1 class teacher), Matthew Annetta (sport teacher), Helen Iliou (ESO curriculum) and Katy Tatrai (ESO curriculum).

A special welcome is also extended to our new Reception students plus another 8 students across other year levels:

RN- Hudson, Stella, Eva, Jaxon, Veya, Aubrey, Chloe, Archer, Lennie, Matilda, Finn, Isabella.

RS-Nessa, Savannah, Myer, Evie, Samuel, James, Peyton, Charlie, Taite, Romee, Jude.

1F- Archer, 2K- Sammy, Flynn, 3/H- Tejus, Amelia, 3/4S- Toben, Charlie, 5/6AO- Tyler

Please help to ensure all of our new families feel welcome at our school.

Farewell

This week we also sadly farewell Kerry Siciliano, who has been a valued member of staff at Dominican for the past 6 years.  Kerry has worked in a number of roles across the school, from supporting students as a curriculum ESO to supporting in the front office.  We wish Kerry all the best for the future and we hope that she continues to hold our community dear to her heart.

Important Dates

2024 Important Dates are listed in this newsletter as well as the school calendar, please make sure that these significant dates are recorded in your diary.

Beginning of the 2024 Year

In the first week we celebrated our Beginning of Year Mass, where our 2024 School Theme was launched ‘Living VERITAS with truth and love’ and where all our staff were commissioned. This was a lovely celebration where all staff committed to providing a high quality education to all the students at Dominican.

Last Friday at our Welcome assembly, all our student students and staff were welcomed, and the following leadership roles were presented: House and Vice Captains of our school, Year 6 Justice Leaders and Semester 1 SRC reps. We congratulate all our student leaders and we have no doubt that they will rise to the occasion and enjoy the challenge and the additional responsibility their role brings them. 

Our school House Captains and Vice House Captains for 2024 are as follows:

St Catherine’s House
Captains- Zane and Isabella
Vice Captains- Elijah and Iris

St Mary’s House
Captains- Sarah and Oliver
Vice Captains- Jaeda and Sean

St Patrick’s House
Captains- Addison and William
Vice Captains- Grace and Marley

St Dominic’s House
Captains- Brody and Hazel
Vice Captains- Jaden and Isabelle

Year 6 Justice Leaders
Grace, Jaeda, Isabelle, Addison, Hazel, Daniella, Alyssa, Max, Zack, Jenny, Laylah, Iris, Sarah, Luisa.

SRC Representatives - Semester One
Chloe, SooHyeon, Rosie, James, Archie, Ripley, Georgia, Jed, Parker, Ivy, Angelique, Robben, Jack, Brooklyn, Estelle, Max T, Luisa, Ryan.

Uniform

All students are required to be in their full summer uniform this term – a copy of the uniform policy is attached.  This means that correct shoes are to be worn and hair longer than shoulder length must be tied back. Skorts are no longer part of the school uniform and should not be worn.

Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct summer uniform and sports uniform on their class’s designated days. All items need to be clearly labelled with your child’s name in case they are misplaced around the school.

School Uniform Policy

PBIS

Last year we started the initial stages of our Positive Behaviour Intervention and Support journey, where we engaged our community in information sessions and working parties to establish our 3 core values.  The following are our 3 R’s:

Respectful: At Dominican everyone has a right to learn and be safe.  We treat others how we would like to be treated.  We show care for the feelings of others even if they are different from our own.  Respect means being kind and caring towards others, ourselves and our environment.

Resilience: At Dominican we have the ability to problem solve and bounce back and move forward when faced with challenges.  We make choices that help us to adapt to different situations with a positive mindset. We accept challenges, step out of our comfort zone and use feedback to help us grow in order to be the ‘best we can be’.

Responsible: At Dominican being responsible means being able to make good choices and taking accountability for our actions, learning and belongings.  We look out for the wellbeing of others and understand that we all work together to make our school a thriving community.

At the beginning of this year staff created a behaviour matrix for expected behaviours in all areas of the school and this term will focus on explicitly teaching these to our students. We are excited to see the positive affects of PBIS in creating a safe and supportive learning environment for all.

Wellbeing Support

This year Dominican School will be employing Lisa Osborne as a School Counsellor who will be on-site in this role every Wednesday.  

Lisa is a qualified counsellor, who will work together in respectful partnerships with students, teachers, and parents with the aim of enhancing students’ social and emotional wellbeing, empowering and building on individual strengths. Counselling is child-focused and informed by the needs, goals, and developmental stage of each child. A counsellor referral form must be filled out and parental consent must be given prior to any child seeing Lisa. Referral Forms are available from the front office.

Paula Northeast (ESO) will continue to do weekly morning ‘check-ins’ on a Monday with those students who may need some extra support to start their week successfully. 

It is great to see students excited and ready to take on a variety of challenges as we begin the new school year and to establish clear goals for themselves for what they hope to accomplish over the coming year. It is important that students feel supported both at school and at home, and that we work and communicate collaboratively to ensure we are inspiring hearts and minds so that students can be the best they can be’.

Many blessings for the coming weeks.

Angela Scodella
PRINCIPAL

Welcome to 2024 at Dominican. A special welcome to our new students and families.

Each year at Dominican School, we embrace a theme which guides us in our mission to live our motto of Veritas through our Pillars of Prayer, Study, Community and Ministry. In 2024, we celebrate our past, present and future, with the theme Living Veritas with TRUTH and LOVE.

This year, we draw inspiration from Pope Francis and John’s Gospel, to be people of Truth and Love.

“I am the way, the truth and the life”. John 14:6 Jesus is our way, our truth and our life.

“I give you a new commandment, love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.  By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35

Pope Francis says, ‘that we are part of the mystery of love.’ As part of the mystery of love, we are bound in our calling, to open our hearts to others, especially those living on the fringes of society, to be the visible face of God in the world.

This is our mission – to live Veritas with Truth and Love. Each of us is called to seek the truth and what is right in all things; and to follow Jesus, love God and share God’s love with all around us. We strive to live that truth and love every day at Dominican. 

CELEBRATING OUR FAITH

We are pleased to be able to share in Prayer, Liturgy and Mass celebrations with our school and parish communities. The dates for our Term 1 celebrations are outlined in our school calendar.

We will share in community prayer to commence our assemblies at 9.00am in the Multi-Function Centre. For Masses, students will walk to and from the Church supervised by their teachers. Teachers will inform families of rehearsal dates and times in preparation for these celebrations. All families are warmly invited to join us for Prayer, Liturgies and Masses throughout the term.

OPENING MASS

On Friday 2nd February we celebrated our first school Mass for 2024. This was a special time for our students, staff and families to gather with Father Roderick, to ask God’s blessing upon us as we begin a new school year. At Dominican School, we look to St Dominic, our patron saint, who came to share the Good News of Jesus, and who shows us how to follow God’s way. Our Opening Mass marked the beginning of our journey in 2024 to LIVE VERITAS with Truth & Love. 

THE SEASON OF LENT

On Tuesday, we celebrated SHROVE TUESDAY with a Pancake Morning Tea. Many thanks to the Justice Leaders and the P&F for their help with organising this event for our students and staff.

On Wednesday we celebrated ASH WEDNESDAY with an R-6 Mass at Sacred Heart Church. This was led by our Year 3-6 classes and was a special time to gather in faith to begin our Lenten journey to Easter. Each of us was marked with a cross of ash reminding us to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with God this LENT. 

In Pope Francis’ words, ‘Lent is a time for drawing near to Christ.’ Ash Wednesday also marks the launch of CARITAS Australia’s Project Compassion appeal on the theme, For All Future Generations. Each class and each student has been provided with a Project Compassion box to contribute to during Lent. Our support of Project Compassion is one way of putting our faith in action to support the most vulnerable in our world. So, let’s open our hearts to the poor and give generously to this worthy cause this Lent. 

Martina Kovacev
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COORDINATOR

Sacramental Program

Our Family Faith Formation Program involves children from Dominican School, Our Lady of the Visitation School and the Lefevre Catholic Parish to prepare for and celebrate the Sacraments of First Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Holy Communion. The program is for Catholic children who are 8 years or over.

The next cycle of the Sacramental Program begins next week. We invite and welcome all children who would like to be a part of this program to support them on their faith journey. To register your child in the program, please contact Bernadette (Parish Sacramental Coordinator) or myself by Friday 16th February:

Bernadette Smith - familyfaith@catholicparishes.com.au    ph: 8449 6378
Martina Kovacev - mkovacev@dominican.catholic.edu.au   ph: 8114 3600

Martina Kovacev 
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COORDINATOR

To begin the new school year, our students in class 5/6A0 have been developing positive relationships, while discussing and exploring the Dominican School Principles of Community, Connection, Challenge and Discovery and collaborating on a class definition. 

Through these discussions students have identified goals for their learning so they can continue to be independent and successful learners. Some of their goals were focussed on:

• Being good leaders and setting an example for younger students
• Improvement in division and time tables
• Improvement with punctuation and spelling

 We look forward to celebrating their successes throughout the year.

Sofia Agnello and Lisa Osborne
Year 5/6 Classroom Teachers

Grow Your Mind At Dominican

In 2024 we are implementing a new social and emotional wellbeing program at Dominican. Grow Your Mind Grow Your Mind aims to enhance the social and emotional learning and wellbeing of children, school staff and families through supporting them to understand mental health and form habits of resilience. The students have been introduced to the animals in our brain, which represent different parts of our brain and how we can help to develop them.

One of the animals we are learning about is the Guard Dog, which represents our amygdala.

Our guard dog keeps you safe at all costs. It can be prone to being very bossy and overreacting. At times it barks so loud that none of the other animal helpers can hear themselves think. We can help to calm our guard dog by practicing mindfulness, doing something kind for someone else, writing down things that we are grateful for or changing our shark thoughts (negative) into dolphin thoughts (positive).

Lisa Osborne
STUDENT COUNSELLOR

School Fees

Statements for 2024 School fees were posted to all families last week.

Please complete and return the Payment Plan 2024 form if you haven’t already done so.

Fees paid on or before 15th March 2024 will receive an early payment discount of 4%.

A friendly reminder that if you choose not to pay your fees in full, a payment plan must be in place, and we ask that you ensure that you are regularly meeting the payment requirements of your plan.

If you have any queries regarding your school fees, please contact Jo Freer, Finance Officer, on accounts@dominican.catholic.edu.au or phone 8114 3600.

All information and forms can be found on our website 

Jo Freer
FINANCE OFFICER