Week 6, Term 1 2024

Dear Parents/Caregivers, 

Welcome to Week 6! What a busy 6 weeks we have had, filled with so many amazing learning opportunities, community events and excursions.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to Isabella (3/4S) and Vicente (RN) who have just joined our Dominican community and I wish them a long and happy association with our school community.

SCHOOL BOARD AND AGM

This year our AGM will be held on Monday 18 March at 6:30pm.  Courtney Quigley, our Wellbeing Cluster Leader, will be presenting at our AGM about the following:

• an introduction to Grow Your Mind Program (GYM), an evidence-based, curriculum-aligned wellbeing program and what you will see, hear and feel at Dominican with the students engaging in this program
• some background information about mental health and the why we have Social and Emotional Learning programs in our school. 

The Board meets twice a term and is responsible for financial, operational and policy decisions which affect the school. 

We are also inviting people to nominate for the School Board.  The School Board does not require a huge commitment.  There are two meetings each school term.   If you wish to nominate for the School Board please complete the nomination form that was distributed to the school community via seesaw and email.  Information about the role of the School Board can be found on Catholic Education South Australia’s website:  https://schoolboards.cesa.catholic.edu.au.
Please do not hesitate to speak with me if you require any additional information.

PARENTS AND FRIENDS & CLASS PARENT REPS

The Parents and Friends Committee plays a vital role in building and promoting a sense of community with the parents, friends, students, and staff of our school, whilst fundraising through various activities.

The P&F has made significant contributions towards our school’s facilities and has been vital in encouraging community participation and support, whilst having fun along the way as well.

Committee functions are to:

• Promote a sense of community and cooperation amongst parents, friends, students and staff of the school as well as the wider school community.
• Provide a social aspect for parents/caregivers of our school, to come together and host various fundraising events throughout the year.
• Raise funds for the purchase of equipment on a needs basis as identified in consultation with the Principal, students and staff for the benefit of students, staff and the school.
• Provide a forum for parents to discuss ideas and relevant matters that will benefit the educational and general facilities for the students.

Become involved in our school community!

We welcome and encourage all families to become actively involved in the Parents and Friends committee. Meetings will be held each term and all assistance whether great or small is welcomed and appreciated. Each committee member contributes his or her ideas, unique skill, knowledge and experience, which ultimately leads to successful events for the benefit of our students and school community. Our first meeting will be Thursday 14 March.  More information to follow via seesaw.

TOYS AND FIDGETS

A fidget is a small object (preferably one that fits in the child’s hand), that can be squeezed, pulled, or moved around as a child is sitting and listening.

In a classroom or group situation, fidget toys are often used to provide sensory input in a minimally distracting way. They can help improve concentration and attention to tasks by allowing the brain to filter out the extra sensory information (e.g. paying attention to a book during a mat time). By having a fidget toy, a child may be able to better ‘filter out’ excess sensory information in their surroundings and their body, which is causing distraction. The fidget toy may encourage this sensory information to be focused on a toy in the hands. A fidget toy may also provide a distraction or stress release for a child who is anxious or feeling overwhelmed.

NO toys should be brought to school unless a conversation has been had with the class teacher.  Only students who have a Personal Plan for Learning (PPL) should have a fidget at school and these are to be supplied by the school.

CHILD SAFETY AND WELLBEING

As you are aware, the safety and wellbeing of every student at Dominican School is our priority.  All staff have an obligation to respond to allegations or concerns of harm, or risk of harm, against a child or young person.  Mandatory reporting requirements for education staff exist under the SA Government’s Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 . Notifications need to be made for children and young people (and unborn children) who are at risk of harm or have experienced harm. The legislation provides recognition of the risk factors that children and young people may experience, including persistent absence from education and the cumulative impact of their care.

Access CESA’s Reporting Harm of Children and Young People Procedure 2020.

Staff, volunteers, and essential service providers are required to complete a Working with Children Screening. The school Induction program also ensures that all persons coming onto the school grounds have the required Child Protection documentation. It is important as a school community that we ensure all stakeholders have access to Catholic Education Child Protection and Policy Guidelines.

The following documents are the primary resources.

Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide – Safeguarding Children and Young People Policy
Cybersafety: Keeping Children Safe in a Connected World
Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum

STUDENT WELLBEING - PULSE SURVEY

Having a positive wellbeing is essential in supporting students to be the best learners they can be.  One way we are monitoring this is through our Pulse Survey Data that all students completed each term.  Teachers analyse this wellbeing data and set goals to support students to feel safe, connected, and confident both in the school and class environments.

The questions students reflect on and answer are:

• My teachers cares for me
• I enjoy school
• I have friends at school
• My teacher helps me when I have a problem
• I am learning at school
• I have a say in my learning
• I feel safe
• I feel like I belong

If you would like to know more about this survey, please make a time to meet with your child’s class teacher.

NAPLAN 

Over the next two weeks our Year 3 and Year 5 students will be completing the NAPLAN assessments. We wish all our students the best. 

Please look to the article in this newsletter from our Leader of Learning, Nick Ryan, about this year's program. If you have any questions or want further clarification about these assessments please speak to your child’s class teacher or Nick Ryan.

DUNN STREET PICK UP AND DROP OFF AREA

Lastly, student safety is of our upmost concern.  If you are picking your child up from Dunn Street, please park, so that your child can safety get into the car.  No child should be running across the road to get into a parent or caregiver’s car.

Thank you for your continued support in ensuring the safety of ALL our students.

During this Lenten season let us look within to find ways to show kindness and compassion as well as ways that we can make a difference in the lives of others.

Many blessings,

Angela Scodella
PRINCIPAL

POSITIVE BEHAVIOUR INTERVENTION AND SUPPORT (PBIS)

PBIS is a proactive approach that schools use to improve school safety and promote positive behaviour. The focus of PBIS is prevention, not punishment. PBIS recognises that students can only meet behavioural expectations if they know what the expectations are. Everyone learns what’s considered to be appropriate behaviour and uses a common language to talk about it.

Throughout the school day—in class, at lunch, and at OSHC—students understand what’s expected of them. The purpose of school-wide PBIS is to establish a climate in which appropriate behaviour is the norm. Teaching behavioural expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive approach than waiting for misbehaviour to occur before responding.

Our staff and students will be doing this by focusing on Respect, Responsibility, and Resilience each day. These 3 areas serve as Dominican’s "Core Values" and will be taught and reinforced daily. It’s not unusual for students to struggle with behaviour in school, especially when they’re not sure what’s expected of them. If a school reacts only with punishment, students don’t learn the skills they need to make positive changes in the future. That’s where positive behavioural interventions and supports (PBIS) comes in.

FAMILY FAITH FORMATION

As a school community, we pray for the following students in the Faith Formation Program who will prepare for and celebrate the Sacraments of Reconciliation, Confirmation and First Holy Communion this year: Robben, Addison, Brax, Scarlett, Brooklyn and Sophia.

We ask God’s blessings for these children and keep them in our prayers as they journey in faith.

JUSTICE LEADERS

Earlier this Term our Justice Leaders for 2024 were presented to our school community at our Welcome Assembly. These Year 6 students are committed to leading our school community in our Catholic mission to work for social justice and outreach to the poor.  They have already been active in their ministry, organising our Shrove Tuesday Pancake Morning Tea, launching this year’s Project Compassion Appeal, and promoting and overseeing our school composting initiative. We look forward to our Justice Leaders guiding us throughout the year to put our faith in action for a just world.

COMPOSTING

As part of our Catholic Identity focus on Ecological Conversion, we have a shared commitment at Dominican to care for the environment and for Mother Earth. In his encyclical Laudato Si, Pope Francis calls us to work for justice to Care for our Common Home. Our Justice Leaders promote and lead this important initiative within our school. They have met with Mr Bowler who has taught them how the composting bins work to recycle our food scraps into natural fertilizer for our school gardens. The Justice Leaders now support and guide our eco-warriors (students in every class) in emptying their class caddies into our school compost bins. Our Composting Project is an important student-led initiative for our school to continue to work for the justice and care of our world.

WE ARE COMPASSION IN ACTION

Our support of CARITAS Australia’s PROJECT COMPASSION gives expression to the Gospel value to pursue justice and help those suffering from poverty.  Our donations to CARITAS Australia this Lent will help to bring love and hope to those in need throughout the world for a better future. 

In Pope Francis’ words, ‘To love God and neighbour … means seeing in every person the face of the Lord to be served.  And you are, dear brothers and sisters, the face of Jesus.’ At Dominican we are working together for justice and dignity, building together a better future for all.

ST PATRICKS HOUSE TEAM FEAST DAY

On Friday 15th March, the St Patrick's House Team will be celebrating the Feast Day of St Patrick. The students in the St Patrick's House are invited to wear a green t-shirt with their school sport shorts or their sport uniform with a splash of green (hair ties, socks, scarves etc). No hair spray or zinc is permitted. The students will celebrate by attending Parish Mass at Sacred Heart Church and enjoy an extra 10 minutes of lunch play. Families are warmly invited to join us for Mass at 12pm.

Martina Kovacev
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION COORDINATOR

NAPLAN

This year, NAPLAN will again be conducted in Term 1, with testing to commence in Week 7. NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Year 3, 5, 7 and 9 complete each year. It is the only national assessment all Australian students have the opportunity to undertake. This form of assessment is important to check how well they are learning and the essential skills of reading, writing and numeracy.

For the past three years, students have participated in NAPLAN through an online portal, allowing the questioning to differentiate dependant on their answers to the questions. This provides us with a better understanding of the capabilities of all students and the differentiation of the students within the class.

The following link will take you to the Information for Parents and Carers page in the National Assessment Program (NAP) site to support your understanding of the testing and how you can support your child.

https://www.nap.edu.au/naplan/for-parents-carers

A practice test was conducted in Week 5 for Year 3 and Year 5 students to familiarise themselves with the online portal and to ensure the network has the capability to conduct the testing. If you have any concerns of your child participating in the testing, please let the school know so we are able to meet for a discussion.

READING WORKSHOP

In Week 11 this term we will be hosting a Reading Workshop for all parents to attend. This will be a required workshop for all Reception parents and invitational to other Year 1 and Year 2 parents to assist reading development at home. At Dominican, we are approaching our literacy with explicit teaching of the Big 6 of Reading through our synthetic phonics program. This has been a change in teaching approach to what some parents may be familiar with and therefore we would like to provide everyone with the opportunity to upskill themselves to support their child’s literacy skills.

This workshop will be a variety of short hands-on sessions hosted by our Reception and Year 1 teachers with each participant receiving a showbag to take home with strategies and resources to support and reinforce effective reading strategies.

More information will be sent out to Reception and Year 1 parents but if you would like to express your interest in attending already, please follow the link and complete the short online form.

Nick Ryan
LEADER OF LEARNING

ONLINE SAFETY

Last week our Year 3-6 students had a presentation from SAPOL about the importance of keeping safe online.

Children are online at school, at home and with their friends. Laptops, smartphones, tablets gaming consoles and media players mean they can use the internet wherever they go. Children are learning to navigate their real world and the online world.

How do we help our children read the cues online to keep them safe? How do we monitor and set boundaries around online access? Online boundaries and safety help your children safely navigate their digital world and it also helps to educate them in avoiding harmful online experiences. Explore websites, games, apps, and social media together and set some rules. Your support and guidance can give your children the confidence to make sound decisions online ― and ask for help when they need it.

Three key strategies:

1 Be Engaged, Open and Supportive 

• Get involved. Share online time with your children as part of family life. Play games together. Talk about favourite apps, games, or websites.
•  Keep lines of communication open. Ask about their online experiences, who they are talking to and whether they are having any issues.
• Reassure your child they can always come to you, no matter what. Let them know you will not cut off internet access if they report feeling uncomfortable or unsafe when online ― this is a real concern that may stop your child from communicating with you openly.
• If you notice a change in behaviour or mood, talk to your child about it. If you are concerned, consider seeking professional help ― from your GP, a psychologist or school counsellor.

2 Set Some Rules 

• Set age-appropriate rules for devices and online access, with consequences for breaking them.
• Get your child’s input — this will help them understand risks. As they get older you can review your rules together.
• Consider creating a family tech agreement (sometimes called a family media plan or family online safety agreement). This is a set of rules about how devices, like smartphones, tablets, computers, TVs and gaming consoles are used in your home. It is written down and agreed to by all family members and kept in a place where everyone can see it, such as on the fridge.
• Your family tech agreement could cover the type of websites that can be visited, time spent online and acceptable online behaviour.
• eSafety has created our own version of a Family Tech Agreement, in collaboration with ABC KIDS, especially designed for families with children under 5. You can download this and fill it in with your family. Another example, from ThinkUKnow Australia, can also be a good starting point for families with older children.
• The consequences for breaking the rules should be clear. Negotiate these with your child when you create your agreement, so they mean something to them — Raising Children Network has some useful tips and advice. Consider making some ‘rules for parents’ too and stick to them! Model behaviour that you would like to see.

3 Use Technology and Get Information

• Get to know the devices you and your children use and set them up for privacy and online safety. Take advantage of parental controls to monitor and control screen time and access to content, based on your child’s age and experience. See our guide to taming the technology.
• Choose apps and games carefully and visit the App Store or Google Play for age ratings and consumer advice. Read the Australian Classification Board’s online database for information about movies and games.
• NetAware (UK) has a comprehensive guide to popular social media apps and games. You can also visit Children and Media Australia, and Common Sense Media (US) for information about apps, games and websites searchable by age.(Adapted safety.gov.au)

Follow the link for some free parent webinars.

NUMBER MATCHING

In Reception, we have been learning about numbers and 1-1 matching. We have been using lots of hands on materials to help with our learning.

Julia Nofi
Reception Classroom Teacher

GROW YOUR MIND @ DOMINICAN

Ever wondered which part of the brain is responsible for decision making?

It’s The Wise Owl, that’s who! Representing the prefrontal cortex, The Wise Owl is responsible for solving problems and allowing you to be a flexible friend. Check out the poster to find out how you can ‘wake up’ your Wise Owl.

Lisa Osborne
STUDENT COUNSELLOR

We are excited to announce that we are about to launch the Dogs Connect program in our school. This is a whole school wellbeing program which will see the introduction of another wellbeing dog in our community. Our new school wellbeing dog will become a much loved and important member of our community just like Boston who has been with us on Wednesdays.

The Dogs Connect program will support us in implementing this very gradually, thoroughly, and considerately. At this stage we encourage anyone who would like to know more about this program to look through the website link below: https://dogsconnect.net.au We are very excited to be introducing our wellbeing dog in the near future.

We have a team of staff who will lead this program. We look forward to sending more information in the coming days. We would also like to assure the community that this program will not involve anyone who does not wish to be involved. We know that this work will have a really positive impact on many people in our community, and we acknowledge and respect that connection with our wellbeing dog will be offered on a great variety of levels.

SAPSASA SWIMMING CARNIVAL 

On Tuesday 6th March, 15 students ranging from Years 4-6, represented our school at the annual Port District SAPSASA Swimming Carnival at the Largs Bay Swim Centre. 

The students competed against other schools in the Port District in the strokes of freestyle, backstroke, butterfly and breaststroke. 

Well done to Jaeda B, Isabella H, Alyssa H, Iris S, Emma W, Imogen M, Estelle F, Angela H, Ella Y, Autumn M, Elijah W, Marley G, William G, Kyan J and Lincoln M. They represented our school with pride and were very successful throughout the day placing in numerous races and winning the Port SAPSASA Swimming Shield for the second consecutive year. Thanks also to Teri Yates and Megan Watts who volunteered their time to help with timekeeping throughout the event. 

SAPSASA SOFTBALL REPRESENTATIVES

Congratulations to Marley G and Elijah W who have been selected in the Port District Boys SAPSASA Softball team. We wish the boys all the best for the upcoming carnival later in the term.

Matthew Annetta
PE TEACHER AND SPORTS COORDINATOR

FROM THE YEAR 6 JUSTICE LEADERS 

On Monday 5 March we held our Caritas K’s and Clean Up Australia Day Walk. This successful event allowed us to put our faith into action as we worked together to raise much needed funds to help vulnerable communities for Project Compassion. It was also a day of community camaraderie and environmental stewardship as we cleaned up our local Semaphore community for a cleaner, greener environment! We are proud to share that on our Caritas K’s Day we raised $410 for Caritas Australia and Project Compassion. This money can provide a handwashing sink to a household in Samoa and also provide a family in Malawi with a safe toilet.

If you would like to donate, it’s not too late! You can add to your project compassion box or make an online contribution here: https://schools.projectcompassion.org.au/o/dominican-school 

Donations will be collected until Week 10, the week after Easter. We thank you for your generous support.  

“During the Caritas K’s walk it made us think about how far some people in different countries need to walk to get fresh water. It made us realise how lucky we are and how important it is to raise money for the less fortunate.” Daniella & Hazel

YEAR 6 JUSTICE LEADERS

FROM THE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL 

Our first two meetings as SRC have been exciting and interesting. We have had two important topics to plan. Our first topic was to come up with ideas for our new playground. We talked about things we would like included and then went back to our classes and discussed more ideas with our classmates. Some of the most popular items were slides, swings, an inground trampoline, flying fox, pretend shop and a rock-climbing wall. We presented these design features to Mrs Kovacev who will share them with Mrs Scodella, and the playground builders.

The next item for discussion was Lunch Clubs. We came up with things we would like to do in the MFC at lunch time and then voted on these with our classes. The most popular lunch clubs were sport, games and chess, Lego, yoga and dance. These new lunch clubs will begin in Term 2.  

We are enjoying being SRC leaders and the voice of students at our school, so we can make our school the best it can be. We look forward to our next SRC meeting in Week 7.

Ripley 1A & Max 5/6AO
ON BEHALF OF THE SRC

APPLYING FOR SCHOOL CARD

Low-income families can get financial help with school fees by applying through the School Card scheme.

School card applications are now open for 2024. Information on school card eligibility, income limits and the application process can be found at: www.sa.gov.au/topics/education-and-learning/financial-help-scholarships-and-grants/school-card-scheme.

School Card MUST BE APPLIED FOR EACH SCHOOL YEAR and lodged at your earliest opportunity.

If you need help completing your application please contact School Card on 1800 672 758 (free call) or Jo Freer at the school office on 8114 3600.

You will be notified by the School Card Section of the outcome of your application, and a reduction will be applied to your school fee account.

Jo Freer
FINANCE OFFICER