Dear Parents,

We are asking for your help!

We are trying to save as many of the Mercury coupons as possible to be able to purchase some of the fantastic books that have been available from The Mercury in the last week. It would be wonderful if we could save as many as possible so we can make up some guided reader packs with them. These are excellent books which immediately invite the students to look through them.

If you have some coupons, please send them to school on Monday and put them in the Office basket, or bring them into my room – Room 10.

Thank you so much for your help,

Jane Doyle

Room 10

In early April, the Year One classes, as part of their Integrated Unit…’Identifying Us’… visited Woodsdale, which is home to an historic pre-Federation pioneer school. The old school building is an interactive museum and classroom.

The students got to experience a small part of life from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s.

On arrival, they dressed in period costume. Girls added mop caps and white aprons and the boys donned caps and vests. As one child said, ”We are really going back in time.”

The children totally engaged themselves in the experience, sitting in a classroom using slates guided by a teacher brandishing a cane. They played knuckle bones and quoits. They enjoyed walking through the teacher’s house which clearly showed how the people lived and worked.

Another highlight was the Shearing Shed, showing both past and present methods. The best part for some of the children was feeding the bread to the very friendly sheep!

Before leaving, one of the volunteers showed the students how to mix and cook damper which they then got to taste with blackberry jam…. a definite favourite with everyone.

The visit was full of new experiences and the students were completely engaged and enthralled. The long bus trip home was extremely quiet as most slept until Bridgewater! A fantastic time was had by all.

On Wednesday 20th of August, 465 students from 6 Hobart schools participated in the annual Dominic College Grade 3/4 Sports Day. Blessed by beautiful, sunny weather, conditions were perfect for the sporting tournament and with Mount Wellington providing a beautiful backdrop, the College grounds were picturesque. The Grade 3 / 4 Sports Day saw students from Dominic College, Sacred Heart College, Holy Rosary, St Paul’s, St Therese’s and St Brigid’s School utilise the College’s vast sporting grounds to participate in matches of soccer, netball and football.

The aim of the day was on participation, fun, friendship building, skill development and active, healthy competition. At the conclusion of the matches, students shared a BBQ lunch on the Primary Campus sports oval.

Thank you to all who participated in the event and particularly to Dominic College Primary Sports Coordinator Mrs. Allison Lowe who organised the event. Thanks also to all the Year 9 and 10 Dominic College Physical Education students, who umpired sports throughout the day.

On Friday, 9th May, Dominic College Primary Campus was part of a nationwide attempt to beat the current world record for the most people rope skipping simultaneously (multiple venues). Dominic College was amongst hundreds of Australian schools who participated in the event, which was a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Heart

Foundation’s Jump Rope for Heart. At 11:30am on Friday, our students were required to skip continuously for 3 minutes in an attempt to break the existing Guinness World Record. Furthermore, to promote the important combination of exercise and healthy eating practices, the College partnered with a local business, the Augusta Food Store, who provided participating students with fruit during their record breaking attempt.

With almost one in four children in Australia at risk of developing heart health problems and other conditions such as Type II Diabetes later in life, it is now as important as ever for Australian children to engage in regular physical activity and healthy eating practices. Recognising the importance of this issue, Dominic College has continuously been associated with the Jump Rope for Heart event. Last year, the College raised the highest amount of money of any Tasmanian School through the Jump Off event. The College is determined to repeat this again in 2008 and eagerly anticipates the announcement of a total for this year.

Congratulations to all participating students on your fantastic efforts and to the College staff who assisted in the running of the event on Friday. A special congratulations to Primary PE teacher, Mr. Cameron Golding, who coordinated the ‘Jump Off’ for Dominic College.

It was a fantastic event for a truly worthy cause!

View More Photos Of The Day

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Enrol now for Kindergarten 2009

Kindergarten classes at Dominic College run for two consecutive full days each week, with a dedicated full-time teacher and two dynamic teacher assistants providing students with a stimulating and varied curriculum.

Applications for Kindergarten 2009 close on May 30th, 2008. All applications are welcome and interviews will be conducted during May and June.

We invite you to make an appointment for a guided tour of the College and the opportunity to see our Kindergarten class.

Please contact our Enrolment Officer, Mrs. Karen Longey on 6272 5011 for further information or enquiries.

On Thursday 29th of November, six Dominic College Grade 5 students (Brad Tuffin, Peter O’Keefe, Micah Brennan, Amy Rainbird, Rhianna Peters and Anna Dicarlo) were selected to participate in the Caritas ‘Just Leadership Day’ at Holy Rosary Primary School.

Throughout the day we learnt valuable leadership skills. These involved speaking in front of an audience and the skills to negotiate, compromise and listen to other people’s voices/views.

We also learnt about less fortunate countries and the work that Caritas is currently doing to help. One example was a project currently underway in Tanzania where they built a water pump to power and provide fresh water to a village.

At the end of the day each school group made a poster, aiming to get the voice of Caritas heard and to try to make their dream of making poverty history a reality.

We hope next year to be able to put some of our new skills and knowledge into practice by promoting and raising money to support Caritas’ ‘Project Compassion’.

Written by Brad Tuffin, Micah Brennan and Peter O’Keefe.

Over the weekend of the 17th and 18th of November, two of our Primary sports teams competed in the State Primary Schools Basketball Championships.

The teams cemented their places in the Championships by finishing first (Grade 5/6 Girls) and second (Grade 3/4 Boys) in their divisions of the Southern Championships during the year.

Held in Burnie, the competition saw the state’s best junior basketballers play off for the overall championship.

Both Dominic teams performed admirably, playing well and finishing in third place. Congratulations to the students on their great teamwork and excellent spirit throughout the championship and well done on this fantastic result.

Both teams and our College now have bragging rights as the best 5//6 Girls and 3/4 Boys Basketball teams in the South of the State!

The teams were Grade 5/6 Girls - Coach Kim Rainbird
Olivia Howard, Cassie Hansson, Shannon Strong, Amy Rainbird, Natasha Fitzpatrick, Megan Atkinson, Molly Cubit, Anna Di Carlo

Grade 3/4 Boys - Coach Chris Dillon
Joel Christie, Daniel Lee, Ashley Dillon, Christopher Howard, Reece Carnes, Patrick Bevan, Joshua Dillon

Photos of the teams in action are viewable at www.mdproshots.com

On Wednesday, 24th October Dominic Primary Campus held their Athletics Carnival for students in Grade 3 – 6. The day was blessed with beautiful weather and under clear blue skies our Upper Primary students competed in a range of events. From running races to novelty events, the students had a great time. The students showed great enthusiasm and spirits were high as regular ‘chant offs’ took place between the different Houses.

The younger Primary students from Kinder to Year 2 had their day in the spotlight on Tuesday, 30th October. The Lower Primary Athletics Carnival was a fun filled afternoon with great support shown by parents and friends. Participation levels were high from the students and the leadership shown by our Year 4 class in supporting the younger Athletes was admirable.

Congratulations to all involved in the organisation of the carnivals and to the students for their great participation in the events.

More photos in the photo gallery

Our Grade 5 classes have recently been learning about our Tasmanian history. As part of this unit they have been looking at Port Arthur and finding out many interesting things about life at Port Arthur as a penal settlement.

In week 3 the classes were lucky enough to go on an excursion to visit the Port Arthur Historic Site. It was a wonderful experience for all involved. The students had a very busy day filled with many activities and they were given the chance to research individual convicts, go on a harbour cruise and receive a guided tour of the site.

Each student had also made a puppet at school that related to a person who lived in Port Arthur at the time. They took their puppets along on the day and the Port Arthur guides were fantastic and linked the children’s puppets in with the tour, making it a very rich learning experience where the children could make real connections.

A special thank you to Mr. Jackie Allsop who drove the bus to Port Arthur, Mrs. Wendy Burill who attended with Grade 5J and to all the parents who came along and assisted on the day.

It was a fantastic time for all involved.

Mrs. Hayley Joyce and Ms. Kimbra Burke

The Dominic College Primary Campus recently won a $1000 Celebration Grant – an initiative that allows schools to run educational activities during National Literacy and Numeracy Week. Grade 5 teacher, Kimbra Burke designed a Maths Tour of the College and our Primary classes undertook the activity during the last week of Term 2.

The ‘Maths Tour’ was a planned series of questions based around Mathematics within the school environment.

School classes utilised measuring equipment to answer practical Mathematics questions based on items around our College.

The ‘Maths Tour’ was a valuable activity for all our participating Primary classes, enabling them to engage with their surroundings and develop a deeper understanding of Maths and its practical applications in everyday life.