Feast Day for our Dominican Patron Saints

On Wednesday, we celebrated our Dominican Feast Day with great gusto. Our Feast Day aims to affirm the meaning the lives of our Patrons, St Dominic Guzman and St Catherine of Siena continue to hold for us today.

Both these saints were exemplary servants of the Church and people of great faith, undertaking courageous work in their times. Uniting around and celebrating the lives of these patrons as a school community is an important tradition. We remind our students to commit to emulating the qualities of these patrons – particularly the knowledge and compassion of St Dominic Guzman and the wisdom and courage of St Catherine of Siena.

Thank you very much to the volunteer staff and parents who worked in our kitchen on the Feast Day morning to produce over 1000 individualised salad rolls for students and staff.

This has become an important tradition on our Feast Days, not just the enjoyment of a healthy meal together after Mass, but the community care of pitching in and helping in the kitchen, whilst others are involved in the quizzes, the buddy activities and preparing for the Mass. Thank you to everyone who helped on Feast Day.

Buddy activities were enjoyed by K-6 students in the morning, while 7-10 students undertook the special Feast Day Amazing Race.

The students divided into House and Gender Teams and worked together to complete 12 different activities around the College. Each group started at a specific subject area. They had five minutes to complete the activity as a team and if they completed it, they received a puzzle piece used at the end of the race. At the end of each activity, they had two minutes to run to the next station.

Overall, the Bosco Year 9 Girls were the first team to complete the 12 stations and arrange the puzzle. This group of young ladies are now back-to-back champions, also winning in Year 8. Congratulations!

Following recess the whole College gathered in the Savio Centre for our Feast Day Mass.

The Acting College Rector, Fr Lawrie Moate SDB and Fr Nick Castelyns SDB con-celebrated this Mass of Thanksgiving assembly for the presence and contribution of the work the Dominican Sisters over the years to the history of Dominic College. Sr Pam Davis OP and Sr Mary Richards OP were in attendance.

At the conclusion of the Mass, Ms Gilligan invited our College Captains, Noah McGovern and Felicia Di Carlo to present a gift to the sisters in gratitude for their service to Dominic College.

Miss Katherine Hewitt and the Choir are to be thanked for leading the school in song. The reflection after Communion was presented by Harry and Oscar Breslin, with their evocative duet in cello and violin. The spontaneous applause which broke out when they finished showed the generosity of spirit and appreciation of our students, when their peers do something special.

When Principal Ms Beth Gilligan rose to greet the assembly, our students responded in an even more robust way, perhaps mindful of the many times we have offered prayers for her return to health during this year.

Who can forget dear little Maryanne and William from Kinder, as they helped with the Offertory Procession! Beautiful!

College Vice-Captain, Julia Narracott said how much she enjoyed compering the highly anticipated Talent Show in the afternoon. The show gave 7-10 students an opportunity to showcase their talents to their peers and was hosted by Julia and Jack Breward, and judged by the wonderful Mrs Kinne and Mr Davey.

With just under 20 acts, there was an incredible variety of talent shown by the students; from dancing and singing, to lip sync battles and baby goats.

Elective Dance students performed the dances they performed at the Dance Eisteddfod in early July. There were solo and duo acts, singing beautiful songs and blessing everybody with their talent.

One of the many highlights of the showcase was Lachlan Riddell’s ‘Texmo’ performance, and the incredible Campbell Whelan on the drums.

The Year7s had a good taste of performing with a hilarious lip-sync battle between the four houses. Each House also had the opportunity to perform a song, each doing something quite unique and fantastic.

Scoring the lip-sync battle and the whole-house acts out of 5, the judges gave both the whole Siena House and its talented Year 7 studnets a 5/5 for both performances.

It was an incredible afternoon watching all of the courageous performers get up and show us what makes Dominic a creative, vibrant school. I am quite sad that it was my last Dominic Talent Show, but am certain that I will look back on it and be filled with good memories.

You can see more photos on our galleries:
Amazing Race, Feast Day Mass, Talent Show.

Ms Gilligan, Mrs O'Hea, Mrs Rootes, Mr Davey and Julia Narracott