St Dominic's Priory College eNewsletter

PRINCIPAL'S WELCOME

Dear Families;

The College has had a very busy few weeks with much to celebrate. Our Twilight Sports Day was a wonderful event for students, staff and families. Following a morning of rain (and prayers) we arrived at the stadium to glimpses of blue skies and bursts of sunshine. The girls’ spirits were high, and the energy contagious. The day unfolded in a modified manner, still with all the joy and success we have come to expect from Sports Day. Thank you to the many parents and families who joined us in the afternoon. There was a great atmosphere. The day ended with the very exciting Primary Relays and the traditional Marching with Years 6 – 12 students. I congratulate the House Captains Lucy Johnson and Georgina Monteleone (Aquinas), Sienna Hughes and Poppy Rigano (Columba), Josephine Cooke and Minh-Nghi Nguyen (Guzman), and Elise Rauda and Georgina Salandra (Siena); together with Sports Prefects Eliana Marcucci and Sarah O’Callaghan, for their leadership before and on the day. Our gratitude also goes to Coordinators Michelle Richter, Tim Grant and Lyndall Pratt; along with their respective teams. As always, after a major event we like to gain feedback from all stake holders. I invite all families to complete the Twilight Sports Day Survey here.

The Parents and Friends Committee met last week, and once again we had a terrific turnout. We acknowledge the great success of the Mother’s Day stall and thank Belinda Vella, Cat Peacock and Alison Boyd for their work. We hope all mums enjoyed their gifts, and look forward to holding a Father’s Day stall in September. The Parents & Friends had planned a Quiz Night for June, but due to some unexpected circumstances we need to move the Quiz Night to August (date TBD). Parents Derek and Sandra Gregory are heading up the team to run the night and they are looking for some support from the parent community. If you think you can assist, please contact the College and we will pass on your details.

The Parents & Friends are also launching a new fundraiser – St Dominic’s Umbrellas. These umbrellas are a perfect size for schoolbags and backpacks or sitting in the car. Thanks to Susan Scali for her work in this space. Details on how to pre-order an umbrella will be circulated soon via SEQTA.

Our Parent Code of Conduct can be found online here. This week I draw our attention to Section 1, ‘Being a Positive Role Model’, located on page 2 (see extract below).

Thank you to all who participated in our wonderful celebration of the opening and blessing of the Adams Mayo Building and St Mary’s refurbishment. It was a glorious night from beginning to end. Girls and staff are thoroughly enjoying their new spaces.

As always there is much to acknowledge in the school community and I hope you have a cuppa ready to enjoy, while you read this week’s newsletter.

I look forward to seeing you at the Lion King next Week. Tickets will be available at the door, or online here until 1pm of the day of each performance.

Dr Helen Steele
COLLEGE PRINCIPAL

I am delighted to share with you an update on the Year 7 students’ first few weeks in the newly opened Adams Mayo Building. The space has quickly become a hub of excitement for our Year 7 and 8 students, whose transition from temporary classrooms to this modern and spacious facility has brought about a refreshing change. Adjacent to the new classrooms and overlooking Molesworth Street, we have the Makerspace — a feature within the building. This innovative space serves as a creative hub where the girls can pursue hands-on projects. Beyond its modern facilities and engaging features, the Adams Mayo Building holds a special place in the College’s history. The girls can take pride in being a part of this historic milestone in our school's growth and development.

I’m really excited to be one of the first students to learn in the new Adams Mayo building. One of the unique features of the classrooms is the interactive whiteboards. The libraries have a lot of comfortable furniture, natural lighting and open spaces that provide a quiet environment for students to study and read in. - Emily Tran
With much anticipation, we finally got to step inside our new home for the next two years, the Adams Mayo Building. Named after two of our past St Dominic's principals, Rose Mayo and Mary Rose Columba Adams, we hope we prove them proud in our time here. – Madison Saunders
When all the Year 7 students walked into the new building for the first time, we were amazed by the amount of space and new areas to explore. The new classrooms are spacious and look great. I’m sure students of St Dominic’s will enjoy this building for years to come. – Isla Stanborough
The new space has allowed me to work better and more efficiently. Being the first group in the Adams Mayo Building makes us very fortunate that we are in a new and modern building. Thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. – Maya Brincat
My favourite part about the new building is the new library, which is a great learning space to be in. I'm so grateful to spend my first year at St Dominic’s in this new building! – Claire Martland
The first thing that caught my eye was the floor to ceiling window in the corner of the room, which overlooks the brand-new oval. Every day as I walk down the stairs, I think to myself, how lucky are we, to be the first class to learn and grow in this building. - Clara Cutri

Ms Anastasia Markou
YEAR 7 COORDINATOR

PRAYER + LITURGY

Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead!

These words taken from the letter of St James (2:17) were proclaimed at our annual ‘Vinnies Liturgy’, which kick-starts our Term 2 Vinnies Winter appeal. This reading, along with our Responsorial Psalm and Gospel reading, remind us of living an active and integrated faith, one that is always both/and, that is, personal and communal. Care and concern for oneself and others. Prayer and service. Within a Dominican context, this is captured in the motto, ‘To contemplate and to give to others the fruits of contemplation’. At its core, Christian spirituality is one that is always-in-relationship, affirmed in many ways, not least the words uttered during the ritual of the sign of the cross.

The St Vincent de Paul Society, or ‘Vinnies’ as we have come to affectionately call it, has its humble beginnings in 1833. Then young student, Frederic Ozanam, gathered with a few friends and was determined to satisfy his own conscience by doing what he could to bear witness to his Christian upbringing and assist those in the local community who were less fortunate. These young students decided to adopt the name ‘The Society of St Vincent de Paul’, because he was the Patron Saint of Christian charity. In Australia, since 1954, Vinnies has been providing services to individuals and families within local communities who are doing it tough, thus continuing the legacy of Blessed Frederic Ozanam of putting one’s faith into action.

Certainly, our support of the Vinnies Winter Appeal, that we begin again this term, is one tangible way that we can show solidarity with members of our community living on the margins or disadvantaged; thus giving witness to a living faith that is alive and well. Your generous support by way of donations of non-perishable food and warm winter clothing or blankets in good condition, is greatly appreciated. These contributions will be sorted and passed on to the Prospect Chapter of Vinnies, who will distribute to those in our area who are in vulnerable situations.

Mr Joseph Catania
DIRECTOR OF FAITH & MISSION

Open communication, awareness, education and trust between parents and children, play a critical role in online safety. In Week 2, Cybersafe Families, a trusted eSafety provider facilitated an interactive parent-daughter session for our Years 3 to 6 families, with Sr Hieu Tran providing live translation for our Vietnamese families. We were pleased to see over 130 people participate in this College initiative, which has been created to help families keep up to date with the most relevant cyber safety information and resources.

During the session, participants were introduced to Common Sense Media, an independent, non-profit, and research-backed website that provides recommendations to help parents and educators navigate the digital world with children. Some of the topics included:

Balancing online time
Safe use of social media
Privacy and Security
Using messaging apps safely and respectfully
Consent – photo sharing.

STUDENT REFLECTIONS:

“I learnt not to cyberbully and about inappropriate games that aren’t good for my age. They said girls get cyber bullied more than boys. You need to report bad things to E-Safety. If you see something on Instagram or Tik Tok that is dangerous, don’t do it.” - Olivia Kaporis (Year 3)
“I found that being safe on the internet is very important and if we don’t understand something we should always ask our parents and we should always be safe when on the internet because there are some bad things out there.” - Lexi Rappold (Year 4)
“Something I found interesting was that most gamers are around the age of 35. It made me think that I need to be very careful and always have conversations with our parents if we are unsure.” - Sidak Hans (5G)
“Cybersaftey Families gave us a useful website that checks games, books and movies that are age appropriate. It’s called Common Sense Media. I am not allowed social media till I am 13. My parents are very aware of the positive and negative impact of social media.” - Ayami Lokuweligamage (6B)

STEM MAD

Another recent technology initiative for our Year 5 and 6 students was the introduction of the STEM MAD immersion program. This involves students choosing a real-world problem, then using the design thinking process to come up with a solution. Work is hands-on and interactive, and closely aligned with all STEM fields. When developing a prototype for a solution, students could utilise some of the following:

Minecraft
Makers Empire with 3D printing
Micro: Bit programming
Make Do construction

Our Year 5/6 Class Teachers and Ms Joanne Villis, Director of Technology Enrichment, worked enthusiastically and collaboratively with students to create a rich and challenging learning experience. We look forward to presenting their work in the coming weeks.

Ms Cate O'Leary
DIRECTOR OF THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

NEWS FROM YEAR 5

Year 5 students have started the term with a focus on Mathematics and STEM.

During Week 1, students took part in their first Maths Pathway Project developing their knowledge of statistics and demonstrating skills in recording and presenting data.

I found out that mammals are the most popular of all species in the Year 5 classes and reptiles and amphibians were the least favourite - Lily Evans
Looking at my graphs, I found a lot of Year 5s like Netball and not many like AFL football – Melina Prach

This was followed by STEM MAD, a week of intensive work centred around applying knowledge and understanding to make a difference in the world. Students identified real world problems and set about designing possible solutions. By the end of the week the Year 5 groups had created prototypes of robots to clean up local environments and revegetate landscapes, portable water filters, improved astronaut clothing and tools to keep people safe in the water. The collaborative environment enabled ideas to develop across the week as students shared and tested their ideas.

STEM MAD was a lot of fun I liked the way all the Year 5 and 6s got to meet up and work in groups designing ways to make life easier - Jasmine Luong
The week was made fun by because everyone was able to work on their own ideas and it was a good way to get to know other people better and help the world - Kaitlyn Tran
Our group made an app to help people who are dyslexic. Our app could colour code words, read the word out aloud and provide links to other resources they can use – Sienna Chhoy
We enjoyed experiencing the different techniques and having time to think about real work problems and how to solve them. The making part was a lot of fun – Lily Hwang

Mrs Belinda Baker, Mr Byron Mortimer & Ms Deb Osborne
YEAR 5 CLASS TEACHERS

GROWTH MINDSET - Good Learners go into the pit!
Many learners believe that if understanding or achievement doesn’t come easily to them, they must be doing something wrong. The truth is that struggle and persistence are what will help us reach our end goals. Struggle and persistence lead learners to develop a deep understanding of a subject or master a skill. UK educator James Nottingham describes the journey from struggle to accomplishment as the Learning Pit or the Learning Challenge (a student-friendly version of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development).
Watch James speaking about the Learning Pit at this link

ENGLISH FACULTY REPORT

It has been a busy time for our English students and staff as we make our way to the end of term slowly but steadily. With Year 11s and 10s finishing this semester with exams, it will be a challenging time as the girls are challenged in new ways to think under pressure. Our teachers take the time to dedicate several lessons to exam revision and will expose the students to some practice exam writing situations, so that they can evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and understand what areas need improving during the revision period. We hope in allowing students to self-reflect and evaluate their own performance, they can exercise some of their agency in determining which strategies will best be adopted to improve their skills in this area. We look forward to seeing how the girls perform and hope that the experience becomes another source of data worth considering as Term 3 Subject Counselling approaches, where decisions about next year’s subjects will need to be made.

Last week, the Year 9s were entertained by touring theatre group Poetry In Action, who performed their award winning show ‘Inter-National Anthem’. This was a timely incursion as Year 9s are currently composing their own poetry and exploring the idea of migration within the Australian social and historical context. The performance challenged students to consider which poem best represents Australia today and were entertained by poems by Banjo Patterson, Dorothea MacKellar and new and emerging poets such as Indigenous rapper Baker Boy, and his contemporary take on Australian culture. No doubt, as they continue to compose their own poetry, the performance stirred up important debate and ideas that they can reflect upon in their own compositions.

We are again gearing up for Write A Book In A Day, a 12-hour continuous writing event where teams from across Years 6-9 will work on all elements of narrative writing, including the editing, publishing, illustrations and submission in a team environment. St Dom’s has had great success in the past and so we look forward to this event to be held in July and overseen by English teacher Ms Aurora Reid. We most especially like the service element to this event, where students raise money on their own as one of the requirements, with funds going towards medical research in The Kid’s Cancer Project. We wish the girls luck as they start to create their teams and enrol for this event in the coming weeks.

Ms Sara Nigro
LEARNING AREA LEADER - ENGLISH

TECHNOLOGY ENRICHMENT

The use of AI generated content must be acknowledged

In Issue 5, I wrote about artificial intelligence technologies like ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Bing search engine entering our classrooms and our updates to St Dominic’s Academic Honesty Policy. The policy can be accessed via this link and a video explaining the changes via this link.

Since these updates, many schools and universities have also updated their policies, one of which is the University of Adelaide.

The University of Adelaide’s policy is consistent with our policy in that the use of artificially generated content should be treated as personal communication and acknowledged under the reference list. However, the University of Adelaide policy takes it one step further. If students use generative AI in the development of ideas and concepts for their assignment, they should acknowledge this and detail how they used the tool, even if they don’t include any AI generated content in their final work. Students need to provide a description of the AI tool used, how the information was generated, including the prompts they used, and the date accessed. Examples include:

I acknowledge the use of ChatGPT [https://chat.openai.com/] to generate ideas and material for background research and project planning in the drafting of this assignment. The following prompts were entered into ChatGPT on 30 March 2023:
• There is no convincing evidence for the existence of life outside of our solar system.

As with the University of Adelaide, St Dominic’s Priory College considers the intentional use of AI generated content in work without acknowledgement as plagiarism. All staff and students have been educated in the use of AI principles, practices, and processes.

15^TH ANNUAL SPACE FORUM

Seven students and two teachers attended the 15^th Annual Space Forum. Students in Years 10 and 11 were selected based on their interest in the space industry and teacher nomination. Hosted by the Andy Thomas Space Foundation, the event welcomed a global audience which was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre. The space sector in Australia is experiencing unprecedented growth as industry, academia, and government work together to expand their activities and develop international relationships for ongoing opportunity and success within the space economy. Forum sessions included international panels covering highly pertinent topics that shape our industry.

It was an amazing and helpful experience to be able to talk to people within this industry and seeing just how many pathways there are in space. I was able to see just how much variety there is within the industry – from astrophysics to chemical engineering even to space law and legal studies. I also had the opportunity to ask professionals on what career pathways and subjects on ways for me to achieve my career. - Alexandra Calica-Chavez
It was an interesting day as we were able to gain an insight into lots of different careers in the space industry. One of the highlights of the day was the talk about the different accomplishments which Australia and Japan's space companies were able to achieve because of the collaboration between the two countries. Between the two countries, they were able to retrieve sample from an asteroid called Ryugu. We were also able to listen to the upcoming projects from JAXA and the Australian Space Agency. - Linh Nguyen and Carolyn Nguyen
We were introduced to leaders in the industry from Japan, Indonesia and New Zealand who also presented their cause, with a panel meeting over zoom call and audience participation. A new initiative Australia and Japan are currently working towards is going to Mars which will help promote sustainability and insight about the atmosphere. We went through the exhibitions where they showcased different space industries. They introduced us to the projects they were working on, their experiences in the field, and provided us with insight on the working environment and how they enjoyed it. They were passionate and excited about their work, engaging us with every word. They offered networks to other people and explained how they entered the field. It was a truly memorable experience, and I highly recommend anyone considering the field of astronomy and space exploration to take this opportunity and attend. - Catherine Tojo

Thank you to Mr Aslanidis and Ms Kennedy for attending the conference on the day with students.

Ms Joanne Villis
Director of Technology Enrichment

SCHOOL OPERATIONS REPORT

TWILIGHT SPORTS DAY OVERVIEW

Despite the heavy rain and cold conditions last Friday morning, by 11am the rain stopped and the sun came out for our Inaugural Twilight Sports Day at SA Athletics Stadium. Led by Tim Grant, Michelle Richter, student House Captains & Sport Prefects, supported by the PE faculty, our Maintenance Team and College Staff; students from Reception through to Year 12 competed in various track and field events across the day. Student attendance and enthusiasm was high as everyone tried to earn points for their respective Houses.

To hold an event like this, takes many hours of planning and preparation, and at St Dominic’s Priory College a team approach is always adopted to ensure that a safe and successful day is achieved. School Operations, together with the PE Faculty had many aspects to consider including, the 16 buses to transport over 650 students and 50 staff to the stadium safely, the staffing of events and roles for the day to ensure supervision ratios are met, student nomination in the weeks leading up to the day, the communication to parents, staff and students, signage around the stadium, program and structure for the event, track and field event organisation, equipment schedules, External First Aid officers, just to name a few.

While our aim is for students to see a fun filled day, behind the scenes we ensure that the child protection legislation is met, the safety of our students is prioritised, and the wellbeing of staff is supported. As this was our first Twilight Sports Day, and to ensure continuous improvement in running such events, we invite staff, students and parents to provide feedback via this survey link, to help ensure that we are fine tuning all aspects of such an event. The survey is open from now until Monday 12 June 2023.

Mrs Olivia Couch
SCHOOL OPERATIONS COORDINATOR

SPORT NEWS

SAPSASA CROSS COUNTRY

On Thursday 11 May, 16 students from across Years 4-6 participated in the North Adelaide District SAPSASA Cross Country Carnival. The students are to be commended on their persistence completing the 3km course.

Congratulations to Catherine MacKay (6G) who finished 2^nd in the Under 12 Girls and has been selected to represent North Adelaide at the State Championships at Oakbank on Thursday 8 June.

SAPSASA AFL STATE CARNIVAL

Congratulations to Aliya Walters (5G) who was selected to represent North Adelaide in the State AFL Championships at Barratt Reserve last week. Aliya leaned new skills, competed well, and enjoyed making new friends from other schools in the district. Well done Aliya.

AUSKICK

A group of Years R-3 students have been enjoying learning all about AFL in their Auskick lessons. These sessions are held on a Monday night on the College Oval from 3:30 - 4:15 pm and are run by North Adelaide SANFL. It is not too late to join. If your daughter is interested, contact Lachlan Rees: lachlan.rees@sanfl.com.au or 0435793486.

Mrs Michelle Richter
JUNIOR SCHOOL SPORTS

Saturday Morning Sports

ISSUE 7 | Week 4, Term 2 - Friday 26 May