Term 3 at St Dominic’s has certainly not begun as we had hoped, and these times prove to be challenging for all of us on all different levels. It is such an important time to be looking out for one another, checking in with family and friends and demonstrating patience, tolerance and understanding with those around us, as difficult as it may be at times.
St Dominic’s College staff have been working tirelessly to try and support the boys in the best way they can with their overall education. It is certainly more challenging to engage most of our young people in their learning virtually, and the face-to-face time is certainly being missed.
In order to support students, our Wellbeing Coordinator has created wellbeing activities and resources on CANVAS for students to access. These can be found within the Wellbeing Modules of the Pastoral Care section in Canvas. There is a page for each Waterford Wednesday and students can access these each week. These activities focus on the Five Ways to Wellbeing – Connect, Give, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Be Active. We highly encourage the students to access these resources to assist them during this period of lockdown.
Headspace is the National Youth Mental Health Foundation that provides early intervention mental health services and resources to young people between the ages of 12 and 25. In response to the current lockdowns in Sydney, Headspace are running parent / carer mental health education sessions for the next six weeks. These virtual workshops are titled ‘Supporting Young People Impacted by COVID-19’ and provide information and strategies to support young people during these challenging times. The following sessions are available via ‘Zoom’:
- 4 August 2021, 6:30pm – 7:45pm, South Western Sydney
- 5 August 2021, 6:30pm – 7:45pm, Cumberland
- 9 August 2021, 6:30pm – 7:45pm, Northern Sydney
- 10 August 2021, 6:30pm – 7:45pm, Georges River
- 11 August 2021, 6:30pm – 7:45pm, South Eastern Sydney
- 17 August 2021, 6:30 – 7:45pm, Western Sydney
- 19 August 2021, 6:30pm – 7:45pm, Randwick
To register for one of these sessions go to:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/o/headspace-national-youth-mental-health-foundation-30549822220
Normally this term, the College would celebrate Rivalry Week and Dommies Day in Week 8. As this is unlikely to go ahead in the traditional format, the House Coordinators have initiated the House Rivalry Week Olympics. Each week, students have the opportunity to participate in some fun online activities and submit their entries in order to gain House points. In Week 2 we had the Face the Cookie challenge. Joshua King of Year 8 was the clear winner.
In Week 3, staged based trivia was held on Wednesday, 28th July. Stage 4 winners were Aarav Mittal and Matthew Hamilton, the Stage 5 winner was Nathaniel Cant and in Stage 6, AJ Lucantonio took out the prize. Students need to check announcements and their CANVAS pastoral page each week to check the weekly challenges.
The College staff are here to help the students and lend support to our families as well. If you have concerns regarding your child, your family circumstances or are aware of the needs of other members of our College community, please let us know. Relevant staff contact details can be found at: https://www.stdominics.nsw.edu.au/contact-us/key-contacts/
