From the Learning Team -

From the Learning Team

Welcome back to Term 3. The Learning Team hope that you and your sons have had a restful break, with plenty of opportunity to spend some quality time with family and friends. We are excited to begin a new Semester and a new beginning for your son’s academic progress for 2022.

EREA Eastern Region Network Day

Term 2 began with a combined professional learning day for 7 of our brother schools in the Sydney Metropolitan area. This included St Patrick’s College, Strathfield; Christian Brother’s High School Lewisham; Waverley College, Waverley; St Pius X College, Chatswood; Edmund Rice College, Wollongong and St Edward’s College, Gosford.

The day was a wonderful opportunity to meet, collaborate and share teaching and learning strategies with our colleagues from each of these schools. Whilst we all work in very different areas, the students in our care seem to share a lot of similarities. It was also a fantastic opportunity to learn from the some of the experts in our field particularly around HSC Marking and Assessment within each subject area.

A number of our staff from our College were able to share their experiences and expertise with staff from each of these schools on the day. This included being part of a Teach-Meet style sharing of resources and ideas, as well as being formal presenters on the day. The success of the day came down the significant time and effort presenters put into making the day a valuable one for the teaching staff involved.

EREA are currently examining the feedback from staff on the event, as it is planned to continue again in the future.

Gifted and High Potential Education

Last term we asked our students in Years 7-10 to sit a General Capabilities test. We had 50 students across the College who demonstrated the high potential of giftedness in their responses. This term these students will be undertaking further testing using the CoGAT. This test will allow us to better diagnose their of areas strength, so we can better target their learning. Ms Danielle Lister is also working with our teaching staff on strategies to encourage and extend our high achieving students. These meetings take place twice a term and focus on identifying their students’ academic needs and strategies to be able to meet these needs.

WSU Regional Science & Engineering Challenge

On the 20th July, 32 Year 10 students took part in the WSU Regional Science & Engineering Challenge. The day saw the students engage in meaningful, hands-on experiences with the focus of teamwork and problem solving. Our students were divided into teams of four and went up against eight other schools from the Sydney region. The students of St Dominic’s did the College proud, going into each event with an open mind, working well as teams and staying positive despite the challenges they faced. The College looks forward to participating in the event again in 2023.