Physical Education
At St. Dominic’s our students undertake Physical Education classes. Our qualified Physical Education teacher provides students with skills and behaviours to help develop and maintain their physical, mental, social and emotional health. Students have opportunities to develop their skills through a variety of games such as basketball, soccer, athletics and volleyball. Students progress from learning simple rules and procedures to enable them to participate in movement and physical activity safely, to using equipment safely and confidently.
Year 5/6 students compete in the Interschool Sports program against other schools in our district. In Term 4, 2016 students from years 3 to 6 will participate in a formal swimming program about water awareness. This will be implemented from Prep to 6 in 2017.
Art
At St. Dominic’s we have an exciting Art program with a highly skilled Art teacher. Students respond to art works through their senses, thoughts and emotions. They come to understand and appreciate art works through discussion and reflection. As students respond to what they see and feel, they learn to appreciate and explore others’ art works. Students also develop aesthetic knowledge through their Arts learning.
The students’ art works are displayed in September at our Art Festival, which usually lasts for one week. This will be a display of visual and performing arts.
AUSLAN
We have introduced AUSLAN as our Language Other than English (LOTE) this year.
Auslan is the sign language of the Australian Deaf community, used for over 100 years by many people in the Deaf community. Auslan is a language just like any other spoken language in its own right, with its own grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary. The only difference between Auslan and spoken languages is that it does not involve speaking verbally, but rather signed using facial expressions, hand and body language. Benefits of Auslan to any child include increased memory retention, increased reading ability, and growth in English language vocabulary, enhanced spelling proficiency and further brain development stimulation. Auslan is taught from Prep-6 level. The aim of the Auslan program is to give every child an introduction to the language, its users and the opportunity to learn a new skill and to have fun through a variety of games, movement activities, art, and songs. The formal study of Auslan contributes to the overall intellectual and social enrichment of both first language and second language learners.
To learn more about Auslan, check out the following link to the Signbank website-ensure you click on the link to Victoria.
Social Skills
All students from Prep to 6 learn about the importance of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) with teachers planning and implementing structured lessons and activities. In the Prep to 2 year levels this approach is strengthened through the implementation of a targeted needs based program. The Zones of Regulation Program is used across the school.