‘Building a Bridge Between Home and School’

Through the years of experience working as a teacher and becoming a parent to four, Dominique began to see a common thread in children. A common battle between behaviour and emotions. Parents would often ask for advice when trying to understand why their children behaved a certain way in a stressful situation.

When learning to navigate her own parenting style she realised yelling, arguing and demanding children to behave a certain way was toxic for small children in learning to understand how to respond to big emotions. Our job as parents is to teach our children to become adults that are able to recognise and manage these feelings and know it is normal to struggle to regulate our emotions.

Especially with three boys full of testosterone, she began to identify the different personas children use to respond to stressful situations. This was how the concept behind the picture book series was developed. A way to show children, through a story, that these feelings are normal. It is how we learn to deal with them that changes how feel about ourselves and others.

Dominique attended the University of Technology and completed a Bachelor of Education in Special Education. She naturally gravitated towards the area of study where she felt would allow the most growth and learning around students needing extra support. Teaching has been Dominique’s life-long passion. With over 20 years in the industry,  she has always worked in the area of Learning Support which works closely with School Psychologists, OT’s, behaviour specialists and support teachers to unlock the areas of need so all students have the capacity to learn and reach their full potential. 

• Bachelor Degree in Education majoring in Special Education

• Over 20 years as a primary school teacher – including 5 years as an mentor and leader to develop beginning teachers and support best practice.

• Learning Support Team within school – managing and supporting challenging classroom behaviours

• Providing in class support strategies for individuals, teachers and whole school.

• Working closely with the school psychologist to support at risk students

• Written and developed a whole school led program for well being and anxiety.

• Run multiple support groups for students with friendship challenges, regulation concerns and anxiety.

• Secret Agent Society facilitator – trained and led several groups

• Author – emotional regulation series for children aged 3-13

in this presentation Dominique will discuss the relationship between home and school, and strategies to get the most out of communication and advocate effectively.