ST DOMINIC’S JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER · 2015. 2. 22. · These girls have been busy improving...
Transcript of ST DOMINIC’S JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER · 2015. 2. 22. · These girls have been busy improving...
JUNIOR
NEWSLETTER
28 FEB 2015
Inside this issue:
Valentine’s Day
Sport Update
2 & 3
Technology Update 4
Konka: Grade 7 Report 5
Waterpolo and Ash
Wednesday
7
Dates to Diarise 8
Music Results 8
Junior School Awards
Information
9
ST DOMINIC’S JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWSLETTER
One School, One Family, One Spirit
Thought for the Week
Please share these thoughts with your daughters. We wish you all a happy and
peaceful mid-term break next-week.
“Worry less
Smile more
Accept criticism
Take responsibility
Listen and love
Don’t hate
Embrace change
Feel good anyway”
Thank You
New Parents Morning
Saturday 7 February
We thank all our new parents who attended this
special function. We trust that you enjoyed the
morning. We thank the PTP for arranging this
function. We thank Mrs Hearder and her staff for
the catering. We also thank the Grade 7 Function
Girls for helping at this function.
Movie Night Thursday 12 February
Thank you to the Matric Farewell Committee for
arranging this “Epic” evening for our girls!
Parents please take
note that turning
right out of
St Dominic’s Road
carpark is illegal and
is inconsiderate to
the other parents.
Page 2
One School, One Family, One Spirit
Private
Music Lessons
for piano and keyboard
held at the school on
Tuesday and Wednesday
Afternoons
Please contact
Mrs M Langford
082 414 2927
Our Grade 1 – 7 girls had a wonderful day on Friday 13
February celebrating Valentine’s Day with CBC. We thank Mr
Moolman, Mr Bryan, CBC Staff, St Dominic’s Staff, Mrs Hearder
and her staff, as well as all our girls and CBC boys.
This is always a very special day, filled with excitement and
enthusiasm.
With CBC
Sports Tours - We pray for a safe trip!
We wish all our tennis girls all the best as they participate in the CBC Summer Festi-
val in Welkom from Thursday 26 Feb until Saturday 28 Feb. We thank Mrs Ba-
denhorst and Mrs Da Costa for accompanying the girls.
We wish all our water polo girls who will be travelling to Cape Town for a water polo
tournament, all the best. The tournament will take place during the mid-term break.
We thank Mr Sandwell and Ms Venter who will be accompanying the girls.
Inter-Primary Galas
Please support our girls
Inter-Primary B Gala: Tuesday 24 February at Boksburg North Swimming Pool at
18h00
Inter-Primary A Gala: Wednesday 25 February at Boksburg North Swimming
Pool at 18h00. (Compulsory for Grade 7 to attend.)
Inter-Primary C Gala: Wednesday 4 March at Boksburg North swimming Pool
at 15h00
One School, One Family, One Spirit
Office Bearers for 2015
Thursday Marimba Band Leaders
Angela Ndebele and Lisa Wafubwa (Vice)
Wednesday Marimba Band Leaders
Petunia Nkosi and Caitlin Dunsmuir (Vice)
Chess Captain
Kwezi Ngeketo
Debating Presidents
Alex Wedel and Nicole Taute (Vice)
Congratulations
Nicole Fawcett (6G)
swam the Midmar in a
time of 31 minutes and
finished 18th place for
girls U13 in the family
event 2 category.
Well done Nicole!
Sports Update as of February 2015
Aquatics
Swimming
Our swimming season started as soon as we returned to school in January. Our pool is full of enthusiastic swimmers in the mornings before
school starts and in the afternoon. Galas are on the go on Wednesdays and Fridays hosted by either ourselves or other schools. Our girls
are swimming well and improving each week.
We still have a few galas coming up as well as our interhouse gala on Friday 6 March. Hope to see many parents at these galas to support.
Waterpolo
Waterpolo training started just before school opened in Jan. These girls have been busy improving fitness levels, learning new skills and gain-
ing experience in the water. Our U13 team will be attending the Reddam festival in Cape Town at the end of the month. Good luck girls and
Enjoy!
Diving
We have plenty of new excited divers out at the pool this term. These girls are having fun while learning new dives. The junior school do not
have any dive competitions in the 1st term but are looking forward to competing and showing off their new skills in the 3rd term.
Tennis
Last week we played our 1st tennis match against Sacred Heart. Our girls played extremely well. We won our matches. The final score was
19-7. The children who played were Bella, Ashley, Kim and Marina. Well done girls and good luck with your other matches.
Thursday 19 February St Dominic’s vs. King David
Thursday 26 February- Saturday 28 February – Summer Festival in Welkom
Drummies
The drummies had their open day on Saturday 31 January. This was well attended and the girls made new friends and discovered some
hidden dance talents when some of the matric girls had a fun session and taught the juniors and seniors a funky dance.
The mini drummies (grade 1and 2) are discovering their left from right on Mondays and Wednesdays. This is all still very new for our little
ones but they are shaking their poms and twirling those flags regardless.
Hockey
We have an exciting event coming up- Pietie Coetzee, 3 time Olympian, coming to our school for a 3 day training course. Some of our Grade
6 and 7 girls will be joining the high school girls at this course.
Nicole Fawcett
One School, One Family, One Spirit
The St Dominic’s Technology Project
The first anniversary of a major technology upgrade was celebrated in January this year. In January 2014 the
girls of St Dominic’s discovered that each classroom (65) had been fitted with an Interactive projector. This
was warmly welcomed by the teachers who also received a laptop that works in conjunction with the projec-
tor and board and encouraged a more technological approach to presenting lessons.
This had been the first visible sign of St Dominic’s effort to upgrade technology. With the installation of
these projectors and boards, it afforded the school an opportunity to repaint walls and install speakers in eve-
ry classroom. At the same time the whole technology infrastructure (network, cabinets, switches, firewalls,
servers) was replaced by a new, formally structured and documented network with high speed fibre connect-
ing all the buildings and a gigabyte LAN, networking, offices, public areas and of course classrooms.
We installed a new Wi-Fi system and have chosen a Learner Management System (Moodle). As we speak, staff are being
trained and teaching resources are being developed using Moodle. The school has committed to uninterrupted education using
this technology by installing a 300kva generator to power the whole school and assist us through load shedding disruptions.
(We are hoping that the generator will be up and running by mid-March.)
The technology team (comprised of teachers, a parent and technical staff ) prepared a comprehensive technology vision during
2012 and 2013. This vision is based on the findings, discussions and experiences from many schools who have already em-
barked on this technology journey. We are very grateful for the openness displayed by Brescia, St Mary’s DSG, Kingsmead,
Springs Boys, Cornwall Hill, Dainfern and other schools. All these schools agreed that getting a sound, infrastructure in place
first is of paramount importance. This we have certainly done.
The other point of consideration is that it is important not to rush into any form of student technology without considering all
aspects and ensuring that what is installed is in the best interest of the school and students concerned.
The final vision drawn up by the technology team has been divided into 6 phases. Phase 1 has already been completed.
What about phase 2? The technology team has been in consultation with many companies searching for the solution that will
best suite our school and our girls. We are very aware that whatever technology is implemented needs to be best suited to our
needs, without it overpowering the human element essential for quality education, and in keeping with our Catholic Ethos.
We have narrowed the company search to a few and now the process moves onto a presentation to the Board of Governors,
who will ultimately decide on the direction best suited to our school.
I am enjoying the challenge and I hope that together with all the staff, students and parents, we can make a success story for
the benefit of our girls and school community. We hope to be able to keep you updated in future newsletters so that we can
enjoy this project together.
Yours in Technology
Harry van der Burgt
ICT Manager
On behalf of the Technology Team:
Mrs Meyer (Management and Pre-Grade)
Mrs Bradbury (Junior School),
Mrs Tuniz (High school)
Mr Lilje (Parent)
One School, One Family, One Spirit
One Week at Konka!
Kayaking, zip lining,
rock climbing!
Our Grade 7 minds were blown away
with excitement! At Konka we learnt and did so many things which involved getting
down and dirty! When we weren't singing songs, doing concerts and eating delicious
foods, we were learning life lessons that are too important to forget. We were extreme-
ly grateful to know that we had been upgraded to chalets with 8 people in each one,
because, believe me, 5 showers in a room of 30 girls was not going to go down well
with the grade! We thank KG, Ashley, Shobolo, Lele and Daphney our facilitators for
the activities that they organised and the catering staff for the delicious food. We will
treasure these experiences for the rest of our lives. We formed new bonds, started
new journeys and “Konka-ed” our fears!!! We thank Ms Dos Santos for organising the
tour for us. We also thank Ms De La Hunt, Mrs Bradbury, Mr Loring and Mrs Van Dyk
for accompanying us.
Kayleigh Teeling
HAVE YOU LOST
A RING?
A ring was found in the St. Dominic’s Carpark.
Please contact
reception for more information.
Kayleigh Teeling
One School, One Family, One Spirit
Dear St Dominic’s Junior School
I just wanted to say a VERY big thank you to the pupils,
parents and teachers who were involved in getting us such
a marvelous donation of cleaning products. Our cleaning
material bill is quite hefty every month and the products you
donated will help to ease the burden on our finances. We
are truly grateful for the on-going support we receive from
St Dominic's.
Thank you, thank you!
Warm regards
Brenda
P.S. Items that are in short supply at Hospice at the
moment are bleach, dishwashing liquid, washing powder,
tissues and toilet sprays. Any help with these products in
the future would be extremely welcome.
Junior Waterpolo
“Splash Polo” is for all junior water-polo players. This term we have held two “Splash
Polo” Saturdays. Many girls have attended ranging from Grade 3 to Grade7. During
the morning the girls are coached by various coaches and the senior water-polo girls
come in to help individually with the girls. In the second half of the session they get
to play games against each other. These Saturdays are enjoyed by all our Girls. I
think the best part of these sessions is seeing the interaction of the junior girls with
the high school girls. This is what Saint Dominic’s is about, “Family”!
The Under 13 Team travel to Cape Town during the Mid Term break to play in the
Reddam House under 13 tournament. We wish our girls all the best for this tour!
Mr Sandwell
Ash Wednesday
Most people associate Lent with a sacrifice or
giving up of their favourite food or drink, even
temporarily. Our Lenten focus for this year is rather
on pruning ourselves, cutting away what is not
needed, and making space for new and healthy
growth.
In line with this theme, each class in the school has
created a Lenten Tree Poster made up of purple
hand shapes depicting those things we want to cut
away.
These posters were
displayed in the
Hall during our Ash
Wednesday Mass
celebrations and
provided a visual reminder of the real meaning of
our Lenten journey.
Girls from Grade 000 to Grade 12 participated with
great interest and enjoyment.
We would like to thank Fr Terry for sharing our cele-
brations.
Thank you to Sr Lynda, Ms Rindfleisch, Mrs Penny,
Mrs Kerr, Mrs Flinn, the R.E. team and all the
teachers who helped to make this a special day.
One School, One Family, One Spirit
Mr Sandwell
DATES TO DIARISE Tuesday 24 February Inter Primary B Gala
Wednesday 25 February Inter Primary A Gala (Compulsory for Grade 7’s)
Thursday 26 February School closes at 12h00 for MID-TERM
Spray-a-thon Mass
26 to 28 February Summer Festival (Tennis) in Welkom
26 February to 1 March Waterpolo Tour to Cape Town
Tuesday 3 March School opens after Mid-Term
Wednesday 4 March Inter Primary C Gala
Friday 6 March Inter-House Gala
Saturday 7 March Open Day (09h00-12h00)
Saturday 15 March 2016 Grade 8 Entrance & Scholarship Exams
Wednesday 18 March Individual and Class Photos
Friday 20 March Cancer Relay
Saturday 21 March Human Rights Day
Friday 3 April Good Friday
Monday 6 April Family Day
Friday 10 April Grade 1-7 Reports go out
Tuesday 14 April Grade 2 Violin Concert
Wednesday 15 April Grade 1-7 Parents’ Evening 16h00-19h00
Thursday 16 April Grade 3-7 Awards’ Assembly
Friday 17 April Inter-House Sports’ Day
School Closes at 12h00
Saturday 18 April Drummie Competition (Knight of Champs)
Tuesday 5 May School Re-Opens (Day 1)
External Music Examinations Achievements
Tayla Barrett Gr 1 ABRSM Piano Merit
Caitlin Richter Gr 1 ABRSM Violin Distinction
Jayna Ram Gr 1 ABRSM Violin Distinction
Chelsey McLuckie Gr 1 UNISA Violin Distinction
Angela Wang Gr 2 ABRSM Piano Merit
Caitlin Dunsmuir Gr 2 Trinity Piano Merit
Chelsey McLuckie Gr 1 Unisa Theory Distinction
Caitlin Dunsmuir Gr 2 Trinity Theory Distinction
These are all amazing achievements and we want to
congratulate them on being such fine young musicians.
Ms Olivier
School Closes
for Midterm
at 12h00
Thursday
26 February!
Scholarships and Entrance Exams
14 March 2015
07h30
If you know any girls wanting to apply
for Grade 8 next year, please tell them
to submit their application forms ASAP.
GRADE 8S 2016
GRADE 4 TO GRADE 7 AWARDS ASSEMBLY Our Junior School Awards Assembly is held at the end of the First Term and the Second Term. At this
assembly we award badges to a number of girls. The badges will be awarded as follows:
Learners who will be receiving a badge will be informed in writing.
(These badges are returned to the school at the end of the following term.)
JUNIOR SCHOOL SCROLLS
HEAD GIRL, DEPUTY HEAD AND GRADE 7 EXECUTIVE LEADERS
These will be announced at the end of the First Term. Scrolls and braid will be awarded to the HEAD GIRL
and the DEPUTY HEAD GIRL.
ACADEMIC BADGES To all learners who obtain an overall average of 80% or more
PERFORMANCE BADGES A maximum of 4 badges will be awarded in each class. A Performance
Badge can be awarded for consistent hard work, progress in a particular
subject or general academic progress, improved work ethic or behaviour,
perseverance etc. A Performance Badge is just as important as an Academic Badge.
SPORT BADGES
(Team players who have partici-
pated in matches will receive
badges. Players who have attended
at least 80% of practices, but
have not participated in matches
will receive a badge.)
First Term: A, B and C Gala Swimmers League Tennis Players
Team Waterpolo Players
Second Term: A & B Team Netball Players Hockey Team Players Drummie Squad
Third Term: Diving badges will be awarded at an assembly
CULTURAL BADGES Second Term: Marimba Steelband Public Speaking and Debating
EISTEDDFOD Participants who receive a Prestige Award for individual items will receive
a Cultural Badge
CLASS CAPTAINS Awarded for the following term of office
ACADEMIC SCROLLS Any learner from Grade 4 to 7 who obtains an average of 85% or
more, at the end of the year, will be awarded an Academic Scroll. A
scroll will be awarded each year as the criteria is attained.
SPORTS / CULTURAL SCROLLS Learners who obtain full Provincial Colours will be awarded a scroll
according to the following procedure: Application must be submitted to the Evaluation Committee which
is headed by the Sports Co-Ordinator. This application must be in
the form of an official letter from the organisation concerned. Scrolls for a particular sport or cultural activity will be awarded
once only. Re-awards for subsequent years will be recognised.