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.