Keep your iPads "Holiday Safe"

Today, Brisbane Catholic Education staff informed schools of the following: 

In the process of delivering the Virtual Classrooms Activities in 2015, the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner has become aware of two apps that are causing some concern for school communities. These apps are Animal Jam and Subway Surfer. These apps contain an in-built global chat facility, which enables anyone in the world to make contact with users of the apps. The potential for children to be exposed to phishing scams, grooming and cyberbullying is substantial.

The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner maintains an excellent resource page that assists parents to better understand these apps, along with a range of others that may be of concern for young users. 

Do you retain control of your child's Apple ID? 

Do you have some system in place at home whereby you can evaluate apps for potential issues before your child installs them? 

Are you aware of what apps your child is using on their iPad? 

Once school ends for another year and the lovely long Christmas holiday break is upon us, children may be given extended access to iPads and other devices for recreational purposes. Please ensure that you have safety measures and responsible use practices in place at home. Remind children about measures they can take when using screens and digital devices, to maintain their own online safety, posture, muscle & eye health and privacy of information.

New-Look Login for BCE

Tonight, rather than catching up on the latest episode of The Block, Brisbane Catholic Education's Information Services team will be finishing an upgrade to their web portals for school users.

The improvements will make the systems even less vulnerable to unauthorised access and therefore, safer for all.

The two major changes that students and parents will see from tomorrow (Wednesday 21st October) are:

1) A new login page for BCE online services. You will see a background image and the following prompts:

New login screen for BCE services

No prizes for guessing that  you have to click/tap 'Brisbane Catholic Education', then follow the instructions. Usernames and passwords will not change.

2) You no longer need to use ‘catholic\’ before your username. This requirement has been removed to make the login process simpler.

Trailer Adventures

Whoever said trailers were only for movies?

Year 5 Tech Club students have spent the past few weeks working on "Book Trailers", each student promoting a book they've read this year. First they had to carefully storyboard their ideas. Then, after taking photos or video with their iPad camera, creating illustrations in Art Set or still slides in Keynote, they put the trailer together in the iMovie app and created an original soundtrack to invoke the mood of the book for prospective readers.

Below you will find some Book Trailer samples, for your viewing (and future reading) pleasure...

To those who may be packing a different type of trailer for the holidays (or not!), we hope you all stay safe and happy until we see you again in Term 3!

by Mary

by Chanel 

by Maddy

by Mia P

by Phoenix

Move Over Emily Rodda!

The Year 5 classes have been using Australian author Emily Rodda's novel Rowan of Rin for much of their literature studies this term. One of their many response activities included writing a character sketch from the character's point of view.

We hope you enjoy these two wonderful writing samples from Kayla and Angelita.

Depending on you 

My name is Rowan. I'm known as the weak, timid little rabbit. My father died in a fire at the attic. Everyone in Rin is expecting me to follow him in his foot steps. My only friends are the graceful, droning buksha. But they are in danger right now because the water from the mountain mysteriously stopped flowing. Strong Jonn, Vall, Ellis, Bronden, Marlie, Allun and myself Rowan, have to climb the looming mountain and save the bukshahs so they can drink from their water hole again. They can't drink from our well because the water isn't sweet enough for them to drink. 

When we were walking, I had a good vision of the mountain. My backpack was loaded with heavy objects. I wish the bukshah were here so they could carry the burden for us. I'm terrified and suspicious. What if we fail? What if no one makes it but me and I'll be alone and lost? I'm really not looking forward to this at all. The clouds where shrouding the looming mountain. The trees were dangling from their roots. The group and I were startled by the mountain, we presumed at the village that the journey would take one day, but now we take that comment back. We depend on the bukshah but now the bukshah depend on us. 

by Kayla W 

Allun the weak fellow 

I am Allun part of the Rin people. I'm slender, humorous and a joker. I have curly hair, dark eyes and I am a shortie. I'm also a baker. 

I have been successful in my life through the journey of being with the Rin villages. It can be difficult at times, but you got to have some toughness in yourself and that is how us Rin people survive here. 

Us, sturdy villagers live around a towering, looming mountain shrouded in fluffy clouds. Our village is nestled between the mountain and hill surrounded by lush green grass, clear blue patches of water ponds, dirty stones all muddy and brown, thick forest trees with a bukshah pool. I have to say, the bukshah pool is so much work. I haven't heard the dragon roar in a while so I wonder what has happened and I really want to find out! 

I am weaker then other Rin people, so I have to put more effort and try harder then others. I hope that I will be okay and I'll keep calm and stay safe. I have to venture up the mountain because we have a gushing clear blue river running down the big rocky mountain. I am worried because I have been chosen to go up the mountain. The six strongest villagers must brave to the unknown terrors of the mountain. I wonder what will happen? What if we all six don't return back safely? Or one of us gets badly injured? I am hoping for a lot of luck this time!

by Angelita K

 

New App for LOTE Lessons

Sensai has found a great new FREE app to help you learn Japanese. She would like all students to please install the app, called Kana Tutor, on their school iPads. It would be fantastic if you could all have this app ready to go for this week's Japanese lessons.

Kana Tutor by Twin Pines Software

Social Media Policy at St Catherine's

We have been seeing a few social media apps popping up on children's iPads at school. A reminder that as all children in our school are currently under 13 years of age, no current student should be using Social Media sites or apps such as Instagram, Facebook or Kik.

Our 1 to 1 Parent Handbook - Policy and Guidelines contains guidelines for Acceptable Use of ICT to which all parents and students have signed their consent. The Student Agreement for Acceptable Use of ICT Resources (page x. of the Parent Handbook) clearly states in Section 3, Point 4:

"I will not hold accounts or participate in any social media sites intended for people 13 years and older (such as Facebook and MySpace) without express written advice from my teachers to my parents/guardians that such an account is required for learning and teaching purposes."

We ask parents to ensure that social media apps are never installed on school iPads while your children attend St Catherine's. The actions of even a few students and families can affect many others in our community. We thank you for your prompt attendance to this matter.

[Image Source: "Social Media" by Yoel Ben-Avraham via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0]

iPad Holiday Tasks: "Spring Cleaning"

Even though it's not Spring in our hemisphere, it is certainly time for a clean out of your school iPad. Many of our 1 to 1 students have been experiencing sluggish iPad performance and some of their apps are refusing to start up altogether. The most common reason for issues like this is that your iPad is crammed too full of "stuff".

Please take some time on the holidays to check your Usage. Delete photos and videos you no longer require and, definitely before you come back to school in term 2, uninstall the games and movies you've been using over the break.

Remember, the iPad is first and foremost a learning tool for school. You may enjoy using it for recreation on a rainy day, but games and movies should not be taking up valuable space and preventing optimal performance for your learning tasks.

How do I check out what's taking up most space on my iPad?

Go to Settings > General > Usage

Now tap "Manage Storage"

This screen will tell you how many Gigabytes of storage space is available on your iPad. Regardless of the total capacity of your iPad, you need AT LEAST 10% of free space for the device to run properly. When you use an app, it uses the available free memory to work.

Check out the list of apps you have installed. The apps taking up the most space will be at the top. Usually, Photos & Camera app is near the top of the list.

Go to the Photos app and delete any photos and videos you no longer need. You can connect your iPad to a computer and upload any photos and videos you wish to keep.

You can tap any app in the list to delete it from your iPad. Deleted apps will still be associated with your Apple ID. This means you can install them again without having to pay.

Last minute holiday tips...

Remember never to leave an iPad in the car if it's parked in the sun. Overheating can ruin your battery and shorten its lifespan. If you are going away and won't be using your iPad, leave it in a cool, safe place. Your iPad prefers to rest at half charge (50 - 80%). Turn it off completely so the battery won't run flat.

We look forward to seeing both you AND your cleaned out iPad back in Term 2, ready to learn and perform at optimum level!