Principal’s Message 23 October 2019

October is Mission Month: We are known by the way we live

Last Sunday the Catholic Church around the world celebrated World Mission Sunday. At Mass in my parish, with our parish priest being away, we had the pleasure of Mass celebrated by Father Roger Hickley, a retired priest who has, over the years, been very involved in Dominican life. His sister, Janet Perrott, is a past pupil of Springfield.

Father Hickley preached to us about Mission, and quoted the newly-canonized John Henry Newman, who had this to say about Mission:

“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission. I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.

He has not created me for naught. I shall do good; I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it if I do but keep His commandments.

Therefore, I will trust Him, whatever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him, in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him. If I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about. He may take away my friends. He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me. Still, He knows what He is about.”

(Cardinal Newman was canonized 10 days ago, on 13 October, by Pope Francis in a Mass at the Vatican.)

When one thinks of missionaries, one’s mind automatically goes to Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Today at JP and Pre Assemblies, as well as in my Sacred Singing classes, I told the children of the story told of an occasion when Mother Teresa was invited to a very formal gathering where a benefactor was donating a considerable sum of money to her charity. She was to receive the donation and then give a speech about the work she did. A driver was sent to pick her up, and on the way to the gathering Mother Teresa suddenly told the driver to stop the car immediately. She got out of the car and rushed over to a poor, ill man lying on the side of the road. She proceeded to tell the driver to put the man in the back of the car and drive them to her hospice so that she could care for him. The driver tried to tell her that they were on their way to a very important event, to which Mother Teresa replied, “This is far more important. I am doing God’s work.” It seems that Mother Teresa never did arrive at that formal event, but the money was nonetheless donated to her charitable work. A true missionary!

May we all know and live out our special mission in life.

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Uniform Policy

Please note that there will be some changes in our uniform policy at the beginning of next year regarding the wearing of Phys Ed clothes during school time. However, this will be conveyed to you before the school year begins. For the rest of this term, girls may wear their PE Clothes on the days they have PE as part of the curriculum (this does not apply to extra-murals for which the girls must change).

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The language we model to our children

Over the past week, I have overheard a number of Junior School girls use the exclamation: OMG! This exclamation is definitely not being learned at school; it is being heard at home or on television. I understand that the children probably do not realise that this stands for Oh my God, and I will be addressing this at Monday’s Assembly, but I would really appreciate it if parents would refrain from using this expression and stop their children from doing so as well. It is a phrase that should only be used as part of a prayer and never be abbreviated to mere letters.

Alison Dunn

Junior School Principal

Our Heritage Day Celebrations

The Junior School celebrated our vibrant and diverse heritage on Thursday the 17th of October with a variety of fun activities. We started the day with a play by the Jungle Theatre called The Mantis and the Bee a folktale explaining how life began - a moving story about the origins of our species. The language spoken by the actors was !Xam - the language of the KhoiSan - it was a beautiful and fascinating script. We then watched an incredible dance production by Africa Ablaze. Glenda Jones, the director told us her life story of growing up in a family of 9 children and how she used dance as her inspiration and way of coping with the challenges of childhood in Elsies River. She taught our girls a dance routine which was amazing - watching the primary school moving together in choreographed wildness was an experience that few of us will forget. We then watched an excerpt of a piece that Glenda’s daughter Danielle produced for her Masters Degree in Dance. It told the painful story of her struggle to accept herself and to be proud of her differences - a deeply emotive piece.

For the remainder of the day, we moved to the senior primary part of the school and enjoyed a heritage feast together - sharing delicious food from our Cape cultures - Cape Malay, Indian, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, French, Dutch, British - what a spread! The girls did a fabulous job of setting up stalls displaying information about their allocated culture and sharing this information with passersby. The food produced by the girls and their families, by Thabile Mazibuko (our isiXhosa teacher) and Rashieda Martins (in our cleaning team) was incredible. We slept well that night - our bellies full and our hearts bursting with pride for our beautiful country.

👩‍💻 The pearl of tech wisdom for this week:

Get off the public WiFi!

It’s a beautiful day outside and you don’t want to miss out. So you pack up your laptop and head out to your favourite co-working space, also known as a coffee shop. You’ll find your desk for the afternoon. Excited to not let the day get away, you quickly log in to your laptop and immediately start scanning for the free Wi-Fi that the coffee shop provides. With a simple click of the mouse you are connected to the internet and are ready to work.

The above scene is a common occurrence, with so many places where people congregate now offering free Wi-Fi.

So what is the big deal?

The big deal is this thing called public Wi-Fi. To put it simply, public Wi-Fi is a wireless network that is just as it sounds…public. Anyone can get on it, which also means that anyone else on that same Wi-Fi network can see your computer. When someone can see your computer they can also, with very simple and often free tools (that can easily be downloaded from the internet), start looking at everything you are doing. Keystrokes, emails, passwords, etc. all are open for viewing on the public Wi-Fi.

Is it really that easy?

Yes, it is really that easy. All of your data may even be getting saved to a device you can’t even see. It may be an iPad inside of a backpack, or the person sitting outside or even in their car.

Remember Wi-fi does not stop at the coffee shop walls, and can often be accessed for many feet away from the building.

Types of hacks on public Wi-Fi

· Sniffing:

Sniffing or snooping is pretty much just like it sounds. This is where a hacker simply grabs the data transferring over the public Wifi network.

· Fake Hotspots: exactly what the name inplies

· Man in the Middle Attacks (MitM):

A man in the middle attack is a bit more sophisticated, but the outcome is devastating. Essentially a hacker takes control of a part of the network and reroutes traffic to sites that look like the sites you want to go to. In reality, the site you are seeing is a spoof and the hacker collects all your data. For example, you may type in www.Amazon.com, the hacker reroutes the traffic to their own site that looks and feels like Amazon. When you log in, your credentials are captured by the hacker and the rest becomes history.

What Can I do?

The easy answer to this epidemic is to not use public Wi-fi. Fear not…there are solutions that can protect your data, and allow you to work out of the office.

Both iPhone and Android devices have simple mobile hotspot capabilities that allow you to connect to a private network (your phone) and access the internet. In addition, most phones report to you how many devices are currently connected so you can make sure it is just a single device. Keep in mind your phone will broadcast and people will be able to see your network, so make sure you are using a secure password.

In addition to smartphone hotspots, the major cellular players all offer mobile hotspots. These little devices are easy to throw in your bag and many of them can give wireless access to up to 15 devices (that have your password of course) and can be very handy when you are giving a presentation and need internet access but can’t get access to a secure wireless network.