St. Patrick’s Blog
Week of October 28th, 2013
A number of St. Patrick’s students took part in an engaging visit to the War Museum on Monday, October 21st. It is preparation for the work that our staff and students do in organizing our Remembrance Day observance next month. We will provide more information as we get closer to November 11th.
Our grade 8 students were able to participate in the Work For You Too (WRK4U2) activity this past Wednesday. Students visited a number of displays demonstrating the skills and information required for dozens of careers from Firefighters and Cadets to Nursing and Automotive work. Students were also able to get some insight into the specialty focus programs run at the high school catering to specific interests.
This week all of our grade 7 students will be visiting the Baxter Conservation Centre to reinforce their current area of ecological study. Two grade 7 classes will be travelling to the centre each day this week.
Students will be decorating homebase pumpkins this week for a contest on Thursday, and they will also be invited to dress up in appropriate costumes or orange and black colours on Thursday as well. Students who choose not to dress up will be required to wear their uniforms. A Halloween fashion show at lunch will determine our spookiest student at grade 7 and 8. We have prizes for our homeroom and individual student winners.
Also on Thursday we will be having a presentation by former NHL player player John Chabot who will visit St. Patrick's Intermediate to deliver an inspirational and interactive presentation designed to motivate and inspire students. The “Right to Play” initiative provides powerful messages from Canadian Athletic heroes, alongside stories of hope from Right To Play’s programs in Africa.
A reminder that progress report cards will be going home on Thursday this week. Our Parent-Teacher interviews will be on November 7th from 2:00 to 4:00 and 5:00 to 7:30 pm. Please ensure you complete the interview sheet that you receive with the report card and have your son/daughter return it to the school. Please contact the school if an interpreter is required for your interview.
Below I have included some important information from our School Resource Officer on cellphone safety as well as Healthy Eating information from Ottawa Public Health.
Have a great week!
Sean Kelly
SMART PHONE SAFETY
The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) has recently unveiled a new
program, designed to protect owners of iPhone, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices, and
to attempt to reduce thefts of such smart phones.
Protect Your Data (www.protectyourdata.ca) is a new website designed to give parents and
children information about smart phone safety and a resource to verify if a certain device has
been registered as stolen. The CWTA has also assisted in creating a National Blacklist of stolen
devices.
It is important to have your International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number handy,
stored elsewhere than on your device. Every device has its own unique IMEI, used to identify it
during the transmission of data online. To get this number, simply type *#06# into the phone
app, and the number will appear. It is important to repeat this for all smart phones in your
house, as every device’s IMEI number will be different.
Should your device be stolen, it is important to contact your wireless provider and provide
them with this number. The device will then be placed on the National Blacklist, and will not
be able to be registered by any future users, other than the original registrant. A stolen device
that has been registered on the blacklist loses most of its communication functions, and is
therefore practically unusable, and more importantly, loses almost all value on the resale
market.
If you are considering purchasing a device second-hand on classified ads sites such as Kijiji,
please ask the seller for the IMEI number and verify it on www.protectyourdata.ca to ensure it
has not been registered as stolen.
Please consider using additional security measures on your smart phone, such as a passcode
lock and enabling GPS-functions such as the “Find My iPhone” app, to deter thieves.
For further information, please visit www.protectyourdata.ca
Let’s enjoy many healthy foods!
Did you know that over half of Ottawa children and youth eat less than 5 servings of vegetables and fruit a day even though they should be getting 5-7 servings?
Vegetables and fruit have key nutrients such as vitamins, minerals and fibre. Do you need some help to boost your family’s vegetable and fruit intake? Order a Good Food Box! Good Food Boxes come in different sizes and contain fresh vegetables and fruit. There are $10, $15 and $20 boxes for sale. The $10 box feeds one person while larger boxes are great for larger households. $5 fruit bags and $25 local organic boxes are also available.
The box items change each month but usually include lettuce, potatoes, apples, carrots and onions as well as seasonal goods such as oranges, mango, squash and cucumber. Each box also contains a newsletter with nutrition information and recipe ideas.
