Academic Matters

18/01/2011

CURRICULUM

Although St Benedict's is a relatively young institution it has long been known in the local community for its high academic standards and the success its pupils have attained at university level. St Benedict's follows the South African National Curriculum from Grade 1 to Grade 12. At the end of Grade 9, all boys participate in the requirements of the GETC Certificate and the Grade 12 boys write the examinations of the Independent Examinations Board.

The following subjects are offered at St Benedict’s:

MINIMUM PROMOTION REQUIREMENTS

The following minimum promotion requirements apply for Grades 8 – 11:

• English and Mathematics: 50%
• Afrikaans and Life Orientation: 40%
• All remaining subjects: 40%

Boys who fail to meet these requirements will be required to repeat a grade.

REPORTING TO PARENTS

Three formal procedures exist for keeping parents informed of the academic progress of their sons: reports, parents’ evenings and one-on-one interviews. These procedures ensure at least two points of contact between the College and parents for most boys in each full term.

2012 REPORTS

Assessment and reporting for Grades 8 – 12 at the College will occur across four cycles:

Parent’s Evenings

Two Parent’s Evenings have been scheduled.

1) Parents’ Evening after Cycle 2 report issued: 16 May 2012
2) Parents’ Evening after Cycle 3 report issued: Grades 8 – 11 on 26 September 2012
                                                                                      Grade 12 on 27 September 2012 (tentative)

Any enquiries regarding reports may be emailed to Mr J Brouard at
pencilbox.admin@stbenedicts.co.za

STUDENTS’ ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Preamble

Access to computer facilities, e-mail and the Internet is provided to boys at St Benedict’s College as tools to increase their overall efficiency and effectiveness in the performance of their academic duties.

School-related uses of the Internet include accessing external databases, libraries, newspapers, newsletters, magazines, bulletin boards or encyclopaedias to obtain reference information or conduct research. Boys are reminded that authors of information have copyright and intellectual property rights, unless these are explicitly waived. Permission must be obtained from the author before information is used or duplicated.

Boys should be cautious about how they represent themselves when using St Benedict’s Computer facilities, e-mail and Internet system. A student’s remark or comment may be interpreted as St Benedict’s position or instruction.

Use of e-mail and the Internet.

Abuse of, or improper use of the computer facilities, e-mail or the Internet will not be permitted and will result in disciplinary action. Unacceptable usage includes, but is not limited to, the transmitting, retrieving, storage or display of the following:

1. Material of a discriminatory nature;
2. Obscene or pornographic materials;
3. Derogatory or inflammatory remarks of any nature;
4. Abusive, profane or offensive languages;
5. Chain letters, petitions and spam.
6. Political or religious viewpoints in contravention to the College’s ethos;
7. Materials or language that might be deemed to constitute harassment;
8. Video, voice clips, music clips and/or picture files unconnected to St Benedict’s business;
9. Make use of IRC or “chat rooms”

Boys may be given e-mail accounts to send and receive e-mails.

Boys are reminded that deleting e-mail does not guarantee that it has been erased from St Benedict’s system. Messages should be removed from the “deleted” items daily. Maintenance of all mail stored in personal folders will remain the responsibility of each student.

Receipt of indecent or offensive material may not be preventable, but retransmission of such information is strictly prohibited. A Year Head or a Senior Member of the appropriate Department should be advised of all such occurrences.

Boys may not generate or forward electronic junk mail or spam. (Junk mail is all unsolicited e-mail, which has little or no value to the recipient).

The receiving and sending of private e-mails must be limited to the minimum since it takes up significant space on the college’s servers.

Boys may not use the College computers, Internet, e-mail or electronic messaging systems to infringe the copyright or other intellectual property rights of third persons, to distribute defamatory, fraudulent or harassing messages, or otherwise to engage in illegal or wrongful conduct.

Boys may not use e-mail or the Internet system for private commercial gain or to solicit money for personal causes.

Boys may not post web pages on the St Benedict’s College systems, whether College related or private. Any publishing should be strictly co-ordinated and approved with the relevant subject head as to the content and structure of the document.

Boys are responsible for the accuracy of messages sent and for obtaining confirmation of messages received if there is a doubt about the accuracy of such messages.

From time to time certain web sites, protocols and file types may blocked by the IT Administrator in order to manage the Internet bandwidth available to network students. No students may access websites intended to circumvent these restrictions.

Boys are not to go onto any web sites that may be indecent or contain information that may be harmful to the College or students. Students may not go to web sites that are not school related.

No views or information concerning St Benedict’s and its business, staff or other students may be posted on any electronic boards, any electronic forums, mailing lists, blogs, Internet chat rooms or any social networking interface provided by the Internet or any other form of digital communication without the proper authorization.

Storage of Data on the Network

The College has the right to inspect any data that is stored digitally on its networks such as data stored in folders or in e-mails.

Unless specifically authorized, boys may not modify files, data or passwords, access and read messages and files clearly intended for or saved by other persons without their permission. Boys may not misrepresent other students on any network.

No files containing confidential information concerning or belonging to St Benedict’s may be forwarded to any persons not authorized to receive such information, if any uncertainty exists concerning whether information is confidential or not, it should be treated as confidential and permission should be obtained before its distribution.

Storage capacity is at a premium and boys are to conserve space by deleting unnecessary emails or other material which takes up excessive storage space.

Use of the network

Boys may not use St Benedict’s computer facilities, e-mail or electronic systems to download software without authorisation of their teacher or IT Administrator.

The unauthorised use of the schools facilities, Internet and electronic messaging systems for purposes of “hacking” (i.e. intruding on the privacy of an individual or organization) is a violation of College policy and will be grounds for expulsion.

Boys may not use the Computer, e-mail or the Internet facilities in such a manner as to disrupt the use of St Benedict’s network by others.

Boys may not install any software or screensavers, including web shots on their computers without authorisation from the IT Administrator, as these can impact negatively on the performance of the machines.

Boys should never download or install any software onto network drives unless they are part of the IT admin team, have signed the relevant forms and have been instructed by the IT teachers. All copyright rules must, therefore, be obeyed. Boys should not attempt to install or run any software not already installed on the workstation and deemed correct by their teacher.

Boys may not run any software that the teacher has not requested during a particular lesson.

Copyright and Plagiarism

Boys cannot transmit or download copyrighted images, music, games or text belonging to third parties without the copy-right holder’s permission and authorisation from the relevant subject head.

Copyright violation is a serious legal matter. Students must ensure that any software that is used within St Benedict’s is authorized.

Security Controls and Procedures

Boys are responsible for the integrity of their passwords and log-on security, and are held responsible for any transaction undertaken under the log-on. All boys are entitled to privacy of their work and therefore it is an offense to use or attempt to use another student’s account / password no matter what the circumstances may be.

Boys have full responsibility for their accounts and must not share their passwords with anyone, and therefore, any violations of any part of this policy that can be traced to an individual account name will be treated as the sole responsibility of the owner of that account.

Log on passwords should be changed every 45 days.

Boys must respect all license agreements when transferring software and information on the Internet, including all agreements that St Benedict’s has with third parties covering the use of software information.

The admissions secretary must immediately notify IT Administrator, when a student has left the school to de-activate the account.

Other Digital Devices or Storage Media

Boys may not take photographs or record any other student or teacher without their express permission.

Students may not use cell phones in class to send messages, take phone calls or photographs, record videos during class without the express permission of the teacher.

If a student receives any image, message or multi media data that is offensive to the College, they may not forward the message/data to any other person and are expected to bring the issue to the College’s attention.

No boy may bring into the school property any data or media that is offensive or illegal. The school reserves the right to search any student’s data storage medium (flash drive, ipod, cell phone etc) or digital device that may contain offensive material.

PLAGIARISM AND REFERENCING

Plagiarism is the submission of work by a student of St Benedict’s College that includes ideas, thoughts, words, tables, diagrams, pictures from another source as if it were their own.

Plagiarism is regarded as an offence by St Benedict’s College and the IEB. Any work that is submitted to the IEB that has plagiarized work will cause the student to be sent to the IEB irregularities committee where their matric results will be questioned.

• To make sure you have not plagiarised it is essential that you acknowledge all the sources of information you have used.
• The amount of work that is plagiarized is not the issue, nor is whether it was done on purpose or by mistake.
• If you submit (small or large amount) work as you own without acknowledging your sources, you are plagiarizing. (University of Ulster, 2002), (University of Pretoria, 2007)
• Even if another student allows you to use their work, in any form, you are not allowed to do so. It is considered to be another form of plagiarism.
• You are also not allowed to give your work to another student so that they can copy it and submit it as their own.
• This also applies to group work. Unless a teacher expressly indicates that one task is expected by the whole group, the instruction is that all students hand in their own write up of the task with all their sources correctly acknowledged. In the case of group work you may be acknowledging another student’s contribution to the project. (University of Pretoria, 2007)

It is the duty of the academic staff to instruct you about how to avoid plagiarism and how to reference. However, it is your responsibility to ensure that you acknowledge all your sources in any task that is submitted. (University of Pretoria, 2007)

Why do we reference?

• To avoid plagiarism
• To show the number of sources that you have used. This will show the extent of your research.
• To show the origin of your information
• To show how up to date your information is (University of Stellenbosch, 2005)

Harvard Referencing Technique

The Harvard Referencing Technique provides a way of acknowledging your sources in an organized manner. It consists of two parts:

• An alphabetical list of sources called a Reference List at the back or your document.
• A reference to this list in the text where you have reworded, extracted, or used an idea from the source. This is called in-text reference or citing.

What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?

The Reference List is a list of sources that are cited in the document. A Bibliography is a list of all the sources you have used but have not referred to (cited) in the text. For example if you read an article about the topic to get a general idea but never refer to that article in your document you put it in the Bibliography.

How to reference

1. List all your sources that you refer to in a Reference List at the back of your document. If you have read other books or articles that you have not referred to place them in your Bibliography. The list must be in alphabetical order according to the surname of the author.
2. Each source that is in your Reference List or Bibliography must be listed in a special format. The format is very important and must be done it the exact manner that is shown.
3. Each time you have reworded, quoted or used an idea from a source you need to use in-text referencing (cite) this source. At the end of the sentence or paragraph you list the authors name and date in the format (Author Name, Year). If you cannot find the author’s name and the article is published by a corporation or organization like Microsoft or the University of Stellenbosch then use the organisation’s name as the author’s name.

Format of the Reference List

General Format of Books:

Author’s Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title (Italics) Place of publication, Publisher Name

Example : One author
Seedhouse, D. (1997) Health promotion: philosophy, prejudice and practice. Chichester, John Wiley.



Two authors
Burns, Nancy and Grove, Susan K. (1997) The practice of nursing research: conduct, critique & utilization. 3rd edition. London, Saunders

Many Authors
Mares, Penny et al. (1995) Health care in multiracial Britain. Cambridge, Health Education Council.

General Format of the Internet:

Author/editor surname, Initial. (Year) Title [online].Edition. Place of publication, Publisher. Available from: URL[Accessed date].

Example:
Marieb.E. (2000) Essentials of Human anatomy and Physiology: AWL Companion Web Site.[online]. 6th edition. San Francisco,Benjamin Cummings. Available from: http://occ.awlonline.com/bookbind/pubbooks/marieb-essentials/ [Accessed 4th July 2001].

In-text Referencing

 Each time you refer to a source in the Reference List, you need to add a citation at the end of your sentence or paragraph. The citation must link directly with a source listed in the Reference List. For example if you cite (Smith, 2000) then there must be only one entry in the reference list with the surname of Smith published in 2000. If you have number of references by the same author in the same year then you need to list each reference as a separate item in the reference list. To differentiate each entry in the Reference List you need to add the letter a, b, c after the year. eg, Smith (2001a), Smith (2001b), Smith (2001c). If you are using a website where you obtain information from different pages, each page must be listed as a separate source in your reference list.

Notes:

• If no date of publication is given write s.a. (sine anno meaning without year)
• Be consistent. Each citation must be (Surname, date) use round brackets and a comma throughout the text.
• The format of the source listed in the Reference List must be the same.

REFERENCE LIST (FOR THIS ARTICLE)

• University of Ulster Faculty of Business and Management (2002) Plagiarism & Harvard System of Referencing, [Online]. Available from: http://www.busmgt.ulst.ac.uk/business/pi/resmeth/plag.doc [Accessed 28 November 2008].
• University of Pretoria, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical engineering (2007) Overview of Plagiarism. [Online]. Available from:http://www.up.ac.za/academic/mae/noticeboard/plag.htm [Accessed 28 November 2008].
• Institute for Mathematics and Science Teaching at Stellenbosch University (2005) Referencing and Plagiarism [Online]. Available from: http://academic.sun.ac.za/iwwous/PDf%20files/Referencing_and_Plagiarism_with%20copyright.pdf [Accessed 28 November 2008].