We are delighted that our Liturgy Band will be performing at 5.30pm Mass at Holy Spirit Church, Burdekin Avenue, Amaroo on Sunday 17 September.  It would be lovely if the JPC community could support the band. Hope to see you there.

On the 8 - 10 September 9 Duke of Edinburgh participants along with an eager peer, pursued the Adventerous Journey component of the program. Ms. Robinson and Mr. Pitt accompanied the students on this journey. We spent our weekend hiking along the East Coast of Australia in the Royal National Park, sleeping under the stars and sitting in a group with our large backpacks.

Friday was spent travelling on a Murrays coach to Sydney’s Central Station where we caught a train to Cronulla. A group of backpacking students travelling through the hustle and bustle, that is the underground Sydney train system, was quite a sight to see. Not to mention, the struggle of walking through the gates with large packs and fitting them onto the train. We arrived at Cronulla, a beautiful town by the beach, to catch the ferry that would take us to our Bonnie Vale campground in Bundeena.

The majority of Saturday was spent on our twelve-kilometre return hike along the Coastal Track on the East Coast of the Royal National Park. The sun was out and the water was blue, making the journey a terrific opportunity for photos. Both nights were cold and the moon shone incredibly bright, but that did not stop us from escaping the tents to sleep outside under the stars.

It was a weekend well spent and we are all looking forward to the future camps and adventures.

Rachel Murphy
Yr 11, Maathai

Pasifika day was a great success it was really good to see our students step up on to the stage with speeches, Pacific Island songs and Pacific island dances.
The day gave them an opportunity to get in touch with their culture, understand their identity and most importantly represent their school through their band and dances. Last year was good but this year was even better in terms of our performances as every time they took to the stage they were met with loud cheers, standing ovations and the compliments of the talent that is within our school.

I would like to thank our performance arts team of Faye Robertson who allowed access to her Pacific Islander students and has been a constant support.

Aron Lyons who is a talented individual with a great eye for music detail and who again has been a driving force for the event this year.

Our amazing students of Alexander Skinner, Angelica Skinner, Alpha Veikune, Ciel Georgievski, Leilani Georgievski who have been outstanding in organizing their performances and their parents for the support.

Final mentions to these two talented students Phoebe Nguyen and Cody Haycraft who are not Pacific Islanders by heritage but who really embraced the day and really showed their class in their engagement.

Furthermore performances from last night’s event has again enhanced the reputation of the school in the performance arts area due to the talent being produced on stage.

Jerry Yanuyanutawa.

Tom Williams is a keen water polo player who started in the junior program and has enjoyed the fitness and friendship of the sport. Tom's Dragons team competes in the ACT competition and he is also an ACT U14 representative player. Over winter Tom played for Sydney University where his U14A team won the Sydney Metro Winter Comp. Congratulations of your achievements Tom Williams

ACT Athletics

On Thursday the 14th of September, we had a small number of students attend the ACT Athletics event after qualifying in the prior ASC Carnival. It was a cold and windy day so the competitors had to tackle the weather with their events, however, events were completed valiantly. Gage King (Year 9) competed in the 400m track event and finished 2nd in his heat to come 5th place overall. Jade Rethman (Year 7) competed in the Javelin field event and also finished 5th place. This is an incredible effort from both students to finish 5th in the state in their respective events. A special thankyou also goes to Mikayla Cruz, who, although couldn’t participate in the 5 events she qualified for due to injury, came to assist the organisers on the day. Congratulations Gage and Jade and thankyou Mikayla, we were very proud to have you representing JPC.

Girls 9/10 SSACT Soccer

On Thursday the 7th of September 13 year 9/10 girls joined the boys in a cold and windy day of competition in the SSACT Northside Soccer competition. The girls had a tough run and came away with 2 draws and 2 losses. Our only goal of the day was scored by Jasmine Chong, nonetheless, all girls performed valiantly throughout the day. They were competitive, yet graceful and it was lovely to see them providing supporting to our boys team as well as they approached finals. Congratulations to all of the girls who participated and represented JPC with pride.

A special thankyou also goes out to Monica Cougar and Laura Cantlie who provided their support and knowledge to the team and Miss Turner.

ASC 7/8 and 9/10 Girls Basketball

Last week, Ms Simone Esposito and Mrs Judith McDonald had the pleasure of accompanying two teams of girls to the ASC Basketball competition in Tuggeranong.

The girls had a fantastic day and represented their school with pride.

The 7/8 team won four out of six games, including a nail biting semi that went into extra time with Radford. They played well as a team and were enthusiastic about the games.

While the 9/10 team did not win a match, they played well as a team and learnt many valuable skills. It was fabulous to witness their positive attitude, support of team members and ability to set realistic goals.

A huge thank you to the parents for their support and the girls for having a go!

Futsal Competition

The past three weeks have seen JPC unite in support and encouragement of one another through the inter-House futsal competition. Each House had outstanding participation across all year groups. The atmosphere while playing was overwhelmingly enthusiastic, with roars from the crowd often drowning out the referees’ whistles. After five rounds of hard fought matches, four teams - Kennedy, Maathai, Van Thuan and Drexel - were left to battle it out in the semi-finals. Drexel and Kennedy advanced to the Grand Final, with Kennedy the overall winners after a heated penalty shoot-out. A huge thank you Damen and Joel (Year 11) who volunteered their time to referee every match, ensuring a spirit of fairness and participation. We would like to thank all the students who participated in the games, and the staff and students who came out in force to cheer on their teams.

The Year 10 House Leaders

After a challenging and rewarding semester, the JPC year 11 hospitality students and Mrs Kelly, canteen manager, were treated to an educational excursion and lunch at the Merici College restaurant on Wednesday 13th September. They went ‘behind the scenes’ and took a tour of the Trades training centre kitchen and were afforded the opportunity to ask questions of the staff and compare their own experiences with other hospitality students. They gained valuable insights into the running of a restaurant, back and front of house and enjoyed a delicious 2 course lunch and the chance to be waited on for a change!!

Annie Daley
Hospitality teacher

A recount fromtwo of our Defence Students who attended last week’s Battle for Australia Ceremony at the Australian War Memorial.

Today, the 6th of September 2017 11 students from St John Paul 2nd Collage and Holy Spirit Primary School went to the war memorial for a service for the fight of Australia. The things I got to of this was that though this battle happened so long ago, we are still commemorating it to this day.  Just a simple thing like this ceremony (even though a lot was put into making it) we stop and think of all those people that fought for our lives so we can live a safe and happy one.

Stephanie Rock
Year 9

The battle for Australia ceremony was great time to reflect on the sacrifices of the men and women of our great country who lost their lives and those who didn’t protecting our country in 1942 – 1943 from invaders. The ceremony contained many different speeches from very important individuals which included Dr Brendan Nelson, Chaplain Peter Willis and Colonel John Jackson who is the chairman for the Battle for Australia. The Australian Rugby Choir and RMC Band where also there and they played the following songs with expert performance: The RMC played the Last post and the Rouse and the Australian Rugby Choir sang the Australian National Anthem and “We Are Australian”.  In conclusion I very much enjoyed the ceremony to honour those who fought in the battle for Australia.

Christian Aylward,  Yr 10

On Tuesday afternoon Menslink came in to discuss with our boys about some very important messages around what it is to be a man and also about talking about our feelings and seeking support if we need. Both 7/8 and 9/10 boys went through an engaging 60 minute session each which touched on some important and relevant strategies to manage anxiety and stresses in our lives and also how to support people who may be having these feelings. On behalf of the whole College we would link to thank Menslink’s Des and Michael for their time in coming out to talk with us.

Nic Whatman

Chris van Reyk has been a volunteer in Mental Health since around 2003, including presenting as part of Mental Illness Education Australia (MIE ) at schools in the ACT and Qld and have been long concerned at the lack of information for parents on this significant issue affecting  youth.  While there are websites such as Beyond Blue, Chris has found that information from people with a lived experience have a profound effect on the audience and these presentations are meant to supplement those already delivered to schools.

Changes to the Transport Canberra Bus Network, Saturday 7 October 2017

On Saturday 7 October 2017, Transport Canberra will be introducing a revised network and timetable. This change is the first of a series of improvements towards an integrated public transport system in 2018 with the introduction of light rail to the nation’s capital.

This information including new timetables and maps are now available for parents and students to view on the Transport Canberra website – transport.act.gov.au

Learning music can help students’ self-confidence, self-discipline and team work. Music helps students progress in other important learning areas such as Maths and English. Indeed, countries with a strong focus on music education tend to have higher scores in literacy and numeracy. Engaging music programs have been shown to help with attendance and can be particularly beneficial for students who are not achieving well in school.