Friday 8 April - End of Term 1

Monday 25 April - ANZAC Day

Tuesday 26 April - Term 2 commences

Wednesday 27th April - ANZAC Day Assembly 2.30pm

Wednesday 27th April - Parent Student Teacher Interviews 4 - 6.30pm

Term 1 now comes to a close and we have all shared in the joy of 10 wonderful weeks at JPC! 

Try High School @ JPC Days

Yesterday, around 50 of our beautiful students willingly volunteered for our second Try High School @ JPC day, to welcome and host Year 6 students from Holy Spirit School, our neighbouring primary school here in Nicholls, Mt Carmel School from Yass, and a large number of students from individual schools in our Canberra region and beyond, all wanting to Try High School @ JPC! Over the last 2 weeks we have had around 300 young people come to experience the fabulous staff, students and facilities here at JPC.

Our very impressive volunteers from Years 7–10 stepped up to lead the visitors through a series of activities; from Chefs cooking in the kitchen to Explorers discovering JPC in a ‘round the world’ Physical Education activity and school tours, from Scientists burning Magnesium in the Science laboratories to Actors learning performance skills in the theatre. All of these activities were designed to build familiarity with the layout of the school, introduce some of the teachers, assist in making new friends, experience some secondary subjects and, ultimately, alleviate some of that anxiety about coming to High School.

The visiting students approached the day with a sense of adventure and excitement; however, it was OUR students who SHONE with their leadership, hard work, maturity and empathy shown to the visitors. It was exciting to see the ‘protégé effect’ in action - our students embraced the chance to act as mentors to our young visitors – guiding individuals and groups through learning experiences, helping them identify questions and find the answers. The leadership skills developed at Try High School Day will carry these students into the future as truly inspirational motivators of others.

Happy Holidays!

Thank you so much to all the students and staff here at JPC for a fabulous start to 2016. Please take care of yourselves and your families over the break. We are looking forward to welcoming students back, refreshed and ready to go next term, in full winter uniform!

Jen Tually
Ferré House, Science Department & Languages Department Coordinator

We have been very privileged to host a travelling exhibition on St John Paul II this week.  The exhibition comes from the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin in Poland.  It is travelling around Australia as part of the lead up to World Youth Day in Krakow in July.

In Year 7 Integrated Maths and Science we had Bradley Moggridge come to talk to all our students about Indigenous Water practices. He gave us great insight into the cultural significance of our sacred sites and Aboriginal Water Management practices. Having Mr Moggridge as our guest speaker was a great privilege as he is the only Indigenous Water Scientist in Australia!

On Wednesday JPC had a squad of 29 swimmers make their way to the Australian Institute of Sport for Canberra’s  Associated Southern Colleges (ASC) Swimming Carnival.
 

Just a friendly reminder to our JPC community that our annual Cross Country event will be held on Friday afternoon of Week 2 next term (6 May, 2016). 

On Wednesday some of our Year 8, 9 and 10 Dance Elective students were given the opportunity to watch an award winning and critically acclaimed contemporary dance performance, FACES; choreographed by James Batchelor. 

Each year in Lent, the global Catholic Church is asked to show solidarity for our brothers and sisters in developing communities in Australia and around the world, through our support of Project Compassion. In Australia, Caritas is the organisation which sponsors this work.

This week we have begun the formal conversation with our Year 10 students about the transition to Year 11.  We gave them some basic language around the ACT system and the way it regulates all of the colleges in the ACT.  So parents, on Wednesday evening, you may have had a conversation yourselves with them about things like Tertiary and Accredited packages, the ACT Year 12 Certificate, courses and units, majors and minors etc…  We emphasized with them that this was just the beginning of a process that would continue well into their senior studies and that there was no need to panic about the detail – that, whilst this was their first time in Year 11, we have extensive experience of the system in a variety of schools and that we are more than able to guide them through.

We spoke to them about their Transition Week that will occur at the end of Term 2 and the pathway planning that would be part of that week.  It will include visits to a variety of tertiary institutions and academies across the ACT.  The students were asked to complete a survey indicating their preferences for these visits.

They were also asked to write down any questions that they have about any aspect of the transition or Year 11 and 12 and that these questions would shape mini tutorials that we will run during ILT at the beginning of next term and throughout the rest of the year.

We are pleased to announce that we have developed a Memorandum of Understanding with St Francis Xavier College so as to be able to deliver vocational education courses in Year 11.  This has been accepted by the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) and so SFX will be our Registered Training Organisation (RTO).

A Year 10 Transition page will be on Moodle from next term where a variety of resources and information will be available to students and their families.

We are looking forward to talkingwith families at the upcoming Year 11 Information Evening on 12 May.

At JPC we always strive to have a growth mindset! Our Canteen aims to provide our students and staff with delicious healthy food, which challenges our taste buds and extends our palates. Our aim is to grow our own food in our gardens or to use our local produce (when possible); we have sustainable practices in place to ensure we are not producing too much waste.

With these practices in mind, we would love to hear what you think of our canteen services and where you think we could improve.

Please follow this link and complete the survey:
http://goo.gl/forms/BYX0c73mc7

The Year 7 Band Class completed their taster of Year 7 Music through the opportunity to  perform for their families today. In the space of just a term, our Year 7s have developed skills in playing instruments, reading music and coordinating their timing to perform together. Students and families enjoyed a morning tea together to celebrate their achievements. 

The performance was a most enjoyable event and Mrs Gabrielle Ball-Barnett and Mr John Thompson are congratulated for teaching and leading the Year 7 Band Class to this finale. The future of the College Band looks very promising with many of these students indicating they will continue into this next stage.

On the evening of April 1st, Mrs. Marriott and Mr. Pitt accompanied seven students on a hike participating in the Duke of Edinburgh program. The purpose of the hike was an introductory journey to the participants so as to build bonds and collegiality between them as they undertake their Duke of Edinburgh journey over the next few years and allow them to share their aspirations and dreams for their personal journey through the program.

The hike included an evening trek into the Northern Border Campsite on the Centenary Trail north of Gungahlin. Here we set up camp, made difficult by the hard ground, though all persevered and constructed their homes for the evening. The participating students engaged in the spirit of the event by initially developing their tree climbing skills, then moved their focus to camp-craft cooking skills, tent construction and how to burn the perfect marshmallow. The group spent many hours discussing world problems, yet solving none, star gazing and truly developing friendships. After a surprisingly solid sleep by most, the participants completed a 14.5 Km walk to Hall, some of whom scaled One-tree Hill to take in the spectacular view of Northern Canberra.

From here, participants will look at planning their own group journeys, hiking or otherwise, whilst completing their service (volunteering / community service), physical recreation (sport) and developing new skills, which are all components of the Duke of Edinburgh program.

St John Paul II College is a registered Award Unit to deliver the Duke of Edinburgh program. All students or parents interested in having their child participate in the program can contact Mr. Pitt, the Award Unit leader at the College.

On Friday morning Mrs Li, Mrs Daley and Mr Robertson attended the Chinese Buddhist temple in Nicholls along with two JPC students, Eddie Kershaw and Fletcher Bean. We decided to welcome our neighbours, Chinese Buddhist nuns, to our JPC community with a hamper of fresh food from the JPC sustainable garden. Belinda Kelly, the JPC Head Cook, also prepared some wonderful food in the kitchen. 

This week we welcomed another Defence Student, Tara to our growing family.  She has moved from interstate – just in time to acclimatise to our Canberra winter!  Welcome Tara.

Next Term a small group of Year 7 and 8 Defence Students will be attending a Defence Students’ Integration Day at Birrigai – Tidbinbilla.  They will be meeting up with other schools from around Canberra and I am sure it will be an adventurous day with them all.

A reminder to book in for your parent teacher interviews if you haven't already done so. The PTO system is still accepting bookings for parent teacher interviews for the first week of Term 2 on Wednesday 27 April. Interviews are 5 minutes in duration from 4pm until 6.30pm on each day.

To access your login details, please go to https://bookings.parentteacheronline.com.au/Logon2.aspx?school=jjbvg and follow the attached instructions to have your PIN sent to your email address.

If you receive an error message when attempting to get your login details, or at any stage in the process have difficulties with the system, please contact the Office on 6163 4800.

Dear Parents/Guardians and Students,

We have two new Instrumental Tutors joining our ever-growing Instrumental Music Program in Term 2 at St John Paul II College.  We have a second Guitar tutor and also a Violin/Cello tutor. If yourself or your child is interested in lessons on either of these instruments, please contact myself at aronlyon@hotmail.com

Kind Regards

Aron Lyon

Head of Co-Curricular Music
St John Paul II College