Last night we welcomed families to our Open Afternoon and Evening and St John Paul II College was recognised yet again as the innovative and forward-thinking educational institution that it is. Notwithstanding our pride in our educational philosophies and programs and our wonderful facilities, as I said to our visitors, our beautiful buildings are most impressive but it is actually our students and staff who are our greatest resources.

I was so proud of the large number of students who generously volunteered their time to show visitors around, chat with them and showcase their talents in a variety of areas. With very little training and guidance, they spoke very genuinely and appreciatively about their educational journey at JPC and were wonderful advocates for the College. Special mention must be made of our dance and music performers, as well as the exceptional hospitality we offered. Our indigenous group and hospitality classes inspired and lead by Mrs Annie Daley produced an array of sophisticated delicious morsels with an indigenous theme.

Without exception, visitors I spoke with expressed their admiration for our articulate and mature young people and the passion they showed for their College.  Despite the long day, our students also expressed their enjoyment at the opportunity to represent the College in such a way.  Thank you to all of our parents and carers who also put themselves out to facilitate the participation of our students.  I am well aware that, without your support, we would not have had the wonderful student representation that we had.

Our staff also gave well over and above in order to make the event a great success.  I feel so privileged to lead such a special community.  Families who visited spoke of the "vibe" of the College and the warm and welcoming atmosphere (despite the very inhospitable weather outside!).  Thank you all for your wonderful contributions.  We look forward to welcoming a new Year 7 group in 2019 as well as students in other year groups as a result of last night.

Next Thursday evening, we again open our doors, this time with the Senior School Expo where we will begin the significant journey into the Senior College with our Year 10 students.  We look forward to welcoming all of our Year 10 families to that evening as well as families from other schools who are seeking a very effective and rewarding senior College experience.  Our senior students will again be to the fore next Thursday evening, available  to talk with parents and Year 10 students about particular subjects and their experience with them.

Catherine Rey

A number of students have presented to first aid this term with nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, caused by stomach bugs. If your child is unwell, please do NOT send them to school and ensure they are excluded for a 24 hour period. This is a serious issue that puts fellow students and JPC staff at risk of infection.

We fully understand that it can be inconvenient to have a child home sick. However, in your child’s best interest, as well as the health of fellow students and staff, please keep them home until they have fully recovered. Students are still able to log into Moodle to access work from home.

If your child is unwell during the school day, they should firstly tell their teacher, who shall then send them to First Aid with a first aid card. If a student presents to First Aid during classtime without a teacher’s consent/card, they shall be sent back to class. Once in first aid, office staff will make decisions concerning care, first aid treatment, notification of parents, calling ambulance, etc.

Office staff have, on several occasions, been surprised by parents turning up to pick up their child who has contacted them directly saying that they feel unwell. Please strongly encourage your child to tell their teacher, rather than call/text/message home, if they are feeling ill, and office staff will be in touch with parents/carers as required.

We remind families that our First Aid rooms are not a sick bay or waiting room: although our office staff are fully trained in first aid, we do not have a trained nurse on staff, and therefore cannot give more than first aid to students.

In the best interest of your child’s health, as well as to minimise risk of infection and cross-contamination, if you are contacted by office staff informing you that your child needs to go home, they must be picked up as soon as possible. If you are more than half an hour travel time away from JPC, you will be required to organise for a responsible adult to pick up your child.

Of course, we will keep your child’s welfare as our top priority, and in an emergency or extraordinary situation, will do whatever is needed to care for your child.

Finally, thank you to our support staff in the office who care for students in first aid, including the unpleasant task of cleaning up vomit and sanitising the first aid rooms. Although an awful job, their cheerfulness and willingness to keep our College infection-free is appreciated.

Year 7 and 9 families are reminded that the 2018 National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) will take place in Week 3 (Tuesday 15 May- Friday 18 May).

As the tests will be completed in a fully on-line format students will be completing the tests in the Tech Hubs. They will only be completing 1 test per day, and will have their usual classes when not completing their tests. Students will be completing the tests in their House groups. A schedule for each House been distributed this week and it can also be found on the Moodle Parent Information page. Students in Years 7 and 9 have had the schedule and testing arrangements explained to them this week and have been shown the practice test format. The demonstration tests can be found at: http://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment/public-demonstration-site

It is imperative that students have their own earphones (unfortunately, blue tooth / wireless headphones will not be able to be used with the NAPLAN browser) when they are undertaking the tests as many of the instructions and explanations associated with the various papers are given through the testing platform rather than the supervising teacher.
This testing program provides vital information to schools and educational systems to support students with their learning and development.  We would ask that you please avoid scheduling appointments or make any other arrangements that will interfere with these tests.

On Thursday morning we welcomed JPC mums to celebrate breakfast and a special mass before school in recognition of Mothers’ Day this Sunday. It was a lovely opportunity to share a cup of coffee and celebrate the gift of mothers in our lives.

We wish all our JPC mothers and grandmothers a very special day this weekend – one where our students truly demonstrate the independence we encourage here at the College by looking after the household chores for the day!

Mrs. Nicola Edghill

One of the aims for the Drama curriculum this year was to offer more industry exposure and experiences to students. Term 1 concluded with an excursion to the Canberra Theatre to see A Town Named War Boy. These performance opportunities have continued this term as the Senior Drama class will be seeing Quiet Faith at the Canberra Theatre next week. However, seeing plays is only one industry experience offered to our Drama students. Industry exposure is even better!

In efforts to further inspire and motivate our Drama students, they have been able to work with famous Australian TV actor, Maria Angelica. In addition, Katie Cawthorne, Artistic Director of Canberra Youth Theatre, has led 3 one-hour expert workshops with the Senior Drama class. Katie studied the prestigious Directing Course at NIDA and has devised countless performances with her Theatre Company. Katie led the students through a series of advances workshops about Anne Bogarts’ Viewpoints which further challenged students’ learning and understanding of the Voice and Movement theories being studied. The transference from actor to director is a challenging mind shift, but our senior Drama students have demonstrated they are more than ready for the challenge – in fact, they are mastering it!

With the aim of offering students more industry exposure, students’ performance craft and confidence could expand as they create more unique and informed pieces of theatre both in class, and for assessment. The Year 9 and 10 Elective Drama class will also be putting this directorial mind shift into practice this term. Students have already been demonstrating their ability to take on the directorial role and become an expert of a specific theatrical tradition and teach the class. Now, students must apply different performance styles to create a uniquely devised piece of theatre using non-realistic performance conventions. The task will be challenging for students but will only help to extend their skillset and apply their industry exposure offered this year.

So many opportunities for Drama classes – but the Year 7 classes are not forgotten! As an introduction to Drama, Year 7 students experience a variety of performance styles and are tasked with the creation of their own performance! The term course concludes with a performance to an audience and the performances created are always entertaining.

Regardless of the year level students at JPC study Drama, we are working tirelessly to provide our students with relevant and ‘real world’ experiences in the Performance Industry. JPC continues to create working relationships with different theatre companies for the betterment of our students. Chookas!

Miss Sarah Keane and Miss Kat Allan
Drama Teachers

Ian joined the JPC teaching staff at the beginning of the year as the Leader of Learning (IHU) and Wellbeing in Maathai House. Ian has also recently been appointed as the College Careers Advisor and is available for appointments on Fridays (see details below).

Ian has a unique combination of experience in Education and Business. In Business, Ian has skills and experience in Alumni Relations, Public Relations, HR Management and Marketing.

Ian’s career in Education began as a teacher in the East End of London, and since that time he has held positions in the Tertiary, Secondary and Primary sectors in Australia.

The JPC Swimming carnival may have been completed in Term 1 but a group of amazing swimmers are continuing to represent JPC in the pool among the best swimmers in the ACT.

On Wednesday the 8th of May the ACT Swimming Championships were held at the AIS Swimming pool. The following students gained entry to this championship by placing within the top swimmers at the ASC Carnival.

Representing JPC were, Annabelle Raymond, Alexandra Revell, Victoria Revell, Emma Bramham, Banjo King and Thomas Guthrie. Congratulations on your achievements and thank you for representing JPC with pride. Thankyou also to the parents that continuously support these talented students and in particular, Mrs Revell for assisting with timekeeping on the day.

A special congratulation goes to Banjo and Thomas who placed in the top 4 in the following events:

Banjo King                                 Thomas Guthrie

4th 50m Freestyle                       3rd 200 IM

2nd 100 Backstroke                    2nd 100m Backstroke

2nd 50m Backstroke                   3rd 50m Backstroke

Throughout the match both sides were creating chances, such as Stephen Cerni with a 1 on 1 with he goalie only to sky it over the crossbar, and Marko Rathouski missing a chance by passing it by the keeper only for it to go out. We were only up by one when Alex Walsh made a brilliant run getting past two players and placed it in the opposite corner. Lyneham were a worthy opponent creating havoc for us with their strong attacking force, but JPC kept them out to secure the victory. Both teams played very well throughout the match, and now John Paul College will be going through to the next stage in the Bill Turner Cup.

On Thursday 10 May our Year 11 and Year 12 Mock Trial teams headed over to Hawker College for Round 1 of the ACT Schools Mock Trial Competition.

Year 11 Team

The First Trial Draw saw our Year 11 Team of Jarrod Koenig (1st Barrister), Steven Sisavath-Norman (2nd Barrister), Bronte Froome (3rd Barrister), Chloe Bartlett (witness)  and Finn Salisbury (stand-in witness), up against Burgmann. While the preparation of the team was somewhat disrupted due to two of our key witnesses, Jackson Quinn and Laura Cantlie, being absent from school, the team adjusted admirably, with Jarrod, Steven and Bronte displaying their talent for advocacy right from Jarrod’s first words. I would not want to be cross-examined by Steven any day of the week!

The team won the trial, however, based on the ‘secret points system’ (that also includes aspects such as the student’s presentation skills and how much they relied on notes etc) the team will not know whether they were judged the winner of the trial (for the purposes of the competition) until early next week.

Year 12 Team

Over in ‘Court 88’, Our Year 12 team of Charlotte Foster (1st Barrister), Anna-Thanh Ebdon (2nd Barrister), Cade Dunbar (3rd Barrister), Hannah Markmann (witness), Annie Jenkins (witness) Celeste Gibbs (Court Officer) and Sarina Dao (stand-by), found themselves up against Radford College – a group of girls that, as it turned out, had won the NSW Championships in 2017.

From quite early on in the Trial it was obvious that Radford had won the NSW Championships for a reason. Nevertheless, it was excellent to see our team compete so admirably. Charlotte matched-up very well with Radford’s very talented lead barrister and as Anna and Cade went about their respective interjections and cross-examinations, it was excellent to see the fortitude on display from all members of both teams. Cade’s cross-examination of Radford College’s School Captain (who was playing the part of one of the witnesses), was particularly intense and amusing, Cade thinking very well on his feet, despite the fact that, his witness proved to be a very cagey and powerful presence in her own right (and Counsel for Plaintiff were making multiple objections to Cade’s line of questioning!).

Radford, who were representing the Plaintiff, won the trial, and will most likely win on the points system. In providing his feedback at the end of the Trial, the Judge made particularly note of how impressed he was by the way in which Charlotte and the 1st Barrister for the Plaintiff, presented their arguments, including how well they responded to the numerous times he deliberately put them under pressure in the trial with a range of challenging questions.

Overall, all of our students represented our school in the way we would expect, enjoyed themselves a lot, and are already looking forward to the opportunity to take what they have learnt from Round 1 into Round 2 on 24 May. Special mention also to Cade and Finn who don’t study Legal Studies at JPC but fitted in so well.

As with the evolution of our other JPC teams across the school, you can see what JPC Mock Trial students will be able to do with another year of experience under their belt. Much potential.

Mr Woodman & Ms Zorzi

On Wednesday 9th May Isaiah Murray, Ayden Okely, Summer O’Brien and Ally Hampton enjoyed a day of goal-setting, trust exercises and bonding activities including meditation, drawing and outdoor games and also catching up with old friends.

In the last week of Term 1, 2018, 25 keen language students from JPC travelled to the ANU for a whole day dedicated to showcasing its formidable languages department. The ANU offers 27 languages and is perhaps the best university in Australia to study another language. The university explained the multitude of ways languages can be studied on a tertiary level; and the numerous benefits of studying another language has on the brain, employability, social well-being, etc. The excursion was attended by students in Years 10-12 studying French or Chinese, as well as Mr Battaglia & Mrs Li.

Students were free to choose from a program containing twenty 30-minute workshops on different languages, including the study of Linguistics, which was very much enjoyed by those who attended. The high school students were also able to ask questions to a panel of 5 young university students who had recently completed an overseas exchange, completing units of study in a foreign country to further their passion for languages. Students had lunch supplied and were able to mingle with over a 100 language students from about half a dozen schools from the Canberra region. At the end of the day, students were entertained by the ANU’s K-Pop group (Korean Pop Music Club).

It was a highly informative and valuable experience, leaving our senior students positive and invigorated to continue their studies of a second language at JPC and also at a tertiary level. Our students were reminded that studying another language well is a commitment but the rewards to this investment are immense and can lead to countless doors being opened in their future.

In December 2017, the ACT government announced funding of a free meningococcal ACWY vaccine for Year 10 students and a catch-up program for those aged 16 to 19 years. The catch-up program is available in 2018 only.

Adolescents aged 16 to 19 years can receive the vaccine as a catch-up dose through their GPs.

Meningococcal disease is an uncommon but serious disease and adolescents are at increased risk. In recent years, rates of invasive meningococcal disease caused by meningococcal W and meningococcal Y strains have increased across Australia.