27 June - 1 July - Year 10 Pathways Planning and Subject Interviews 

1 July - Term 2 Ends

18 July - Term 3 Begins

With only one week to go until the end of the semester, things certainly haven’t slowed down at JPC this week. From visits from our good friends at Fr. Peter Secondary College in Papua New Guinea to fundraising activities for Refugee Week to the Vinnies’ sleepout, our students have been able to reflect upon how fortunate they are but also how they can take action and make a contribution to improving situations for others facing significant challenges.

Next week will be another busy one. Year 10 students will be participating in Transition Week. The purpose of the week is for the students to consider their interests and capabilities and how these might play a part in their futures beyond school, and to gain knowledge about various industries, tertiary study options in Canberra and subject selection for Year 11. The need to consider a variety of career options will be vital for the current generation of students. According to a report released last year by the Foundation for Young Australians, today’s students may find themselves navigating five career changes and an average of 17 jobs. The report suggests that the three main factors that will influence work in the future are automation, with machines performing an increasing number of tasks; globalisation, where technology makes it possible for people all over the world to do jobs from remote locations; and collaboration, with more people engaging in flexible work arrangements with many employers, often at the same time. While some of the jobs of today will cease to exist, others are yet to be imagined.

Over the course of the week, activities will range from big picture ideas about careers to more specific information about the ACT Senior Secondary system and the course options available at JPC next year. Students will have the opportunity to examine aspects of their personality and how this may influence the types of careers that interest them or that they may be suited to through an online tool called My Career Match. As well as providing each student with a detailed report about possible career options, it also links to an online resume platform which we will work with too. Students have selected tertiary institutions to visit in the middle of the week to get a sense of what is available to them here in Canberra for future study. They will also listen to a range of guest speakers sharing their knowledge and experience about a variety of industries. The week will culminate in subject selection interviews for students who have indicated they are continuing at JPC next year. Information about how to book a time for these interviews via the PTO system will be emailed early next week. Interviews will take place on Friday 1 July between 8am and 3pm.

The full program for the week can be found on Moodle, along with the permission note for the excursions. There is also an electronic version of the Senior Studies Guide in the Transition Week section. Students who already have a copy of this will be given a sheet on Monday containing information about IT which was inadvertently omitted from the printed version.

Have a great weekend – keep warm!
Madeleine Harley

“I learnt that while you may start off well, it might not last”

JPC Sleepout Participant 2016

Last night 130 of our bravest students and staff embraced the challenge of experiencing homelessness for a night. We started off with a talk from Jaime, the Youth Liason Officer at St Vincent de Paul. She challenged our ideas and perceptions of homelessness, providing interesting statistics about the current situation for homeless people in Australia. Her knowledge, help and advice was invaluable and appreciated.

In a live cross to Mrs Rey at the CEO Sleepout at Questacon, students were able to share their reasons for participating. In addition, they were able to ask challenging questions to the Director of the Australian War Memorial Dr Brendan Nelson and CEO of Ernst and Young Todd Wills.

Afterwards, the Social Justice Committee organised many fun activities for the night such as trivia, poverty games, dodgeball and a lip sync battle (turned disco). To escape the rain, students had a movie night in the theatre with a crowd favourite, Zootopia.

Once the weather cleared, students took their boxes and cardboard and began to set up camp. The rain didn’t stay away for long and soon enough many of their shelters were soaked and collapsed! There were a few brave participants who were able to stay outside and face the challenge. Nonetheless, all students experienced the extreme conditions faced by homeless people on a nightly basis and showed great team spirit and determination. Well done to all!

After a short night, family members of participants came and shared a warm and delicious breakfast served by our fantastic team of chefs.

We would like to thank the Social Justice Committee for all their hard work in planning this event. A special thank you goes to Storage King in Mitchell for their generous donation of over 115 big moving boxes for the students to sleep in.

The students raised money for the St Vincent de Paul Society which contributed towards Mrs Rey’s CEO Sleep-out tally of currently over $9,000. Donations can still be made and if you would like to support this great cause you can use QKR app.

This week students at JPC have recognised Refugee Week with a variety of activities to respond to this year’s theme, “With courage let us all combine”. Each morning in PC, information about refugees and asylum seekers has been shared with the community, as well as a daily challenge to encourage students to research aspects of the refugee crisis.

In Religious Education, students have shared prayer focuses about refugees, exploring images and music that highlight the issues confronting refugees in 2016. They created posters in ILT this week on the theme of Refugee Week, and these will be displayed outside the Chapel. In today’s lessons students explored an interactive application called, “And then I was a refugee” produced by the Australian Red Cross. This app enables students to journey with a refugee, making the difficult choices that they are often confronted with. This app is available to all students to access via self-service in the general section, and is also free to download via iTunes.

This week also saw Mrs. Edghill undertake the Act for Peace Ration Challenge, an initiative that requires participants to live on the rations that Syrian refugees receive in camps in Turkey and Jordan. As part of the challenge, JPC generously offered to run a canteen fundraiser on Thursday where students could sample simple rice and lentil dishes. The profits from this came to $440, and along with the generous support of many JPC staff, students and families, enabled Mrs. Edghill to raise over $2300 in support of this worthy cause. A huge thank you to all who donated - it certainly helped to make the rations easier to swallow, and was another great example of how JPC is a community that puts its faith into action.

We were delighted to welcome friends of Fr Peter Secondary School in Papua New Guinea to the school on Tuesday this week.  We are establishing a relationship with Fr Peter Secondary School in Fatima in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea that we hope will eventually grow into a sister school relationship.

My family has a very close association with this school as my aunt and uncle, Peter and Leonie Meere, then a newly married young couple, went as missionaries to New Guinea in the late 1940s.  They worked there for 23 years, mostly in the Highlands around Mt Hagen.  During that time they established a Teacher Training College at Fatima and, whilst the Teacher Training College is now situated in Mt Hagen, an extensive 7-12 College is now situated on the site in Fatima.  My cousin Maria was adopted by Peter and Leonie as a baby when her birth family was unable to care for her.  She is now playing a significant role in facilitating the relationship between us.

Maria and Fr Clement Papa, then Chair of the Board of Fr Peter, visited us for the first time in 2014.  This time, they were accompanied by my sister Helen Bramanathan, who visited the school with Maria several years ago, and Tobias Yambe, a teacher at the school who is currently studying in Brisbane for his Master of Education. 

The visitors presented a history of the school to a whole school assembly and spent the day with us.  They loved talking with our school leaders over lunch, visiting classes and seeing our students in action.  Tobias was particularly impressed with the standard of thework that our students were completing and their maturity during Independent Learning Time.  Tobias is returning to PNG for a short holiday next week and he will take with him photos of the day and letters from our school to Fr Peter students.  We look forward to future developments with PNG!

Catherine Rey

World Youth Day (WYD) 2016 will take place in Krakow, Poland from July 25-31. It will be a week-long festival of faith with millions of youth from around the world joining Pope Francis for an encounter with Jesus.

It is a part of a tradition initiated by the late Pope John Paul II (now St John Paul II) for the Church to be with the youth, for the youth. Pope John Paul II described World Youth Day’s objective as: “…to make the person of Jesus the centre of the faith and life of every young person so that He may be their constant point of reference and also the inspiration of every initiative and commitment for the education of the new generations.”

Catholic Education in the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn sees this as a wonderful opportunity for spiritual and faith formation for young teachers and future leaders. To support this, the CE offered 12 teachers the opportunity to accompany the Archbishop on a pilgrimage through Poland prior to World Youth Day itself, attend WYD and then participate in a post WYD retreat in Vienna.

Miss Sarah Keane and Miss Elle Boller are representing St John Paul II College in Poland this year. In preparation for the journey they have organised a series of activities and events that involve all students and staff at the College during Week 10 of Term Two.

There will be extended PC each morning to engage in community activities for WYD promotion and awareness.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday each PC will participate in a WYD trivia quiz.

During PC on Wednesday, all groups will create prayers of intercessions. These completed prayers will be taken to Poland and offered up at the Official World Youth Day Mass led by Pope Francis.

Thursday is Polish Theme Day! Students and staff are invited to wear Red and White accessories (connecting to the Polish Flag), alongside a gold coin donation. These proceeds will be put towards the souvenirs to be exchanged with other pilgrims during the trip.

The canteen on Thursday will consist of Polish themed foods – YUM!

Thursday morning will also involve a whole school assembly beginning at 9am and Father Mark will be offering a blessing over Miss Keane and Miss Boller, as well as the prayers of intercession.

Parents and guardians are welcome to join us for our Assembly on Thursday (Week 10). Thank you for all of your support. Miss Keane and Miss Boller will return for classes in Week four, Term Three.

In week’s 9 and 10 of Term 2 and weeks 1 and 2 of Term 3 we will be holding Instrumental Teacher concerts, show casing the amazing array of talent we have at school with our Instrumental Tutors. These concerts will be held on Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes with numerous performances from all of our Instrumental staff and even some students involved in the program.  Please come along and enjoy, ask questions and become involved in a fantastic program featuring some of the best musical talent in the ACT.  Applications will be available at each performance, so get involved!!

Regards

Aron Lyon
Head of Co-Curricular Music
St John Paul II College
aronlyon@hotmail.com

Also see below for the amazing effect music has on the brain!