Tuesday 18 October - Year 9 and 10 Defence Students AWM Excursion

Wednesday 19 October - ACT Brumbies 10's Gala Day

Friday 21 October - JPC Feast Day

As we enter term 4, I can never quite believe how fast the time flies!
I look back on all that has been achieved and can only marvel at all the things we pack into our weeks!

As the Integrated Maths and Science Coordinator, a huge highlight for me has been seeing our Year 7 group grow and mature. As part of our focus on the environment this semester we had the team from Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary team rangers visit us with a very special little furry guest!

The Mulligans Flat team has a vision to provide a safe haven, where a healthy box-gum woodland can thrive and ‘wilderness’ dominate. It will sustain a representative diversity of woodland plants and animals and inspire respect for, and understanding of the beauty, species and ecological processes of Australia’s woodlands. The Sanctuary will provide an excellent scientific setting for those studying woodlands and ecosystem restoration, and, through educational and eco-visitor opportunities, transform the perceptions and values of visitors to Canberra and the community of the Australian Capital Region.

Their vision and our teaching aligned beautifully, having the rangers come to us and describe what they are trying to achieve while letting the kids interact with the hand reared Bettong definitely enhanced their learning journey. The special up close and personal encounter with a Bettong, which is a native species that is currently being reintroduced with great success at Mulligans Flat, was a hands on interactive learning experience that brought the theory to reality!

Many thanks goes to the team from Mulligans Flat for coming out to visit and Mrs Harris for organising the opportunity.

We spoke to Year 10 students yesterday about the end of year celebrations that we will hold to mark this occasion.  This will be a significant JPC community celebration, with our foundation students reaching this milestone. We are looking forward to celebrating these events with students and their families.

You will have noticed that 30 November is the last day for Year 10 students this year.

Our celebrations will take place from early evening on that day.  They will be in the form of Mass, followed by the Year 10 Certificate Presentation and Awards Ceremony which will then be followed by the social event in the College Hall.

We envisage that the celebrations will begin at around 5pm but we will confirm that time with you. 

Our students will work together to plan and bring together the various elements of the evening.  Dress will be smart casual and appropriate for all three parts of the evening.

Catherine Rey

On Thursday our annual 4 Schools Day was held. This is a very positive community event, bringing together the four schools of the parish: Holy Spirit, Mother Teresa, Good Shepherd and St John Paul II College.  For the first time, the event was too large to be held at just one school. The students were split into year groups and went to one of the four schools for the day. Years 5 & 6 were at JPC with our Year 10 students, Years 3 & 4 were at Good Shepherd with our Year 9 students, Years 2 & 3 went to Holy Spirit with our Year 8 students, and the ELC and Year 1 students were at Mother Teresa with our Year 7 students. 

Logistically, this day seemed daunting, but it worked extremely well. Each school held a liturgy with the theme of Mercy and then the JPC students led the activities at each school. I received incredibly positive feedback from each of the principals about the wonderful leadership skills our students displayed, with great organisation of activities, encouragement, good humour and the ability to modify the instructions to suit the age of the students.  It was wonderful to see as I visited each school.

At JPC our visiting students enjoyed an orienteering activity and decorated beautiful tiles with our Mercy theme, which were then used to decorate a large cross. We will give one of these crosses to each of the schools as a memory of the day.

Needless to say, I was very proud! Congratulations to all staff and students involved.

Mrs Catherine Rey

Today our Year 9 students participated in a reflection day, allowing them an opportunity to respond to the experiences of their Refugee Immersion last term and to apply their understanding of empathy to the challenges facing our world today. The theme of the day was, “Who is my neighbour?”, taken from our focus scripture for this year in the story of The Good Samaritan. Students spent the morning reflecting on their year group community and the unique qualities that each individual brings to the group. They then linked these to their understanding of refugees as individuals with their own stories to share.

We explored resources from the recent United Nations High Commission for Refugees #withrefugees petition campaign, and students were then tasked with the challenge of creating our own #JPCwithrefugees campaign. We will be sharing the results of their work in coming weeks in our mission to make this hashtag go viral!

To finish the day, students shared a special affirmations session in their camp family groups. It was a privilege to work with Year 9 today and to hear their thoughtful responses to the immersion experience, and to see how this is shaping young people who are compassionate and courageous in raising their voices for justice. A special thanks to Miss Zorzi, Mrs. Atilemile and Mr. Wood for sharing the day with Year 9 today.

Mrs Nicola Edghill

Religious Education Coordinator

White Ribbon Australia is an organisation that not only campaigns for the elimination of violence against women and domestic violence, it is founded on the principle of respectful relationships. This term, JPC will employ this fundamental principle and not only recognise White Ribbon Day on Friday 25th November, but will engage with a variety of activities to foster respectful relationships with each other and, in turn, the wider community.

A group of students have self-nominated to be White Ribbon Leaders. These students, from Year 8 and 9, have demonstrated a consistent respect to themselves, peers and staff, and will work towards bettering positive relations within the school environment. Some of the White Ribbon Leaders have provided testimonies about the reasons for their wanting to be part of this cause within the school.

Brenton Gare believes, “that White Ribbon is about teaching boys and men about the roles they can play to prevent violence against women. White Ribbon can make males act as positive role models for changing the behaviours and attitudes that allow violence against women to occur” (Year 8, Maathai).

Bronte Froome says she “joined the White Ribbon campaign as I've seen first-hand the effect that violence has on a family and all surrounding people. Violence against women isn't just a husband harming a wife, it can be a male child harming a mother or parental figure, siblings against sibling. I am involved in this to really implement that fact” (Year 9, Kennedy).

Payton Askew wishes to be a White Ribbon Leader as, “I feel it is important to teach others that treating someone unfairly due to their gender is unacceptable. I feel as though unfair treatment due to gender is something that slips past too often in today's society so I would like to be able to make a difference to change that” (Year 8, Van Thuan).

Jasmine Kelley already loves “being a White Ribbon Leader because I can give others my knowledge about violence against women and how this is a cause that we need to put an end to. I also want to educate others about how serious this is and a real issue” (Year 8, Kennedy).

Michael Von Demleux as he believes that, “women's right is right, women violence is wrong and women's voice matters. I think that I can guild other to think the same or at least keep the same outlook” (Year 8, Vanier).

David Kirk remembers that, “when we were told about this leadership opportunity, I thought that this is great. We didn’t have to apply for it, but were given this opportunity because we have demonstrated, over our time at JPC, that we take this leadership role through our actions” (Year 9, Ferre).

Stephen Sisavath-Norman decided to join White Ribbon because, “I feel it is important for the younger generation to support the cause and learn from this. It is important to ensure that the younger generation is aware of what is happening around the world and especially in Australia. Domestic violence is tragic, and I believe it's important to make sure the younger generation know all this global issue. To stop domestic violence, we must start with the younger generation and teach them about it. I want to be able to look out for people and understand how this issue can be resolved” (Year 9, Ferre).

Ciel Georgievski believes that, “the White Ribbon campaign is highly important because male violence against women has become a very large issue in the widespread community.  Spreading awareness about this problem is very important, I believe this campaign will do this on a local level” (Year 8, Kennedy).

The White Ribbon Leaders are: Brenton Gare, Bronte Froome, Lachlan Richards, Finn Salisbury, Stephen Sisvath-Norman, Will Kirk, David Kirk, Luka Jadric, Ciel Georgevski, Jasmine Kelley, Michael Von Demleux, Payton Askew and Arthvr Puroh. Congratulations to these leaders who are already determined to pave the way for White Ribbon and wearing their badges with pride.

On Sunday 9th October, the JPC Stars Netball Team competed in the ACT and District Premier Teams Chamionships at Calwell. The team consisted of 8 players, Keeley Dunbar, Jorja Greenwood, Aimee Dawe, Claire Brooker, Chloe Thorpe, Chloe Whybrow, Eloise Groenveld and Isabel Henden. The girls represented the College and the Canberra Netball Association beautifully both on and off the court. 

The Stars went undefeated all day during the Round Robin games against TNA Royal Rebels, SCNA Canberra Girls Grammar School Sapphires and ANA Royals. They played in the final against TNA Royal Rebels and won 26-12. The JPC Stars are now the ACT and District Champions for their division for 2016. 

Congratulations to all the girls involved. 

Our amazing JPC cheerleaders competed at the ACT Cheercon Competition at the end of last term. Facing some very tough competition they came first in their division but more excitingly they came 10th overall for the whole day against all the other teams (most of whom are all-star clubs). This is a huge achievement for our Cheerleaders who are a young squad competing against teams who have very different circumstances.

The Cheer team will also be competing at the AASCF National Scholastic Championships in less than two weeks time and will be competing against high schools from all over Australia. This competition is regarded as the pinnacle of their competition year and all are really excited and ready to perform on the big stage. On behalf of our JPC community we would like to thank the hard work Belinda Dawson does with the squad and all of the work that happens behind the scenes to get the Cheerleaders into the competitions and doing so well. The squad also needs to be congratulated on their fantastic achievements already and we wish them all the best for their upcoming competitions.

Mr Nic Whatman

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Our Instrumental program continues to grow and offer first class instrumental music lessons to our students with some of the finest music tutors in Canberra. We are offering lessons in Guitar, Bass, Violin, Woodwind/Brass, Drums, Piano and Vocals.  We also offer pathways into our Band Program, giving students the opportunity to utilise their new skills gained from Instrumental Lessons. There are so many reasons to become involved in music, we strongly encourage your child to become a part of our fantastic program. Please click the link for “Expression of Interest Forms” https://www.jpc.act.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/2016-JPC-Expressions-of-Interest1.pdf

Music Australia:

“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.”

“All of this evidence for music’s extrinsic benefits make a strong case for music education, but should not overshadow the sheer joy people experience making music, nor the value of the artform itself.”

“I would teach children music, physics and philosophy; but more importantly music; for in the patterns of music and all the arts, are the keys to learning.” – Plato

Aron Lyon

Head of Instrumental/Co-Curricular Music

Gungahlin Bus Station Platform 1 Hibberson Street (stop ID 7002), will re-open from Monday 17 October 2016. The Stop is currently relocated on Gozzard Street near the Raiders Club, while construction on The Marketplace takes place. 

ACTION ask students and parents to please plan ahead and use NXTBUS to track real time of their awaited service.

A list of dedicated school services travelling through Gungahlin Marketplace are seen below. We would appreciate your assistance in circulating this information using your existing communications channels, so students and parents are aware of this return change.

• 808 – St Francis Xavier College

• 469 – Ngunnawal Primary, Gold Creek High School, Gold Creek Primary School and Holy Spirit Primary School

• 574 – Emmaus Christian School, Merici College and Daramalan College

• 618 – Brindabella Christian College and Lyneham High School

• 410 – St Francis Xavier College, Melba High School, Copland College and St Monica’s

• 808 – John Paul College

• 580 – Mother Theresa Primary School and Harrison Primary School

For further information or to view online timetables, please visit the Transport Canberra website.

A reminder to all parents and students that spray deodorants are not to be used on, or brought to the school premises. There are staff and students at the school who can react quite severely to these products shoud they come into contact with them. Roll on deordorants are allowed to be brought to school. 

Thank you for your cooperation with this. 

Come and join in the fun at Gungahlin Little Athletics Centre. Fun and friendly athletics in a safe and enjoyable environment.

There’s something for everyone: running, jumping, throws, hurdles, walks.

Who: 4½ to 17 years; for the 2016/17 season we welcome athletes born between 1 Oct 1999 and 31 March 2012.

Season Dates:

The 2016/17 season commences on Saturday 15 October 2015 (season runs across Term 4 and Term 1 of school).
Weekly meets are held at Amaroo Oval, Horsepark Drive (behind Amaroo and Good Shepherd schools) on Saturday mornings from 8.55am to 11.30am.

Registration Details:

On-line registration is available through the ACT Little Athletics website - www.actlaa.org.au (register now).
Bring a copy of your on-line payment receipt along to a Registration / Come & Try Day to collect your registration pack.

Cost: Online registration costs - $120 = 1st child, $115 = 2nd child, $110 = 3rd child, $85 = 4th & subsequent children. Manual/paper registration add $15/athlete.

It’s easy to register so come and have some fun with us.

For more information please go to our website at www.gunlac.org.au, visit our Facebook page or email enquiries@gunlac.org.au