Dear Parents and Carers,

You will have followed in the press over the last few days news of the proposed new funding arrangements by the federal government. 

You may also have heard that they will impact negatively on Catholic schools in the ACT - amounting, in real terms, to serious funding cuts in the years to come.

Please see the letter and flyer below from the Director of the Catholic Education Office, Ross Fox, urging us all to attend a public meeting this Monday to voice our serious concerns at the impact these arrangements will have on our Catholic schools in the ACT if they go ahead.

The government is moving very quickly on this and it is most important that we show we are standing together to stop funding cuts to our Catholic schools.

I urge you to attend.

Catherine Rey

Open Day – Catholic Schools’ Week @ JPC

This week AGAIN proved to be a special opportunity to celebrate all that is wonderful about JPC during our Open Day yesterday. Hats off to the great number of willing students who hosted the many groups of prospective families and showed them around our beautiful school. We were able to showcase our hardworking and talented students, dedicated staff and fabulous facilities, including much of our state-of-the-art technology.

The school was buzzing with around 400 to 500 visitors touring classes during the day and viewing displays in each area last night. We shared the special aspects of JPC that set us apart from other schools – our Mentoring process that ensures meaningful individual attention to each student, and our teaching approaches - Growth Mindset, Collaborative Learning (Dweck, 2006) and Brain Based Learning (Jensen, 2008) which support students in working towards the ultimate goal of becoming self-directed learners.

An enormous thank you to all staff and students who were involved in our Open Day in any capacity – the synergy that comes from collaboration and teamwork was clearly evident in the atmosphere at JPC yesterday.

References:
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The new psychology of success. NY: Random House 
Jensen, E. (2008). Brain-based learning: The new paradigm of teaching. (2nd Ed).

Thousand Oaks, USA: SAGE Publications Inc.

Physics lecture – “Hunting Cosmic Explosions and Alien Life”

9 May at 5:50PM in the SFX Theatre

Next Tuesday, St Francis Xavier School will host Ryan Ridden, BSc (Hons), from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at ANU, who will present a summary of his research on developing a balloon based high altitude ultra-violet survey telescope. Ryan’s project allows him to explore a wide range of exciting phenomena that could shed light on the physics behind colossal explosions in space and the nature of exoplanet atmospheres – NOT TO BE MISSED!

Please contact to SFX via email or phone to register your interest in attending.

Mrs Jennifer Tually
Ferré House & Science Coordinator

NAPLAN will be held next week for all students in Years 7 and 9 - Tuesday May 9 to Thursday May 11 inclusive. The format of the tests has reverted to that of pencil and paper, rather than the proposed online format. The tests will be held in the College hall.

The exact schedule is now available on Moodle on the Parent Information page. It is important that students check the schedule when they are planning their classes and ILT for next week. As Year 9 students will be sitting the papers each morning it is very important that students arrive at school on time on these days.

In preparation for the tests could you please ensure that your son or daughter is equipped with the following items:

•  HB or 2B pencil
•  eraser
•  sharpener
•  water bottle
•  calculator – Thursday only
•  snack for break time

Monash Information Evening

Thursday, 18 May
6:30-8pm
QT Canberra

Find out everything you need to know about Monash - what you can study, scholarships, making the move to Melbourne plus accommodation options, and more!

For more information and to register: monash.edu/information-evenings

University of Wollongong Information Evening
Wednesday 24th May
Novotel Canberra.

Students can register their interest on UoW Events page.

AIME Year 9 and 10

On Friday the 5th of May, our year 9 and 10 students began their AIME journey for the year, participating in their first program day for 2017. This year we have joined a new group and the experience takes place at the University of Canberra (UC). Our students mingled with schools from across the north side of Canberra and met their mentors who are current uni students from UC.

The program enables a relationship to grow between the AIME mentor and the school mentee as they work together throughout the year, learning about identity and sharing the experience together. We started Day One with an engaging video by Jack Manning-Bancroft (AIME CEO) that gave the students a background about the history of AIME and the success stories of Indigenous Australians that help the student’s understand that they to, have the power to make a difference.

Student’s split into different groups, learning how to DJ, rap, zen-tangle, playing basketball and craft time. We are so lucky to be a part of the AIME program because it allows our students to learn about their culture in an exciting way and how they can play a big part in the growth and positive awareness surrounding Aboriginal success within our country.

Elle Boller

Aboriginal Contact Teacher

Dear Students and Parents/Guardians,

This term we are excited to offer students an opportunity to try out music in a number of different ways! We will be offering “Musical Tasters”!

They will give students an insight into all things musical. Some of these will include Instrumental Lesson Workshops, Computer Music/Beat Production, Live Sound Recording and Composition.

The Tasters will be one off lessons held during period 4 every Monday.

They will be advertised weekly and students will be able to apply by adding themselves to the application form that will be placed on the window of the performing arts area.

Next week on the 8th of May we will be featuring “Bass in your face”. This will involve learning basic bass skills, some demonstrations and video performances from some of the best bass players in the world.

Please get involved. If you have any questions please speak with myself or Sharon Robinson.

Kind Regards

Aron