We have now drawn Week 6 of Term One to a close and with the various public holidays in the next few weeks, the remainder of the term will seem to speed up even more. As the Coordinator for the Arts and for Van Thuan House, this week has included important events in our end of the College.

Courage Wing Opening

Thursday this week was a busy day at JPC with the official Courage Wing Opening. Archbishop Christopher Prowse celebrated with us and blessed our new building, marking the final installment of our building process. We welcomed many special guests to share in this significant event. Our liturgy was another fine example of a peace-filled celebration where our students, as always, conducted themselves with the utmost reverence and respect for the important emerging traditions of our College. We are very thankful for the tireless efforts of our staff who prepared this event including Mrs. Edghill, Mrs. Ball-Barnett and Mr. Lyon.

Courage Wing Spaces

The Arts Department includes the Visual Arts, Music, Drama, Dance and Media, all of which feature in this edition of Key Messages. The provision of the beautiful Courage Wing in 2016 has enabled us to really set up our Visual Arts department, including ceramics, photography and graphic design in a purpose-built, modern facility like no other I have worked in before. Year 8, 9 and 10 students studying Art this semester will be our first groups to test our ceramics facilities and we look forward to sharing some of our creations as we bring their work to fruition. We are also making great use of one of our new Tech Hubs, where students are exploring Arduino and Lego robotics equipment. We have a class learning Photography and Graphic Design, who will be a driving force in preparing our very first version of a College yearbook. Year 8 students are also enjoying an introduction to Media studies, through the exploration of Photography and Digital Stories.

Van Thuan

Van Thuan House along with Maathai, have been fortunate to establish our new house area upstairs in the Courage Wing space. Our beautiful, naturally lit classroom spaces have enabled us to create displays for our house area related to our themes for the year, focusing on the example of Hope set by our patron. Students have established their own hopes for the year, visually displaying them to make up our “Golden Brick Road” where each piece (person) is an important element in the road ahead.

C4 Concert

On Thursday evening, 22 of our students were part of a gala event involving musicians, singers and dancers from the combination of Catholic schools from our diocese. Our talented students were able to share their gifts with performers from other colleges, many having the opportunity to be mentored by senior students from the broader community of Catholic schools. There were a series of rehearsals leading up to the event and we commend the students for their dedication and the sharing of their gifts. Thanks also must be attributed to the committed organisation and support of these areas from our JPC Music and Dance teachers, Mrs. Gabrielle Ball-Barnett and Mrs. Faye Robertson.

It is fantastic to be part of our emerging Arts community at JPC where not only are students sharing their existing talents but are enjoying wonderful opportunities to find and explore their creative potential. You will also find an advertisement later in the Messages for our upcoming Year 7 Drama Showcase as well.

Please continue reading below, our community has a lot to share this week about a range of successes. I wish you a restful long weekend, hopefully with some moments of sunshine between the much needed showers of rain.

Lisa Plenty
Arts and Van Thuan Coordinator

On Wednesday St John Paul II College fielded both a Years 7/8 and a 9/10 boys team in the inaugural ACT Brumbies Rugby 7’s carnival. Both teams came up against some very strong competition, however played excellently and made it through to the grand final in each division. The 7/8 team came away with a strong victory in the final defeating Queanbeyan High School 30 – 5. In a closer game the 9/10 team had a 15 all draw against Radford College, however controversially on account that Radford scored the last try, they won the match. Both teams now will take on regional winners from across ACT and NSW in a carnival on May 4th. This is a fantastic effort from our students who came up against schools with many more students. Their efforts should be highly commended.

The students would also like to thank Miss Kelly and Mr. Allan for their assistance and hard work in organising the teams on the day.

Mr. Whatman

Year 7 Drama have been working extremely hard to create and perform pieces of theatre this term. The showcase will be a variety of assessment performances from the two Drama classes. Students have self-nominated to perform.

Please join us to support our budding actors as they dazzle you with their growing talents!

On Wednesday the 2nd of March, the year 7 students of John Paul College got on 3 buses, that were routed to Tathra! It was a long bus trip there so all of us had to keep ourselves entertained until we got to Cooma. At Cooma we all stopped for some recess, bathroom breaks and a stretch. Then it was time to get back on the buses to go to Tathra! Once everyone had reached Tathra everyone was smiling and glad to be off the bus! Then the teachers split the house groups into two groups of three houses. There was Kennedy, Ferré and Drexel in the cabins and Van Thuan, Vanier and Maathai went to the tents!

We were then split again into two groups, those two groups would go off and do a certain activity different from the others. My group went kayaking and raft building. The other group went to surf safety. I went kayaking first and it was so much fun, at first Tamsin and I couldn't turn but then we got the hang of it. After we had finished with our station we came together for afternoon tea, then swapped around. So I went raft building and the others went kayaking! The raft building was fun, my group had an interesting idea that at first I was doubting but in the end it looked like it could work. Our raft started to fall apart at one point but we kept it together and strong! Before the others came back we got some free time in the water, it was so much fun! Miss Keane got splashed and she was asking us whether it was noticeable or not! We all said no (But it was!)!! The group then caught a bus back to the cabins for some free time!

We then had dinner. It was DELICIOUS! We had lasagne and salad. For dessert we had ice cream and you could choose to put chocolate sauce, strawberry sauce or fruit on it! I chose chocolate sauce! After dinner we had a little bit of time for some playtime, we were then called back in and put into table groups! We played ultimate frisbee and the others played the shoe game! I started with ultimate frisbee, it got a bit frustrating but it was also really fun! After ultimate frisbee we swapped and in our small group we split up into two groups of seventeen, we then played the shoe game. Really the shoe game is where you throw a shoe at a drink bottle and whichever team hits it first wins! I hit it first go the first round and I hit about he third or fourth go the second round! My team won both times! We were then all sent back to the cabins to get changed into out PJ's! When we had our PJ's on we had to go sit back in our table groups for some fun activities! First we had to mime a scene from a movie, my group picked titanic! Next we played chubby bunny. The contestants were the the people with the biggest mouth and the smallest mouth in each house group! Kennedy won the smallest mouth chubby bunny and won the biggest mouth chubby bunny! The next activity was that you had to pick one person from each table group, that was good at endurance! I was picked for my table group, you had to hold you arms up in right angles, then the teachers changed it to arms straight palms down and then it was changed to arms straight palms to the wall! I wasn't finding it hard because I did ballet, after 6 minutes Mr. Robertson said that whoever was left won and we could stop! At first I thought is was a joke so I kept my arms how they were then I realised everyone had stopped! I just said that I won because I held them up the longest! Miss Keane just laughed. When I went back my group told me that everyone else was starting to shake but I wasn't moving at all! The last activity was that with our table group we had to hum any some we wanted and the table group that was in tune and in unison the best won! My table group sung the National Anthem and we won! When all the activities were finished we were sent back to go to bed! Once everyone was ready we went to bed and talked for a little bit, but then we got tired and went to bed!

On Thursday the 3rd of March, when everyone in the cabins had gotten up, everyone got changed we went outside for some free time! Soon it was time for breakfast there was toast and all types of cereal! After breakfast we went back to the cabins and packed up. We had to pack our daypack for the day and everything else went into the big pack. Everyone brought their big packs put and put the outside for later! We were then split back into out original groups from the day before! My group then went to surf safety and the other group went to kayaking and raft building. The walk to surf safety was beautiful! At surf safety we got a tour of the lifeguards work area, then we watched a small presentation about rips, different types of waves, how they are formed, first aid and about lifeguards. We learnt multiple things, one of them was that for a wave to break it needs to be half its size! So if there was a 2m wave it would break at 1m! Before we could go out on the beach we did a small performance about first aid! After the performance we went outside and did some relays! One of them was a flag relay, where we had to run on the sand and grab a tube if you didn't get one you were out! The other relay was where you had to run around to people in the water, they were both fun! After the relays we were aloud some free time in the ocean! We were aloud boogie boards, or we go without if we didn't want one! It was so much fun in the ocean!!!

We then walked back to the cabins to find, Van Thuan, Vanier and Maathai back and eating lunch! We then got lunch which was a sausage sandwich! They were so good! When everyone had finished lunch we split up the houses again and we swapped the place that we slept. So Van Thuan, Vanier and Maathai got the cabins and Kennedy, Ferré and Drexel got the tents. The first bus went to the ladies and all the way to the campsite we were singing random songs! When everyone was at the campsite we were given our tents. The tents were boiling hot!!! After we had changed into our swimmers with clothes over the top we came back out and started walking to a small river by the ocean. The girls got to have a swim first while the boys played on the sand, it was really nice in the water and there were a couple of sand mounds scattered everywhere! Then we swapped and the girls got changed! After everyone was changed we walked back to the camp along the beach! It was a beautiful site. When we got back we had dinner which was hamburgers, they were so good! For dessert we had custard and peaches, which I think is the best combination. After dinner we changed into our PJ's and went back to the place we ate. Then they started the campfire! As we were waiting for the fire to start, we sang funny campfire songs. One of them was 'I'm a 60's surfer' another was 'You can't rid'a my little red wagon' and the last one was 'Form Banana'! They were all crazy and fun. After we had done those we had to go looking for sticks longer than our arms. When we all found one, the teachers gave us a marshmallow and we all got to have toasted marshmallows! The sticks had to be longer than our arms so that we didn't burn ourselves! It was the first time I had ever had them and they are so good! The we got some hot chocolate, which was hotter than most people expected and a couple of people burnt their tongue! After the hot chocolate everyone cleaned their teeth and went to bed.

On Friday the 4th of March, everyone in the tents got up, packed up and went out for breakfast. For breakfast there was multiple cereals, Greek yoghurt, fruit and juice. After breakfast the big packs were put into a trailer so that they could be brought to the cabin to be put in the buses! Then we had to sweep the tents until they were really clean. Once all the tents were clean everyone took a piece of fruit and slice to have later for morning tea! Then we set of for our 6K hike. It was fun but super tiring, at one point it felt like the hill we were going up was vertical! But about half way through we stopped and got changed into our swimmers for the river crossing. The first part was alright because it only went up to our waists, but the second half the coast life staff said that it may go over our heads! So all the short people got their bags taken over in a boat. While we were waiting to go over some people had a water fight with Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt kicked water at us so we kicked water back at him and it turned into a water fight! Once we had crossed over we got changed and had a biscuit! Then we kept walking until we reached some steps and one of the coast life staff asked us to count how many steps there were. We ended up agreeing on 176 steps! When we were close to the end we stopped and look out across Moon Bay and it was gorgeous! After we had all seen it and heard the history about who used to live there (The Forde's) we kept on going until we reached the river we did our kayaking and raft building in! Some history about The Forde's is that they were farmers who owned the land and tried to grow crop but it didn't work! So they ended up selling their property to the Tathra National Park.

At the cabins we had a ham and salad roll for lunch with some fruit and cordial! Once we all finished our lunch we thanked the coast life staff and our teachers! Then we got on the bus for the long bus trip ahead of us! On the way back everyone was smiling and yawning. We stopped at Cooma again for a stretch and a bathroom break then we headed back onto the bus for the final trip home! As we were getting closer to JPC Mr. Robertson, was giving us examples of stories we need to write for our IH assessment. Then just as we were arriving Mr. Robertson started up a chant! It was about how awesome JPC is and that we were from mighty, mighty JPC! Once we stopped, all the students hopped off the bus and into their parents’ arms!

Camp was so much fun!

What would it mean if your teenager had the mindset and motivation to create a successful future?
For more information please go to http://tomorrowsyouth.com.au/

This Saturday, 12th March, from 12pm - 1pm

Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity & Culture

15 Blackall Street, Barton

St Patrick’s Day Address by the Irish-born minister at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church

Rev. David Campbell, readers from ACT Irish organisations and Catholic, Uniting and Anglican Churches,Traditional musicians and the Celtic Choir will be present, and the Irish and American Embassies and British High Commission will also be represented. 

There is ample free parking on-site at the Centre. Light refreshments to follow.