This morning our Principal Catherine Rey, our College Captains Chloe and Finn and myself visited the Islamic School of Canberra in Weston. It was a great opportunity to support this Muslim community that continues to hurt from the tragic event that took place in Christchurch.

Our school Captains spoke well and presented a statement of support and a gift of plants to Ms Toni Brammall, the Acting Principal.

The gathering brought together all of the Islamic School Senior students and their teachers, along with Imam Adama Konda who spoke of the confidence he had for the future, in the knowledge that both schools identify with the values of Peace, Faith, Worship, Love and Respect.

The Islamic School of Canberra, its students, its staff and Islamic community acknowledge and find strength in the overwhelming support they have received from the Canberra community. It was great that our school was able to be a part of this support.

David Johns

Assistant Principal

On Wednesday, 20 March, the Year 10 House Leaders and Year 12 Leadership Team had the privilege of facilitating a Leadership Day for one of our Parish primary schools, Mother Teresa School. The aim of the day was to encourage Year 6 students to consider the meaning of leadership, to reflect on the qualities of leaders, and to plan how they might put their own skills and talents into action in the various portfolio positions they have nominated for as senior students.

Throughout the day, JPC leaders ran interactive sessions designed to generate discussion and reflection, all while having lots of fun building community relationships with this fantastic group of students. We were delighted by the enthusiasm they showed, and we had lots of fun sharing games, a great sausage sizzle, and some entertaining role plays with them over the course of the day.

We were honoured to be invited to lead this very significant day, and would like to thank Mrs. Anne Leet (REC), Mr. Craig Hart (Assistant Principal), and the Year 6 teachers at Mother Tersea for their invitation to be involved, and their trust of our team in leading the day. We thank our new Year 6 friends for being so willing to get involved during our day together, and look forward to seeing where 2019 will take our leadership colleagues at Mother Teresa.

Chloe McGovern and Finn Salisbury

College Captains

Dear Parents and Guardians,

As part of our ongoing commitment to further develop and improve practices at JPC, could you please complete the 10 question survey which will take approximately 5 mins of your time.

The survey is designed for us to gather data and statistics. We will then use this data to inform our practices at JPC.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CH3L8L3

The survey will be open for input until COB Monday the 25 March.

If you have any further question please email me.

Kind Regards

Mrs Chauntell McNamara
Leader of Pastoral Care and Student Wellbeing

Over the past two days JPC had the pleasure of hosting Try High Schools days for Year 6 students from numerous primary schools. The Year 6 students participated in variety of activities ranging from cooking, sports, science, music and drama. The students were able to engage and experience some of the wide variety of opportunities available at JPC. During these days a number of our Year 9 and 10 students volunteered their time to run these activities including school tours and answering questions from Year 6 students about their experiences at JPC. We are really proud of the efforts of these students and we wish to congratulate them for the way that they represented the school. Comments from students involved were overwhelming positive and we look forward to seeing them next year.

If you would like to keep up to date with current school events please follow the JPC facebook page or our website.

Thank you
Mr Paul Mckie and Mr A Segaran

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The 2019 National Assessment Program (NAPLAN) will take place in Week 3 and 4 of Term 2 for all students in Years 7 and 9.

Continuing on from last year, the test will be completed in a fully on-line format with each of the tests taking place in our Tech Hubs. It is imperative that students have their own earphones 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.

The exact schedule of the tests will be available on the Parent Information Page on Moodle by the end of Week 1, Term 2. As students will be rotating through the four Tech Hubs to complete the tests, they will only be completing one test per day unlike previous years where all students completed the tests in a central venue. To accommodate this, the testing period has been lengthened. It is envisaged that the testing will occur here at JPC from Tuesday 14 May through to Friday 24 May (inclusive).

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 that may interfere with these tests due to their important nature.

If you require further information about the tests or you feel that your child will not be able to participate in the testing program, please contact either of us via email, david.johns1@cg.catholic.edu.au or patrick.wood@cg.catholic.edu.au by Wednesday 27th March.

Further information is available on the NAPLAN website https://www.nap.edu.au/online-assessment

The NAPLAN online demonstration site can also be accessed from this link. We will be taking each of the year groups through this site prior to their completion of the tests.

David Johns (Assistant Principal)

Patrick Wood (Leader of Learning of Literacy, Numeracy, and Data)

On Friday the 15th of February (Week 6), JPC participated in the annual trek to Amaroo ovals for our Athletics Carnival. We were blessed with beautiful weather which enabled students to display all they had to offer with 12 new records on the day and the start of some new records with the addition of Triple Jump, High Jump and Discus to our event.

Lead by the Courage team of Tom and Codie, the leadership team and JPC students were able to raise $627 to contribute to the Caritas tally. Students were able to refresh themselves with some lemonade and pledge a courage goal creatively. The generosity of students toward this was admirable.

Thanks must go to everyone who made the day possible. This includes the Health and Physical Education staff who plan and prepare for the event, the office staff who complete a substantial amount of administration, the teachers who encourage, support and guide the students and parents who offer their support in a variety of ways. We were also supported by members of the community such as the Gungahlin Little Athletics club, who allowed us to borrow equipment in order to make our day a success.

The biggest thank you goes to the students who supported this event, through their participation, leadership, and sportsmanship.

And for the news you have all been waiting for……..

On Tuesday 19th March, two teams of girls from JPC travelled to Belconnen Basketball Stadium to compete in the SSACT basketball competition. Both teams competed admirably on the day and demonstrated fantastic sportsmanship both on and off the court.

The 7/8 team opened the day with a tough match against Lyneham High. All the girls competed outstandingly and played hard till the final siren. Our next match saw us go against a competitive Kingsford Smith High School team. In a back and forth game JPC pulled out the victory with a last second free throw. Overall, it was a superb effort from the girls who played exceptionally on the court and cheered loudly from the bench. Canberra high was up next but despite a huge effort they were just too strong. Our final game of the day was against St Francis Xavier and the girls came in incredibly motivated and played very well. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to get the win but the girls can hold their heads high, they played well and came together as a team, supporting one another, on and off the court.

The 9/10 team got off to a rocky start with illness and injury leaving us just 6 players before the start of the first game. Despite this, the girls came out strong against Melba Copeland putting up a 40-point win. This dominance was again displayed with another strong win against Canberra High. Our first challenge came against a very strong Lyneham High, who had similar dominant wins over their competition. In an incredible back and forth game, we ended at an 18-18 draw. With one game remaining and only the top seed moving on to face the best teams of South Canberra, we had to look at points for and against. The girls pushed the pace and played exceptionally, winning by 39. Counting back, we had scored 104 points more than our opponents, while Lyneham High managed 108, leaving us behind by 4 and in 2nd place. Overall, it was a fantastic day of basketball where the girls displayed remarkable play and teamwork and the whole team has a lot to be proud of.

A big thank you goes to all the girls who played on the day, to all the parents and guardians who organized to get the players to and from the venue and to Mr. O and Ms. Turner who helped me organize the day.

Mr. Duddy

On Saturday 16th March, music students from JPC performed at the St Michael’s Primary School fete. There were solos, duets and groups who performed on vocals, guitar and piano. I am incredibly proud of the efforts these students put in especially to perform on their weekend. They definitely made the JPC music program proud.

Miss Robinson

If a student needs to leave school during the day, they must bring a note that morning. They are to give this note to their classroom teacher at their departure time, then present themselves with the note at the student office to sign out.

If no note or email is provided, students must be signed out in person by a parent or carer. Where possible, early departure should only occur during Recess, Lunch or between Periods to avoid disturbance to other students.

Parents arriving during the day to collect students without prior notification will be asked to wait until Recess, Lunch or between Periods unless there is an emergency.

Student Absentee and Late or Partial Day Absence forms are available to download from the College website and Moodle.

The JPC Attendance policy sets out the requirements for Attendance and Absence reporting. The policy is available on the College website.

Please note that all bikes/scooters left at the end of the day will be locked overnight in the bike shed.

Students need to padlock their bikes/scooters and though we will ensure the bike sheds are locked during the day and overnight we will not be responsible for any bikes/scooters left in the shed.

Thank you

The Assessment App no longer works, the company went out of business and did not inform us – we are investigating other methods of communicating assessment tasks to parents but in the meantime, this information is available on Moodle. We are trying to have the logo removed from our website and newsletter footer.

Thank you

For these interviews, we will again be using the internet-based booking system called Parent Teacher On-Line (PTO). It will save time for parents, staff and students! The system will be available to parents from 9am on Thursday 28 March.

If you did not receive the email with details on how to log on, please contact the College office.

We have a bike at the student office that has been with us since last Christmas. It came out of the bike shed one afternoon and no one has come to claim it. If you have lost a bike and can provide a description, please contact the student office immediately.

Are you a student over the age of 18 and interested in saving lives?

Contact Miss Turner to find out how! If you are already a donor within the JPC community (teacher, parent, aunty, friend etc), join our Red25 group by logging on to the Donate Blood website at www.donateblood.com.au , select Red25 Group and search for St John Paul II College Canberra.

Let’s increase our tally together!

We invite the JPC community to the Holy Spirit Parish Multicultural Feast later this month. It is a great night of delicious food and great entertainment.

See below for details.

See you there!