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NAPLAN 2017

This year students in Years 7 and 9 will be completing their NAPLAN tests in an online format. Due to the change in format, the tests will be held over a two week period in May (8-19 inclusive).

 

Specific schedules for the tests and further information will be available to students and families early in Term 2. We are also hoping to run a familiarisation session with each of the year groups at the beginning of next term. Information for parents is available on the Moodle Parent Information Page, under the NAPLAN heading.

JPC

Athletic

Carnival

On Monday, we will be having our whole school JPC Athletics carnival. This is a compulsory event for all students. The event will be held at Amaroo Oval and parents an carers are more than welcome to attend. Students are expected to come to school as normal before walking across to Amaroo Oval. Students will be back in time for buses.


In the event of wet weather, please check the JPC social media pages as this will indicate if the carnival will go ahead. Please ensure that students bring some warm clothes, plenty of water and sunscreen.

UN

Youth Ambassador

 

Charlotte Foster

Dear students, parents and caregivers,


My name is Charlotte Foster and I am a Year 11 student at St John Paul II College. At the end of last year, I went through an extensive application process and was selected as one of twelve young Australians to participate in the United Nations Youth Pacific Project. This is a significant honour as I will be the only student representing the ACT, and of course, JPC!


I was interested in applying for the Pacific Project as I have a long-standing interest in the plight of developing nations. Following my participation in the JPC Year 9 Refugee Immersion camp, I was given a broader perspective of the conditions and everyday challenges people in developing countries face.  Upon MY return from the immersion, I took an interest in programs and organisations involved in the aid of the development of impoverished countries. This experience inspired me to apply for the UN Pacific Project.

The 2017 Pacific Project runs from the July 1-15 2017. Traveling to East Timor, we will learn about sustainable development and the challenges of international aid. We will also spend time working with local communities and grassroots organisations, including working closely with a partner school in Maliana, Encouragement House. The goal of the Project is to develop skills to engage with key issues that East Timor faces, and discuss how meaningful change can be created.

I hope to return home with the experience I have gained, and use it to take a larger role in the community. As part of my selection to this project, I am committed to work as a Youth Ambassador throughout the year, lead fundraising and awareness initiatives alongside other young Australians on our return from East Timor.

It is a privilege to represent my school community as a UN Youth Ambassador, and I am looking forward to sharing my experiences and the skills I will develop in this role with the students and staff at JPC. It is my hope that I can engage with other young people in our school to inspire them to learn more about the needs of others, and to contribute to developing a strong culture of social justice in our school.

As part of the UN’s non-profit model, I am in the process of working to raise the $6,500 that will allow me to pay for my expenses during this trip.  So far I have raised $1500.00.   If you are able to contribute I would really appreciate it.  I have created a Go Fund Me account that you can access through the link below.



Thank you for your support of this amazing opportunity.
Charlotte Foster

Drama Showcase Term 1

Wednesday afternoon saw the first of the Drama Showcases for this year. An enthusiastic and confident troop of Drama performed an assortment of student devised pieces.

 

Some students performed their Assessment pieces which were inspired by an array of music and displayed their well-rehearsed and refined movement to create a story using Laban’s eight effort actions, as studied through the Year 7 Drama course this term. Other students performed monologues and duologues of their own choosing and entertained the audiences with some thought-provoking pieces that were both comedic and angst filled.

 

Following the show, the actors and audience shared an informal ‘after-party’. The atmosphere was buzzing as many students soaked up their first successful performance at JPC.

 

A round of applause to Charlotte Butler, Keira Van Putten, Maddie Fry, Lalit Yadav, Aidan Montelene, Jackson Evans, khakan Ahmed, Ivy Keating, Darcie Crowther, Sophie Koirala, Grace Dwyer, Allyson Guerra, Amber telford, Olivia Henssen, Luciana Choik, Jade Rethman, Carla Thomson, Ashley Cremin, Olivia Uphill and Eva Kolak. Brie Pilicic performed and also was the MC for the Showcase.

 


An extra special mention to Xavier Schaffarczyk and Riley Puttock who backstage helping with set changes and supporting the actors. Members of the Tech Crew who assisted with backstage, lighting and sound were Tom Mugridge, Parker Owen, Daniel Cuneen and Nick Dale.

 

Chookas to all students involved! It is fabulous to see students accepting the various performance opportunities that JPC has to offer.

 

Miss Keane

Careers at JPC


I would like to introduce myself as the new Careers Advisor at JPC. I will be available to students each Friday periods 1,3,4 in the Careers Office which is located in the corridor near Mrs Francis-Davies and Mrs O’Meara’s offices.


One of my aims is to conduct career presentations on a Friday at lunchtime so that our students can make informed decisions about their own career pathways. We have already had a representative from Bond University and will have a representative from the Australian Catholic University this Friday.

 

If anyone in our community would like to share their career journey with our students I can be contacted via email:

 

Judith.mcdonald@cg.catholic.edu.au

or by phoning the front office on 6163 4800.


I am looking forward to working with our students.


Mrs Judy McDonald

ACU chatting to our Year 11 students

about what they have to offer on their various campuses.

A Night with JPC Stars

The students of St John Paul ll College would like to invite you all to an evening with JPC stars. Students from Y7-Y11 will be performing a combination of Music, Dance and Drama acts.

 

The showcase will be an extravaganza of talent. You can expect to see a huge variety of performances from solo pianists to rappers, from Irish dance to contemporary dance, as well as some fresh drama skits. The evening will begin at 4.30 pm in our beautiful Theatre and will finish at 6.30 pm, with a small intermission half way through; there will be some light refreshments served by our hospitality students.

 

Entry is free of charge and isn’t ticketed so come and support our students and be part of our Performing Arts community.

 

For more information regarding this evening please contact Faye Robertson Performing Arts Coordinator.


Mrs Faye Robertson

Music Excursion to Llewellyn Hall for Meet the Music

Since starting my teaching career this year at St John Paul II College I’ve been keeping an eye out for activites or events that I can could expose the music students to. After seeing the Canberra Symphony Orchestra advertised I thought it would a wonderful experience for the students to see a live orchestra . I would like to thank Faye Robertson and the students for accompanying me on this excursion. It was an absolute pleasure taking them. I look forward to our next one!


—Sharon Robinson (Music Teacher)

On Tuesday the 28th of March, the JPC Senior Concert Band and Year 7 Band travelled to Llewellyn Hall to participate in the Meet the Music program with the Canberra Symphony Orchestra.

 

Along with many other schools, we waited in anticipation for the concert to begin. The conductor, Jessica Cottis, travelled all the way from London to conduct for us! The orchestra played Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony in short segments, with Jessica stopping in between to give us a better understanding of what was happening in the music, what roles each instrument was playing and the story behind the sounds.

 

One surprising fact about Beethoven that we learned was that he rarely washed and was actually not a very nice person despite him being such a famous composer! The Pastoral Symphony was inspired by a walk that Beethoven took to gain inspiration. In it, you can hear birds twittering, a creek bubbling by and also a dramatic thunderstorm. The concert ended with some students coming up from the audience to try conducting.

 

They were very entertaining and helped us understand how tricky conducting can be! The day was very enjoyable and definitely reminded me of the amazing talent in Canberra Symphony Orchestra.


—Georgia Wallace

JPC Bands and Groups

Would your son or daughter like to join one of JPCs co-curricular music groups?

 

We have several bands and groups here at JPC, including:
                   • Concert Band
                   • Vocal Group
                   • Rock Bands
                   • Unplugged Bands
                   • Year 7 Band
                   • JPC Vocal Group and
                   • Production Crew


Each of these groups has been running during Term 1, and will continue in Term 2.  There is opportunity for your child to join one of these groups if interested. 


Groups usually get together during ILT time, at lunchtime or before school, and it is only $25 per term to be part of a music co-curricular group.

 

JPC also hires out instruments, at $50 per term, so you don’t have to rush out and buy a tuba straight away!

 

For further information, please email either

Sharon Robinson at sharon.robinson@cg.catholic.edu.au or

Aron Lyon at aronlyon@hotmail.com ,

 

or drop into the student office for a co-curricular music note.

Sustainable Technology

It has been our absolute pleasure to teach Sustainable Technology to our first group of year 8’s for the year!

 

Students have been busy little bee’s listening too podcasts about Sustainable concepts, reviewing those podcasts, creating their own and then reviewing each other’s. They have also created an upcycle project (which featured below!). We are beyond impressed with the calibre of the work that has been produced and have thoroughly enjoyed working as a team to combine technology and sustainability!

 

Remember! Reduce, Reuse and Recycle!

Sustainably yours:
Mrs McNamara & Mr Segaran

Indigenous News

As a school community, we participated in closing the gap, a different way this year.

 

National Close the Gap day was March 16th, our Close the Gap day was 30th March. We gathered in House groups to hear an Acknowledgement of Country and some interesting facts about what Close the Gap day means to Australians. Students viewed a short video from the Oxfam website which showed three Aboriginal people expressing how the benefits of medical and educational awareness has helped them continue their living culture as well as, live to an longer age.

 

Each student was then asked to fill in a speech bubble describing ‘What does Close the Gap means to me?’ which will be presented in a major collage in the Kanberri room in the weeks to come.

 

Year 7 and 8 AIME day

 

This year, The Youth Coalition of the ACT held a festival at Harrison School, on Friday 31 March.

 

The festival provides an opportunity for students to connect with a range of services and people who will be able to support them. Many youth programs and community services will be involved, as well as other schools, sporting groups and community groups. The AIME program invited our year 7 and 8 Indigenous students to go along. Students learn about Indigenous Success. For the Year 7 and 8 day they are offered a taste of what's to come. Students get a chance to see what’s on the horizon, as they move through to Year 9 & 10 and have the opportunity to be officially accredited as an AIME mentor. They also play with maths and science and start to instill the ideas that education and learning are 'cool'. This program also provides a really simple way for the students to get to know AIME, and spend some time in the future at a university campus so that the environment becomes ‘normal’ for them and no longer a foreign place. The idea of university study suddenly becomes a real option for the students, not something unobtainable as they may have previously thought.

 

I thank Annie Daley for taking our students and for enjoying the day with them as they learn and meet new people.


Below is a statement from the AIME founder, Jack Manning Bancroft.


“The identity which makes the kids different and is the reason why so many people think they are destined to fail, in fact comes from much deeper roots of success. 200+ years of dispossession and disadvantage is nothing compared to the 60,000 years of genius, resilience, character and life that pumps through their veins. We re-align the kids’ psychological framework around their association with their identity so they begin to see it as ‘a reason for success as opposed to an excuse for failure”. – Jack Manning Bancroft

 

Miss Elle Boller
Aboriginal Contact Teacher

Celebrating Success

Mikayla Cruz (Year 11) represented the ACT at the Australian Athletics Championships at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics Centre this week.

 

Mikayla had been training hard in the lead up to the competition with the goal firmly set in mind that she wanted to run PBs in her events.

 

On Monday her first event of the competition was the 100m. This is the first year that Mikayla has been selected in this event and after running a new PB time at the recent ACT Little Athletics State Championships, she knew she was in good form. Mikayla ran a new PB time of 13.11 beating her previous best time by a huge margin of 0.42 seconds.

 

This set her up well for her next event which was the 400m hurdles on Tuesday. This event is very tough with the sprint pace required as well as clearing all 10 flights of hurdles being extremely demanding on your legs. Mikayla ran very well over all the hurdles and finished with a new PB time of 1.10.99.

 

The next challenge was to combat the lactic acid build up in her legs so that she would be able to run well in her 200m. Wednesday in Sydney was a very hot and humid day, but Mikayla ran a good 200m race in a new PB time of 27.09. She was a little disappointed not to break through the 27 second mark. Mikayla was asked to stay back on Wednesday night and run the first leg of the U18 women’s 4 x 400m relay.

 

After a huge 3 days with 3 PBs in her individual events, Mikayla ran her heart out to give her team the best start she could. Although not an official time, it would appear that she ran her 400m leg in what would have been a PB time.

 

Mikayla is grateful for the support of all the staff and students at JPC who have encouraged her to achieve her best and is very proud of her achievements this week at Nationals running against the best athletes in Australia!

If you would like to share your success stories - sporting or academic please send them through to office.jpc@cg.catholic.edu.au

Change to Term 2 start date

Extra Holiday day!

 

Catholic Education has informed us that Term 2 2017 starts on

Wednesday 26th April 2017 instead Monday 24 April as previously advertised.

 

Enjoy!

Parent / Student/ Teacher Interviews

 Parent / Student / Teacher Interviews will take place on

Wednesday 5 April and Thursday 27 April.

Dear Parents,

Parent- Student - Teacher interviews will be held for Year 7 to Year 11 from 4.00pm to 6.30pm on 5/04/2017 & 27/04/2017.

 

Interviews will be of 5 minutes duration.  Should you require a longer appointment time, please contact the relevant teacher to arrange an alternative meeting time.

 

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 4pm on Wednesday 29 March..

Using this system you will be able to book the interview times that suit you best from any internet-connected computer. A computer will be available in the student office during school hours if you do not have internet access at home or elsewhere.

 

Please access the system as follows:
• Go to the school’s home page: 

https://www.jpc.act.edu.au/our-community/jpc-parents/pto-online/


• Click the PTO icon


• Click “Obtain PIN / Password” and enter your email address.  Your PIN will be emailed to you.  The email you receive will include a link that can be clicked on to log straight into PTO, bypassing the login screen.

 

Full instructions are provided to you after log in. Please note the following points:

 

• When you log on, the system displays only your own child/children. Bookings are made for individual parents/guardians, not for couples. Couples can however log on to the system simultaneously to coordinate bookings. If two parents/guardians wish to attend a single interview time slot, one parent/guardian should make the booking then both can attend.


• You will only see time slots that are available at the time you are using the system. As time slots are booked for teachers, those time slots are no longer displayed as available. PTO prevents double-booking of teachers or parents/guardians.


• Please note that for Year 7 and 8, bookings cannot be made with Term 1 and 2  Elective teachers, as they will not be continuing with their Term 1 elective and will not yet have started their Term 2 elective.


• When you have made all the bookings you require, you can download or email a report of your bookings in time order for printing. You can log in and change bookings any time up to 5.00pm the day before.


• If you see this symbol  displayed along side the class name, it means this teacher recommends that you book an interview.


• Other parents may be making bookings at the same time that you are using the system. It is possible, though unlikely, that a time slot is displayed to you as available, but is then booked by another parent shortly afterwards. If you then attempt to book this time slot it will not be available and a message will be displayed to indicate this.


• If you encounter any problems using PTO please contact the school office by phone on 6163 4800, or by email to office.jpc@cg.catholic.edu.au

Changes to Bus Stops

Does your child catch ACTION bus route 802, 804 or 808?

 

From next term the bus stop at Gungahlin Market Place will change


• 802 will leave from Platform 1 on

Gozzard Street
• 804 and 808 will arrive at Platform 2 on Gozzard Street

 

Check out the maps on the Action Bus School Services website for more information.

1021 Gungahlin Drive Nicholls ACT  |  Ph: (02) 6163 4800
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