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Term 2 - Week 6

Senior Exams

Year 11 and 12 students will be completing their exams from next Thursday 14 June. A copy of the exam timetable is available on Moodle on the Senior Studies Page, and students were also issued with a hard copy for their reference. It is important that they familiarise themselves with the protocols and procedures around exams particularly in regard to the timing of their exams, their location and the equipment required. Students who would normal participate in an ASBA program will need to complete their exam on the scheduled day which may require re-scheduling their ASBA day.

 

Classes and ILT will be as normal for Tuesday 12 June and Wednesday 13 June prior to exams beginning. These days are excellent opportunities for students to meet with their teachers prior to their exams to clarify any concepts or aspects of their course that they are unsure of. Students are only expected to attend school when they have an exam, but are most welcome to remain at school to study. All students are expected to attend the Feedback lessons on Thursday 28 June and Friday 29 June as part of our BSSS hours requirements. Students who are absent from the feedback lessons will be required to explain their absences as per the usual procedure.

 

We wish the students much success in their exams.

 

Rachel Francis-Davies
Assistant Principal

Meet the Leaders of Courage

Emily Watt and Maximus Leskien

As Leaders of Courage, our role is to promote and acknowledge the athletic, academic and community achievements of St John Paul II College. One of our new initiatives is to highlight student achievements through the JPC Key Messages, which will be featured every 3 weeks. Our portfolio also gives us the opportunity to support the thriving Performing Arts program at the College, and the range of community sport initiatives offered throughout the year.  We are looking forward to continue working with the school community over the next 6 months, continuing to advocate student accomplishments involving strength, skill and courage.

Term 2, Week 6 Updates - Amazing Student Achievements

If you have noticed Chelsea Logan’s hair looking a little shorter than usual, that’s because at the begining of this year, Chelsea, from Year 9, completed the World’s Greatest Shave. She bravely shaved off her all of her beautiful hair to raise money for Cancer research. Well done Chelsea – the short hair looks great on you!

 

Ceinwyn Robens from Year 8 recently competed at the 2018 Australian Gymnastics Championships held at Hisense Arena in Melbourne. She came 5th overall and 2nd on uneven bars which she was really proud of!!

“Overall, I enjoyed the trip but as my mum said to my coach when I claimed the silver medals, “Are you happy?” My coach answered, “Coach never happy, but it is a start!” It was a great first experience and I wished it had never ended!” – Ceinwyn Robens

 

Last week, Nick Dale, Year 12, achieved his long-term goal of receiving his black belt in martial arts. Martial arts is a traditional system of combat practices, involving honour, traditions, fighting, personal development, culture, amongst other things.

“I’ve been doing martial arts for 6 years now, it’s been a goal of mine for a long time and … I did it.” – Nick Dale

 

Recently, our Year 12 Mock Trial team competed against Radford College, after having been defeated in an earlier trial. This round saw the JPC team take out the victory with their forceful arguments and careful preparation.

“We enjoying learning about the Law and everything that accompanies it, so it was an amazing experience to have our knowledge put to the test in a courtroom situation. We look forward to the next competition!” – Annie Jenkins

 

Know someone in our community who has achieved something remarkable?

Come and let us know so we can publicise your personal successes!

Stay tuned for more amazing student achievement announcements from the Leaders of Courage.

 

Emily Watt and Maximus Leskien
Leaders of Courage

Ration Challenge Update

There are currently over 65 million refugees, asylum seekers and displaced people worldwide, the highest figure since World War II. That’s 65 million people forced to flee their homes in order to escape conflict, disaster and other threats, to simply survive. The organisation Act for Peace aims to raise money and awareness for refugees by shining light on the conditions they are forced to live in after fleeing their country because of war, oppression, or other threats.

 

20 members of our school community will be standing in solidarity with these 65 million, by participating in Act for Peace’s Ration challenge in the coming weeks. During this week, the students and teachers involved will be eating the same rations as a Syrian refugee in a refugee camp in Jordan, just a small amount of rice, flour, lentils, chickpeas, beans, fish and oil (pictured below).

On Wednesday, week 6, members of this Ration Challenge team were interviewed for an upcoming story on WIN News. The exposure was an amazing opportunity to emphasise the rationale behind the Ration Challenge. That being to create awareness of the current global refugee crisis, and raise funds going towards these refugee’s food, water, medical aid, education and shelter.

 

In the past three weeks, the team has raised an amazing $3,878 – currently ranking 11th out of all Australian schools. This tally is over 75% of our original goal of $5,000, which is outstanding for such a small group. The Ration Challenge team are incredibly excited for the coming weeks of this already fruitful campaign, and will keep you updated right here, so stay tuned!

Any and all donations are greatly appreciated and allow us to recognize and help regain these refugee’s basic human rights. For more information and any donations, CLICK HERE

 

Thank you for all of your continuous support! $5,000 here we come!

 

Hugh Dawson & Raghav Sharma
Leaders of Justice

 

On behalf of The Ration Challenge Team

St Vincent De Paul CEO Sleep-out

On Thursday the 21st of June, St Vincent De Paul will be holding their annual CEO Sleep-out. This event has raised valuable funds and awareness for the homeless and vulnerable in our community. Our Social Justice Group runs their very own JPC Sleep-out to partner with the St Vincent De Paul event and to support Mrs Rey who does the Sleep-out as a CEO.

 

Using only their clothes, a warm sleeping bag, and a couple of cardboard boxes, students will simulate homelessness and raise money for a good cause. Storage King Mitchell and Storage King Belconnen are generously providing 150 boxes for the students to sleep in on the night.

 

Participants will be asked to raise funds from their friends and family in an attempt to break last year’s figure. All of the students fundraising will go towards Mrs Rey’s fundraising tally. If you would like to support Mrs Rey, you can donate HERE

Sense and Sensibility at the Canberra Theatre

Kate Hamill’s sparkling adaptation of Sense and Sensibility is described as “Jane Austen on theatrical steroids” – how could we not attend? Jane Austen’s masterpiece is a precision guided literary missile of wit and warmth in the hands of the State Theatre Company Ensemble (South Australia). The show ran for 150mins including an interval. This cross-curricular experience offered to Drama and Senior Literature students, was an opportunity to not only see a classic text adapted for a modern audience on stage, but also participate in a Question and Answer session with the actors following the performance.

The play opened with rollerskates, and feathered hats to rival the 2018 MET Ball designs. The play explored gender expectations in a whirlwind of gossip between upper class society, who – of course – know better. To relieve the rising tension of the Dashwood ladies’ complicated love triangles were bird whistles, bicycles, classic love ballads and precisely choreographed sliding furniture to reinforce the chaos of the social expectations and reputation.

Students thoroughly enjoyed the performance and at times, roared with laughter at the unbelievable events which played out on stage. With polo games on rolled out turf, ukulele serenades and a raucous cat-fight played out under strobe-lighting, Sense and Sensibility’s themes are still relevant today. The 51 students who attended the excursion last Friday represented the College with pride.

 

Miss Keane and Mrs Harley

"Arts Up Front"

Senior Media

“In feature films, the director is God; in documentary films, God is the director” – Alfred Hitchcock


The Senior Media class have been focusing this semester on the nature and power that documentaries have over audiences, and the big questions that result from this power. Are documentaries just a form of propaganda? Do documentary filmmakers have responsibilities for telling the truth? Should audiences be made aware when mockumentaries are being shown to avoid being deceived? Our students have been examining the works of historic documentarians including Werner Herzog, Sheila Nevins and John Safran, and exploring how they represent reality, truth and humanity in their works. Currently, they are finishing up their own production plans and editing documentaries on someone they know in their lives that they admire. These works will be shown at the JPC Gallery Walk on 26th June in the Theatre until 5.00pm. We hope you can join us there!


For their first assessment piece, students were asked to create a small portfolio with short documentary pieces in different styles. There are some links below to their work:

 

Click here to see Laura Cantlie’s (Y11) poetic documentary about her garden:


“The Documentary “Here Comes the Sun” is a Poetic documentary. The aim of this documentary is to get people to appreciate the little things in life and to pay attention to thing we usually don’t pay attention to. [I hope to] send a message to the audience to not always focus on the big achievements in your life and the big purchases but rather to remember to appreciate the journey and to look at the little things and realise there is beauty in these as well.”


Click here to see Meg Grange (Y12) ‘mockumentary’ about her dog attacking a teddy bear:


“I chose to do a small part of an expository documentary mimicking the chase between a predator and prey with my dog and a stuffed toy. In the short clip a few visual techniques to match the story to the theme where used. A vignette filter over the entire video to frame the view and create a focal point. An adjusted the temperature to a lower setting making the video a cooler blue making the film more sinister, There is an ongoing tune going on in the background. For the voice-over narration of the story was spoken by Maximus Leskien one of the main elements of an expository documentary being the godlike voice.”

Senior Hospitality Rustic Italian Restaurant Night

Although competing with State of Origin on Wednesday 6th June, Restaurant 1021 was full to capacity! As usual the year 11 and 12 hospitality students were responsible for the smooth running of the evening, from menu to preparation, service and the all-important clean up. Zoe Toole made a stunning Sunset Mocktail to go with the olives & house made focaccia; Tom Mugridge an authentic Bruschetta, Gemma Guillot Ricotta Gnocchi with Mushroom, Thyme & finger lime; Eryn Benedictos Fresh Pappardelle Pasta with Lamb, Rosemary Ragu and Gremolata; and finally Aspen McMullen’s Tiramisu and Homemade biscotti with espresso coffee prepared by Zoe and Eryn. The students excelled themselves.

Particular mention to year 11 student Lachlan Richards (not even studying hospitality!), who volunteered his services and worked all day setting up the restaurant and all evening as Maitre de’ - he worked tirelessly and we owe him many, many hot chocolates!! Nights like this are not possible without the help and assistance of our wonderful JPC support staff.

 

First and foremost Megan Hadjuk for her calm back of house presence and Belinda Kelly for her beautiful ‘staging’ of the restaurant and Front of House experience. The canteen staff are always so willingly to pitch in and help over and above their normal duties, so big thanks in particular this time to Jono, Shaz, Steph and Ros. Many thanks to Natasha Brahman for the gorgeous invitations and menus. We are also very blessed to have such wonderful office staff, including Helen, Belinda, Sally’s, Liz, Jody, Anne and Kris who cheerfully help with bookings, and every other little detail. It is humbling and gratifying to work with such kind, generous people.

 

Our principal Catherine Rey is wonderfully supportive on such occasions and always stays behind to clean up, which is awesome. Finally, big thanks to JPC staff and parents who dined with us and supported our hospitality team – this gives such a boost to our hospitality students and means the world. Grazie!

 

Annie Daley
Hospitality Teacher

Sports News

ASC Cross Country

On Friday the 1st of June, over 60 JPC students attended the ASC Cross Country at Mt Stromlo. This is one of the biggest attendances we have had at an ASC Carnival this year.

 

It was such a windy day that even the gazebo couldn’t stay upright, therefore, we were really proud of the effort put in by the students.

 

Students who received a top 20 placing (top 5 in 12 years) will now proceed to the ACT Cross Country Championships. Congratulations to all students, in particular the below students who achieved highly on the day.

 

A special thankyou also goes to Mr Croker and Miss Greaney for assisting on the day.

 

Miss Turner

Table Tennis

Last Friday evening, Table Tennis ACT began using our gym for their community table tennis. James Milligan, MLA, member for Yerrabi, was present and opened the night officially. We had about 30 community members in attendance as well as one of our younger students, Kian Cox year 7 MA2.  They will also run it on Saturdays.

 

This is a wonderful link to the community and one which will keep growing, as the table tennis community around gungahlin has been wanting table tennis to expand up north.

 

TTACT has donated 5 tables for the JPC TT club and we now have 7 tables and over 70 members, and growing.

Touch Footy Finals Day

Our Girls….

 

It was a beautiful sunny Thursday and the 9/10 girls came out strong at the Touch final Gala Day. They had a tough game against Dara, having a successful first half, leading by 2-0 at half time. Unfortunately, Dara came out firing in the second half and the girls finished up with a draw. The girls displayed great team work and communication and they improved on this throughout the day. The girls also had difficult games again St Clare’s and Mackillop and unfortunately lost but gave it their best efforts while having fun on the field. The MVPs for the day were Mia McGovern who showed great leadership and put in 100% into each play, and Natalia Brankovic who had great insight into the game and offered her knowledge, as a new member of the ACT Rep team.  Congratulations to the girls on representing JPC with pride at what was a great day of sportsmanship and team work.


Mikayla Stevens

Our Boys...

 

With the AFL gala day requiring a few extra players, our boys team were left with 6 (no reserves for the whole day). Having said this, the boys dug deep and showed amazing courage all day. It was a gutsy 3 all draw with Dara to start the day. 5-3 wins over Eddies & Mackillop saw us finish 2nd. We took on 3rd placed eddies and came away with a 7-3 win to see a rematch with Dara again. 

 

The boys were down early but again rallied and leveled the scores at full time.  Dara managed to score first in drop off touch (golden point with 1 less player after each minute).


I cannot speak highly enough of the boys efforts! To play 5 games of touch with no reserves is a monster effort. 
Harry McLeod led the boys all day, JR Skinner showed his class, Ryan Lin was sleek on the sting, Ethan Small poked holes through the middle all day, Jackson Palombi was courageous carrying an injury and Gage King defended like a pro. 

 

If you do see or teach any of these boys, please congratulate them and commend them on their efforts!
 
Coach Boyle & Greaney

Defence News…..

Military Working Dog Day - June 7th

Yesterday was Military Working Dogs (MWD) Day, when we recognize the valuable contributions MWDs have made to the Australian Defence Force over the years. MWDs conduct a variety of tasks ranging from security and crime prevention; emergency response; protection of assets and personnel; and detecting explosive devices and narcotics.

 

Some interesting facts:

  • They have served with the ADF in Afghanistan, Iraq, Solomon Islands and East Timor.
  •  Last year DOD introduced the Canine Operational Service Medal to recognize the important contribution these MWDs make to Australia’s Defence.
  • Just like their human counterparts, MWD can get PTSD.  They can experience severe emotional trauma during deployment. They can also mourn the loss of their handler.
  • MWDs form a very strong bond with their handlers who are responsible for the daily care and welfare like cleaning kennels and feeding.
  • In the USA military dogs were either euthanized or abandoned after their service, until “Robby’s Law” was passed in 2000.  This law allows the dogs to be adopted out, usually by their handler or their family.

We acknowledge the significant service and dedication of MWDs around the world and their handlers too.

 

Vicki Walsh
DTM

QKr! Update

As of June 6th some of the older versions of the Qkr app will no longer work, and families must update their app. If your version has stopped working, you will have to download the current version from the app store. 

If you continue to have problems, go to the QKr! website  https://qkr.mastercard.com/store/

Remember - Money added to your childs canteen account must be done before 10am, otherwise it will not show on their account until the next day.

Student Safety

There have been a number of incidents across Canberra recently where children have been approached by a stranger enticing them to their car or away from school grounds.

 

Although these incidents have been at primary schools, it is important to REMIND our students to be aware of their surroundings and where possible travel to and from school with someone else. Once studens have been dropped off at school in the morning they are to remain on school premises.

Swim Teacher Training 

(16 years + ) 9 July – Gold Creek

Aquatots Swim School will be running a Swim Australia qualifying course at Gold Creek on 9/7/18. This course is an internationally recognised qualification to teach children how to swim and survive.

 

This course is available for children 16 years or older and is a great stepping stone to gain employment in a job that requires commitment and a huge amount of responsibility.

 

To find out more information or to book please email course.aquatots@gmail.com

Mental Health Issues and Young People: FREE Parenting Forum

Carers ACT is hosting a unique opportunity for parents, carers and friends to learn how to recognise the warning signs and better understand depression, suicide, eating disorders, deliberate self-harm and other mental health problems in young people. Mental illness in our youth – often known as the ‘invisible disease’ - is growing at an alarming rate with many parents at a loss on how to deal with it. The speaker will be Dr Michael Carr-Gregg, one of Australia’s leading experts in parenting and child and adolescent mental health and founder of CanTeen for teenagers with cancer.  Bookings essential.

 

When: Tues 19 June 2018, 7-9pm, Hellenic Club, Woden
More info: Ph 6296 9900 or email mhcarers@carersact.org.au
Register : through Eventbrite http://bit.ly/2HIqSiy
Cost: free

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