Over the course of this term, Year 11 and 12 Construction Pathways students have built 2 cupboards in the Justice wing ground floor corridor. These will be used for some much-needed storage as the school resources continue to grow. On Friday 7 June, students officially handed over the cupboards to Assistant Principal Mr Jacob Knowles, who has been a strong advocate for these projects.

Next semester, students will embark on their project, where they can more independently apply skills learned this term. I would like to thank Mr Grant Peelegrane for his time and patience in working with myself and the students, and Mr Abram Wilcox (student teacher) who has supported students with the continuation of this project over the last 4 weeks.

Miss Chloe McCallum
Leader of Learning (Technologies) and Wellbeing (Van Thuan)

Construction is an accredited course at St John Paul II College which is available to any year 11/12 student doing the tertiary/accredited package. I joined this course at the start of this year and until now this is my favourite class out of all my other classes. Construction is not just about constructing something, it’s more about learning skills and things like teamwork, planning, time management and a lot more interesting stuff. In the first week of this term, we had 2 days of incursion in which we started constructing two cupboards at school which we did with the help of our amazing teachers Miss Chloe McCallum (LLWB - Technologies) and Grant (Building Maintenance Officer), they were our supervisors and helped throughout the incursion which taught us a lot about leadership, supervision etc. We do practical a lot more than theory as they both are important but practical helps you gain more experience. For students who love building things or want to continue their life as a tradie or want to start an apprenticeship, I would recommend them to join this course.

Robinpreet Khosa, Year 11 Student

In my first year at JPC, I chose to do Construction Pathways because theory-only subjects sounded “boring” and I wanted practical subjects in my studies. Through this decision, I ended up making a very good choice as this subject does not just suit students considering going into the construction industry but also caters to students who are just interested in learning new skills, they never knew they would use in their life. As fun as construction can be, the other benefits are that the subject is mainly 70% prac-based assessment and is a suitable subject for students who might not be interested in their last 2 years being spent completing theory for the full 50 minutes. For example, 6 weeks ago we started to do our third assignment, an incursion that consisted of making cupboards for storage in the school, which has been quite enjoyable. The incursion had lots of room to learn as we learned “the first rule of construction” and bonded with friends while safely using dangerous equipment.

Joseph Garufi Del Castillio, Year 11 Student