Dear Parents and Carers,

An important aspect of our community is to provide opportunities for students to develop leadership skills. We work hard to ensure that there are multiple avenues for this to occur.

Our House system encourages leadership in all students by bringing together small groups of students across all year levels in their Pastoral Care groups. This generates leadership opportunities at many levels, whether it be taking on particular roles within the group or leading one-off initiatives, such as working bees to develop themed resources for carnivals or a charity fund-raising effort in their PC.

In each House, Year 11 House Captains are elected each year. They play a significant role in supporting the students and staff in their House through the organisation of House events and activities. A recent example of this was the organisation and running of our Ash Wednesday liturgies, which took place in each House. They are particularly to the fore at the Swimming and Athletic Carnivals, where they work directly with the students to encourage participation and House spirit.

Individual class groups often take on leadership opportunities as well. An example this week was the work done by our Senior Hospitality class and our Year 10 Youth Ministry classes in the organisation of the afternoon for our Grandparents. The Hospitality class worked with the Canteen team to prepare and serve a beautiful afternoon tea and the Youth Ministry classes prepared a video, featuring many students and staff talking about what they love about their grandparents and how they value them. It was a heart-warming occasion!

Each year, at the Opening Mass, we commission all of our Year 12 students as leaders of the College. We expect them to be active in their leadership in diverse areas. These include role-modelling to the younger students the standards we expect with regard to behaviour and academic effort, mentoring younger students and providing support to them in their PC group where required, possibly offering their time to tutor other students and actively supporting College initiatives such as our fund-raising during Lent for Caritas.

Our Year 12 College Leadership Team is elected from the senior cohort and staff. They take on a special role in terms of leadership. They represent the College on formal occasions such as Opening Masses at our other Catholic Colleges; they initiate events and activities to progress College priorities and, most importantly, they seek to provide a voice to the student body and to influence and support them.

This year, the College Leadership Team is running each of our whole-school assemblies. The one held last week was a wonderful example of the work the team does and the influence it can exert. The prayer was led by Drexel House leaders to educate the whole school body on the exemplary qualities of their patron Katharine Drexel and the inspiration that we can derive from her. In each subsequent assembly, the prayer will be led by students from the other Houses in the same manner. Our College Captains, Lachlan Harrop and Angela Odoemena, spoke of their aspirations for the year and championed upcoming events such as the Athletics Carnival and our Peace Captains, Hannah Wallis and Isaac Foster, launched the fund-raising appeal for Caritas – our Lenten project.

The important messages conveyed in a student-run assembly have far greater impact than if a teacher were to voice the same messages. All of the students showed their appreciation for the leaders through the respect and attention they accorded them. The subsequent attendance at the Athletics Carnival on Friday of last week was an improvement on the attendance that we had at the Swimming Carnival earlier in the year – a great achievement!

I recommend to you the article by Lachlan and Angela in this week’s Key Messages where they tell you themselves their aspirations for the year and the work they are doing.

Catherine Rey

As a student leadership team, we are making steady progress in our aspirations for the year. 

One of our focuses is to cultivate and reignite the JPC community spirit. Most prominently this means putting our efforts into making the spirit cup a bigger part of school life. This first term, we have heavily encouraged students to get involved in all aspects of community events. We already see massive cooperation school-wide.

Guided by the Peace Leaders, we aim to promote a friendly rivalry that encourages students to donate to Project Compassion. This is seen through our new initiative - the Caritas Cup. The house group with the highest amount of donations and participation in Caritas events will take home glory, plus points towards the overall Spirit cup announced at the end of the year. 

Our inaugural Multicultural and First Nation’s leader, Hayley Silcock, has already begun working with different groups of our community in order to provide them with a voice to change. She has already begun constructing a foundation for the role in order to improve life at JPC for all. 

Working closely with the house captains and the Youth Ministry team has been integral to our success this first term. We had the privilege of visiting the Year 10 Youth Ministry class to discuss the work of Project Compassion, the importance of Caritas, our vision and our ability to impact. We got the inside scoop on the well-thought-out fundraising events the students were planning over the coming weeks; guess the lolly jar, jersey day, bake sales and more.

As a leadership team, we have spent time getting to know some of the students in the school by assisting at the BBQ fundraiser and reaching out within our PC and mentoring groups. We have plans to celebrate multiculturalism during harmony week and participate in Relay for life over the remainder of the term. We plan to explore incentives to get students interacting with each other across year groups through peer mentoring and common interests such as book swaps in the coming term, but also to educate and raise awareness on current matters in the world.

Thank you!

Lachlan Harrop, VT & Angela Odoemena, MA
College Captains

Hello, my name is Liam, and I am a new staff member of JPC in 2023. I am a member of Kennedy house where I mentor Kennedy 06 where I currently teach in the RE faculty, but I am also qualified in History. I am new to Canberra having recently moved from Sydney’s Northern Beaches where I grew up my entire life.

I am excited to be starting my first full-time teaching job here at JPC and am looking forward to getting to know the school and its many wonderful people including the staff and students.

I enjoy a variety of things from playing sports like Baseball, Basketball and Cricket to Music where I played the Trumpet for many years when I was at school. I am very passionate about History and enjoy exploring and travelling and much more.

I am looking forward to the year ahead and the chance to meet and further explore Canberra and JPC.

Liam Taylor

Term 1 Fees are due Friday 17 March, and payment is to be made via BPay.

QKR will no longer be available for payment of school fees, effective Friday 17 March. Please forward future payments via Bpay. Bpay details are noted on your Fee Statement.

Thank you

The first rehearsal saw the raw talent of the cast and band by learning a four-part harmony in approximately 15 minutes. Imagine what we will be able to master by August! As the whole cast is responsible for character development and success of the production, it is important to have group cohesion and trust. This week’s rehearsals saw students eagerly participate in an active script read, develop characters, and even block the opening scene.

All involved are excited and take their commitment to this show seriously. The inclusivity and vitality of the cast is commendable, with students already making the crew proud.

We are also inviting JPC family businesses who may be interested in sponsoring the production. Sponsorship options or packages are available, and as a friend of the show, we would like to offer you rewards in recognition of your gift. Email Mrs Chauntell Macnamara for information - Chauntell.Macnamara@cg.catholic.edu.au

Show shirt orders can be made via QKR for cast and band members.

Time to get ya’ head in the game, Wildcats!

Mrs Sarah Smith
Director of “High School Musical”

Athletics Carnival

Our Athletics carnival on Friday 10 March was a fantastic day! Some incredible team spirit on show, great performances, brilliant participation, and incredible records broken. We added in a couple of extra events this year so there are more new records than usual which gave us even more reason to celebrate our athletes.

When the students arrived at the oval it was like a sea of colour flowing in, it was so awesome to see everyone dressed up in their house colours and themes. Our dress up winners were Hayley Silcock and Liliana Beckett who won the best dressed students as well as the ever creative Mrs Smith who took the glittery and gold victory for the teachers in both carnivals. Huge congratulations to you all – don’t forget to collect your prize from the front office.

It was such a busy day that we didn’t manage to get the final results on Friday so this is a world exclusive?

The final positions for the carnival are:

Mrs. Danni Jewell
Sports Coordinator
Teacher of PE/HPE, Photography & Media
Ferré House

ASC Touch

On Tuesday 14^th March Mr Maloney and I took 6 teams of JPC students to the ASC Touch competition. This competition is a new addition to the ASC calendar and for a inaugral event it ran very smoothly with some amazing talent on show. Our teams had some tough matches as well as some very close matches, however overall it was a lot of fun (and a little bit hot!) . The students for the most part behaved very well, and worked incredibly hard on a hot day.  Both our Senior teams made it to the finals stage of the competition, with the Senior girls losing 4-6 to St Clares in the final!

From each competition a “super 6” allstars type team was selected and featured lots of our students including Lachlan Sharp, Luke Hewitt, Olivia Sharp, Indianna Farthing, Cooper Jenner, Dylan Penders. Congratulations!

Tuesday Tunes are held each week at lunch on a Tuesday.

Here is a sample of this week's performances.

Well Done Everyone!

The JPC Open Evening is at the end of this Month (Week 9 - 30 March 2023).

To make the evening successful, we need student helpers!

If you would like to Volunteer please complete the attached google form by Friday 24 March 2023.

Full details about the event are on the form.

Note - Band, Hospitality, Food Tech & High School Musical Students, please check with your teachers if you are required in those areas before completing the form below. High School Musical Leads will have their normal rehearsal until 5pm.

Volunteer Form - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeHTOMhG3...

If you have any questions, please either speak to Mrs Bramham or Mr Knowles.

Dear Parents & Carers,

If your child has volunteered to help at the Open Evening and has completed the google form to help on Open Night, Parents/Carers must complete the Permission form on QKR by Monday 27 March 2023.

• Qkr - Excursion & Events Permissions - 30.3.23 JPC Opening Evening Volunteers

Thank you

We’d like to welcome our new Piano tutor Elliot Kozary to St John Paul II College. Elliot is currently studying piano at the ANU school of music, specialising in jazz, though is also an accomplished classical pianist. We would like to encourage our students to take advantage of having Elliot tutoring in our school and enrol for lessons, to make the most of his expert tuition!

Please follow the below link to enrol now! 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf44I5Ty1-ovvP7-0EHj-eRbwtcjBAYp-mObW90R70L1NgDSQ/viewform

Elliot Kozary - Born in Newcastle, Elliot began learning piano in 2006 at the age of five and has never stopped since. Elliot studied both jazz and classical music until the age of 13 when he began studying classical piano under Andrew Chubb up until 2019 in which he completed his certificate of performance for piano with honours. Elliot has received multiple awards and scholarships from various eisteddfods for his playing, being awarded the smile scholarship from the Taree eisteddfod in 2015, 2016 and 2018. Elliot was fortunate enough to be able to perform with PhD Sally Walker in her “Twilight Musical Dialogues” concerts in 2019 alongside Soprano Miriam Allan. Most recently Elliot received the ANU Crompton Undergraduate Scholarship in 2021. Deciding to follow his passion for jazz, Elliot currently studies a Bachelor of Music majoring in jazz piano performance at the ANU School of Music.

Parish Newsletter

For the latest news Click here or you can view it on the Parish App or visit the website below.

The Murrumbateman Progress Association last week released a survey asking the community and children what they would like to see in the proposed major Category 1 Playground for Murrumbateman.  

Further information is provided on the MPA website (http://murrumbateman.org.au), including the cost benefit analysis of site locations, which may be useful to read before doing the survey. 

Survey: https://surveyhero.com/c/9jcphinp