To the community of St John Paul II College,

On Sunday, the Catholic Church begins the liturgical season of Advent that marks the beginning of the Church year. Advent typically spans four weeks, beginning on Sunday closest to November 30 and ending on December 24. It is a period of joyful anticipation and spiritual preparation for the celebration of the birth of Jesus at Christmas. The word "Advent" is derived from the Latin word "adventus," meaning "coming" or "arrival."

Traditionally, Advent is observed through the use of liturgical colours, with violet or purple being the predominant colour symbolizing penance and preparation. Advent wreaths, consisting of four candles (three purple and one pink), are commonly used to mark the weeks leading up to Christmas. Each candle represents a different aspect of the season, including hope, peace, joy, and love.

Throughout Advent, Catholics engage in prayers, scripture readings, and devotions to deepen their spiritual awareness and readiness for the celebration of Christmas. The liturgical texts and readings during this time highlight the prophetic announcements of the Old Testament and the fulfillment of those prophecies in the New Testament with the birth of Jesus.

An Advent Prayer for the Family

Heavenly Father,
your son, Jesus, is your greatest gift to us, a great sign of your love. Guide us as we strive to walk in that love together as a family this Advent.
As we prepare our hearts for Christmas, bring us closer to each other and to your son. Give us the grace and strength we need every day. Help us to always trust in you.
Come, Lord Jesus, lead all people closer to you. Come and dispel the darkness of our world with the light of your love. Amen.

This week has seen many celebrations for our community. On Monday we celebrated the many achievements of our Year 10 cohort. Congratulations to the students who were acknowledged through the following perpetual awards:

• Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award - Sebastian Hannemann
• ADF Future Innovators Award – Ella Burggraafff
• The Olympic Changemaker award - Gabriele Taurasi & Hamish Ellison
• Rotary Club of Gungahlin, St John Paul II College Justice Peace and Courage award for Citizenship, Leadership and Community Service– Neve O'Byrne

All images from the Mass and Awards will be sent to families as soon as possible

Tuesday evening the College celebrate the Year 12 Graduation Mass and Awards, followed by the Formal on Thursday night. Both were fantastic celebrations for our Year 12 graduates, who, as a cohrot, have displayed all of the attributes we seek to instill in our students.

Through the Mass and awards ceremony, we had an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the diverse range of skills and talents amongst the cohort. The following students were recipients of special awards that are presented to acknowledge their contributions to various areas of College life:

• BSSS Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander excellence award nominee – Mackenzie Lane
• BSSS Community Service Award nominee – Lachlan Harrop
• BSSS Individual Course Area Excellence Award nominee – Kian Cox
• Moira Najdecki Award for Academic Excellence – Kian Cox & Georgia Ellison
• ADF Long Tan Youth Leadership and Teamwork Award - Angela Odoemena
• ADF Future Innovators Award – Kian Cox
• Australia-China Friendship Society Achievement Award in Mandarin – Evan Barac
• Australia-China Friendship Society Most Proficient Student in Mandarin – Suru Sharma
• St John Paul II College Award for Justice – Pari Malhotra
• St John Paul II College Award for Peace - Angela Odoemena
• St John Paul II College award for Courage – Hannah Veitch

We would like to thank the many family members who joined us in these celebrations. Your presence acknowledges the importance of parents and guardians as the primary educators of our students.

This week we have also continued our Enrichment program for 2023 with a diverse range of activities (see below articles). Next week is the final week of school for students and we will take time to celebrate this with our social day next week to Big Splash followed by our Christmas Mass and Awards Ceremony on Friday 8 Dec (recipients of awards will be notified early next week).

As always, there have been many other wonderful things that have occurred at JPC over the last couple of weeks. We thank all of those involved in these activities and for the collective effort to make them a success.

Jacob Knowles
Assistant Principal – Development
Drexel and Mathieu House

Year 7: World Religions Tour                     

Year 7 Visited three Sacred spaces as a part of their learning about prayer, ritual and the experiential dimension of religion. This included time at Holy Spirit Catholic Church with insights on Catholicism and the life of a Catholic Priest (thank you Father Troy!). Time at Gungahlin Mosque, learning from Imam Hamza about Salat- 5 daily prayers, and some of the beliefs of Islam. And finally, time at the Hu Guo Bao En Temple in Nicholls, where students learned about Buddhism, with special insights from Ms Hu about life as a Buddhist.

Students enjoyed the day learning about different religious traditions through experience. Thank you to Father Troy Bobbin, Imam Hamza and Ms Hu for their contributions to this special learning experience!

YEAR 8: Catch the Wave and CANA: Justice, Peace and Courage

Year 8 students participated in two faith formation experiences run respectively by the Catholic Education CSYMA program and CANA from the Arch Diocese. Students reflected on their own spiritual journey up to this point in their lives through games, moments of reflection and input from key note speakers. We look forward to picking up on the themes of Justice, Peace and Courage with these students during their year 9 learning year.

Year 9: Service Learning

Year 9 had an enriching day spent serving the community on a range of activities. A third of the cohort went off site and contributed to Vinnies programs including Christmas Hamper sorting, clothing sorting, toy sorting and food sorting between sites in Braddon and Yarralumla. The students on site contributed to the JPC community by supporting teachers with pack down and prep for the 2024 school year, a lego sorting initiative for ‘Round About’ and support of the school grounds person, Grant Peelgrane.

Service learning is a wonderful opportunity for students to experience the rich tapestry of enacting Catholic Social Teaching, and the College values of Justice, Peace and Courage.

Cheryl Jones
LLWB Religious Education
Kennedy House

This week has been a busy enrichment period for the Science Faculty have hosted all grades in a row and had a great time.

Year 7 had an exciting excursion to the National Zoo and Aquarium linking to their biology unit of classification. Despite the weather, the students had a great time and got their steps up seeing the A to Z of animals – from Alligators to Zebra’s!

Year 8 enjoyed Questacon which wrapped up their first year completing Science as an individual subject. They explored Earth Science, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. It was hard to tell the most favourite between the Earthquake machine and the Giant slide.

Finally, Year 9 interacted with a number of key concepts they had learnt throughout the year including the periodic table and electricity. The highlight was a visit from the Australian Defence Force from the Australian Army explosives unit (The Joint Explosive Ordnance Support group), who brought two bomb robots, which the students were able to control as well as a number of related equipment – including a explosives protection suit.

Mrs Ruth Hill
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing – Science Faculty
Kennedy House

This week in Enrichment Year 7 had their wellbeing day on Monday. Students completed an important wellbeing survey to give us information on their wellbeing. Students then had wellbeing sessions on gratitude, conflict resolution and setting clear boundaries. Students also helped to clean up the local community with a ‘clean up JPC’ activity. The enriching day was topped off by an excellent Inaugural, mega, universal, amazing Year 7 sporting competition with all houses competing in Soccer, Basketball, Tug of War and some fun (and hot) relays. Great fun was had by all. Thanks to all of the students and teachers for their work on the day and congratulations to Van Thuan House and Mathieu House as the tied winners of the Mega Enrichment Sporting Competition.

Matt Caldow
Year 7 Wellbeing Leader

On Thursday Sam Clear led an Enrichment Day with our Year 9 cohort. Sam walked 15 600 km across South America and Europe in his Walk 4 Unity. He shared his incredible story with Year 9 and led three engaging sessions.

Session one was about perseverance, humility and embracing our passions. Session two was about conditions and communication and session three was about being empowered through trust and courage.

Mr Sam McCombe
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing
Maathai House – Year 9

Please ensure ALL outstanding fees are paid as a matter of urgency.

If you are paying on a fortnightly frequency, please check your payments are sufficient to cover your account balance by the end of 2023.

Thank you 

Finance Office

As part of House Enrichment Day the annual JPC Got Talent was held with a huge range of acts taking the stage. Performances included student bands, piano recitals, magicians, solo singers and dancers. Teachers were not to be outshone with acts including a comedy performance, vocal number and a top gun inspired guitar solo. A highlight however was the House Challenge which saw houses compete against each other for early 2024 Spirit Cup points. House performances were incredible with Barbie mashup dances, Bruno Mars impersonations, Queen tributes, a crowd pleasing Backstreet Boys number, Country Road renditions and a memorable 1^st December honouring to Mariah Carey in All I want for Christmas by winners Mathieu House.

Congratulations to all our wonderful acts, our tech crew who seamlessly transitioned between acts and the students for their house passion which contributed to such f a terrific afternoon.

Tom van de Waterbeemd
Acting Assistant Principal – Wellbeing & Community
Maathai and Van Thuan Houses

Term 4 2024 End date for students has changed. Students now finish on the 6 December and not the 16 December 2024

Are you Leaving JPC at the end of 2023?

Any items left in lost property at the end of the school year will either be donated or disposed of.

Make sure you check the lost property table and if you have lost any valuable items, go to the College office.

Students are emailed if items are handed in with clear labelling.

Thank you

Parish Newsletter

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

The Northside Community Service Summer School Holiday Program is free and open to anyone aged 12-25 years old! ??

• First Aid/CPR course and qualification ??
• Pool competition / Youth drop-in ??
• Bicycle workshop ?‍♀️?

**The First Aid/CPR course requires registration**

To register, please complete the Summer School Holiday Registration and Permission Form, and return it to the Northside Community Service Engagement Team ASAP by emailing it to events@northside.asn.au .

For more information, see attached or visit our website: School Holiday Program - Northside Community Service