To the community of St John Paul II College,

Tomorrow the Church celebrates the Feast Day of St Monica (Saturday 27 August), the mother of St Augustine and the patron saint of mothers and wives. This is extremely fitting as it was through her devotion to these roles that she was able to lead her husband and son to their conversion experiences. St Monica also knew suffering and there are many examples of this which is captured in the writings of St. Augustine. She suffered greatly under an ill-tempered husband, a ‘difficult’ mother-in-law and in raising Augustine who, as a young man, lived a reportedly public and immoral life. St Monica’s faith saw her not simply endure her life of suffering, but rather flourish as a result of it. As a result of this, her faith and devotion, she changed the lives of those around her and altered the history of the world.

A reflection from Franciscan Media captures the essence of St Monica in this way:

“Today, with Google searches, online shopping, text messages, tweets, and instant credit, we have little patience for things that take time. Likewise, we want instant answers to our prayers. Monica is a model of patience. Her long years of prayer, coupled with a strong, well-disciplined character, finally led to the conversion of her hot-tempered husband, her cantankerous mother-in-law and her brilliant but wayward son, Augustine.”

I recently listened to a speech delivered by Denzel Washington to the students of Dillard University back in 2015. He talked about how our successes often come on the back of others working in ways we may never see. He said:

“When I was young and I started to really make it as an actor, I came in, I talked to my mother, I said ‘Ma did you think that this was going to happen, I’m being so big and I’ll be able to take care of everybody and I can do this and I can do that’, and she said, ‘all right, stop it right there. Stop it right there. Stop it right there’.

She said ‘if you only knew, how many people have been praying for you. How many prayer groups we put together, how many prayer talks we gave, how many times we splashed you with holy water to save your sorry behind’.

She said, ‘Oh, you did it all by yourself, I’ll tell you what you can do by yourself: Go outside and get a mop and bucket and wash them windows – you can do that by yourself, superstar’.

There have been many wonderful things that have occurred at JPC over the last couple of weeks. Last week was Science Week with different activities led by our wonderful science teachers, earlier this week our Year 7’s had their annual camp to Tathra on the South coast and this week our community celebrated Book Week. The success of these events can only happen through the planning, preparation and support of students, staff and the wider community. We thank all of those involved in these activities for the collective effort to make them a success.

Jacob Knowles
Assistant Principal – Development

Year 12 Fees are due and payable by 22 September 2022.

Finance Team

Week 5 saw JPC celebrate Science Week. We had a number of activities throughout the week.

We started with a combination of citric acid, glucose and sodium bicarbonate…to make sherbet. We also utilised different densities of milk, colour and dishwashing liquid to create patterns.  These were examples of science activities that can be completed at home with household items.

Students worked with water the following days, firstly to try and overcome refraction and secondly to observe a big bang. The bang was meant to result from the reaction of sodium and water, however, it was too cold for the sodium to be reactive…so it was a fizz (until Summer!).

The week finished with an expert talk about turtles from Science teacher, Mr Rohan Holloway and Myrtle the “Eastern Long-neck”  turtle. There was also a guest turtle belonging to our staff member Ms Vivian Sun and her husband, which was a “box turtle”.  (We thanked them for visiting JPC). Students also go to use the flight simulator. 

Thank you for all the student participation. The science faculty look forward to the next opportunity to share our passion and excitement of Science.

Ruth Hill
Leader Learning and Wellbeing
Science Faculty | Kennedy House

This week our intrepid year 7 students travelled to the Bournda National Park and Kianinny Bush Cabins in Tathra for the Year 7 Camp. Students spent two nights on camp in either cabins or tents and engaged in a variety of activities to get to know each other in their house groups and build their relationships and teamwork skills. The camp also built students’ resilience, particularly for those camping on the second day when it poured rain for most of the day!

Students took part in a number of fun outdoor activities such as bushwalking, surf safety and swimming, team building activities, a night walk, monster paddleboarding, kayaking, building billy carts and the very popular flying fox. It was great to see everyone give their best and taking themselves out of their comfort zone. Students had a very beneficial and enjoyable time. I thank and commend the Year 7 students for their great attitude to camp and the way they represented JPC.

Thanks to all of the teachers (Ms Tually, Ms Gibson, Mr Battaglia, Ms Barnard, Mr McDonnell, Mr Charter, Ms Bignell, Ms Wright, Mr Cole, Ms O’Sullivan, Mr Carey-Ide, Ms Stockman, Ms Cusack and Mr Zucchetto) that went above and beyond in giving up their time and volunteering to supervise students on camp – especially to those teachers that had to sleep in wet tents!

Matt Caldow
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing (LLWB)
Year 7 Wellbeing and Drexel House

This week students participated in Book Week, with the theme of “Dreaming With Eyes Open”. Students created book marks and book covers, and participated in a fun Friday dress-up competition! It was great to see so many students engaging with reading and creating this week, and we look forward to your participation again next year.

A big shout out to our winners of competitions across the week: Annie Jones; Zara Pathan; Catherine David; and Genevieve Beckett.

Jessica Reid
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing—English Faculty, Drexel House

Key Dates:

• Monday 29 August – ASC Girls Basketball
• Wednesday 14 Sept – ACT Girls OzTag

Follow JPC.SPORT.ACT for all the current sporting information.

If you have any sporting news, email the college office.

ACT OZtag

On Tuesday the 16August, our 7/8s and 9/10 boys went out to compete in the ACT OZTAG at Lyneham.

Given the recent rainfall, all the boys took the field having only had one school-based training/trial…but you wouldn’t think that by looking at them.

The 7/8s were up against some well-drilled teams and continued to improve each game. Some natural athletes mixed in with some OZ tag specialists and some quick wingers with good hands showed some healthy interest, attitude and skill throughout the day.

While having only one win, their best showing was a gutsy close loss to the team that would go on to win the day, steered around the park by Quinn Truong and Dan ‘The Man’ Randall with some awesome tagging skills.

9/10s however had a more successful day out, going through the day undefeated to beat the arch Nemesis St Eddies in the final. The knowledge and skill of Yuri Hromrow, Pat Dawson and Harry Greenwood shone throughout the day, organising the plays, and wiggling their hips past all defenders. Harry Sawyer even managed to catch the ball occasionally.

All the boys should be commended for their sportsmanship that was shown to both players and officials of the day, with a special thank-you going to Luke Hewitt and Lachie Sharp for helping with the subs and warming up the 7/8s.

A great day with great success, and thank you for the effort of all involved.

Jake Maloney
Health and Physical Education Department

ACT Basketball Tournament

Tuesday tunes has been a huge hit this term with multiple student performances to keep the school entertained at lunch times. Thank you to all those students who performed as well as Aron Lyon who continues to support these students each and every week with their performances.

Sharon Robinson
Music teacher

JPC Careers Updates

• Don’t forget that we have amazing resources on our JPC Careers website https://jpc-careers.com/
• Also follow us on our social pages to get more up to date information - @JPCcareers on Instagram and Facebook.
• You can contact Ms Zorzi at careers.jpc@cg.catholic.edu.au

Department of Home Affairs Gap Year Program

John McGrath Auto Group – Apprenticeship Information Night

Women in Construction Pathways Program

Ms Teena Zorzi
Leader of Learning (Careers) and Wellbeing (Drexel House)

Parish Newsletter

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

World Education Program (WEP) has student exchange opportunities in 2023 for students in Years 9 & 10.

Exchange offers students a powerful experience of living as locals in another culture, going to a local school and becoming a member of a host family.

We firmly believe that the immersive experience of an exchange helps build inter-cultural understanding and tolerance between nations, which is ever more important!

The upcoming online information sessions (August 30 and September 14) is for Yr 9 & 10 students/parents. The online info sessions is a great way to help students work out whether student exchange is for them and whether WEP programs are what they are looking for. 

Contact:

Dr Erika Schwarze
NSW/ACT Manager 
World Education Program Australia Limited
PO Box 503, Jamison Centre, ACT 2614

Head Office: 479 Hampton Street, Hampton 3188,  Melbourne, Victoria
PO Box 270 Hampton VIC 3188, Melbourne Victoria

P - +61 (0) 3 9598 4733 in Australia only 1300 88 4733

E - erikaschwarze@wep.org.au

S - https://www.facebook.com/wepaustralia / https://instagram.com/wepaustralia