To the community of St John Paul II College,

Tomorrow the Catholic Church observes the Feast Day of St John Paul II (Saturday 22 October). In honour of this, today (Friday 21 October) we celebrated our annual Feast Day to reflect on our unique school identity, founded on the life and key teachings of St John Paul II. The day included many wonderful school activities including our Feast Day Mass led by his Grace Archbishop Christopher Prowse. As a community of faith, opportunities to come together for mass are extremely important as they help us to recall the key teachings expressed in what was a far-reaching life of service to the world.

St John Paul II was a man of faith, hope and love, and a bold and courageous leader. His appreciation for life grew from the suffering he endured as a young Polish man who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes, and he dedicated himself to uniting the world against the violation of human dignity in all its forms.

We find in the writings of St John Paul II’s his intense awe of God’s love for each of us. He also held such joyful hope for the young people of our world whom he saw as the designers of the future. These are so much a part of our college’s ongoing message to our students, through his words:

“Dear young people, my friends: be witnesses to the love of God, sowers of hope and builders of peace.”

Our College Prayer challenges us further to seek God and to hold strong to our faith as we navigate our lives:

“St John Paul II called us to open wide the doors to Christ, so that we can be people of justice, peace and courage in all that we do” and to “Guide us on our journeys, strengthening us to follow the example of our Patron as we seek to build your [God’s] kingdom here and now.”

Over the course of the next few days, I would encourage all members of our community to reflect on the life and enduring legacy that St John Paul II had on the world. I hope that you are connected with our various social media platforms which will also share some images of the wonderful activities that occurred during Feast Day.

There have also been many wonderful events that have occurred at JPC over the last week. Last week, our Senior Outdoor Ed class completed a two-day hike through the Namadgi National Park, our Bands performed at Floriade to a wonderfully receptive audience and the community supported the efforts of Soktober. As always, 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 and for the collective effort to make them a success.

Jacob Knowles
Assistant Principal – Development
Drexel and Mathieu House

Year 7 Information Night

This week and next week, JPC has been and will be fundraising for Socktober, an annual fundraiser for Catholic Mission.

Socktober is celebrated (unsurprisingly) in October and uses the combination of colourful socks and the world game of soccer for mostly schools and young people to grow in awareness of global poverty, and the Church’s missionary work across the globe.

On Wednesday 19 October, staff and Year 12 students participated in a (mostly) friendly game of soccer in the JPC gym, and the students hammered the teachers.

Over $200 was raised with more than 100 spectators, each of whom donated a gold coin to watch the epic game.

This year’s focus community for Socktober is the country of Ethiopia, just one of the countries most affected by the worsening food crisis in that part of the world.

In the particular community which is the focal point for this year’s Socktober, $77 can pay for food, medicine and care for farm animals; $117 can help to purchase a goat at the Deberety farm and $476 can provide scholarships for two children to attend the Lideta Catholic Cathedral school.

Next Friday, 28 October, students and staff are invited to wear their funkiest pair of socks for a small donation in PC. No uniform monitors will be patrolling the halls to give you detention for wearing the wrong socks, so get creative!!!

At lunch on the same day, we will hold a bake sale on the terrace and all goodies sold will go toward Socktober. Extra points for sock and soccer-themed snacks.

Get in touch with Ms. Doherty (Elisabeth.doherty@cg.catholic.edu.au) if you think you can contribute a tray of cakes or sweets on the day!

Thank you JPC for all your wonderful support for this important cause.

Our fundraising page is tinyurl.com/jpcsocktober and more information can be found at www.socktober.org.au.

Beth Doherty
Religious Education Faculty, Drexel House
Teacher of Religious Education

On Friday 14 October 2022, the JPC music groups and bands participated in an excursion to Floriade to perform their various musical talents! Everyone had a great time and enjoyed performing their songs that they have worked hard on all term.

A huge that you the Mrs Bramham, Mrs Johansen, Mr Veltri, Mrs Lyons and Ms Robinson for taking us on this excursion.

Annie Jones, Yr 9 Ferré

On Friday 14 October 2022 many of our JPC bands travelled to Floriade for the day. Each band performed pieces they had been preparing for the past few months and put on a show to remember.

They should be all be very proud!

We would like to thank Ms Robinson, Aron and Mr Veltri for cheering us all on.

The Justice Leaders

Last week, our outdoor education students went on a bushwalk adventure in Namadgi National Park. We journeyed through the wilderness from Honeysuckle creek to the Namadgi Visitor Centre via Mt Tennant! (that was a big climb!).

We also learnt the importance of living with the land and the Indigenous history and flora of the area. After 35km of walking, everyone was tired from a well-earned end of year trip for 2022.

A big thanks to Veronika McClusky and Yolandi Barnard for coming along too!!!

Mr. Adam McDonnell
Teacher – SOSE, English, Outdoor Education, PE

Our First Nations students along with their family members celebrated lunch to meet with Mr Chaydin Reid who is a teacher at JPC and a proud indigenous man.

Mr Reid took the opportunity to share his cultural stories and get to know the students. He will be a key point of contact for our First Nations students and their families this semester 

Thank you Mr Reid for organising the event.

Congratulations to Eva Kolak in Year 12 who has been accepted into Sydney Dance Company’s Pre-Professional Year for 2023. Sydney Dance Company is internationally renowned as one of Australia’s leading Contemporary Dance Companies. Every year the company selects between 25- 30 dancers to be invited into the pre-professional year. Eva has been working towards this goal for the past 3 years and has been dancing for more than 15 years. Eva is exceptionally talented in Dance Performance, Dance Composition and Dance Appreciation. Eva will spend two years with the company up in Sydney’s Walsh Bay, where she will continue her professional dancer career working towards an Advanced Diploma in Dance. Ferre house, the dancers of JPC and I are so incredibly proud of Eva for this achievement. We wish Eva all the best at Sydney Dance Company. Congratulations again!

Mrs Ritchie
Dance Teacher

ACT OzTag

The following JPC Students represented the ACT in OzTag over the weekend.

Luka Paunovic, Yr 10 Kennedy	Patrick Dawson, Yr 10Mathieu
Luca Zaganelli, Yr 10 Mathieu	Rok Van Dalen, Yr 10 Drexel
Isaac Baldwin, Yr  10 Drexel	Yuri Hromow, Yr Drexel

Congratulations to the boys and their team mates.

ACT Hockey

Olivia Savage, Yr 7 Kennedy represented the ACT in the u13 National Hockey Championship in Tasmania over the school holidays.

Olivia played a fantastic tournament being the highest goal scorer for her team.

UC Fast Forward Program – Congratulations to Pari Malhotra!

Congratulations to Pari who made it into the UC Fast Forward Program. Each year UC accepts 25 all-rounder Year 11 students into the program, giving them the opportunity to gain a conditional offer to a course of their choice and participate in a range of opportunities during senior school that will help prepare them for university life. There are also benefits once they reach UC to help them settle into their first year of study, such as study grants.

We wish Pari all the best in this program!

Work Experience Review

Leanne Sheather – Le Bon Melange

I wanted to do this work experience because I saw it as a good opportunity to learn more about the hospitality environment. I am interested in a career in cooking building off my passion for it, so I wanted to see what it was like in the physical atmosphere. I enjoyed learning skills from the French chefs which they use to achieve their designs and baked goods. I could then take these skills home and use them in my own baking. Throughout the day, the chefs would check in on each other and bring each other food from the cafe when times got stressful. They congratulated each other on a job well done and offered suggestions when mistakes were made.

After talking to the chefs about a future career in hospitality, they gave me some very valuable advice. They said to definitely explore all the various career paths I'm interested in before making a choice as being a chef is very much a full time role.

I have attached some photos of the trays of doughnuts, pastries, and pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) that I made myself after demonstrations from the chefs. I would have never imagined making such complex items in a small amount of time, but the chefs were extremely friendly and taught me a lot. I’ve also attached photos of a Ferrero rocher cake and biscoff cake that I have made over the holidays after learning some new cake skills.

(Week 15/16 – 9-15 November)

Senior Exams will be held during weeks 15 and 16, from 9 November through to and including 15 November 2022.

Exam timetables and exam information will be emailed to students by Monday 24 October. Students are to please keep an eye on your emails.

Any issues with exam scheduling need to be addressed with Mrs Garvie by 3 November.

All students eligible for special provisions will be emailed separately to confirm the timing of exams with additional time conditions. If you have not received an email by the end of Monday 24 October and believe you are eligible, please contact Mrs Garvie.

At JPC, we are passionate about caring for our students as whole people through supporting their development as learners, as unique individuals and as members of a broader community. 

We invite all parents and carers who would like to learn more about wellbeing and mental health to attend our upcoming ‘Wellbeing Workshop’, on Wednesday 16^th November at 6:00 PM.

This Workshop will focus on the topic of ‘Building Resilient Young People’. 

We will explore some practical ways you can provide opportunities for young people to build resilience on their journey towards becoming capable and confident adults.

This has been a highly requested topic by our JPC families and we hope you can join us. Please save the date for this event and register through Trybooking (https://www.trybooking.com/CDRYZ) to receive the TEAMs Link for this event. 

https://www.trybooking.com/CDRYZ

The Sentral Parent Portal is the schools' primary form of communicating with parents including providing parents with access to key information regarding their student.

Parents will have access to their student’s Timetables, attendance, school reports, assessment results and more through the portal.

Full instructions on how to use Sentral are on the website here - https://jpc.act.edu.au/key-jpc-links or download below.

Parish Newsletter

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