On Monday the College community came together for the Swimming Carnival which was held at Dickson Pool. There was a wonderful sense of community with our House themes adding additional fun to the day. Congratulations to all students who participated in the various races and activities. Thank you to Mrs Darmody, Mrs Jewel and all our staff who supported the organisation of the day, ensuring it ran smoothly. The House Spirit winner was Ferré. The Carnival cup was a very close call, but the overall win went to Drexel. A big well done to both Houses!

Senior BSSS information night was held on Tuesday night, for parents of Year 10-12 students. This night was important for students and families to understand the rules and responsibilities, outlined by the BSSS, which governs all students and study programs in the ACT, regardless of the schools attended. It was also an opportunity for students in Tertiary courses to understand how the ATAR is calculated and for students choosing Accredited packages, to hear of the opportunities available to set themselves up for their chosen future direction.

We are now in the third week of our new ILT program. This week we are going to ask all students during ILT to give us some quick feedback on how things are going. Our aim is to do this semi-regularly as we move throughout the year. While the feedback will be anonymous, we aim to use this to address any challenges that are arising as well as to share any success stories.

Next week we are launching our after-school Tutoring Hub. This will be run in JF 9/10 and will run on Mondays and Wednesdays for weeks 3-9 each term, from 3.45 to 4.30 pm. We have several students in years 11 and 12 who have offered to be tutors for some of the younger students. They will work alongside four of our teachers to support students who would like additional help. All students are welcome and need to bring their equipment to study and questions or work they would like help with.

Next week, we have two significant events in our Faith Formation calendar. The first is on Tuesday when we will come together to celebrate our Opening School Mass. This will also mark the start of the College’s 10 Year Celebrations and see our 2023 College (Year 12) Leaders receive their badges. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and marks the beginning of Lent, the time in the Catholic Church’s calendar for reflection and fasting in the lead up to Good Friday and the Easter Sunday celebrations. Students will be considering how they can make a positive contribution to others in our community and will have multiple opportunities to contribute and make a positive impact on the lives of others.

Regards

Kathleen Garvie
Assistant Principal - Learning
Ferré & Kennedy House

Hi everyone! Some of you might remember me from the end of last year when I was on my teaching placements at JPC. I am very excited to be returning for a more permanent position as a maths teacher in Ferré house. 

My Dad is Japanese and my Mum is Chinese, but I was born in Hong Kong. I came to Canberra when I was just 6 years old and have been living here ever since. I still regularly go back to east Asia to travel during the summer holidays. My photo was taken at Teamlab Planets in Tokyo.

I watch Formula 1 religiously and used to play baseball. When it comes to food, I am currently addicted to Korean Fried Chicken...

I am really looking forward to this year!

Mr Sean Shibutare

As our new year 7’s settle into life at JPC some of the students are doing Food Technology, they are learning all about knife safety and hygiene in the kitchen.

Here are some of Mrs McNamara’s latest food faces made of course with excellent knife skills!

It has been an absolute joy to see them thrive in the commercial kitchen environment.

Happy and safe cooking!

Mrs Chauntell McNamara
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing Van Thuan House

JPC’s 2023 musical production is Disney’s High School Musical. The production will run Term 3, Week 4 Thursday 10^th August – Saturday 12^TH August 2023.

This week, we finalized our whole cast and band with the completion of ensemble auditions. It is exciting to see the talent will shine on stage in August.

Next week, all students will be given essential information regarding confirming their role in the production, rehearsal schedule and how to order the show shirt. Permission and shirt order is to be confirmed via QKR. Our first rehearsal will be Sunday 5 March, 10 am – 1 pm. Families are welcome to join the beginning of the rehearsal.

We are extremely excited to present next year’s musical production and look forward to seeing our community come together to be part of the WILDCATS team!

Mrs Sarah Smith
Leader of Learning and Wellbeing – The Arts
Van Thuan House

Swimming Carnival 2023

A huge thank you to everyone who attended and participated so fully in the Swimming carnival on Monday. Despite a little rain and chilly temperatures in the morning, there was some excellent community spirit on show and some great performances in the pool.

This year’s carnival was focused on getting more people to participate in a range of activities including dry activities (Tug of war and Volleyball), novelty games in the baby pool and the family pool, as well as our participation and championship races. It was so fabulous to see everyone dressed up in their house colours and themes, singing (or shouting!) their house chants and really getting into the community spirit.

In the Championship races, there were some clear winners and a huge congratulations to our age group champions:

• U12 Boys – Joel Gahan, MA
• U13 Girls – Ivy Dao, DR
• U13 Boys – Dylan Bryant, MT
• U14 Girls –  Lara Barnes, DR
• U14 Boys –  Anzac Longley, FE
• U15 Girls – Kayla Bryant, MT
• U15 Boys – Sebastian Hanneman, FE
• U16 Girls – Isabella Revell, KE
• U16 Boys – Hamish Ellison, VT
• Open Girls – Georgia Ellison, VT

(your medals will be presented in house assemblies)

Early Morning Swimmers braving the cold

Team Kennedy took the two prizes for best outfits in the students with Kaden Waugh (in white), and an impressive Robot created by Jemma Obst and Antony Agyrakis.

Team Van Thuan won the staff dress up prizes with Mrs McNamara and Mrs Smith and their Van Thuan-icana fruit outfits. Our Jurassic park Ferré team won the chant off, with an incredible ROARING chant, and Where’s Wally team Drexel took the overall win of the day, closely fought by Van Thuan and Maathai.

There were also a number of records broken this carnival. A huge congratulations to Hamish Ellison, Kayla Bryant, Isabella Revell, Dylan Bryant, Joel Gahan, Ivy Dao, Georgia Ellison.

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

All seniors interested in completing a Certificate II in Active Volunteering are invited to an information session in the Theatre at lunchtime on Thursday 23 Feb.

Kind regards

Mrs Kathy Kinnane
LWB Mathieu House

Absences

All absences from school (partial and/or full day) must be explained in writing. A note or email from an address recorded on file for a parent or carer will be accepted. A telephone call is no longer sufficient as all attendance is required to be stored digitally.

• An SMS Alert will be sent to parents each day if a student is absent from Pastoral Care and Period
  1 Class without prior notification. Parents can reply to the SMS with the reason for the student's
  absence. No further action is required if you reply to the SMS.
• The preferred method of notification of full-day absences is through Sentral Parent Portal - Absences

If a student needs to leave the school during the day

An email must be sent to the College Office (office.jpc@cg.catholic.edu.au) and the student must be copied in (student email address) from their parent/carer so they can show their teacher at their departure time. The student is to then present themselves at the student office to sign out.

If no note or email is provided, students must be signed out in person by a parent or carer. Early departure should only occur during Lunch or Recess, or between Periods to avoid disturbance to other students.

Parents arriving during the day to collect students without prior notification will be asked to wait until Lunch or Recess, or between Periods unless there is an emergency. If something has come up unexpectedly and you need to collect your child, we ask parents to email their child using their son or daughters’ school email address and copy the college office (office.jpc@cg.catholic.edu.au) into the email so they are aware. The student is to show the teacher the email message if they need to leave class.

The JPC Attendance policy sets out the requirements for Attendance and Absence reporting. The policy is available on the College website.

Details are available in the JPC Student Guide available here - https://jpc.act.edu.au/handbook

Thank you

To ensure the safety of our students, we ask that you please take note of the following:

• There is to be NO pick-up or drop-off in the bus zone at ANY TIME
• Due to significant congestion, the small visitor car park will be closed between 3.20 pm and 4.00 pm each afternoon.
• Buses will be given priority at all times
• Expect considerable delays in collecting students
• Students will be directed to wait for their parents at the parent pick-up point closest to the Nicholls Playing Fields or in the Staff Carpark.
• Parents are also encouraged to make alternate arrangements for collecting their students eg. from Casey shops (accessed by students through the underpass) or in the parking area by the Nicholls Playing Fields.

Parents are reminded to follow all directions from JPC staff.

Thank you for your cooperation

Transport Canberra has notified us that the 1003 School Bus route will commence at the starting point at 8:00 am instead of 8:22 am from Monday the 20th of February 2023. This will greatly assist the students who catch this bus as they have been arriving late to school every morning.

The information may not yet be updated on the Transport Canberra website so please inform your students to be at their bus stop earlier than usual.

Moderation Day is an important day for teachers across the ACT to review and moderate the work of senior students. Moderation Day is a requirement for teachers to ensure grade comparability across the senior secondary sector. Moderation Day is a pupil-free day (Yr 7-10 only) and no classes will be running.

Students from Years 7-10 are encouraged to use the day productively to work on learning tasks, assignments and general study. Students are discouraged from visiting 7-10 High Schools or Primary Schools, as their presence can prove very disruptive to the learning of these students.

All Y11 and 12 students are to arrive for 8:45 am for a 9am start. All students are required to attend and are to be in full College uniform on the day and are able to make their way home after at 3.00 pm.

Please bring lunch/ snacks for the day and a bottle of water.

Students will need to bring their laptops, pen, highlighter, calculator and a pencil.

Parish Newsletter

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

The Gungahlin Jets Junior Football Club are actively recruiting players for our Junior Girls' teams for the 2023 season.

I am the Event Director at Wagi Bridge parkrun which is a free, community event where participants can walk, jog, run and volunteer. It is a 5km event that takes place at 8 am every Saturday in the area between Amaroo and Moncrieff.

We have opportunities for students to volunteer if they are taking part in the Duke of Edinburgh program or learning photography.

We have several volunteer roles that students can partake in to accrue their hours for the Duke of Edinburgh. We currently have a student doing this with us now. The good thing with these roles is they get to try out different roles which offer different experiences.

One of our volunteer roles is as a photographer. I would provide hints and tips for running photography. You can view some of my portfolios on Facebook and Instagram under Snapped by Mark.

Please visit https://www.parkrun.com.au/wagibridge/ to register.

Mark Scarborough
Event Director
Wagi Bridge parkrun