Secondary

From the College Psychologists 

Given the current climate and feedback from our student leaders regarding the need for simpler ways to contact the College Psychologists, we have created a direct John XXIII College Psychologist email address. This email can be accessed via a link on the student’s SEQTA Learn Splash page. The below document also provides information on reasons for referring and emergency contact numbers if help is needed outside of school hours. Please note once students have accessed the email address, they will receive a response within 48 hours from one of the College Psychologists. 

Samantha Hurley

Psychologist

Visual Arts incursion

Year 11 ATAR Visual Arts students took part in a painting incursion with WA artist Cameron Richards. Students practiced their skills in portraiture using oil paint, focusing on tone and temperature. They also gained valuable insight into how to capture the essence of a person through their depiction of the subject. 

Kiri Moore

Design & Technology Teacher

Maths Week

The Secondary students in the College had a fantastic time celebrating mathematics this week. There were homeroom quizzes and lunchtime activities, which gave every student an opportunity to participate in some way. Last week on 14 March the students took part in the annual Pi Day Challenge where the students had to recite as many digits of the number pi as possible. Well done to Sasha Pallis from Year 8 who won the Challenge, reciting 190 digits. 

On Tuesday the competition was tense in the Minty Wrapper Challenge. We had many students from across the Secondary school trying to make their longest minty wrapper. Our winners were Sasha Pallis from Year 8, Luisa Parish from Year 9 and Madeleine Matthews from Year 11. It was great to see the students display their problem-solving skills in the Towers of Hanoi competition on Friday. And congratulations to Year 8 Loreto and Year 11 Loyola for winning the Homeroom quizzes this week.

Thank you to Jim Miller who ran a fantastic Magis Mental Maths Challenge this week. We had an amazing 214 competitors. The following students are to be congratulated for winning the Challenge in their year group:

• Corrado Fraulini from Year 12
• James Mitchell and Ava Kwei from Year 11
• Joseph Kilcullen, Angus Furness and Thomas Syminton from Year 10
• Marco Zammuto and Matthew Gardner from Year 9
• Joseph Nankivell from Year 8
• Takahiro Yamada from Year 7

I would like to give a special thank you to all the staff in Mathematics Department for their contribution in this year’s Maths Week. 

Yagan Williams

Head of Learning Area - Mathematics

Day of Action for the Vulnerable and for Peace

Over 450 staff and students supported Live Simply Day today - a day of choosing to live simply, in solidarity with the world's poorest. Money collected through sponsorship of family and friends will go to Caritas Australia's Project Compassion and Ukraine Appeals.

Today is also the Church feast of the Annunciation to Mary by the Angel Gabriel. It is a celebration of Mary's 'yes' to the call of God. Our Religious Education classes joined with Pope Francis in praying for the world to say 'yes' to the call of peace.

We also launched our Solidarity Fridays this week in support to families in Lismore suffering because of the flooding. It was terrific to see so many of our students wear their house colours and donate to a very worthy cause close to home.

Janeen Murphy

Director of Faith and Mission

Year 11 Biology

The Year 11 Biology students are visiting Piney Lakes today to learn how to sample the native landscape with DPAW. They will be sampling the vegetation with quadrats and transects. The students will also be attending a session on the native birds of prey and will be able to engage with wedge tailed eagles and various smaller apex predators.

Damien Connellan

Science Teacher

The sweet and often bitter truth about Easter chocolate

Every Easter Australians spend millions of dollars buying hundreds of kilograms of chocolate to eat and give away. But some of this chocolate is tainted by slavery and comes at the cost of a child’s health, education and sometimes his or her freedom. Much of our chocolate is made using cocoa beans harvested by children, often in the West African region. Many of these children are forced into labour. We can help change this.

Pope Francis said ‘every person ought to have the awareness that purchasing is always a moral – and not simply an economic – act.’ When speaking about modern slavery he states ‘no one can wash their hands of it, without being in some way, an accomplice to this crime against humanity.’

Good News! In Australia we now have more choices than ever. We have some great brands using certified cocoa to produce their chocolate. Although certification isn’t everything, they are an indication that these brands and companies are committed to better outcomes for people and planet.

Look out for the following logos - Fairtrade, UTZ or Rainforest Alliance when making your next purchase.

Want to make even more of an impact, tell at least five other people about slavery-free chocolate and encourage them to buy it too. 

Use your buying power to change this injustice.

Janeen Murphy

Director of Faith and Mission

SmartRider - College Charter Bus

A reminder that students using the College Charter Bus service must tag on with their SmartRider. Horizons West has reported that many students are forgetting their SmartrRder card, so they are needing to manually enter their details. As you can imagine, this slows the service and causes delays. We appreciate your assistance in reminding your children. 

SPORT

Interhouse Swimming Carnival Results

This week during Homeroom the results for the Sr Mary Murray Cup Alternative Swimming Carnival were announced, check out the video announcement to find out all the details and winning House.

Congratulations to our Age Division Champions:

ACC Swimming Age Championships

This week the ACC ran their last three ACC Swimming Age Championships, the U16, U17 and U15. John XXIII was again accepted into all three carnivals from our student nominations. Our teams for each day were as follows:

At the conclusion of the U15 carnival the ACC presented the overall results out of the 85 schools. At the beginning of the week, John XXIII College was sitting 4th overall. It’s with great pleasure to announce that our U15 girls took out their Age Division Shield in equal place with Mandurah Catholic College. John XXIII College was then announced as the winner of the Overall Girls Aggregate and third in the Overall Aggregate Shield. As always, our teams displayed incredible talent, team comradery and sportsmanship over all six age division carnivals and we could not be more proud.

Outstanding individual performances over the three carnivals this week included are listed below:

U16

Georgia Perry

10th 100m Freestyle 1:07.91

Braden Fyneman

6th 100m Freestyle 58.69

8th 50m Freestyle 27.6

Jonathon Morphett

4th 50m Breaststroke 36.85

5th in the 4x50 Relay (Braden Fyneman, Tayleah Dorrington, Angela Williams and David Webster)

U17

Charlie Hodge

Overall Champion Boy

1st 50m Freestyle in an ACC record time of 24.83

1st 50m Breaststroke 34.73

2nd 50m Butterfly 28.44

3rd 50m Backstroke 32.28 

4th in the 4x50 Relay (Ben Mignacca, Asha Huggins, Marie-Claire Hickling and Charlie Hodge)

U15 

Bianca Petsos

2nd 100m Freestyle 1:02.16

5th 50m Freestyle 29.42

6th 50m Breaststroke 40.39

7th 50m Butterfly 34.26

5th 50m Backstroke 34.92

Luke Carrello

10th 100m Freestyle 1:02.95

9th 50m Butterfly 31.71

Sylvia Czajko

Overall Champion Girl

1st 100m Freestyle in an ACC record time of 26.54

1st 50m Breaststroke 36.97

1st 50m Butterfly 30.30

1st 50m Backstroke 33.77

Thomas Sutherland

7th 50m Backstroke 34.76

1st in the 4x50 Relay (Bianca Petsos, Luke Carrello, Luke Littlewood and Sylvia Czajko)

Cross-Country Training 

Now that swimming has concluded for the year, all sights are now set on cross-country. Training will take place every Tuesday and Thursday from 7:00-8:00am in the lead up the ACC Cross-Country Carnival next Term. All students are welcome to join these sessions.

Sara Kononen

Head of Sport