Landscapes for Wellbeing Project Wins International Award

On Friday 17 October, our Principal Ralph David, P&C President Daniel Girling-Butcher and Landscape Architect and UTS Lecturer Tanya Wood attended the prestigious Good Design Awards ceremony at the International Convention Centre, Darling Harbour. They were honoured to receive an award in the Built Environment category for the outstanding Landscapes for Wellbeing project. This international recognition, selected from thousands of entries, is a remarkable achievement for our school community.

The Landscapes for Wellbeing project is a true collaboration involving our school community—P&C, parents, citizens, staff, and students—alongside UTS and IndigiGrow. Tanya Wood leads a course at UTS dedicated to designing and building a landscape garden specifically for JJCMHS. IndigiGrow contributes native plants and invaluable cultural knowledge, while our students actively participate in consultations and learning about native plants and landscape design.

This project brings the entire community together to build and nurture the garden, delivering numerous benefits such as fostering community spirit, restoring native plants, increasing shade and cooling the environment, and creating vibrant outdoor learning spaces. Most importantly, it enhances the wellbeing of everyone who uses the space.

This marks the fourth award earned by the project, which is also under consideration for additional international accolades. Our ongoing goal is to deepen learning opportunities connected to this unique and valuable resource. We look forward to seeing how the project continues to grow and inspire!

Year 12 - 2026 Leadership Speeches

On Tuesday 28 November, The school watched in admiration and awe with the quality and integrity shown by the Year 11 student nominees as they delivered speeches to support their student leadership nomination.

The school wants to acknowledge the quality of their speeches and the genuine desire they have to represent the student body and the school. The students showed the positive impact previous involvement in the Student Representative Council (SRC) has had on their awareness, understanding and practice of leadership.

Simultaneously the next intake of the SRC has concluded with cohort speeches and peer ballot.

We look forward to the upcoming induction of our student leadership team and the student representative council and watching them grow in their leadership capacity with the opportunities they will have and the initiatives they will drive.

Primary School Taster Lessons Program

The Primary School Taster Lessons program is in full swing!

On Monday 4 November, we were excited to welcome the first group of Year 4 students from Mascot Public School. They enjoyed a student-led practice lesson delivered by Ms Evans’ Year 11 SLR class, followed by a Drama lesson with Mr Sneddon. Students were also treated to lunch. It was a fantastic day filled with fun and learning.

We then welcomed Eastlakes Public School on Thursday 6 November. Ms Evans’ Year 11 SLR class led a sporting workshop, followed by Ms Garden delivering an engaging cookie excavation and scavenger hunt workshop.

Thank you to our primary schools for their ongoing support, and a big thank you to our staff for running these taster lessons. More sessions are coming up in the weeks ahead—stay tuned!

JJCMHS Community Update

Honour - Excellence - Responsibility - Opportunity

Term 4 Week 4 · 06 Nov 2025

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