Dear Families,

This year, we've had a major focus on Aboriginal cultural experiences, including knowledge sharers, artists, smoking ceremonies, and excursions. We are currently planning a new gathering space and fire pot in the heart of the school. This area will be used for reflection, reconciliation and, hopefully, cooking our school lunches over the fire. Planning for our 2026 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs is well underway. We have already confirmed visits from local Indigenous artists and are developing new student leadership opportunities. If your child identifies as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander, they are warmly invited to participate in these cultural activities. If you are unsure whether this information is accurately recorded in our system, please contact the school office and we will make sure your child does not miss these cultural opportunities.

We had such a great turn out to our first International Men’s Day Celebration this morning. We continue to focus on community engagement because we know the importance of educating our students in partnership with their families. We cannot make the greatest impact without working with you. We saw huge smiles on our students’ faces while participating in sports activities, paper plane building and shaving in the barber shop. Thank you for being a part of this event and the lives of our students. A special thanks to the Community Engagement Working Group at John Paul II for organising this fantastic event.

We are pleased to announce our teaching staff for 2026, along with a new role we have designed to provide support, intervention and extension within teams. This role is called the Team Teacher, who will work closely with class teachers to monitor and respond to data as well as provide expert assistance with literacy and numeracy.

Teaching Staff

Kinder: Emma Williams

Prep: Luc Aitchison

Grade 1: Sharni Rickards (Monday/Tuesday), Cassie Prenter (Wednesday to Friday)

Grade 2: Rebecca Woolley

Team Teachers for Prep - Grade 2: Cassie Prenter, Sharni Rickards

Grade 3: Amanda Belbin, Christina Harper (Wednesday)

Grade 4: Emmalise Gowlland, Christina Harper (Thursday)

Team Teacher for Grade 3 - 4: Lauren Woods

Grade 5: Haidee Green

Grade 6: Kelly Collinson

Team Teacher for Grade 5 - 6: Laura Negri

HPE: Laura Negri

Science Specialist/Ludo Leader: Laura Lange

Music: Hannah Krishnan

LOTE (Chinese): Flora Pan

Leadership Team

Instructional Teaching & Learning Coach: Amanda Belbin, Megan Hickey (Term 3 and 4)

Student Support Coordinator: Alison Wightman

Religious Education and Wellbeing Coordinator: Jane Davies

Deputy Principal: Lauren Hall

Principal: Ben Morgan

Rebecca Johnson has accepted a position at St Monica's Catholic Primary School in Wodonga. We wish Bec all the best with her new role and look forward to formally farewelling her later this year. We thank Bec for her great work, particularly with leading the implementation of high impact teaching strategies and the Science of Learning.

Tom Edwards has made the difficult decision to move to the UK. Tom is planning to move close to family in Manchester and will be teaching there from 2026 onwards. We wish Tom all the best in his overseas adventures and thank him for his outstanding work implementing The Resilience Project in our school.

Shan Moynihan will continue to be part of our team in a relief teaching capacity. We thank Shan for all of her work over the years in various roles in the arts, and in classroom teaching roles. We look forward to seeing you back in 2026.

Students will have the opportunity to meet their teachers when they take part in Step Up Day this coming Monday (8th December).

With less than two weeks remaining, we remind students to ‘finish strong’ and keep up the excellent work we have been seeing throughout the year.

Have a great weekend!

Ben Morgan

Principal

Photos from International Men's Day

Cooee

Week 8, Term 4 2025 - We are excited to share our students work and school news with you!

Fortnightly Newsletter of John Paul II Catholic School · 05 Dec 2025

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