From the Principal

Aggiornamento

Monday 11 October marked the anniversary of the beginning of Vatican II – the ‘Aggiornamento’ (opening the windows and bringing up to date) of the Catholic Church. It is also the official Church Feast Day of Pope Saint John XXIII so an important date for us to acknowledge and celebrate as we begin the new term.

Welcome to the new term

Welcome back to all students, staff and families and we trust that our community has had a relaxing break with family and friends. Term 4 is invariably a hectic but rewarding time at our College.

Well done to our Year 6 students and staff on a very successful camp in the last week of Term 3. In addition, our Year 11 students and staff headed to the Northern Territory in the school holidays as part of the College’s pilgrimage program. Both ventures were different to the offerings in previous years due to COVID restrictions on travel. The capacity of our students and staff to be flexible and improvise has been impressive. We are delighted with the manner our students have adapted to challenges over the past two years.

The school holiday period was also very important for our Year 12 students undertaking examinations to finalise their school-based assessment. It is an exciting time for our school leaders as they prepare for external examination and graduation and life beyond John XXIII College. Very important farewell rituals will occur in the coming week.

Significant building progress has been made over the holiday period with our main car park and library refurbishment. Both projects are on target to be completed prior to the end of the school year. We have relocated our A Block classes to a new ‘JTC Village’ of demountable classrooms which will be in place until the end of Term 1 2022. This is to enable classrooms to be modified to enable a more contemporary and flexible use of space. It is envisaged the new classroom block will be accessible at the beginning of Term 2 2022.

We will continue to provide updates of building progress over the course of this term, and we are appreciative of our community’s understanding during the process of change. There are exciting times ahead!

Visual Arts Exhibition

Next week we celebrate Visual Arts week! Our Ignatian philosophy places great emphasis on the imagination and creative expression in the education of all children. Education in the Arts increases self-confidence and self-understanding, and enhances communication skills. The Arts enriches the experience of studying while at school as well as preparing students for life after school.

We encourage you to pop down to to either the Opening Night taking place on Monday 18 October at 6:30pm in the Thomas More Exhibition Centre, or during the exhibition opening hours Monday 18 - Friday 22 October 9am-4pm and Saturday 23 October 11am-2pm.

Robert Henderson

Principal