Sally Cheah - Johnson

Assistant Principal

Dear Parents and Students,

2019 Super Computing Conference:

Four Year 10 students and myself participated recently in the Super-Computing Conference in Denver Colorado United States.  The four student participants were: Liam Marangio, Aleksander Sasha Melnikov, Vedansh Malhan and Harmohit Singh.  The students and I had a very enjoyable learning experience in this Conference.  This week-long event was attended by participants from all over the world.  The facilitators of workshops were academics from renowned universities (United States and internationally) and professionals from the IT industries (such as Google, INTEL, Microsoft, etc). 

Our students had the opportunity to see world-class exhibits in technologies and attended a multitude of workshops.  Our students also entered in a number of competitions in which all our four JMSS students topped the Challenge Ladder every of the days that the competitions took place.   They came home with prizes with a combined worth of more than $1500. Our four students certainly showed our JMSS spirit of boldness and willingness to give everything ‘a go’. Besides the students from Queensland Academy of Science, our students would be the youngest participants at the Conference. 

However, they were able to compete successfully amongst competitors who are professionals in the IT industries.  I am very proud of their achievements, their conduct, leadership and teamwork throughout the trip.

New Year 11 students for 2020:

We also had the arrival of 29 new students to join the Year 11 cohort for the Orientation Program.  The new Year 11 students were welcomed last Wednesday 27th November with an Induction Program where they were greeted by their Peer Buddies and House Mentors.  Each of the new year 11 students will also be supported by Mr Corkill, Mr Chisholm and myself. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr Anderson for organising the peer Buddies Program and the Induction Day for our new students.

I would also like to thank our JMSS Peer Buddies for their commitment in supporting the new Year 11 students and the new cohort of 2020 Year students.  The leadership shown by the Peer Buddies is simply amazing.

Arrival of 2020 Year 10 students:

A new cohort of 2020 Year 10 students arrived for their first induction day at JMSS on Monday 2nd December.  There was a special House Assembly for all students to meet with the new 2020 Year 10 students.  Each of the 4 Houses had special programs to welcome our new students and there were ‘getting to know you’ activities to ensure that the new students make new friends and build relationships with each other.  This was followed with a BBQ lunch for all students to celebratethe arrival of our new students.  The new 2020 Year 10 students then participated in a special program at the Monash Sports Centre after lunch.

I would like to thank all our students for putting their best effort in welcoming our new 2020 cohort of year 10 students.  I would also like to thank and acknowledge the work of teachers, House Mentors, House Leaders, Sports teachers, and the key staff (Mr Anderson, Mr Thompson and mr Senn-Sanger) for their different roles in the organization of the Orientation Day.

Thank You to the JMSS Parents and Friends Association:

I would like to thank our JMSS PFA for their ongoing support.  More than a dozen parents came on the Orientation Day to provide a BBQ lunch for our students.  The support provided by our parents is very much appreciated. 

Chess Club Achievements:

I would like to congratulate a team of our Year 10 students who have won in the Open Secondary Division in the State Chess Championships.  The following students have all won Certificate of Distinction:

Imanya Kodituwakku, Lachlan O’Brien, Henry Nguyen, Kendrick Lo and Nikolai Tee.

Congratulations and well done.

Sally Cheah-Johnson

Assistant Principal