John XXIII College Newsletter

Around The Primary

Dear Parents

Today our PP-Year 3 students celebrated Mass with Fr Joe Sobb from Holy Rosary Parish, Nedlands. The children participated beautifully in this special time of prayer and reflection. A big thank you to Year 2G for organizing this liturgy and to Ms Cooney and for preparing the children so well.

On Tuesday our Year 6’s participated in a Confirmation retreat run by Karl Brown and his assistant Brigette from Faith Retreats. These engaging presenters facilitated a variety of fun sessions for the students and utilised drama, games and music to help the students reflect on receiving the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.

 

Congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 students, their teachers and the Year 10 umpires who participated in the IPSHA Lightning Carnival yesterday. It was a wonderful sight to see the entire playing fields and courts of John XXIII filled with students from various schools playing sport. Thank you to Mr Alderman for coordinating the running of this event and to the Year 6 parents for organizing the delicious lunch for our grown-up visitors. A great time was had by all at this fantastic Winter Carnival.

 

As part of Catholic Education’s LEADing Lights Initiative, Miss Dernie and Year 5B took part in a Microsoft Video Shoot to showcase how we are using technology in the classroom. The video shoot focused on the app OneNote, and how it can be used as an online learning tool to collaborate and share ideas. It was all lights, cameras and action in Year 5B as Miss Dernie and the students did a fantastic job as showcasing how we are using the OneNote tool for learning. We look forward to sharing the video with you and the wider community when it is released by the Microsoft Education team. A big thank you to Miss Dernie for being so willing to be part of this initiative and for sharing her expertise with our students.

 

Reports will be ready to be released next Friday afternoon. I would like to thank all the teachers for the work they put into preparing the reports. During the holidays please take the time to sit with your children and discuss their reports, highlighting the areas of personal achievement and strengths while recognising opportunities for further growth. Parents are welcome to discuss their child's academic progress with their child's teacher next term if they have any concerns.

 

We hope many parents and friends can join us at the Music Eisteddfod on Sunday afternoon. The concert begins at 5.30pm in Gonzaga Barry Lecture Theatre.

 

Kind regards

Antoinette De Pinto

Head of Primary

 

NEWSFLASH:  COMFY DRESS DAY

LifeLink raises funds to assist the work of social service agencies provided by the Archdiocese of Perth. LifeLink agencies reach out to many West Australians in need each year providing shelter, food, job training, family support and other care.

 

On Friday, 30 June we are having a 'comfy dress day' in the Primary School to raise funds for Archbishop Costelloe's LifeLink Appeal. On this day students can wear comfy clothes to school, such as, PJ's, slippers, tracksuits, onesies, etc.

 

A gold coin donation would be greatly appreciated and will be collected by our Year 6 student leaders on the day. We will also be collecting foods to provide warmth and comfort to families in need. Examples includes, tin soup, milo, coffee, etc.

 

Thank you for supporting this worthy appeal. Together, we can make a difference to help others feel comfy in these Winter months.

 

Olympic Day

 

Olympic Day is celebrated nationally, each year, on the 23 June. The students from Year 3 and 4 were lucky enough to meet and listen to the inspirational speeches from four of our very own West Australian Olympians. Today we met:

  • Natalie Burton who represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics for Basketball
  • Danielle Kettlewell and Amie Thompson who represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics for Synchronised Swimming
  • Jesse Phillips who represented Australia at the 2012 London Olympics for Kayak Sprint\

They each had interesting stories about their journey to an Olympic level: however, all had a similar message. We heard Jesse say, “You are unique individuals and have your own special powers”. Danielle and Amie said, “Find something you love, set a goal and be ready to work hard”. Natalie explained that you should “Never think you’re not good enough”.

We have all walked away with a clear message that we need to put in a 100% to reach our goals, never give up and practice makes progress!

STEM

The Year 5s have been at it again with their Science experiments! This time, we explored the concept of liquid viscosity. We learnt that viscosity is the property of a liquid that describes how fast or slowly it will flow. Another way to understand this fancy term is to think about how thin or thick a liquid is. Liquids with low viscosity, like water, are thin and flow quickly. On the other hand, liquids with high viscosity, like peanut butter (yes, it’s a liquid!) are thick and flow slowly. To discover more about this new concept, we put our learning into action and timed how long it took a variety of liquids to slide down an incline and past the finish line. So, what did we find? Out of olive oil, sunflower oil, honey, maple syrup, golden syrup, cream, rubbing alcohol, dish washing liquid and water, which flowed the fastest and which the slowest? You’ll have to wait until next week to hear about our results!

 

Confirmation Retreat Reflections

 

On Tuesday the Year 6s had a Confirmation retreat in the Osborne Room. We were met by a man named Karl and his assistant, Bridgette. We were divided into 6 groups of around 10 people per group and played lots of entertaining games to win points for our groups. I was in Group 5. All the groups were desperate to win, as the prize for the group with the most points was a bag of Freddo Frogs. When we started talking about Confirmation, we discussed gifts and were asked to share the best and worst gifts that we had ever received. In the next session, after recess and until lunch, we talked about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and played a few more games. In the final half of the session, we traced around the smallest person on a sheet of paper and on the inside wrote how we can show the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. In the final session, we talked about the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and then had a nice time for reflection in the Chapel. We wrote a prayer from our hearts and some students shared their Prayers of the Faithful. We then came back to play some final games and it was announced that Group 2 were the winners of the Freddo Frogs. It was a wonderful experience!

-  Alex Petsos (6B)

 

I really enjoyed the engaging and fun Confirmation retreat the Year 6’s participated in on 20 June 2017. During this incredible day we were educated on the sacrament of Confirmation. However throughout, we played fun and captivating games such as, paper, scissors, rock EXTREME, elephant, ninja, cobra and catch the finger. We learnt many important things about Confirmation, including the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and what they mean to us in our daily life. I really do hope we do it again soon!

-  Sophia Defrancesco (6B)

 

On 20 June the Year 6 cohort got to experience a Confirmation retreat day. There was lots of enjoyable games and activities that we got to play like including paper scissors rock. The day definitely helped us extend our religious learning ability and strengthened our relationship with God. The two presenters were very enthusiastic which made all of us as students want to listen and learn. It helped me and many other students put in to perspective how easy it is to show the Gifts and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit and how we should apply them into our everyday life. Making the whole day a competition made it even better and made us want to hear more about Confirmation. As well as having an exciting time, we also got to use the Chapel as a calm place to write prayers for whoever or whatever we wanted. Overall, I extremely liked the fun yet relaxing day and would certainly do it again.

-  Marshall Lalor (6G)

 

I really enjoyed the Confirmation retreat. It was fun because we weren't just learning things but we were playing games too. We learnt about things like the Gifts and Fruits of the Holy Spirit. We also did fun activities that educated us about many different things like how to show the Gifts and Fruits in our everyday