Year 11 Geography Field Work

On Thursday 11 May, Year 11 Geography students went to Mundaring where they took part in field work activities conducted by the Departments of Parks and Wildlife relating to their study of Bushfire Hazards.

The students looked at how communities prevent, prepare for and reduce the impact of bushfires. They also examined how both the natural and the human environment recover after a bushfire.

It was a lovely day to be out in the Jarrah and Marri forest.

Linda Beech

HASS and Geography Teacher

Mock Trials

Congratulations to our Mock Trial team that participated this week in the Supreme Court. They faced Aquinas College in Round 2 of the competition and had resounding wins in both the case and the trial! Our students put up a great fight in the Civil matter for the plaintiff suing to recover damages from the owner and occupier of a shopping centre. The team was made up of some “old” and “new” members who enthusiastically attended lunch meetings in preparation of the case. The team was as follows:

Barrister 1: Thomas Paparo

Barrister 2: Roberto Vitali-Lawn

Solicitor: Hannah Flavell

Witness 1: Georgia Williams

Witness 2: Amelia MacMillan

Court Orderly: Rory Hewson

We are also pleased to have a large group of reserves who have been diligently attending meetings:

Charlie Richards, Cullen Binet, Toby Morgan. Special mention to Cullen who stepped in to help the opposition who needed a witness.

A thank you to Ms Daisy Farley (appointed lawyer) for her legal support to our students.

Many thanks also to family members who came along on both nights to offer support.

Jim Fitzpatrick and Rita de Faria

Computational and Algorithmic Thinking Competition

The Computational and Algorithmic Thinking (CAT) competition is a one-hour problem-solving competition which seeks to identify computer programming potential. Almost 16 thousand students across Australia, and internationally, sit the (CAT) competition every year. The competition consists of problem solving-type questions which encourage students to develop informal algorithms and apply them to test data of increasing size or complexity.

We are very pleased with our results this year achieving 20 Distinctions and one High Distinction. We would like to acknowledge Year 8 student Cohen Rafiq who achieved a perfect score in the competition.

Judith Peters

Head of Learning Area - Mathematics

Year 9

A lot has been happening in Year 9 in the past couple of weeks. We have had Youth Focus in to speak with us about looking after our well-being in particular our mental health. NAPLAN took up a lot of last week and our school photos. This week we’ve had our breakfast events for both Mothers, Daughters, Fathers and Sons. A busy time indeed. A reminder that Year 9s are invited to the College Community Mass on Friday 9 June at 7:55am. Please put this in your diary. We’d like to see as many students and parents joining us for this Eucharistic celebration.

Thank you for your support for all these events.

Ms Wooltorton

Assistant Deputy Principal: Year 9

Year 9 Mother and Daughter Breakfast

On Tuesday morning Year 9 Mothers (or significant females) and daughters had an opportunity to come together for breakfast in the Thomas More Exhibition Centre and listen to our key note speakers Mrs Ellen Morrissey and her daughters Emma and Olivia Thwaites. Ellen is Alumni of Loreto College and her daughters are alumni of John XXIII College.

"My mum and I would like to thank John XXIII for arranging the mother and daughter breakfast. We had a wonderful time. The breakfast was well catered for and the food was delicious.

More importantly the presentation was excellent. The guest speaker a mother Ellen Morrissey spoke passionately using her knowledge and experience. This as accompanied with a positive parenting approach about adolescence being a challenging time. Her experience was complimented by knowledge and understanding about contemporary issues.

Her daughters provided an honest recount about their experiences as an adolescent high school student. Their presentations captured the ‘real adolescent lived experience’ providing the current Year 9s with a ‘heads up’ about future challenges and issues.

This invaluable experience has promoted a window of opportunity for mums and daughters to have further conversations about the period of adolescence. Thank you."

Alison and Teresa McCluskey

"The mother daughter breakfast was a great experience to share with the the rest of the year nine girls and their mums. We loved interacting with everyone and sharing a very well presented and delicious breakfast. Mrs Wooltorton invited the girls to serve their mums breakfast, while people stood around and chatted with each other. The speeches were very interesting, especially learning from some past JTC students that had many points of advice the mothers and daughters could learn from. Overall, at the mother daughter breakfast we got to meet up with some old friends, shared a lovely breakfast with our mums and learned the reality of being a Year 9 girls and the trials/joys of being the mother of a teenage girl. "

Jasmin Collins and Renae Collins

Year 9 Father and Son Breakfast

On Wednesday morning Year 9 Fathers (or significant males) and sons had an opportunity to come together for breakfast in the Thomas More Exhibition Centre and listen to our key note speakers Mr Michael Foley and his son Declan. Declan is an alumni of John XXIII College.

"James and I were privileged to attend the JTC Year 9 father/carer and son breakfast this morning. As usual, the school put on a great spread with something for every taste: healthy food options, pastries, juice and coffee. And after the opportunity to meet other parents and chat about our experiences, we were treated to a terrific talk by Michael and Declan Foley (JTC father and old boy respectively), introduced by Ms Gemma Wooltorton (Assistant Deputy Principal Year 9). Michael kindly shared his experience in building teamwork structures and identifying and addressing vulnerabilities. Declan shared some of his own stories from JTC on building friendships with some of the difficulties, and their solutions, that all our boys might face. A wide-ranging Q&A followed, and I imagine most of the fathers/carers and the boys will have gained some great insights form the views discussed."

Paul and James Langton

John XXIII College Newsletter

Issue 14 · 19 May 2017

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