Secondary

2021 Option Selection Process

Year 7, 8 and 9 students will select their options for next year in the coming weeks. It is an opportune time for students to reflect on the Option courses they are most interested in and would like to pursue for 2021. This is also a good time to ensure students are experiencing a depth and breadth to their studies and consider selecting an option course they haven’t previously studied. The 2021 Curriculum Handbooks for Year 8, 9 and 10 will be made available early next week. The Handbooks provide a brief description of each course and indicate the contact teacher if students have further queries. Parents and students will be emailed directly confirming the availability of the handbooks via SEQTA Documents.

Jessica Bouwman

Deputy Principal, Teaching & Learning

English News

Term 3 has come with some relief as we can settle in to the business end of the year. In the English Learning Area, Semester 2 is always a time for students to take the next step in their analytical and creative writing, building on the foundation skills that have been introduced in Semester 1. The added benefit is that Term 3 is VERY conducive to curling up with a book!

As a part of their English studies this semester, students are exploring a wide range of texts, concepts and ideas. 

• In Year 7, classes have just finished considering Beat Poetry, having produced some of their own fantastic poems, and they are now investigating the genre of Fairytales and how these could be “fractured” for a more modern take on the classics
• Year 8’s are delving deeply into the world of the past, exploring the interpretive genre and context of the Batavia mutiny as represented in the novel “Strange Objects”
• Our Year 9 English are taking on Shakespeare and “that Scottish play”. It has been great to hear some Elizabethan twang echoing around the halls, as well as some rather enthusiastic Shakespearean insults flying in the playground
• Year 10 English students have immersed themselves into Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, considering the timelessness of the morals we learn from Scout’s account of life in the south of America in the 1930s. The students are currently hard at work preparing their submissions for the Atticus Finch Justice Award
• Year 11 Literature students are tackling Post-Colonial perspectives in their study of the novel “Wide Sargasso Sea”
• In Year 11 ATAR English, students have been engaging with the golden age of cinema through the study of Film Noir, and are now moving on to the novel “The Book Thief” and the ways in which it presents an alternate experience of life in the 1940s
• Our General English students in Year 11 are exploring Australian archetypes and themes of racism and inequality through the study of the novel “Deadly Unna”
• In Year 11 Foundation English, we have been looking at comprehension skills through the examination of written and visual texts, including news reports, short stories and the film “Maleficent”
• Year 12 Literature students have all recovered from their existential crises inspired by their study of the absurdist novel “The Outsider” and, in a rather surreal twist, are now diving into post-colonial Ireland as represented in the play “Translations”
• Year 12 ATAR English students have been exploring the representations of Australian Cultural Identity and the hybridity of genre as reveal in the novel “The Broken Shore” and the film “Unfinished Sky”
• In Year 12 General English the focus has been on the multimodal text “Maus”

In addition to our teaching and learning program, this week have celebrated English Week with a range of activities that brought to life all that is fabulous about the English Learning Area. This culminated in a fundraising Sausage Sizzle on Friday to raise money for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. 

Shannon Allen

Head of Learning Area - English

Social Justice Sunday

The Australian Catholic Bishops’ Social Justice Statement for 2020–21 is titled ‘To Live Life to the Full: Mental health in Australia today’.

The statement encourages faith communities, governments and each one of us, to make mental health a priority. It is a timely message in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is affecting many members of our parishes, schools and communities. Understanding mental health will help us to be aware of those who need our support. The Statement encourages us all to reject stigmatisation, to work for the transformation of social determinants of mental ill-health, and to call for policies and service provision that meets the needs of the poorest and most marginalised members of our community.

The bishops’ statement may be downloaded here.

A short video is available on the Australia Catholic Social Justice commission website.   

Roncalli Service

“I enjoyed the experience of Mont Clare today as it was fun to interact with the residents and learn how to use the College coffee machine”.

The College was delighted this week to inaugurate a ‘virtual coffee club’, via TEAMS, to connect residents of Mont Clare Aged Care with Year 9 students at John XXIII College. Due to the pandemic, it has not been possible to continue planned visits, which have been a feature of the Roncalli Service program in Year 9.  Thanks to the commitment and ingenuity of staff at Mont Clare as well as our very own support staff, the College was able to host a TEAMS meeting in the Circle of Friends café. 

Warm feedback was received from the students who commented that it was great to listen to the residents’ stories and to maintain the connection during the pandemic. The students appreciated how much the experience helped to ‘brighten people’s day’.  Learning how to use the industrial coffee machine was an added bonus! The College has also taken on board some constructive feedback from the students as to how to improve the interaction in the future. 

Thank you to Year 9 students for your generous hosting of this event – and to Administration Assistant, Suesanne Sawyer who supported the students. Special thanks also to Jeff Jansen, Matt Christides and Yugon Chobanoff for immeasurable technical support.

Mary Anne Lumley

Director – Faith & Mission

NAS ACC Cross-Country Carnival

On Friday 21 September, John XXIII College hosted the 2020 NAS ACC Cross Country Carnival. Sacred Heart, Newman, Chisholm and Servite College all travelled to the College grounds to compete on our specialised cross-country track prepared and marked out by our very talented grounds staff. Our team of students ran incredibly to finish in top position out of the five schools. These results will be sent to ACC where they will be ranked against the rest of the schools to determine the overall winner.

Congratulations of the following individuals who finished in the top five positions on the day.

Sunsmart School Surfing Titles

Last week John XIII College competed in the 2020 Sunsmart School Surfing Titles. This year we were thrilled to enter not only our boys, but our girls as well. The boys competition was held on Thursday 20 August and the girls on Friday 21 August. We could not have asked for better weather and conditions which allowed some of our team members a great opportunity to progress throughout the day, with some just missing out on progressing onto finals. Thank you to Mr Ben Hayes, who coached and supervised our boys on the day and Anjuli Duncan for coaching and supervising our girls.

NAS Athletics

On Tuesday 25 August, 200 students travelled to the State Athletics Centre to represent John XXIII College in the 2020 NAS Athletics Meet. This day is a non-competitive day that allows students the opportunity to challenge for their position in the ACC A Division Team. It was pleasing to have students display incredible participation along with a fighting spirit and support for others.

Thank you to all staff and students for their commitment on the day. 

Training will continue on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays from 7:00am-8:00am up until the ACC A Division Athletics Carnival on Wednesday 16 September. All students are welcome to take part in the College training sessions.

Athletics Training Schedule

Winter NAS

This week all of our teams competed against Servite College in Round 3 of this Terms NAS Competition. Next week, our teams have their final games against  Sacred Heart College. We wish them all the best of luck. 

Please see the fixtures below:

YEAR 8 & 9 NAS TERM 3 2020 

TUESDAYS

Year 7&10 NAS TERM 3 2020 

WEDNESDAY

Sara Kononen

Head of Sport

Ward House Fundraising – Entertainment Books

Are you ready to get out and about to enjoy the best things in life? Buy an Entertainment Membership to support our fundraising and your next adventure could be around the corner. Find out more: https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/830q59