23 October 2020 - Newsletter (Vol 37 No 17)

We are pleased to inform you that St John Paul College has committed to developing a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). Our RAP aims to support our school community in developing an educational environment that fosters higher levels of knowledge and pride in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, cultures and contributions. Through our RAP, we will commit to strengthening relationships, respect and opportunities in the classroom, around the school and with the community. Our RAP will give us amazing opportunities to turn our good intentions into real actions.

Developing our RAP is a long-term commitment that will require ongoing consideration and collaborative effort. Within our community, there is unique knowledge and valuable experience that we would love to see reflected in the Actions that we commit to in our RAP. Therefore, to ensure our RAP creates meaningful and sustainable change, we would like to seek your support. This article is a call to action for staff, parents/carers, students and community members to express their interest in helping to drive our RAP development and implementation journey.

If you would like to be involved in any way with the development and ongoing implementation of our RAP, including being part of the RAP Working Group or the RAP Support Network, please let us know by completing this RAP Google form.

To learn more about Reconciliation Australia’s Narragunnawali program and RAP development process, you may also like to visit: Reconciliation Australia's Narragunnawali Program.

The Oxford dictionary defines the word ‘gift’ as ‘a thing given willingly to someone without payment’.

From scriptural passages, Christians understand the spiritual gifts ‘to be enablements or capacities that are divinely bestowed upon individuals.’ 

The Oxford definition states ‘without payment’. There may not be payment as such with the Gifts of The Holy Spirit but there certainly is responsibility to use these gifts to serve God and others.

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are unique skills and abilities given by the Holy Spirit to faithful followers of Christ to serve God for the common benefit of his people, the Church.

In the Book of Isaiah 11:2-3, the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are described. In the passage the gifts are considered ones that the Messiah would have possessed. Through Jesus, we also receive the Gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Wisdom

Helps us recognize the importance of others and the importance of keeping God central in our lives.

Understanding

The ability to comprehend the meaning of God's message.

Knowledge

The ability to think about and explore God's revelation, and also to recognize there are mysteries of faith beyond us.

Counsel

The ability to see the best way to follow God's plan when we have choices that relate to him.

Fortitude

The courage to do what one knows is right.

Piety

Helps us pray to God in true devotion.

Fear of the Lord

Is the feeling of amazement before God, who is all-present, and whose friendship we do not want to lose.

If we want to let the Holy Spirit help lead our life and walk by the Spirit, it's a conscious choice we need to make each and every day. We pray that the Lord will fill us with His Spirit. We pray that we will walk by the Spirit. Then throughout our day, watch and listen for opportunities to obey the Spirit's promptings. I wonder if we spent even a short period of time in reflection, we could be able to come up with ways that these could be on show each and every day.

Recently I shared this article with my Catholic Studies students. In ‘Your Giftedness’, Fr Cavanaugh, discusses the gifts given to us by God and how we can use these gifts to serve Him.

If you can put aside ten minutes, it is well worth a read: Your Giftedness

Until next time………..

Let us open the doors to the Spirit, let ourselves be guided by him, and allow God's constant help to make us new men and women, inspired by the love of God which the Holy Spirit bestows on us!

How beautiful it would be if each of you, every evening, could say: Today at school, at home, at work, guided by God, I showed a sign of love towards one of my friends, my parents, an older person! How beautiful!

Pope Francis

Study Groups and Learning

The following is from our online Study Skills Handbook subscription and may be a useful conversational tool for students to engage with each in study groups for greater academic understanding.

Learning with other students can be a very powerful way to improve your learning outcomes. You might be sitting next to each other discussing what you are learning, or working together in a group online and sharing your screens, or giving a friend feedback about an assignment. There are many benefits to learning to work with other students.

MOTIVATION: Studying together can be much more motivating than studying on your own. Setting targets and working towards them together can help keep you focused on completing assignments. Often study done together is more active and engaging than studying on your own and this is much better for retention.

DEEPEN UNDERSTANDING: Discussing with a friend, being able to bounce ideas off each other, ask each other questions – all of these activities will help strengthen your neural networks and deepen your understanding of what you are learning. This can help to develop our higher order thinking skills.

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES: Sometimes we don’t realise that we are only looking at things in one particular way and there are different and diverse viewpoints to ours. Learning with a friend can help you see things in a different light and broaden your perspective. This can help develop our critical thinking skills. 

BUILD TEAMWORK SKILLS: Learning to cooperate, negotiate and problem solve with other people is a great skill to have in later life. By learning with other students you will have opportunities to learn to be a more active participant in group work and also develop communication and leadership skills.

STUDY SKILLS:

Visit www.studyskillshandbook.com.au to learn more about how you can make your life easier by being a more effective and efficient learner:

Username: stjohnpaul

Password: 89success

In addition, our subscription to Elevate Education may assist in this area.

This online platform contains resources and useful study tips that all SJPC students will find effective. We encourage them to access this Student Portal and try some of the strategies. Students have the password to this site. The password can also be found on the Curriculum Noticeboard.

James Furey
Assistant Principal
Learning and Teaching

HSC written examinations have begun!

Our Year 12 students have approached their first week of written exams in a positive and enthusiastic manner.

It is with mixed emotions that we see these young men and women completing the final stage of their secondary school journey with the SJPC community.

Year 11

Students have started the first term of their HSC pattern of study with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.  We have presented them with the HSC assessment information and protocols, and they have joined the 2021 HSC Curriculum Matters Google Classroom, through which all Curriculum and Careers information and support materials will be communicated.

Hopefully they have listened to our advice and set up their study area, and are organised for the next 12 months.

Students have access to the following online resources

1. Edrolo – Biology, Chemistry; Physics; Mathematics, Standard, Adv and Ex1; Business Studies; Legal Studies; Geography; CAFS; PDHPE; Ancient and Modern History; English Studies, Standard and Advanced
2. Study skills handbook Accessed via the Student Links page of the SJPC website
3. Elevate Portal (password RONDO)

I encourage all parents to ask their children to show them these resources. A number of students have already organised study groups and are meeting in the library Homework Centre. Well done!

Years 7 - 10

Students are just becoming aware that they are in their final term of schooling for the year.  Some are excited and others are a little nervous. We encourage all students to act on the learning goals they have set for this term. Semester 2 grades will be determined with reference to class work and tasks as per the continuum of learning model which we have adopted due to COVID 19.

Remember - a willingness to approach challenges in the classroom with a positive mindset, as well taking risks with learning in a supportive classroom will always improve an individual’s learning.

Claudia Brown
Leader of Curriculum

Year 10

Year 10 Pastoral Activities

On Wednesday morning during extended pastoral homeroom Year 10 had a pastoral activity that was just a bit different. They formed a big circle, took off their right shoe and threw it into the middle of the circle. The shoes were all shuffled up and students were then asked to collect a shoe and find the person who had their shoe. Lets just say we had a bit of fun with this activity.

We then played blind basketball where 10 students from each homeroom were blindfolded and the rest of the un-blindfolded homeroom members assisted them in scoring goals. As you could imagine not too many goals were scored but heaps of fun was had by all. Next pastoral session we will begin preparation for our Retreat in Week 8.

Mark Sultana
Year 10 Coordinator

This week, as part of our pastoral program, Year 10 took part in the NAPCAN Love Bites program that focuses on building and developing students’ understanding of respectful relationships.

Love Bites is a well-established, respected relationship program that has been presented in schools across Australia since 2003. Love Bites is an extremely successful school based domestic violence and assault prevention program that evolved on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Love Bites is facilitated by various agencies in the local community such as health, police, domestic violence services and education services. 

The day is delivered in three sessions focusing on a number of topics such as:

• Exploring what to do if relationships are unhealthy, how to talk about it, who to talk with, where to go.
• Exploring the concept of a bystander.
• Deconstructing the myths around Domestic and Family Violence.
• Understanding what consent is.
• How to support a friend and where to go for support.
• ART workshops

We wish to thank the local community for all their hard work presenting and also for the wonderful participation of our year 10 students.

Mark Sultana & Richard O'Connor
Year 10 Coordinator / Director of Pastoral Care

Year 10 Lifesaving

Year 10 PASS students travelled to Coffs Harbour Pool on Monday to practically apply their lifesaving knowledge. Most students achieved the award of Still Water Bronze. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t the best, however the student’s attitude and involvement was excellent throughout the day. A big thankyou to Mr Coster, Mrs Furey, Mr Gregson and our trainee Hunter Flanders for facilitating this experience.

Kurt Marle
Leader of Learning - PDHPE

Year 7 and 8 Sport

Sporting rotations for most Year 7 and 8’s will change in Week 3. The exception to this will be the Year 8 Boys, Year 7 Kelly and McAuley boys and girls. All other students are asked to review the overview attached to the newsletter or check the sports noticeboard for sporting venues next week.

Congratulations

Ausrae Harrison from Year 9 has been a talented athlete across many sports, even named the St John Paul College Sportswoman of the Year in 2019. Recently, in her sport of choice, Ausrae was selected to be part of the U21 Samoan National Netball training squad. We congratulate Ausrae and wish her well with the experience.

Coming up

13 November - Permission notes due for League Tag

27 November - League Tag, Coffs Harbour

Danielle McAra
Leader of Learning - Sport

This year, our school is participating in Socktober, a fun and educational program for our students to learn about key issues of mission and social justice and make a difference for young people in need around the world. Over the course of the next few weeks, all students will interact with stories of mission from this year’s focus country, Cambodia.  

As part of this program, we’ll be engaging with the Socktober Challenge, a learning program with activities and resources designed to be delivered in the classroom and also enjoyed at home. Over the next few weeks students and families will be invited to explore the themes of:

Compassion, Respect, Love, Enlightenment, Balance and Joy 

We will conclude the Challenge with another activity, a Penalty Shoot Out which will be held on St John Paul College Day (Thursday November 12th), again organised by the students of 7E as part of their Catholic Studies work. This activity combines the work of Socktober, Catholic Mission and the initiative started by Pope Francis four years ago called Sport at The Service of Humanity. The money raised from both the Crazy Sock Day and the Penalty Shoot Out will help to support the work of Catholic Mission, an organisation which works tirelessly to break the cycle of poverty to promote the God-given gift of human dignity for all. 

REGISTRATION

In between the school-based activities, families are encouraged to get involved by registering your child/ren as a Socktober Star. Please be sure to register your child now using this link: Soctober Fundraising - SJPC Coffs Harbour  Should you choose, you might want to consider helping your child set a target and fundraise for vulnerable children around the world to access food, education, healthcare, and pastoral support. 

Once registered, students can ask their friends and families to sponsor them as they complete the activities in the Socktober Challenge and shoot goals on SJPC Day. Below are some examples of what our sponsorship money can provide for children in Cambodia.

$30 can help purchase food, school uniforms and books for kindergarten children in Cambodia.

$75 can help towards purchasing sports equipment for children with disabilities in Cambodia. 

$393 can go towards the costs of medical support and physiotherapy for children with disabilities in Cambodia.

We are very excited about our mission journey with students over the coming weeks and hope that all our families will get involved this year! 

Caroline Doyle
Leader of Learning – Catechesis

SJPC Inaugural St Vincent de Paul Handball Tournament

Summary and Results

Term 3 saw the inaugural SJPC Handball tournament instituted and the response from students and staff was astounding. 203 participants signed on to showcase their talent on the asphalt, win prizes and raise over $200 to support the great work of the St Vincent de Paul Society here in Coffs Harbour. For two weeks the courts ran hot with a vast array of handball talent, plenty of sweat, some tears and the occasional skinned knee. 

But there could only be one winner from each category and Grand Final day did not disappoint. 

The stage was set with maintenance crew building a ‘colosseum like’ stadium befitting of the hype to play the finals. Students queued up to purchase their tickets after the ticketek website collapsed due to unprecedented demand for seats.

Finally everyone was seated and enjoyed ‘the cream’ of SJPC Handball talent putting their wares on show.  The skill and sportsmanship between participants was outstanding with highlights being not only the commentary and 1980s ‘pump up’ music….’My Sharona…..!’  but also the showmanship of the (self titled) ‘People's Champion’ representing the Maintenance crew, none other than ‘Rogan ‘Tricky’ Hickey’. Always the consummate professional, he’d been training out in the back blocks of the school behind the maintenance shed and was prepared for the biggest moment of his professional handball life. The suspense and the excitement was tangible as he arrived chained to the back of the maintenance cart dressed in -high vis’ and wearing a Gas mask, like blinkers on a thoroughbred. With the support of his entourage, he was unchained, removed from the golf cart, given a quick pep talk, a spray of water in the face and then unleashed on centre court. Unfortunately for the crowd, ‘The Peoples Champion’ was narrowly defeated by the new recruit to the PDHPE faculty, Doug ‘The Cadillac’ Colwell in a ‘ding dong’ affair that will be spoken about for generations to come!

Thanks must go to all participants, we look forward to another great tournament next year - so get practicing!

Emma ‘make my day’ Dart plays a forehand back to eventual Yr 10 Female Champion Rebeccah ‘off the’ Leichman!

The crowd watches on with bated breath as Casey ‘Nobody’ Alexander sets up a winner against Bennet ‘he got’ Reech.

Jillian ‘got the knack’ Clack bamboozles Tanya ‘slamin’ Slaviaro with a sneaky backhand slider. They embrace after their titanic struggle.

The People's Champion, Rogan ‘tricky’ Hickey arrives in disguise as the tension builds before the male staff final.

Rogan ‘tricky’ Hickey is primed for his ‘bout’ by his support team Kris ‘Crusher’ Kent and Rod ‘Rocket’ Abbott

There can only be one winner! Doug ‘the cadillac’ Coldwell has his had raised in trumph to claim the male staff title with a win over ‘The People’s Champion’, Rogan ‘Tricky’ Hickey.

Tim Davis
Teacher

Office

Year 7 Vaccinations (2nd round) will be held Friday 30 October. Students please remember to bring your drink bottle with you when your class is called.

Finance

Top End Safari 2021

The next Top End Safari 2021 monthly repayment is due on 30th October, which should leave you with a balance owing of $825.

Elective Fees and Foundation Levy 2020

Paul Corsalini
Careers Adviser