A “BIG” YEAR AT ST JOHN’S

St John’s is characterised by the peaceful nature of our school community however it is the ‘busyness’ that is St John’s indicates that we are a vibrant community and so many of our young people are getting involved in the diverse opportunities that we provide.

During the year there are stories of outstanding sporting achievements and at other times stories of teams that gave their best and had a wonderful time, even though they didn’t win a game. They have shared the joy they have felt at just doing it!

We have celebrated so many individual achievements including:

• Saxon Perry, representing Australia in the World Lego Competition and the Girls Senior Football team winning the NSW Semi-finals 4-1 to qualify for the State Grand Final

• The Duke of Edinburgh Award was achieved by Christian Page, Massimo Copeta, Grace Lewis, McKayla Smith and Cameron Rakow.

• Our musicians have performed and our dance troupe have enthralled us. And Noah Egan and Alex Robertson aka ‘The Debbies’ shared their story about how they came to be in the final five in the Triple J Unearthed National Competition and then invited to play at the Yours and Owls Festival whilst Finn Lochrin starred as Aladdin in the recent Shoalhaven musical production

• Pallas Retimina, Lilly and Rebecca have discussed their work on the Shoalhaven City’s Youth Advisory Committee

• Many of our Year 11 students shared their stories of immersing themselves in the life of the Timorese people and building some very special relationships on their Timor Trip.

We have celebrated outstanding results in all sorts of academic competitions from Maths, Science and English to coding and STEM. In fact over the last couple of weeks we have heard about the STEM Day for Year 9 and the teams of students from St John’s who placed first in a Shoalhaven competition, flying paper planes they constructed over the longest distance. 

Year 8-10 girls engaged in the Tradeswomen Skills Workshops held right here at school. 

The SJE News Network team produced four great episodes of truly local news, in fact they brought the stories of St John’s to St John’s in the most professional manner and we watched them right here as a school community.

We also commissioned Year 11 students to become the Youth Ministry Leaders to raise our awareness of our opportunities to deepen our spirituality. 

Each assembly in the hall, we have been welcomed by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students with the didgeridoo and clapsticks followed by an Acknowledgement of Country, and then we have joined together in prayer. 

We have finished our assemblies by celebrating the outstanding achievements of our Year 7 and 8 Maths students in Maths Pathways and watched the names go up of students in each year nominated for an OOAAA (Often Outstanding, Always Amazing Award) award, waiting in eager anticipation for the announcement of the winners of the canteen vouchers. 

Our sporting successes have included;

• Beau and Keira Buckpitt: Represented at National Junior Surf Titles 
• Sam Colgate selected in the under 16 Illawarra Steelers Rugby League
• Aroha Spillane representing internationally in Rugby 
• Caleb Cook competing in the National Mountain Bike competition
• Jack Callaghan played basketball with the NSW team touring the USA whilst Byron Osgood played football in Brazil
• Kirra Dale in the Australian Surf Life Saving Championships in Perth
• Bailee Holland, Matthew Page and Will Maher placed in the top 3 at State CCC Athletics
• George Broome and Matthew Fabreschi finishing in the top 3 of the Australian Fire Cadet Championships
• Our Equestrian team shared the pictures of the day they won the interschool championships.
• Aroha Spillane, Freya Robinson-Mills, Koby Hantis, Baylee Holland, James and Sophie Phillips and Keira Buckpitt were selected as 7 of just 23 nominees for the prestigious Bernie Regan Sporting Awards.

And very locally the Year 11 students 'got lucky' on the volleyball court beating the teachers.

This year there have been many other special events including the stories about;

• Year 7 and 9 camp
• Foundation day, as always
• Retreats and Reflection days
• We had our own NAIDOC celebration and the impressive ANZAC Day assembly with our students joining ANZAC Day and Sorry Day marches in the Shoalhaven
• The Pax group collected hundreds of signatures creating a tree of leaves displaying statements of what human rights means to each of them
• We sent messages of hope and love directly to Christchurch after the massacre, all hand delivered by Pallas Retimana
• Our Year 10 students deepened their understanding of other cultures by sharing a day of stories, culture and food with guest speakers and the Muslim students from Amity College
• We celebrated our own Indonesian and French days
• JAG (Johnnie’s Action Group) group further developed a ‘sustainable food’ garden near the oval
• Our dancers performed in many competitions finishing with numerous incredible  production and performance awards, as well as Regional Champions of the Shoalhaven Wakakirri
• Our performers won the Arcadian Award for the best school production for all schools in the Illawarra and South Coast with the production of  ‘Spontaneous Human Combustion’ and more recently delighted us with the  EAT Theatre Group production of ‘The Girl who Cried Wolf’ 
• Our school band has grown with such a rich sound now
• And how we all loved the school carnivals.

Last  week we would have also heard about the students and staff who attend the Australian Catholic Youth festival in Perth and the St John’s Choir and band perform Christmas carols and deliver handmade cards at the Jonathon Rogers nursing home in Nowra.

In the classroom we have developed Learning Intentions and Success Criteria for each lesson and in all our fields tried not to settle for mediocrity,  celebrating hard work and success. It is said;

'Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better'- Pat Riley

So by keeping our expectations high and supporting and encouraging each other we have witnessed excellence.  

Not the least of which was shown in the outstanding results of our HSC students. 

Many of our students were identified as amongst the best in the state with their nomination for excellence;

• Olivia Delahenty and Morgan Dootson were nominated for ON Stage for their HSC musical performances

• Two of our drama teams and five individuals, Lulu Clarke, Morgan Dootson, Caleb Pearman, Sophie Phillips and Makenzie Veale for their drama performances

• Patrick Dowers Year 12 Design & Technology project designing and constructing a self-inflating tyre pressure regulator was selected as a People’s Choice entry in the University of Canberra’s competition

• Sandralise Allotta received a prestige award at the Shoalhaven Vocational and Educational Training awards

• Lara Jamieson, Zali Everingham, Amber Edmunds Lowe, Alexander Robertson and Olivia Delahenty were selected to display their Year 12 Visual Arts Body of Works in the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery ‘New Horizons’ 2020 exhibition of exemplary works.

They achieved this, not from ‘just working hard in Year 12, but working hard in each and everything they have done from Years 7 to 12 here at St John's. 

Makenzie Veale is the Dux for 2019 and further acknowledgements of HSC success are provided within our Curriculum section of this newsletter. 

Congratulations to each of our students for the times they have challenged themselves and supported others to do so. Thank you to everyone who has shared their talents with our community, we have felt honoured to have witnessed your light shining.

Well now it’s time to take a rest.

Have a peaceful and Holy Christmas and may the Peace of Christ go with you on your holiday break and we look forward to doing it all again with a whole lot more next year!

PRESENTATION ASSEMBLY

It was so wonderful to have such a great number of parents,carers and friends join us for both the school’s Advent Mass and Presentation of Awards. The Year 8 students not only prepared a most beautiful celebration of the Eucharist, they also provided hospitality for guests. They excelled in both and made everyone feel so very welcome. 

Congratulations to our award winners and to every student who has commit to their best throughout this year. Deciding awards is often a great challenge with so many students not only working hard in their studies but also engaging in the school community to make a positive difference.

Mrs. Sandra Hogan

Principal

YEAR 12 ART STUDENT SUCCESS

2019 has been an incredible year for our Creative and Performing Arts students with many outstanding achievements including;

• Arcadian Theatre’s Best School Play of the Year
• Regional Overall Winners and the achievement of 9 Performance and Production Awards in the Nationwide Wakakirri Storydance Competition
• 7 students nominated for possible inclusion in the HSC Onstage including 2 group performances and 5 individual performances
• 2 students nominated for possible inclusion in a selection of performances and compositions from HSC Music to perform in Sydney
• 2 students finishing in the top 5 of 1,500 entries in Triple J’s Nationwide song competition
• A Year 12 2020 Drama student shortlisted to the top 20 of 200 entrants from across Australia for the John Bell Shakespeare Regional Scholarship.

  

Adding to this success, is the announcement of an incredible five Year 12 students being selected to display their Year 12 Body of Works in the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery ‘New Horizons’ 2020 exhibition of exemplary works.

Congratulations to Lara Jamieson, Zali Everingham, Amber Edmunds Lowe, Alexander Robertson and Olivia Delahenty.

YEAR 12 GRADUATION DINNER

Graduation celebrations took place on Monday 18 November with Year 12 students and their families attending Bomaderry Bowling Club. Thank you to Emma Davis for providing students with an amazing and delicious cake and to all those who assisted in making it a memorable and enjoyable experience.

We wish to congratulate our Year 12 students on the completion of their Higher School Certificate and commend them on their outstanding conduct throughout their schooling.

Year 12 Formal Photographs may be downloaded from the following link, using the password: Johns19.

https://elle1389.wixsite.com/st-johns-formal--1

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and New Year!

Mr. Nick Garner

Year 12 Coordinator

It has been a long term for Year 12 2020 students and some students may be feeling

like they will never make it to the end of the HSC but as Nelson Mandela says in his quote;

“It is always impossible until it is done”. 

So while it is important that during the Christmas holidays students have the opportunity to re-charge ready for the continuation of their HSC year next year, it is also important that they use this time to make some study resources so when they come back to school next year they are starting the year on the front foot as opposed to the back foot.

Dot point summaries, podcast, palm cards, posters etc. are resources the students could be making to aid with their study next year. I know this sounds like a contradiction - telling students to re-charge on one hand and then study on the other but the HSC is a balancing act between work, physical wellbeing, social wellbeing and community. It is about “rewarding yourself with the things you do enjoy as an incentive for completing the things you don’t.”

At this time of giving thanks, I would like to thank the wonderful cohort of students that have welcomed me as their Year Coordinator. It is a pleasure being the Year Coordinator and I am looking forward to continuing the journey. I would also like to thank the PALS team: Ms Cooper, Mrs Chittick, Mrs Frew, Mr Jakimyszyn, Mrs Gray, Ms Prayetno, Mrs Fulop, Mr Chard, Mrs Blades, Mrs Woodall, Mr Gould and Miss Lee for the support and time they have devoted to their PALS group.

I wish everyone and peaceful and happy Christmas.

Mrs. Wendy Isemonger

Year 11 Coordinator

Year 11 (Year 12 2020) have been working on assessment tasks up to the end of term. Their workload will continue over the holidays with their English teachers prescribing holiday homework and reading.

Year 12 Advanced English will be reading ‘An Artist of the Floating World’ and Year 12 Standard English will be required to read their text ‘Unpolished Gem' during the holidays. We encourage you to support your child by discussing this with them and checking in on their reading progress.

 

Years 7 and 8 have been busy with their end of year spelling bee. The finals were held this week and our winners are:

 

 

The summer break is a wonderful time to get your children reading. Take a look at what’s on your home bookshelf or visit your local library. The smaller Shoalhaven communities have a mobile library service - see this link for information - 

https://www.shoalhavenlibraries.com.au/ShoalhavenLibraries/mobile-timetable-2020.pdf

Not only is reading relaxing and enjoyable, it increases your child’s vocabulary, enabling them to be better writers.

We wish all of our families a peaceful and safe Christmas.

Mrs. Kathy Woodall

Acting English Coordinator

THANK YOU TO WAMINDA!

St John's is very grateful to Waminda for the donation of two beautiful books for our school. They are Dark Emu and Young Dark Emu by Bruce Pasco. These books present a different view of Australian history, using explorer and colonists diaries to show a different history of Aboriginal people in Australia. The books cite many examples of, and references to farming, engineering and large villages, which challenge the view that Aboriginal people were hunter-gatherers.

 

These will be a very valuable resource for our school library and we are certain that students will gain deep learning and understanding from reading them. They will be available for loan from the school library in 2020. We thank Waminda for the support of our school community.

Mrs. Jenni Allchin

Library Coordinator

On Thursday 5 December students from Year 9 & 10 demonstrated their paper plane building skills competing in teams against various local Public and Private schools in the inaugural Plane Simple Competition held at the new Shoalhaven Indoor Sports Centre.

Our teams were extremely successful taking out first place in both the Senior (Year 10-11) and Junior (Year 7-9) categories of distance flown achieving lengths of 21.6m and 26.77m. Our Junior team also achieved third place for the time in flight category with 6.2seconds. Well done to;

Year 9: Mayson Griffith, Darci Edwards, Abby Davies

Year 10: Saxon Perry, JD Talty, Brooke Smith, Joshua Alcock

ST JOHN’S WINS BEST SCHOOL PLAY OF THE YEAR
Congratulations to our Creative and Performing Arts Staff and students in achieving another amazing accomplishment!

Our 2019 production of Spontaneous Human Combustion has been awarded Arcadians Theatre Best School Play of the Year!

This is a significant award as it covers all schools, public and private, in the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands.

This is the NINTH TIME IN A ROW St John's have won this award, demonstrating our excellence in Drama and a wonderful acknowledgement of the talent, dedication and hard work of our students and Creative and Performing Arts team! 

STUDENTS REPRESENT IN PERTH

Year 10 students Jaismine Bhangu, Shayliegh Chambers, Elise Irvine, Joshua Le, Eilish Norwood and Nicholas Roberts recently represented our school and the Wollongong Diocese at the Australian Catholic Youth Festival in Perth.

The festival is a national gathering of Catholic young people, established by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC) to provide young people with opportunities to deepen their relationship with Jesus, be empowered to be disciples in the world today and encounter and celebrate the vitality of the Church in Australia.

Our students enjoyed familiarising themselves with the West Coast, spending time at the beach, attending lively plenaries, workshops, interviews, activities, a Mass at St Joseph's led by our very own Bishop Brian and even a photo with Bishop Comensoli!

View more about this experience on https://www.dow.org.au/news/

RECORD BREAKING EFFORT

Congratulations to Year 8 student Tsar Mandavy shining at the Mid South Coast Zone Athletics Championships in Albion Park last weekend. Tsar achieved 6 gold medals and also broke records in the 300m hurdles (45.82) and high jump (1.77m). 

SPREADING CHRISTMAS CHEER

A beautiful way to end the year with our Junior Choir joining Miss Baker (a.k.a Santa) to surprise our classes with Christmas carols on Friday!

OUR STUDENTS DELIGHT THE ELDERLY

Our Christmas Choir and Concert Band delivered joy to the residents of Jonathon Rogers Nursing Home last week by performing and singing carols together as well as delivering personalised Christmas cards.

We are incredibly proud of our Vinnies group students who dedicated their lunch breaks to making cards and to our performing students for their amazing efforts and positive interactions and care shown to the elderly.

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY

In raising awareness about Human Rights for International Human Rights Day our PAX group created a Human Rights tree, displaying house colours as leaves.
Our PALS groups each contributed a leaf displaying statements of what Human Rights mean to them with students wishing for peace, justice, equality and dignity for all.

With 10 December marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, celebrated as International Human Rights Day each year, our PAX groups worked towards promoting peace and advocacy by organising petitions for students to sign, advocating against Human Rights violations towards 10 young individuals around the world. Over 250 signatures were collected in support of these people and the injustices done towards them.

Thank you to our fabulous volunteers who have assisted in our school canteen this year. We wish you a wonderful and safe Christmas and look forward to seeing you next year.

Our school canteen will be re-open with a full menu, over the counter and online orders from Wednesday 29 January, 2020.

Click here to submit an online lunch order

Click here to view the Canteen Menu

Click here to view the canteen roster for Term 1, 2020

Keeping in touch with the Catholic Primary Schools within the Shoalhaven District.

Please select below links to the Shoalhaven Catholic Primary Schools websites.

St Michael's Primary School

St Mary's Star of the Sea Primary School