At St John’s we have a very clear focus on peaceful and just relationships and central to our focus are the catholic social teachings of the Life and Dignity of the Human Person.

The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. This belief is the foundation of all the principles of our social teaching. We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution or society is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.

Whilst we focus on upskilling our young people in how to build relationships based on peaceful and right interactions we engage our young people with social justice to heighten their awareness of ‘right’ relationships. As a Christian community we embed our actions in those of Jesus. In the face of violence and abuse, Jesus instinctually sees, judges and acts in a way that we can aspire to. 

His actions include:

• intervention into a situation that is unjust and risky
• solidarity with the victim as he stands beside them
• confrontation and challenge towards those holding power at the time
• kindness and forgiveness to the victim

Here at St John’s our staff and students are very active in their authentic engagement with social justice. They have long established groups such as Vinnies and PAX which meet each week and work to both raise awareness and funds for suitable causes. There are also many focus campaigns that they engage the whole school with. Over the last term they have been raising funds and goods for Vinnies with hot chocolate sales in the morning and ‘Bring a Can’ food collection. They have also collected goods for SAHSSI Shoalhaven for the women’s shelter. 

Social Justice Sunday is this coming Sunday 28 August.

The Australian Bishops' Social Justice Statement is launched on the last Sunday in August each year. The theme of this statement for 2022-23 is RESPECT: Confronting Violence and Abuse.

The President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Archbishop Timothy Costelloe SDB outlines the premise for the statement in his forward as we continue as a Catholic community to respond to the signs of the times.

“In recent years we have witnessed a new wave of campaigns to confront violence and abuse. We have heard new calls for respect in relationships. Many have spoken out to highlight the extent of abuse throughout society – in the home, in the workplace, and in various groups in the community, including the Church. Those who suffer such abuse are most frequently women and children while the perpetrators are most frequently men. But no matter who suffers such violence, and who perpetrates it, the damage to the lives of the victims and survivors of such abuse is real, destructive, and long-lasting.

The virtue of solidarity challenges us to support those who are seeking justice in the face of such widespread violence. The teaching of Christ urges us to promote relationships marked by respect and freedom rather than coercion and control. The message of the Gospel is not a message of domination of one person over another but a message of mutual esteem and kindness.”

The link to the Statement and other resources can be found here. 

 

BISHOP'S STUDENT EXCELLENCE AWARDS

We are honoured to announce Jade Poulton of Year 12, as a worthy recipient of a 2022 Bishop’s Student Excellence Award for outstanding schooling achievements and contributions.

Jade, McCabe's House Captain has also volunteered in several PAX social justice and Vinnies Youth initiatives to support others as well as mentoring Junior Drama students. Jade also displayed exceptional leadership qualities in developing the period poverty program to make sanitary items available in the girls’ bathrooms and has made significant contributions through her Youth Ministry Leadership role in 2021.

Jade's contributions are held in such high regard, she has been asked to speak to a CEDoW panel to help guide their Gender Equity Committee.

Congratulations Jade, we are extremely proud of your achievements and grateful for the positive contributions you make to St John’s and the wider community. Jade's citation of accomplishments may be found below;

Jade is a student who has embodied commitment to excellence both within the school and the broader local community. Jade demonstrates a commitment to her faith by involvement in school liturgies, prayer and previously as a Youth Ministry Leader which has had a positive impact on her peers and school community.

Jade is a young person dedicated to her learning as reflected in her admirable school report learning profiles and outstanding academic achievement across all HSC subject areas.

As a member of the St John’s community Jade has displayed commitment to ensuring the dignity of every person is respected both within and beyond the community as Jesus taught us. This has been exemplified by her involvement as a long running member of the PAX (Peace, Advocacy and Acceptance) social justice group at the school. Jade has also been a strong supporter of Vinnies Youth and the St Vincent de Paul Christmas and Winter Appeals.

As McCabe House Captain Jade has demonstrated outstanding school spirit seen through her involvement in school sports carnivals, working bees and in volunteering her time to mentor junior students in Drama.

Through her efforts to promote period poverty amongst the school community, Jade initiated the collection of sanitary items at school which are made available to all female students in the girls bathrooms. Jade presented this issue at a whole school assembly and then worked collaboratively with others to get the initiative running, displaying excellent leadership qualities.

As evidenced by her extensive involvement in the life of St John’s Jade is a worthy recipient of this award. 

Mrs Sandra Hogan

Principal

YEAR 11 YEARLY EXAMS

Year 11 will have their Yearly Exams in Week 8, from Monday 5 to Friday 9 September. During this time Year 11 have flexible attendance however they are not to leave school grounds in between if they have two exams on the same day. Students are most welcome to use the school library to study; they just need to sign in at the library. When arriving or leaving school for exams students are not required to sign in at the front office. 

It is important that students are well prepared for these exams. Teachers will guide them with their study and they will have an exam practice in the hall before exam week. During this time students will be reminded of exam rules and procedures. 

In the event of an illness or misadventure the school process must be followed. This is in accordance with the recently released NESA guidelines. It is important that if a student is not attending an exam that the school is contacted before the start of the exam. 

Exam timetables have been provided to students and their parents/carers and may also be found on our school website (beneath the Curriculum tab) or by clicking here.

OOAAA AWARDS

MATHS 200 CLUB WINNERS

At this week's assembly, Mrs Lisa Murphy, our Curriculum Coordinator, talked about the culture of St John's, a culture that is inclusive, supportive and welcoming to everyone. At our year meeting, we talked about how Year 7 does and can contribute to that culture in our actions and words. Each week at our meetings, the PALS team identifies students who have made positive contributions to the culture of Year 7 and St John's. Some of the students we have recognised are listed below:

Mrs Isemonger’s 7PDHJ class who made sure all students were included in an activity and that no one was left out - and I didn’t even have to ask them - they just automatically did it! - Because that is what we do at St John's!

YEAR 7 CONNECT COURSE 

As part of our pastoral program and to support students with skills and knowledge so that they can support themselves and others, all Year 7 students take part in the Connect course. This is a semesterised course - half of Year 7 completed the course first semester and the other half is currently doing the course.

Topics that are covered by the course include: gratitude, dealing with change, risk taking, resilience, friendship, trust, communication, challenge and mindset. Below are some comments/quotes taken from students who are participating in the connect course.

I am always grateful to be the Year 7 Coordinator at St John's.

With “Gracious Hearts and strong minds”

Mrs Wendy Isemonger 

Year 7 Coordinator

WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN PDHPE ELECTIVES?

YEAR 11 PDHPE: OUTDOOR REC HIKE 

On 28th and 29 July, 29 Year 11 PDHPE students and 4 staff members attended a two day hike. The hike was essential for successfully completing the outdoor recreation option.

On day one, group one was dropped off at Kioloa boat ramp and walked North to South for 13km. Group two was dropped off half an hour away from group one and walked a total of 8km which included muddy bush-bashing.

At 3pm, group one and two met at Pebbly Beach and set up camp for the night. Highlights for day one include the many leeches, Mr Higgins love for the outdoors, Charly’s food poisoning, the never ending list of Jack’s and Finn and Ms Frew’s metho contaminated dinner. 

 

At Pebbly Beach, the students spent time setting up their tarps, making fires, cooking dinner and cleaning up. The night ended with a few games including the chicken game, music game, where can the magic bus go and what did Mr Ellul buy from woolies?

Day two was an early morning start and the students set off at 7:30am. Group Two walked South to North for 13km. Group One walked North to South for 8km. Group One finished a few hours early and ended the hike with hot chips at Kioloa. The bus picked up Group One first followed by Group Two. The students and staff returned to school at 2pm on Friday afternoon. 

Paris Gauci, Byron Trethewey & Izabela Komadina

YEAR 11 EXPLORING EARLY CHILDHOOD WORK PLACEMENT 

Year 11 EEC have recently completed 4 days work placement in local childcare centres and primary schools.

This allowed the students an invaluable opportunity to put theory into practice. We are very grateful to the 10 local centres and educators that shared their knowledge and passion for education of young people with our students.

The students all came back with positive experiences and reflections which have been included below.

We would like to thank the following centres and schools for being so welcoming for our students and for providing them with an amazing first hand experience into the education of young children.

• • Greenwell Point Public School
  • Bright Minds Academy South Nowra
  • Kangaroo Valley Preschool
  • Natural Play Children's Centre Berry
  • Pelican Point Long Day Care Centre St Georges Basin
  • St Michael’s Primary School
  • Arwons Little Angels child care Centre Nowra
  • North Nowra Preschool
  • Echidna Early Learning Centre
  • North Nowra Primary School

YEAR 11 SPORT, LIFE AND RECREATION 

YEAR 10 CHILD STUDIES 

BUSHCRAFT

Our awesome Year 10 Bushcraft classes are currently finishing off our Rockcraft unit and moving onto Land Conservation and Management.

Students have learnt to tie several new knots including the Super Munter, Figure 8 on the Bight, the Munter-mule Overhand and many more. The classes used these skills to learn how to rig climbs and apply knots in a range of different scenarios for safety and efficiency.

They also learnt how to climb and abseil safely. This included our safety calls, climbing techniques, equipment management, what to do in an emergency etc.

The last technique the students will be learning is vertical mobility i.e. learning to move up and down a rope using Prussiks.

 

We have only just commenced our Land Management and Conservation unit, but the students are already hard at work planning lessons on how we can tackle local issues near our school.

The photos below are from a recent lesson where we took on the garbage in and around our school. This is the simplest form of Land Management, but is often one of the most neglected. The garbage bags seen in the photos below were mostly collected from the back oval. This highlights the big change we all need to make in being responsible for our waste.

Mrs Rachel Frew

PDHPE Coordinator

On Friday 19 August, four of our senior JAG leaders had the opportunity to attend the 2022 Sustainability in Schools Conference at Edmund Rice College, Wollongong. The theme for this year’s conference was “Use energy right, keep the future bright”.

In the lead up to the day, St John's students took data on our school’s energy usage. On the day, we were able to present our findings and compare these with the findings of other schools from around NSW. There were a number of guest speakers including Lara Pugh and Carl Hopley from Wollongong City Council, Kylie Flament from Green Connect and Logie winning host of Gardening Australia, Costa Georgiadis. This was a fantastic collaborative day and a great leadership opportunity for the St John's JAG students and we thank Edmund Rice College for hosting this event again in 2022. 

Student reflections of the day: 

Ms Amy Freshwater

JAG Coordinator

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