Canteen Menu

Dear Parents/Guardians,

WELCOME BACK TO TERM 3

Each day we hear of more cases of Covid 19 infections – and we listen for the locations and can see that he South-West area of Sydney is in the firing line. We all need to be vigilant and follow health advice. At John Therry we are taking all precautions to keep the students and Staff safe. 

The next ten weeks will be the last ones full of learning for our Year 12 students. Surely no other graduating group has had such a difficult journey in their end of schooling in Year 10 and 11. The positivity and shared sense of care is clearly visible in so many of these students as they go about preparing for a future that is unclear with covid affecting things. With the Universities trying to be as normal as possible, in the light of diminished numbers of overseas students, more university places will be available for local students. 

Term 3 in a school’s life is always one where mixed emotion’s exist. The sadness at seeing the graduating class come to an end of their formal schooling and leaving the community, is mixed with the excitement of badging new College leaders.  Both our Year 11 group and our Year 12 group are wonderful students. 

We wish our Year 12 students all the very best for the trial HSC Exams that commence next Monday. These are the major preparatory opportunity for students to experience HSC conditions and timings. 

FEAST OF ST MARY OF THE CROSS MACKILLOP – August 8th

Mary MacKillop was born in 1842 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. On 8 August 1909, she died, having suffered a disabling stroke in 1902. Inspired by a meeting with Fr. Julian Tenison-Woods, Mary MacKillop took her vows at the age of twenty five, and the religious name, “Mary of the Cross”. In doing so, she founded the congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph. Soon after taking her religious vows, Mary MacKillop founded several schools. Within five years of taking her vows and founding the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Mary had established over thirty schools in South Australia. By that time, more than one hundred women had joined the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

Mary MacKillop was very conscious of the plight of the poor and needy. She worked with families that lived in isolated areas of Australia. As a result, Mary MacKillop pioneered a new form of religious life in Australia, and commenced a “system” of “Josephite” schools that would provide education, especially for the children of the poor. In 1873, Pope Pius IX gave Papal approval for the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph.

Even today, many Australians can say that they too have felt the impact of the enormous work started by St. Mary of the Cross (MacKillop), having been educated or cared for, by the Sisters of Saint Joseph. She was noted for her trust in the providence of God and miracles of healing have been attributed to her. She was declared a Saint by Pope Benedict XVI on the 17th October 2010. In January 2013, St Mary of the Cross (MacKillop) was declared by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, to be the Second Patron Saint of Australia. This means that Australia now has two Patron Saints: Mary Help of Christians and St. Mary of the Cross (MacKillop). 

NAIDOC ASSEMBLY

Last week the College celebrated the annual NAIDOC assembly. This assembly was a celebration of our first peoples nd the culture. Congratulations to those students who received awards and to the singers, digeridoo players and dancers. It was a wonderful event with special guests Sr Kerry, Uncle Ivan Wellington and Uncle Dave in attendance along with Catholic Education Office staff. 

LOWES UNIFORM PRICES

We have been informed by Lowes that the costs involved in the manufacture of our college uniforms has risen along with most other cost of living expenses. 

As such from the commencement of Term 4 there will be a price rise. Most items are rising by $1.00 but some will be slightly greater than this, up to $5.00. A new price list will be pulished to all parents when we receive it. 

This week Year 7 wanted to embrace the Marist value of "Family Spirit" and thank Year 12 as well as wish them good luck for their trial exams. Early in Term 1, Year 12 welcomed the new cohort with a BBQ and engaged in conversations about the time so far in secondary school. Year 7 were incredibly thankful for their display of "Family Spirit" that they wanted to repay the favour and create personalised cards with motivational messages as well as 'Believe' pop-out cards. After receiving these messages, the Year 12 students went on a mission to find the creators of their messages and to thank them personally

The W.I.S.E club is made up of female students in year 10 interested in science and engineering. At the end of last term the girls competed round 1 of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Neuroscience brain bee competition. The UNSW brain bee challenge is tailored to engage students in understanding neuroscience and how it affects us. Isabella Nunes was successful in obtaining a position in the top 50 competitors within NSW. Unfortunately, Vivienne Dos Santos missed out by only 1% but was given the opportunity to attend the UNSW Brain bee competition state finals as a support for Isabella.

On the 24th of June, 2022 Isabella Nunes, Vivienne Dos Santos and their teacher Miss Jessica Coventry attended UNSW for the state finals. Once at the University of New South Wales, Isabella left to compete in the state finals whilst Miss Coventry and Vivienne explored the university. After this and a quick morning tea break the girls got to engage with a range of PhD students telling us about their research and how they got interested in Neuroscience. Additionally the afternoon provided the students with the opportunity to interact with a neuroscience workshop and explore the National Disease Museum. The neuroscience workshop allowed Vivienne and Isabella to understand how the brain works through simulating different scenarios and observing the outcomes. Throughout this experience the W.I.S.E club had the opportunity to explore, investigate and become scientists for the day.

The Personal Development, Health and Physical Education Faculty have been busy this year in a wide variety of different activities. Below are a few examples of the students in action.

Year 11 SLR Gymnastics

Year 8 PDHPE Initiatives Challenge

Year 11 PDHPE Fitness Testing

This term has been very busy with many events being back on for Face to Face attendance.

As part of the leadup to Y10 Subject selection, there have been a number of events both at and outside School. These have included:
• KLA Subject Talks
• A Transition and Pathways Session Focusing on Making good choices.
• The Y10 WSU Fast Forward Day at the Campbelltown Campus.
• The Y10 Careers Expo Day at Menangle

WSU Fast Forward Day

Careers Expo Day

Industry Trades Day

A group of 20 students from Y10,11&12 attended an Industry Day at St. Francis where a range of Talks and exhibits were available. The students attended 6 sessions over the day which were a combination of Talks and Interaction with the various Industries.

Year 11 Future Me Program

This program for Y11 was run during the Pastoral Time on the 9th June. The UOW, Liverpool team, ran sessions in small groups using student Mentors.

The Topics covered included:

• Pathways into university: they provided examples of different paths they had taken
• Support systems while at university
• University readiness

Year 12 UOW Wollongong Talk

This was held on Tuesday 28th June during the afternoon study time. Areas covered included:

Pathways to University
Different Campuses
Early Entry
Alternate Entry
UOW College
and more.

This has been a busy term with TaPP sessions for years 7, 8, 9 & 10 as well as all the sessions mentioned above. Look out for the Careers Newsletter which is issued in emails and on Compass.

Next term will be the last for Year 12 who will be looking at all the options available after the HSC.
I hope this term has been rewarding and informative for all students and parents.

Regards

Mr Margerison

We have had some misunderstanding regarding hair expectations and we thought it important to clarify this. The hair expectation is that there are not to be extreme variations in length, including rats tails, mullets, skullets and undercuts. The photos below are examples of hairstyles that do not meet school expectation. Please see the below message regarding uniform expectations for hair as published at the beginning of the year in our School newsletter for further clarification.

John Therry sets and expects the highest standards for uniform. There are many reasons and benefits to this, and our parent body overwhelmingly value and support these expectations. We have also worked with parents and students to make changes to our uniform policy to meet more contemporary expectations, including the inclusion of girls pants, and adjustments to our rule for boys hair length to allow longer hair to be tied back. We have been clear that for boys hair, extreme variations in length is not accepted and this includes styles like mullets, rats tails, lines shaved into hair and undercuts. Over the first few weeks of school, students have been given some grace time to have this rectified. Students that still have hairstyles outside expectations that are not rectified will be given a letter to have their hair fixed before returning to school. This includes a trend for students who comb over their rats tails, but then take it out once outside of school. Students that are seen in their school uniform, inside or outside of school with these hairstyles will need to have their hair cut. We appreciate that some students may need to consider their priorities around whether they would like to seek more flexibility at another school setting to keep their hair, and we respect students and parents in their decisions here.

JTCC SPORT UPDATE -  Term 3,  Week 1

Welcome back to Term 3. We have a busy start to the term, with MISA trials happening to finalise our teams for the Term 3 competition, as well as number of Diocesan and external carnivals happening in the first few weeks. 

After 2 Terms, JTCC sits in 2nd place in the MISA Champion School tally with 319 points, not far behind MCCC on 350 points. I’m sure we will close the gap in term 3 and 4. 

A few general reminders:

• Students who missed out on MISA or DIO teams , there are many future opportunities to represent JTCC, keep an eye out on the Compass Newsfeed. 
• Any students that would like to request to change groups for 9/10 REC - you need to see Mrs. Roberts at her desk. You must do this prior to Tuesday lunch time. 
•  A reminder that consent for all sporting events must be given via the Parent Portal on Compass. Please ring the school if you have issues logging in or accessing Events. 

The following teams will be competing in MISA this term:

CONGRATULATIONS

Grace and Nicholas Augustine played for the NSW State Indoor Cricket Teams to play in the Junior Indoor Cricket  National Championships . Grace for the U/18s Girls and Nicholas for the U/14s Boys. Both were in the top 2 players for NSW for the Championship, and were both selected in the Australian Cricket All Stars teams for their respective divisions. What an amazing achievement for these talented siblings, well done! 

Congratulations to Alice Stephenson (year 7)  one of our First Nations footballers who took centre stage for Football NSW and won the inaugural NAIDOC Cup during the holidays. Northern NSW Football and Football NSW selected one male and one female squad each with players aged between 14 and 16 to play each other on Awabakal land at Lake Macquarie Regional Football Facility. Alice and the Football NSW team won the girls match 4-3.

UPCOMING

Make sure you are regularly checking the Compass newsfeed for announcements for Diocesan and external event trials and nominations 

NSWCCC Teams

*There have been a lot of NSWCCC Event postponements - please go to the website to keep up to date with these. 

Remember that there is a new way to nominate individual sports for NSWCCC. This information, including registration closing dates can be found on the website:

https://csnsw.sport/

Please note that some sports are selected by individual trials, and these can be held throughout NSW. Individual nominations require students to make their own way to and from selections. 

Selection in the following sports: Swimming, Cross Country, Athletics, Touch Football, AFL (Boys) and Football are done through the Wollongong Diocese carnivals by way of representing John Therry at these respective carnivals.

Selection in the following sports: AFL (Girls), Baseball, Basketball, Cricket – Girls,  Golf, Hockey, Netball, Rugby League, Rugby, Softball, Tennis, Triathlon, Volleyball will need to be done via individual nomination and selections.

If your child has had an outstanding high level  sporting achievement outside of school, we would love to hear from you. Please email me so we can celebrate  their achievements with the JTCC community. 

Yours in Sport,

Mrs. Georgia Roberts 

(RobertsG03@dow.catholic.edu.au)

Please see the below message from Picton Buslines. This requirement to use bus passes and tap Opal Cards on public transport applies to all bus companies so we recommend students always carry and use their Opal Cards.

We would like to notify you that from next Monday 1^st August 2022, Picton Buslines drivers and staff will be implementing a two-week blitz on school student bus passes.

The Transport for NSW School Student Transport Scheme (SSTS) provides eligible school students with free or subsidised travel on public transport between home and school. When travelling between home and school, students must adhere to various regulations regarding passenger behaviour and the Codes of Conduct for travel by bus. One of the obligations of students is to show their travel pass or ticket when requested.

We ask that you notify any students that catch Picton Buslines buses to and/or from school to have their physical bus passes ready to display to the driver before boarding the bus. Note that we will not accept students showing a photo of their bus pass on their phone.

If a student is planning on catching the bus and they do not have a current valid bus pass, their pass is damaged or lost card, please inform their parents/guardians to contact our office on 02 4677 1564 or email us at info@pictonbuslines.com.au to organise a pass.

SCHOOL SCARF

Lowes has currently reduced the price of of the school scarf from $35.95 down to $25.95, get in quick to grab one at this fantastic price.

20% OFF SALE

Please find below a link to the latest parish bulletin