Greetings, Parents and Guardians

As we approach our term 1 mid-term break, I want to wish each one of you a refreshing, extended long weekend, and I hope that you and your children have had a positive start to the year.

It is of increasing importance that among the news contained in this edition of our newsletter, all that is celebrated and all that is planned, that we remind one another of the importance of personal wellbeing, for which we have all been on a journey towards becoming more conscious and more proficient in managing. We know that as a parent or caregiver you are always trying your best to look after the wellbeing of your children. Many of you have chosen LJBC for this purpose. We also need to find a way to extend this for each other, and as a college community.

Wellbeing is an important part of our learning environment too, and it is necessary that we recognise and prioritise it. Wellbeing encompasses physical, mental, and emotional health, and is something we should strive to maintain throughout the school year. While students in senior secondary may have additional stressors, we are committed to helping them to find their balance between work and play. We want our students to use their time in school productively, and also to find joy in their learning. We encourage our students to take regular breaks, practice self-care, and find activities that bring them joy and relaxation, connection to others in healthy ways, and our hope is that LJBC can be a place where wellbeing is designed and celebrated each day. I pray that each one of you finds time to ‘recharge’ during this mid-term break.

During 2022, the College Management Team, College staff and Board of Directors spent dedicated time working thoughtfully and deeply with the College Motto and Values. Seek Wisdom, Act Justly, Love Mercy is also our College mission. Important in this process has been the need to consider whether this continues to remain true of us now, its relevance and importantly, does it guide our actions and decisions. The work completed included looking at the original guiding principles for the College during the establishing years - 1987-1990, considering the Scriptural references from Micah 6 verse 8, the rapidly changing technological world, and the maturing community that LJBC has become over the last 33 years. This led to a refreshed Purpose Statement, and it is my pleasure to share this with you now:

Our purpose is to nurture young people to discover and confidently express their unique God-given gifts in service of their community.

Throughout 2023, we seek to engage our own growing community of parents, staff, students and of course our growing alumni of Collegians, to become deeply involved with these discussions.

We have begun the work of including our purpose and values discussion in our regular meetings and forums. I encourage you to be a part of rediscovering the purpose and values that shape the College.

I would like to thank families for the positive feedback to the College action relating to the use of mobile phones by students during the school day, including break times. We are all aware that mobile phones can be distracting and disruptive to learning in the classroom and on campus. Australian research has shown that mobile phone use in the classroom can reduce student engagement and academic performance. Prohibiting of the use of mobile phones by students during the school day will help ensure that students are able to focus on their studies, while still being able to use mobile phones responsibly when not on campus.

Thank you to the Primary Parents and Friends for organising the recent Primary Play Date on the Nature Play Space in the Primary School on Friday night. What a wonderful event which was appreciated by all who attended.

As the College learning programs are now in full swing, cocurricular and extracurricular activities and sport have begun, it is wonderful to see a college community vibrantly engaged in the joy of learning and growing. It is our connected community of students, families, staff and collegians together that is the heartbeat of this College, without it we would simply be buildings in the centre of the city of Joondalup.

Warm regards

Paul Sonneman-Smith

College Principal

Our Primary students, parents and staff enjoyed a wonderful community play date on our Primary ‘village green’ on Friday 24 February. The atmosphere was buzzing with lawn games, chatting, delicious coffee and all-round fun. It was a wonderful time to connect.

We would like to thank P&F - Community Connect co-ordinator, Nicole Harrison, and everyone who helped organise such a special afternoon for us.

Keep a look out for more opportunities to come together as a community.

Claire Vermeulen

Primary Director of Formation, Staff and Student Wellbeing

The Year 1, 2 and 3 students have been learning all about water colours in Art Club with Mrs Ramsay. In Week 5, students used water colour paints to create donuts. They finished off their donuts by drawing on sprinkles with chalk. There were many giggles and the students all seemed very proud of their creations.

Michelle Kruger

Year 3 Teacher

The talented and generous students who are part of our Primary Visual Arts co-curricular clubs this Term have already been busy painting for The City of Joondalup community art project - Soaring: Hopes and Dreams. This project was designed to inspire fresh hope in post-pandemic life, highlighting community resilience and aspirations for the future. Our art is inspired by flora local to the Joondalup area.

The students' work will be part of an installation displayed during the Joondalup Festival from March 10 - April 2.

Please see Joondalup Festival website for more information. https://www.joondalupfestival.com.au/calendar/  

Thankyou young artists for your contribution to our community. I cannot wait to see your art on display in our community and get a photo with it.

If you decide to visit the exhibition, feel free to email me your photos Claire.vermeulen@ljbc.wa.edu.au

Claire Vermeulen & Claire Ramsay

We are SO excited to share that tickets for our Senior School Production of Puffs are now live!

https://events.humanitix.com/ljbcpuffs

We can't wait to see you in the audience on Thursday 30 and Friday 31 March!

Seating is first in best dressed. Accessible seating is available in the back left rows of the Auditorium. Please see reserved signage.

Feel free to share the link with your friends and family.

Psst! Did we mention tickets are FREE!

If you’re feeling generous, we would love you to donate to Act Belong Commit, the link for which is available when you book your ticket.

Recently, we were very excited to work with Rebound WA. Our students worked with the Rebound team using wheelchair basketball as the medium. Rebound WA is a charitable association assisting Western Australians with physical disabilities to lead fuller, more active and more connected lives. They aim to remove physical and mental barriers so children and adults with physical disabilities can have the same participation opportunities as their able-bodied peers.

Our Sports Coaching Cert students worked all afternoon with Clint and looked at inclusive coaching strategies. Our Basketball specialist and Health studies classes also got to spend lesson time learning new perspectives and approaches to health initiatives and different versions of the games they play. Our students took to the game like ducks to water and loved the new challenges it presented. The difficulty of shooting from a seated position was lost on nobody and in fact, only one of our excellent basketball players was able to score a three-pointer despite many, many attempts from all! 

We would like to thank Rebound WA and look forward to establishing a long partnership with this group. Our students had great fun and left the sessions with a much better understanding of the broader needs of specialist groups.

Ben Allsop

Health & Physical Education

We love hearing from, or about our ‘old collegians’, and sharing their news. We hope their stories will inspire our current students, and that our collegians will always feel that they are part of the LJBC Community.

We extend our best wishes for the future, and warm congratulations to each of our graduates for their achievements.

Several of our Class of 2022 graduates will commence at WAAPA this year, after enjoying and succeeding in their chosen genres within The Arts.

Venetia Edwards will study for a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Voice. Venetia was a vital member of the Music Department, sharing her talents at numerous events including Graduation, Open Nights, and Awards Evenings. Venetia also sang at the Gala Evening hosted by the College to launch the 30th Anniversary retrospective book.

Ethan Battle will study towards a Diploma of Acting. You may remember Ethan from his many performances on our College Auditorium stage, including Create, High School Musical, Laughing Stock, The Little Mermaid and Shrek the Musical.

Sienna Freeman has been accepted into the Bachelor of Classical Voice. Sienna was a vital member of the Music Department, singing for numerous events such as Graduation, Open Night, and Awards Evening. She showcased her acting and singing skills in College Productions, showing amazing talent in the genre of musical theatre.

From our Class of 2021, Kane Rogers has been accepted to study Composition at WAAPA this year. His brother Mitchell from the Class of 2020 has almost completed his audio engineering degree, and is already utilising his skills managing all the audio for his church, as well as running the recording studio as a volunteer for the City of Joondalup Youth Program.

Tatum Botha – Class of 2019, studying biomedical engineering and data science, has been granted an internship at the Harry Perkins Institute for Medical Research.

Congratulations to 2022 graduate, Ethan Battle for taking the next step in his acting career after being accepted into the Diploma of Acting course at WAAPA.

You may recognise Ethan from his many performances on our College Auditorium stage, including Create, High School Musical, Laughing Stock, The Little Mermaid and Shrek the Musical (just to name a few).

We are all very proud of Ethan!

Madelaine Jones
Director of Drama

On Tuesday 7 February, I met with all of the other amazing members for the Black Swan Student Ambassador Program for 2023. Some of them I already knew from doing past musicals with, which was a wonderful surprise. We gathered in the meeting room at Black Swan Theatre’s office buildings in the Northbridge and chatted about all things theatre! We were given a tour of The State Theatre including The Health Ledger Stage and State Theatre Under Ground. Next we were shown the marketing buildings that the company use daily to produce their show advertising.

We met up with Christie Sistruck, our creative leader for the ambassador program, who told us about what the ambassadors get to be involved in this year. One exciting benefit is that we are given TWO FREE TICKETS to every Black Swan show for the 2023 season. Next, myself and my team of student ambassadors were given the challenges that we have to complete this year.

Keep an eye on this space and I’ll be able to share discounted tickets to my LJBC community!

On Saturday 18 February the Year 11-12 VET Music class visited HQ in Leederville to hear a variety of bands. A secondary school band called Teenage Vertigo opened the show followed by Dear Sunday. The evening concluded with a set from alt-rockers DICE, a West Australian band who, after a successful 2022, will be crossing the Nullarbor for a tour in the eastern states later this year.

Students commented that it was an awesome musical environment to be in because everyone was actively participating in listening to the bands. It was inspirational watching bands play. The bands were having fun, yet they sounded great and were excellent musicians. Students were enlightened to see how bands set up and perform all whilst connecting with the audience. Students could visualize what a career in the music industry entailed.

The sound in the venue was very good partly due to the quality of the speakers, amps and how the drums were hooked up and also due to the sound guys, all making for a loud, clear output.

However, the students’ favorite band was Dear Sunday with Mr Mason Nguyen, LJBC Maths teacher, on guitar and vocals. Mr Lynch, LJBC Maths teacher, was invited to play bass for one of the Dear Sunday songs. The highlight for students was not only listening to the bands but being able to buy merchandise.

Tammy van der Nest
Director of Music PK-12

Year 7 Chaplains Challenge

At the Year 7 camp, I ran a challenge session for all House groups. It was fun to meet all Year 7s. Creative handshakes, challenging bean bag runs and searching for lost coins were some of the activities endeavoured. It was great to see how enthusiastic they all were, with high levels of participation.

I talked to them about the support offered by the Chaplaincy office, and the Chips and Chat groups running on Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes in the Chaplaincy Office.

Looking forward to more positive times with the Year 7 students.

Catherine da Silva
Secondary Chaplain

Towards the end of 2022, the College purchased a 27-seater bus, which benefits students in transporting them to excursions, sporting events, camps and competitions etc. The bus is air-conditioned and provides seatbelts for each occupant. The significant cost savings, and convenience compared to hiring transport for each occasion have already been evident.

Recently, we added the college logo to the bus so the wider community can ‘see us coming’!

We understand that situations change, so if there is a possibility that you may withdraw your child(ren) from the College during 2023, please contact us as soon as possible, as our policy requires that we receive written notification of ten school weeks’ notice, addressed to the College Registrar. Registrar@ljbc.wa.edu.au.