A Student Councillor is representative of the student body for their House, a role that carries responsibility and prestige. Recently, Year 7s had the opportunity to apply for these positions with voting being conducted within their House groups. Thank you to all the students who applied – your willingness to serve and lead is commendable!

Congratulations to the following students who were elected by their peers as Student Councillors:

Anmar van der Westhuizen

Head of James House

The year 3 students participated in their very first Primary Inter House Swimming Carnival. We were so proud of how they cheered each other on during the 25m and 50m races down at HBF Arena. The highlight of the day for the students was when they spent time on the inflatable water slides on Western oval. There were so many giggles, and we enjoyed watching our students having fun together.

Michelle Kruger and Andrea Battersby

Year 3 teachers

Our recent Kindergarten Open Enrolment morning was a wonderful time for our 2024 and 2025 Kindy children and families. They were greeted by our Primary Student Councilors and escorted to the Primary Library where they heard from our College Principal Paul Sonneman-Smith, Dean of Primary Carol Harris, Primary Director of Teaching and Learning Nathan Douglas and Primary Head of PK – 3 Claire Kilian.

At LJBC Primary we believe in working closely with our College families to build a strong partnership and support our College families in their valuable role of caring for and nurturing young children. We believe this collaborative partnership is crucial to the development of each child.

It was Albert Einstein who said that ‘imagination is greater than knowledge’. We have
developed a play-based Kindy program that is committed to encouraging each child’s
imagination and personality using a differentiated curriculum.

A number of our Kindy students modelled their colourful Kindy uniform and delighted the visiting families with a presentation of the Talk for Reading program with Kindergarten Teacher, Tarryn Henry, who demonstrated how this program is used to develop the students’ language. LJ the Lion, our College mascot made a much appreciated appearance too!

We then toured the Kindy classrooms in action and our fabulous Kindy nature play area. The event concluded with the families presented with a small terracotta pot and plant to remind them that at LJBC we hope their child will grow and flourish!
“When an organisation is truly a Community, it becomes stronger than the sum of its parts. It becomes a place with an essence and strength of spirit that is welcoming and able to rise above its challenges. It becomes a shared sense of place, friendship and mind, where being together is elevated to an art form.” Lynne Hill

Carol Harris
Dean of Primary

On Thursday 16 March, Years 8 and 10 Music students attended an open rehearsal of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in the Perth Concert Hall in the city. There was a pre-talk by the third principal horn player before the rehearsal where students learnt about the piece that they were about to hear and were able to ask questions.

The piece they listened to was Le Chasseur Maudit (The Accursed Huntsman). It is a symphonic poem by César Franck. This work was written in 1883 at the beginning of the Romantic era where composers were starting to write Program Music. Program Music is a musical composition that tells a story. These music stories are also called tone poems. The story of this work is of an arrogant German nobleman who decides to go hunting on the Sabbath. He rides roughshod over a group of peasants going to church, but meets his comeuppance in the forest, where a baleful voice condemns him to an eternity of pursuit by demons.

Students heard the horns echoing the start of the hunt and the rustle of the trees in the forest which were represented by tremolos played in the violins. The use of huge tubular bells represented the call to church. It was mesmerising to see the conductor turn a stage full of musicians into a unified orchestra which brought a musical story to life.

Tammy van der Nest

Director of Music PK-12

On Wednesday 8 March, the Year 11 and 12 ATAR Media Production and Analysis students enjoyed an evening at the outdoor cinema when they attended the 2023 Media Perspectives at Community Cinemas Burswood. The event showcased the top Year 12 copyright-free audio-visual Media productions from 2022.  MPA students have to submit a ‘Media Art’ or ‘Power and Persuasion’ production task as part of their WACE examination and the vast majority of students choose to make a five minute film. The students enjoyed the wide variety of short films, which ranged from action comedy to thought provoking films with experimental techniques. Our Year 11 and 12 MPA students are currently working on creating their own short films which they will submit early in Term 2.

Tracy Pender
Head of Learning – The Arts

Year 11 Drama Day Excursion

On Wednesday 22 February, the Year 11 ATAR and General Drama classes attended the 2023 Drama Day at Penhros College. The event included 100 students from private schools in the Perth metropolitan area who participated in a day of drama workshops. Industry professionals led the students through activities including devising, acting techniques and improvisation. It was a fun filled day which gave everyone the opportunity to learn valuable skills and make new friends.

One student said she enjoyed meeting new people with the same interests and love for Drama as herself, as well as learning many new skills and developing fresh perspectives within the context of Drama. Such an incredible opportunity!

Eileen Devereux

Drama Teacher

Year 12 Specialist Drama Workshop 

On Wednesday 15 February, the Year 12 ATAR Drama class had the privilege of taking part in a specialist Drama Workshop, run by Feet First Collective. Kingsway Christian College joined us in hosting the session in our very own performing arts studio. The director, Teresa and movement coach Sam, taught us a range of ensemble acting techniques, which gave us the opportunity to explore the way we move through interactive and challenging rehearsal processes. We learnt Anne Bogart’s viewpoints which we can adapt and use in our very own scripted performance scenes this semester. All of the students, including myself worked together to physically workshop all of the viewpoints and have a lot of fun in the process.  

Brock Klompmaker
Drama Captain

On Friday 10 March, Year 10 Visual Arts students headed to Cottesloe to view the annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition. This exhibition is an annual feature of the Perth arts scene. This year was the 19^th iteration of the exhibition, and featured artworks by 71 different artists from 12 countries – half of those artists being local WA sculptors. These students viewed, analysed, and discussed the full range of artworks – from the abstract to the stunningly realistic. After lunch, students put their own sculptural skills to the test and participated in a sculpture competition. Students broke up into teams of two to four and created their very own sculptures out of sand – some were interactive, large scale, and including incredible detail. The winning team consisted of Izelle, Jack, and Bailey, who made a fantastic shark attack scene out of sand. Some incredible creativity in using shells for the teeth – well done!

Jo Burke
Visual Arts Teacher

Term 1 is always exciting and filled with the promise of a fresh start and an opportunity to reach our set goals. We started the year with the Year 12 Ball with our James students looking so beautiful and ‘grown-up’. Our James House Council also enjoyed collegiality and team building activities with our Student Council Induction Day, and our Swimming Carnival and getting to know our Year 7’s at their camp were also both fantastic.

It is my privilege to introduce the James 2023 Student Council, under the enthusiastic and positive leadership of our House Captains: 

House Captains: Carrie & Paige

Year 11: Sanjeev & Michelle

Year 10: Sean & Lauren

Year 9: Oskar & Brooke

Year 8: Bailey & Gabriella

Year 7: Masibulele & Claire

Congratulations also to Jared and Emma on their elections as Head Boy and Head Girl.

We also had a few new students joining our James family and I want to extend a very warm welcome to Ciara (Year 8), Zan, Wes, Joshua, Martin, Jonathon and Aisling (Year 9), Riley (Year 10), Timothy (Year 11) and Esmae (Year 12). I hope that you enjoy your journey at LJBC and reach your potential.

I also wish to congratulate the following James students on their fantastic achievements:

• Cooper – currently on a Football Tour in the UK
• Ruby – inclusion in the WA State Lacrosse team
• Zack – nominated for Coles Employee of the year, nationwide
• Jamie – embarking on his Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award after recently completing his Silver.

I want to encourage all James students to participate in the academic, sporting and cultural programmes for 2023. There are many wonderful opportunities to get involved with and I encourage each student to get connected to life at the College, adopting a ‘give-it-a-go’ attitude. Parents, please encourage your children to participate in these programmes as this provides them with valuable life skills such as resilience, accountability, time management, respect and communication. 

Anmar van der Westhuizen

Head of House James

Anmar.vanderWesthuizen@ljbc.wa.edu.au

What a fun and busy start to the term it has been! Chaplaincy Captains and Delegates have been visiting all Year 7 Connect classes to introduce themselves to the new students and play games with them.

In preparation for Easter, the Drama and Chaplaincy Captains came up with some short skits around the message of forgiveness, our focus this Easter. These were performed at House Assemblies.

Chaplaincy Captains visited the Primary students to speak to them about inclusivity during Harmony Week with great success. They also shared a short devotion with the LJBC Craft group – Seed.

What a helpful group of Chaplaincy delegates and committed Captains we have at LJBC, well done for all your effort so far.

Catherine da Silva

Secondary Chaplain

The Chaplaincy department had some fun with a Slam Dunk competition at lunchtime in the Sports Centre in Week 4.

Due to the date of 2/3/23, we decided to create a fun comp for the students to enjoy. The number 23 is a special jersey number to many throughout sporting history, especially acclaimed basketball player Michael Jordan.

We had a ‘free sports shoe dress day’ as well as a dunk competition held at lunchtime.

There were many amazing participants, and the Judges scored them enthusiastically.

Mr Tyrie was even used as a prop to jump over… But none higher than Year 11 student Anttwon, who set up from far out and threw it down ferociously. The crowd and judges went wild!

Thank you to all who were involved in this fun day, the students had a blast!

Matthew Harris

Head of Christian Education

We have had a busy start to the year with the Cadets, starting with a fun afternoon of Laser Tag around the school before getting down to basics.

We have been learning how to muster, cook some meals for camp and have got started on learning our phonetic alphabet and radio protocols. Cadets completed their swim test at the HBF Arena in between learning pool and water safety with volunteers from Royal Life Saving.

Our first camp for the year at Ern Halliday was a great success where Cadets were able to test themselves out completing 2 of the 3 activities on offer as well as cooking up a storm in the kitchen.

Except for waiting for a few items to be restocked, most Cadets have now received their uniform and the unit is looking very smart when we muster. If your child has not received their uniform at this stage please check if the bond has been paid.

For the end of term, Week 9, we are heading to Rockface which is an indoor climbing centre. Invitations have been sent via Consent2Go and a reminder that pick-up is from Balcatta. Due to Easter, we don’t have a training session programmed for Week 10.

To help keep everyone up-to-date, students enrolled in Cadets are entered into an un-timetabled class on SEQTA. A calendar of events is regularly updated and uploaded. This will happen again after our planning meeting in Week 8.  Parents and guardians will be informed of upcoming excursions and camps via email through Consent2Go so please keep an eye out for these and respond by the due date.

If you have any queries relating to the Cadet program, please contact Mrs Jenny Pontarelli on 9300 7444 or via email Jenny.Pontarelli@ljbc.wa.edu.au.

Jenny Pontarelli

Unit Leader

We were delighted to welcome new students and families to our Year 7 Open Evening last Wednesday! It was a lovely evening with current and future families taking a self guided tour of our facilities, meeting our amazing students and staff and experiencing all that LJBC Secondary School has to offer! 

Brooke Howard 

Enrolment Events Coordinator

Regular Uniform Shop hours during school term

Open to Parents and students Tuesday and Thursday 8am to 4pm closed between 11.30 and 12.30 during school term.

LJBC also offers an online service so you have the option to size your uniform and then place your order through www.flexischools.com.au. Flexischools requires you to register before commencing with ordering uniforms.  The online service provides you with the necessary sizing chart to place your orders.  Any orders placed online will be available for pick up as per the date you have requested online.  Primary items will be delivered to classrooms after 2pm on a Tuesday and Thursday during school term.

Uniform Shop Appointments available for Winter Fittings

Winter Uniform Appointment times (15 minutes) are available for uniform fittings.  Please contact College Reception on 9300 7444 for all bookings. 

Monday 27 March 2023 - 7.30 to 8.30 or 3 to 3.45pm

Monday 3 April 2023 - 7.30 to 8.30 or 3 to 3.45pm

Monday 1 May 2023 - 7.30 to 8.30 or 3 to 3.45pm

Monday 8 May 2023 - 7.30 to 8.30 or 3 to 3.45pm

Other Important Information

A few bays have been made available for parking outside the Uniform Shop during open times only.  Please be mindful as this is allocated for customers only.

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.