Dear Parents

Welcome to the 2025 school year. I hope that everyone enjoyed the Christmas holiday break. It is great to have the children back at school, they certainly add a lot of energy to the school environment. I am looking forward to another exciting year working with the children and families at St Pius X.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all of our new students and families to the St Pius X community. I have no doubt that you will enjoy being a part of our wonderful community and I hope that you have already been made to feel welcome. Please know that our staff are always available to support you if you have any questions or concerns.

Parent Information Night & Meet the Teacher:

Thank you to all of those parents who attended our Meet the teacher and Parent Information sessions. I hope you found these opportunities to be informative and beneficial. I know our staff really value meeting the parents and working in partnership with you. If you ever require any information about classroom procedures or if you have any concerns about any issues at school, then please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s class teacher.

Traffic Flow around the school:

As we begin a new year, I would like to take this opportunity to remind parents of the measures we have put in place to try and ensure the smoothest possible traffic flow around the school. I am fully aware that there is limited parking available in the car park and that the streets around the school are very narrow. There are over 500 children who attend the school and the combination of these factors do mean that we will at times inevitably have traffic delays during the peak drop off and pick up times. I think what is most important is that we all work together to make traffic around the school as safe as possible for our children and we exercise patience during these peak traffic periods.

As a school we have implemented the following measures to support parents with before and after school drop off in an attempt to alleviate traffic flow issues and provide extra time for parents to drop off and collect their children from school.

School Entry and Exit points:

There are 3 entry and exit points to the school. Children can enter through the front gate on Windsor Grove and we have traffic monitors on duty to support children crossing the road safely. Children can also enter through the Kiss & Drop or Pedestrian entrance on Hillburn Avenue or through the double gates on Acton Avenue. We hope that by offering 3 points of entry and exit, we can distribute the traffic more evenly around the school.

Before School: The school gates open at 8:20am and the yard is supervised from this time.

After School: The following arrangements are in place at the end of the school day:

1. The gates open at 2:45pm and parents are welcome to enter the site from this time to collect their children.
2. The Acton Avenue gate is open until 3:20pm and is supervised by a teacher. Children are able to wait inside the gate until they see their parents arrive and then can walk to their car (if parents permit and are comfortable with this).
3. Any children still waiting at Acton Avenue after 3:20pm will be sent over to the Kiss and Drop area on Hillburn Avenue.
4. The Kiss and Drop lane on Hillburn Avenue is open until 3:30pm. Children should be picked up by this time.
5. Any children not collected by this time will be walked across to the front office by the Kiss and Drop yard duty teacher.

In the interests of the safety of all of our children and families I am requesting the support of parents by adhering to the following directions:

1. Please do not use the staff carpark as a Kiss and Drop zone or park in spaces which are not designated for parking. We have had some instances where parents have parked and left their cars and staff and other parents have not been able to get out of the car park.
2. Please do not park in no standing zones – the streets around the school are very narrow and when cars park in spaces where they shouldn’t, this makes it very difficult for other drivers and can reduce the visibility for drivers and therefore safety for pedestrians. We have also had incidents where buses returning children from excursions have been unable to turn into Acton Avenue due to some people parking on the yellow line on the corner of Acton Avenue and Windsor Grove.
3. Please do not park in the disabled park without a valid permit. We have few community members with a disability who genuinely need this park when they collect children from school.
4. As a school we have tried to promote a one way flow of traffic around the school during drop off and pick up periods in order to make traffic flow safer and less frustrating for parents. We ask that parents travel in an anti clockwise direction around the school and only turn left when exiting the Kiss and Drop area. I have attached a diagram which indicates the flow of traffic requested. Please note that as a school we can not enforce this one way traffic directive, however we find that most parents follow this rule and if all drivers were to do the same it would help alleviate some of the stress for motorists.
5. Please respect the direction of our staff on duty if they ask you move on in order to improve traffic flow – ultimately, we are trying to ensure safety for all children and parents.
6. Please be patient – we want to work with parents on making sure the traffic flow around our school is safe. If you are held up in traffic, we will look after your children.

I thank you in anticipation of your support of the above measures.

Yard Expectations before and after school:

On Monday I met with all of the children in the hall to run them through the yard expectations for the year. In the morning a lot of children and parents are entering onto the site at one time. We have grandparents and younger siblings coming onto site and to ensure the safety of all of our community during this time we have reinforced with the children the following expectations:

1. The school gates open and the yard is supervised from 8:20am.
2. Children are not to enter the school grounds through the OSHC gate and wait in the yard unsupervised.
3. There are no large ball games in the morning (soccer, football, basketball etc).
4. Children are not permitted on the playground or Nature Play areas before school.
5. Chasey games down the Nature play end of the oval and handball games on the basketball court are permitted.
6. Children are not to enter the classroom areas until the bell goes (unless invited or requested to do so by their teacher).

There are some exceptions to these rules on Fun Friday, which we will reinforce with the children.

After School:

In order to support the traffic flow around the school and ensure that children who should be waiting for their parents to collect them are not distracted by playing, the following expectations have been implemented.

1. Children who are being picked up from Acton Avenue or from Kiss and Drop are asked to wait in the respective areas for their parents so they are ready to go when their parents arrive
2. There are no ball games permitted after school.
3. The playground is open until 3:15pm but only for children whose parents are onsite. Please note that once the OSHC come out to play at 3:15pm, all other children who are not in OSHC are asked to vacate the playground.

I would like to thank parents in advance for supporting us and reinforcing with these expectations with their children.

No Hat No Play

Just a reminder that in the interest of sun safety for all students we have a no hat no play policy at recess and lunch time in Term One due to high to extreme UV levels. Children who do not have a hat at a school need to sit under the pergola area which can limit their social interaction with peers. It is never pleasant asking children to sit under the shade for all of their play period and therefore can I please request that parents support us by ensuring that their child has access to a hat at school. The school hat is part of the school uniform and if children do not have a hat at school for an extended period of time, parents will be contacted and asked to purchase a hat for their child. Please ensure hats are clearly labelled with your child’s first name and surname so we can return hats to their rightful owner if they are misplaced. Thank you for your support with this.

School Developments and Buildings:

Over the holiday period most of our internal building works were completed. We are now in the very final stages of completing Stage 3 of our building project, with only a few minor touch ups to be completed. We have ordered the furniture for the new library and anticipate that this will arrive by the end of February. We should have a fully functioning School Library by later this term. I can’t wait to see the benefits that this space will provide for our students, and I look forward to inviting parents to come in for a tour of our re-developed spaces in the coming weeks.

Later this year, work will start on the development of a shade structure over the courts and the re-surfacing of the school’s basketball courts.

Joke of the Week

This year the children (and some staff) have been sharing some of their best “dad jokes” with me. I thought I would share a couple of these in each newsletter.

Dion from Year 4 shared the following:

I used to be afraid of doing hurdles:

But I got over it!

Cassandra from the front office shared the following joke:

5 Ants rented an apartment with another 5 ants. Now they’re tenants.

Thank you for your support in helping the children have a smooth start to the 2025 School Year. I look forward to working to what should be another exciting year.

God Bless

Ashley Keane