Welcome

As we commence Term 3 here, I’d like to welcome back Kelly Spencer who is teaching our Transition class (Term 3 Reception). Kelly has had a wonderful experience so far this year as APRIM at St Monica’s but we are thrilled to have her back at St Pius X. I would also like to welcome Tori Gray as an Education Support Officer and Jiashin Huang and Lauren Gordon who are completing their Social Work Degrees and are undertaking work placement with us for the rest of the year. We also welcome back Connie Sepe and Tracy Misfud from leave.

Most importantly we welcome our new students to our school. May God bless all of these children and may St Pius X School extend its love, welcome and support to all of our new families. 

Our new look Newsletter

Welcome to a new look, responsive Newsletter. There are many new features including full view accessibility on phone, real time calendar and an option to ‘add an event’ to your calendar. The product that we will be using provides a solution for quality communication with parents as it enables email, text, social communication along with a colour coded calendar, intuitive form creation, form reply tracking, parent teacher interview scheduling. It also has ‘groups’ so we can communicate directly with the soccer team, or choir and so on.

I’d like to promote a new section of the Newsletter that enables our community to hear about any successes or celebrations that may have occurred beyond the school day. This could be an achievement of your child across a range of external activities. You will see our section today on Matthew and Olivia Brown. Please forward to us any news that you may have about existing or former St Pius X students.

Optional Parent/Teacher Interviews

We offer optional interviews for parents wishing to discuss their child’s progress and the Semester 1 Student Report. Your child’s teacher will be communicating with you regarding times and opportunities to meet next week (Week 2).

Pupil Free Day

Thankyou for your support of our Pupil Free Day on Monday. We know that these days sometimes pose extra challenges for families but the benefits to our school, staff and children are enormous. Our APRIM, James Lloyd, led the day as we participated in a Retreat, with a theme of exploring God’s creation, our environment and developing a stronger sense of the well-being of ourselves, our students and our community. As you are aware, well-being will become a major thrust for our school including a 3 year project in ‘Kidsmatter’ which will give us the opportunity to develop a comprehensive community based program that will bring together community consultation, student voice, a comprehensive social skills program and developing links to external support and providers.  Please see this link for details https://www.kidsmatter.edu.au

Holiday News

I have caught up with a few parents and children who have asked ‘How was your trip to the Simpson Desert?’ Let’s just say it was an experience. We travelled in 4 vehicles across all 430kms and 1200 sand dunes. We became stuck on several occasions, but worked our way through these. My wife Kelly and the kids were at home enjoying the comforts, so no, it was not a family outing. However, through it all I gained an even greater respect for our magnificent country, its astounding beauty, its solitude and sense of archaeological history and landmarks that outdates all other continents and.... I learned how to navigate a 4 wheel drive over a 30 metre sand dune!

Look forward to catching up with you,

God bless.