From the Principal - Ashley Keane
Dear Parents
It is hard to believe that I am writing my last newsletter article for this term.
I would like to once again start my newsletter article by offering my sincere gratitude to whole of the St Pius community. I have been made to feel most welcome by staff, students and families and I have greatly appreciated all of your support and understanding in what has been a disrupted start to the school year.
Harmony Day:
Last Wednesday we celebrated Harmony Day. Harmony day celebrates Australis’s cultural diversity. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and sense of belonging for everyone. One thing I have really noticed since moving to St Pius, is how rich the school is in cultural diversity and the children are very open and proud of their cultural heritage. It was wonderful to see many children dress up in traditional clothing from their culture in order to celebrate this day. Many children also wore orange clothing which is the colour that symbolises harmony day. The liturgy on the oval, followed by the school parade and then watching many of the children joining in with some Egyptian Belly-dancing was wonderful to witness and really brought back a strong sense of community. The orange Krispy Kreme donuts were also a big hit with the children. It was also really good to have so many parents join us for the Harmony Day celebrations. I would like to thank Ashlee Stanley and Amy Raymond for their organisation of the day.
School Board
On Monday we had our School Board AGM. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who attended the AGM. At the AGM we elected three new members to St Pius X School Board and I take this opportunity to welcome Kosta Safos, Shane McMillan & Sharni Wallace-Groves to our School Board. The School Board plays a very important part in the oversight of the School Operations and greatly support the work of the school’s leadership team in making decisions about school issues. The School Board for 2022 and is as follows:
President: Fr Mathew Raj (Ex-Officio)
Principal: Ashley Keane
Deputy Principal: Jamie Deverson
School Bursar Julie Parsons
Chairperson: Anthony Pryzibilla
Deputy Chairperson Jason Alford
Treasurer Beata Kucaba
Minutes Secretary Susan Trimboli
Staff Representative Holli Caputo
Other Parent Representatives
Guinevere Flavel
Fionna Bottroff
Kosta Safos
Shane McMillan
Shani Wallace-Groves
I would like to thank Tessa Carey who will be stepping down from the School Board after 4 years of service.
I look forward to working with the School Board this year.
Enrolments for 2023 and 2024
We are at the point where we are about to finalise our enrolments for Reception in 2023 and we also starting to receive an influx of enrolment applications for 2024. If you have a child who is due to commence in 2023 and you have not yet enrolled them, can you please ensure that you contact the school ASAP. Also if you have a child who is due to start in either Term 3, 2023 or Term One 2024, I strongly encourage you lodge your enrolment application in the near future. We want to guarantee the enrolment of all siblings of our current families, however we need families to ensure that they have completed an enrolment application. We are receiving very strong interest in enrolments at St Pius and I would hate to see any siblings miss out on a place. Any siblings due to start in Term 1, 2023 will need to ensure that they have enrolled before the end of this term in order to guarantee their place.
Please contact Susan Trimboli in the front office if you need any further information about enrolling your child.
Term Three Reception intake and SPARX transition program.
I am pleased to advise the community that we will be offering two mid year Reception classes in 2022. If your child is eligible to commence in the middle of the year and you would like discuss this option for your child, then please don’t hesitate to contact me.
I am also very excited to announce that St Pius will be introducing a new transition program called SPARX (Student Preparation And Readiness for St Pius X) for children in the year before they commence in Reception. We will be starting this program in Term 3 this year and all children who are enrolled to commence Reception at St Pius X in Term 1, 2023 will be invited to join this program if they wish to. The transition program will be run from 9:00am – 11:30am one day per week and will focus on helping children to feel safe, secure and comfortable in their new school environment. The program is completely optional for families, but is a great way to help children prepare for the commencement of schooling.
In 2023 we are looking to offer this program from the beginning of the year, with all children who are enrolled to start in either the middle of the year 2023 or Term One 2024 being invited to join the program. Further information about these exciting initiatives will be communicated to families early next term. If you would like to discuss these programs in more detail, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Welcome to Reception Picnic
Last night our Reception teachers hosted a welcome to Reception picnic on the school oval. The picnic was based around the theme of the Hungry Caterpillar. It was a wonderful celebration and a great way for families gather and get to meet some of their children’s friends and meet other parents. It was so heart warming to see the children playing together and having so much fun in a relaxed and casual atmosphere. It was a colourful celebration with the teachers dressing in bright green tutu’s, a very creative and colour caterpillar was made out of balloons, children were able to have a caterpillar painted on their face and made Hungry Caterpillar head bans and there were bubbles galore and plenty of tasty treats on offer for the children to indulge in. I would like to thank the Reception teachers Nicolina Di Giovanni, Rosalia Di Giovanni, Brittany Honner & Holli Caputo for their tireless efforts in organising such a wonderful celebration for the Reception families. I would also like to thank Sarah Tirimacco for her support in organising this event and for arranging the creative Hungry Caterpillar balloon display and Ashlee Stanley, Oliva Ventura, Stephanie Ellul and James Lloyd for staying behind and supporting the Reception team. I would also like to thank all the families who attended.
End of Term One and Beginning of Term Two:
Just a reminder as per the letter sent home to all families, via the SZapp on Wednesday evening, Term One finishes for all Catholic Schools on Wednesday the 13th of April. Term 2 commences on Tuesday the 3rd of May. Families who are unable to organise care for their children on the 14th of April or 2nd of May will be able to access school provided care, which will be provided by our ESO staff. Parents wishing to access this care will need to book in via our online booking system. A link to this booking service will be sent home on Tuesday next week.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for their support this term.
God Bless