It is hard to believe that we are at the half way mark of Term Two. It is great to see that school life is starting to return to some sense of normality.

Feast of St Eugene de Mazenod – Our first whole school gathering for 2022. On Monday 19^th May all the children and staff in the school gathered together to celebrate the feast day of St Eugene de Mazenod, who is the founder of the order of the oblate priests who together with the Brigidine sisters established St Pius X School. The oblate order of priests still run the St Pius X Parish at Dernancourt, which is our school’s Parish.

The celebration consisted of a small liturgy which was prepared by James Lloyd and some singing which was led by Basia Jedrzejcak. It was a simple but beautiful celebration and I would like to thank both James and Basia for their efforts in coordinating this liturgy.

It was wonderful to finally be able to have all of the children and teachers gathered together in the one room. This has been the first time that both myself and Jamie have had the opportunity to see all of students and staff together in the one room since we have arrived at the school. I now look forward to many more whole school gatherings.

Presentation of Student Leaders for 2022
At our whole school gathering on Thursday 19^th May we had the opportunity to present our Year 6 Sport Captains with their leadership badges for 2022. Congratulations to the following students who have been elected as captain for  2022:

St Mary – Blue
Captains Riley & Maria Claire; Vice Captains; Eva-Marie & Tayla

St Brigid – Green
Captains: Faith & Flora; Vice Captains; Tahlia  & Zac

St Pius – Gold
Captains: Caitlin & Anthony ; Vice Captains; Ali & Rafael

St Joseph – Red
Captains: Yvy & Alex; Vice Captains; Tanishka and Henry

Presentation of new sign for our Nature Playground
Over the last 12 months, Tokuyo Sneddon has been working with a group of children from Year 5 & 6 on developing a sign which will be displayed in our Nature Play area. The sign is a ceramic mosaic which displays the word “Serendipity”.

The reason this sign was created, was because the site of our current Nature Playground was once a house that was owned by an elderly couple who lived next door to the school. This couple named their house “Serendipity” which means finding pleasurable things or events by chance. The couple were very attached to their house and when they sold it to the school, their hope was that the children would get the same joy from the nature playground that they had got from their time living in the house. Greg Parker told the couple that the school would recognise the name “Serendipity” and display this word somewhere within the Nature Playground. The construction of this sign honours this promise to our former neighbours. I believe that the word Serendipity is a perfect word to be displayed in our Nature Playground as quite often children find pleasurable things by chance when they are interacting with nature. Well done to all of the children involved in the construction of this sign. It looks fantastic.   

Traffic flow around the school
I would like to make a request in regards to supporting traffic flow around our school during the drop off periods in the both the morning and afternoon. St Pius X School is on a relatively small block of land and both Hillburn and Acton Avenues are very narrow streets which struggle with two way traffic in the mornings and afternoons. In order to support traffic flow and reduce the chances of accidents occurring, can I please request that traffic flows around the school in an anticlockwise direction, so that people enter Acton Avenue off of Windsor Grove and travel in a Northerly direction down Acton Avenue. If travelling down Hillburn Avenue, can families please enter from Cookes Road and travel in southerly direction down Hillburn Avenue (so you are travelling in the same direction as the Kiss and Drop flow). If all motorists adhere to these guidelines between the timeframes of 8:20am-8:50am & 2:45pm– 3:30pm on school days, this would significantly support traffic flow. I have attached a diagram which shows the traffic flow I am suggesting. I make this request in the interest of the safety and well being of all children and parents at St Pius X School.

Please note that even though I make this request, the school can not enforce this traffic flow as both Hillburn and Acton Avenue are not one way streets and therefore we are relying parents to work together to ensure that traffic frustrations during these peak times are kept to minimum.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the vast majority of our parents who are very patient and careful when driving around the school during morning drop off and pick up times.