From the Principal - Ashley Keane
Dear Parents
Wow! It is Week 8 already and it is hard to believe that I am writing my last newsletter article for the term.
Harmony Week:
This week our school has been celebrating Harmony Week, to coincide with Harmony Day which was held on March 21st. Harmony week celebrates Australia’s cultural diversity. It is about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. At St Pius X school we truly value our cultural diversity and the richness it brings to our school community. This week we started Harmony Week with children drawing their messages of love and harmony on the courts with coloured chalk. On Tuesday we gathered for a Harmony Day Liturgy, followed by our “taste of Harmony Day”. The children were able to purchase and taste a variety of foods from different cultures. The Vietnamese Cold Rolls, Portuguese Tarts, Greek Spanakopita and Italian Gelato were all huge hits. The children also had the opportunity to play together in the yard for an extended lunch period. On Wednesday children came to school dressed in either orange (the colour which represents Harmony Day) or in their traditional cultural clothing. It was great to see so many children dressed in their traditional cultural clothing. We also welcomed an African Drummer, Bortier Okoe who performed for the children. His performance was very entertaining and he called a number of students up to dance with him and play the drums. I think the highlight for the children was when he called all of the staff on stage to dance. I am sure there is hidden video footage of this performance which the staff would love you to see! Not only was Bortier entertaining, but he also shared a message of love and highlighted the value of treating everyone as family. On Thursday the Year 3 classes ran our first Assembly for the year with the theme being Harmony Day. Finally on Friday, the children will have the opportunity to listen to Martin Pascoe who is a staff member from our school speak about harmony and the Indigenous culture. Martin himself is a member of the stolen generation and is very well liked and respected by the children and staff at our school.
I would like to thank Ashlee Stanley and Grace Armfield for their organisation and coordination of the Harmony Week activities. They have both done an amazing job in organising what is very special celebration for St Pius X School.
School Board
On Monday we had an open School Board meeting. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who attended the meeting. Those present had the opportunity to view the building plans and hear about future school directions. At this meeting we farewelled and thanked Fiona Bottroff for her commitment to the School Board over the last few years and also acknowledged the work of our departing Chair Person, Anthony Pryzibilla. Four new members were elected to the St Pius X School Board bringing our total number of parent representatives to 10. I would like to thank all parents who displayed an interest in being part of our School Board. It is great to know that we have so many people willing to serve our school community. Following the open meeting, our office bearers for the 2023 School Board were elected. I would like take this opportunity to present our 2023 School Board to the community.
Chairperson: Jason Alford
Deputy Chairperson Guinevere Flavel
Chair of Finance: Beata Kucaba
Principal: Ashley Keane
Deputy Principal: Jamie Deverson
School Bursar Julie Parsons
Minutes Secretary Susan Trimboli
Staff Representative TBA
Other Parent Representatives
Kosta Safos
Shane McMillan
Shani Wallace-Groves
Kajal Kothari
Felicity Crowther
Kelly Preston
Maggie Li
Building Update:
You may have seen that our new building is coming along quite nicely. We expect that this will be completed by the end of Term 2, for our Reception classes to enjoy from the beginning of Term 3. The top level of the building will be a new Music learning space which all children will be able to enjoy in the second half of this year. We also have a new Junior Primary toilet block as part of this building, which will ease the burden on our current toilets.
In Term Three we are looking to commence the 3rd stage of our building project. This will include a redevelopment of the top level of our existing building above the administration area to include a new Italian Room, a new Library, an Inclusive Education centre, a multipurpose meeting room and learning space for our SHIP program. In early 2024 we will be re-developing the administration and office spaces, along with the staffroom area.
We are also in the process of planning an upgrade to our external spaces to include a large shelter over the Basketball courts along with the resurfacing of these courts and new outdoor learning spaces with an upgraded playground. These plans were presented at our School Board meeting and we will find a space in the school to display these plans for families to view.
Enrolments for 2024 and 2025
We are about to finalise our enrolments for Reception in 2024 and we are also starting to receive an influx of enrolment applications for 2025 & 2026. If you have a child who is due to commence in 2024 and you have not yet enrolled them, please ensure that you contact the school ASAP. Also, if you have a child who is due to start in either Term 3, 2024 or Term One 2025, I strongly encourage you to 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 X and I would hate to see any siblings miss out on a place. Any siblings due to start in Term 1, 2024 will need to ensure that they have enrolled before the end of this month in order to guarantee their place. Please contact Susan Trimboli in the front office if you need any further information about enrolling your child.
Welcome to Reception Picnic
On Thursday the 9th of March our Reception teachers hosted a welcome to Reception picnic on the school oval. It was a wonderful celebration and a great way for families to gather and meet some of their children’s friends and 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 organising face painting, bubbles, snacks and we also had the donut and coffee van in attendance. I would like to thank the Reception teachers - Nicolina DiGiovanni, Rosalia DiGiovanni, Brittany Honner, Adriana Scaffidi-Muta & Holli Caputo for their tireless efforts in organising such a wonderful celebration for the Reception families. I would also like to thank all staff who stayed to support the Reception team in running this event. I think this is great way to introduce our families to the school and something we will definitely continue into the future.
Sports Day:
Just a reminder about our School Sports Day which will be held on Thursday the 13th of April at Bridgestone Athletics Centre at Salisbury. Information about this event can be found on the SZapp - Excursion and Events Permission forms tile. Please ensure that you have marked this date in your diary and if your child needs transport either to or from the Sports Day venue, that you have completed the Sports Day Bus Booking form.
Also a reminder that lunch orders for the Sports Day are due by the 4th of April.
We look forward to this wonderful community event.
Save the Date:
We will be having a community farewell celebration for James Lloyd on Wednesday the 12th of April from approximately 9:15am – 10:30am. Community members will be invited to this celebration. More details will be sent out in the coming days.
End of Term One and Beginning of Term Two:
Term 1 concludes on Friday the 14th of April at 3pm and Term 2 commences on Monday the 1st of May. There will be no pupil free days in Term 2.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all parents for their support this term.
God Bless
Ashley Keane