From the Principal - Ashley Keane
Dear Parents
Welcome back for Term Two. I hope you had an enjoyable break and an opportunity, at some point, to spend time with your children.
Sports Day
Term One finished with Sports Day at Bridgestone Athletics Centre and was a wonderful community celebration. We were blessed with almost perfect weather, and it was great to see so many parents in attendance. The Bridgestone Athletics Centre was also a perfect location for our event.
Congratulations to our winners - our green team - St Brigid, which won the Sports Day trophy for the third year in a row. Congratulations also to the blue team - St Mary - which won the Spirit Shield for their great sporting attitude and participation.
Thank you to our parents for their participation whether by joining events, supporting staff with scoring, or simply encouraging children. Your attendance was appreciated. I would also like to thank Angelo Zamparelli for his wonderful coordination of the day. Angelo spent many hours putting together the program as well as teaching children the skills for their events. Angelo’s commitment to sport at St Pius X is unquestionable and he is a strong advocate for children’s participation in physical activity and enjoying sport as a part of their everyday life. Thank you to Cassandra Figg who spent a lot of time coordinating buses and lunch orders and did an amazing job providing support behind the scenes. Thank you to our Sports Captains who worked hard preparing and leading their teams and spent many hours of their own time putting together chants and actions.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the wonderful participation and sporting attitude shown by our children. Their sense of fun and enjoyment, dressing up in their team colours, cheering each other on, all made for a great community event. We will now review the day and look to make it an even a better one in 2024.
Welcome Rita Campbell
I would like to welcome Rita Campbell to our community as she begins her role replacing James Lloyd as APRIM for the remainder of the year. Rita spent a lot of time in her first week getting to know the staff and children and I have no doubt that she will fit nicely into our school community. Rita comes to us from Tenison Woods Catholic School at Richmond and brings a great deal of experience and passion for her role. I am sure that you join me in making her feel welcome at St Pius X school.
Parents and Friends
Our Parents and Friends group is an important part of our school community, and all parents, grandparents and friends of St Pius X school are invited to join them. The P&F provide extra opportunities for our children to enjoy and also aim to bring a strong sense of community to our school.
To facilitate the involvement of working parents, we invite you and other interested people, to an open Parents and Friends Meeting on Tuesday 23rd May at 7:00pm in the staffroom. We will discuss the future direction of the Parents and Friends committee and would love to hear your ideas around the types of events and initiatives that the P&F could coordinate. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Cassandra will distribute an invitation to the meeting in coming days.
School Uniforms in Winter
As we move into winter and the weather begins to cool, I would like to remind parents to please ensure they have labelled their children’s school uniform items. Quite often children come to school wearing jumpers or jackets but, as the day progresses, they take these items off and leave them in the yard. We have already had several unlabelled items handed into the office. If the items are clearly labelled, then our office staff will return them to their rightful owner. Unlabelled items are placed in the school’s lost property ‘tub’. If your child accidentally brings home an item of clothing that does not belong to them, please return it to school so we can attempt to find its rightful owner. If we all work together, we can reduce the number of lost uniforms.
Due to the lower UV levels in Term 2 children may play outside without a hat. Whilst the ‘no hat – no play’ policy is not strictly enforced in Term 2; we do ask that all children have a hat at school (perhaps in their bags) as there are times when the UV levels are high, and we may instruct children to wear their hat whilst outside.
Pupil Free Days for the remainder of the Year
Since the last Newsletter, our staff have had an opportunity to engage in professional learning around the assessment of student learning, and as a result there will be a Pupil Free Day on Friday 9th of June (before the long weekend)
Pupil Free Days for the remainder of the year are:
- Friday 9th June
- Monday 24th July (first day of Term 3)
- Monday 16th October (first day of Term 4).
School concludes for students on Wednesday 13th December.
I take this opportunity to wish all our mothers a very Happy Mother’s Day this Sunday, I hope your children show you how much you are loved and appreciated.
God Bless
Ashley Keane