Dear Parents

Welcome to Term 3! Wow it is hard to believe that we are already halfway through the school year. I hope that you had an enjoyable school holiday break with your children.

Welcome to our new Mid-Year Receptions

I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome our Mid-Year Reception students to our community.  31 children who commenced across the two classes and will be taught by Sarah Tirimacco, Natasha Castelluzzo and Amy Rypstra. Our new children have settled in beautifully to their learning environment and we look forward to getting to know them better over coming months.

Staffing News

I would like to inform the community that Susan Trimboli has made the decision to retire from the end of August this year. As she is currently my Principal’s Assistant and the school’s enrolment registrar many of you would have met her when you enrolled your children here.  Susan has been a staff member at St Pius X school for 28 years and during this time has made an enormous contribution to the school community in various roles including managing the school’s Reception and WHS coordinator. Susan is outstanding at her job and will be greatly missed by the St Pius X community. I wish Susan all the best with her retirement, and I am sure she will enjoy the extra time with her family. Susan’s last day at St Pius will be Friday 25^th August.

Jessica Harmer, who currently works as an administrator for our OSHC service and previously as Acting Director, will be taking over Susan’s duties for the remainder of this year and next year and I look forward to working with Jessica in this role.  Natalie Tompkins has joined us from St Martins Catholic School and will be working with us in an administration capacity to support OSHC and school office. We welcome Natalie to our school community.

New Building

Over the school holidays you would have noticed that quite a lot of work was completed in the courtyard area and the new Reception classrooms, Music Room and Music Tuition suites were completed. Although there are still some minor touch-ups required to fully complete these buildings, we have moved classes into the new learning spaces. They are wonderful new facilities for the children to learn in and we are very happy with the flexibility that these spaces offer. If you haven’t had a chance to look through these rooms yet, please don’t hesitate to pull myself or another staff member aside in the school and yard and we would be more than happy to show you through.

Next Monday the new Junior Primary toilets will be available for use which will ease the congestion on the current toilet facilities.

Also, during the holiday period new electric blinds were installed in the upstairs STEM Terrace to make it a more useable space all year round. We are awaiting one more blind to be installed to enable new storage and furniture to be placed in the Terrace.  We are also investigating the possibility of outdoors heaters for the space.

Landscaping of the main courtyard continues, and we are expecting the new lawn to be laid within the next 1-2 weeks with the hope that the extra space will be available at the beginning of Term 4. A rock retaining wall will be installed to support drainage at the and mulch will be placed within the rock borders around the trees in the courtyard area.

At the end of this term, we will commence Stage 3 of the Building Project. This stage will see the upstairs area adjacent to the new Music classroom (above the administration offices) converted into an Italian classroom, Library, Inclusive Education space (complete with 3 small group tuition rooms) and a multipurpose Meeting Room and SHIP room (which will include a green screen for film production). The development will include the re-configuration of the staircase, a couple of the administration offices and the staff toilets to which create more space on the ground floor. Plans have been drawn up and we are waiting on final pricing. It is anticipated that work on this Stage will commence either at the end of Term 3 or beginning of Term 4 this year.

All these improvements will benefit the children greatly and I can’t wait until they are finished, and I can see the school without any temporary fencing.

Netball Carnival

At the end of last term, I had the pleasure of attending the Catholic School’s Years 3-6 Netball Carnival held at Priceline Stadium. 157 children from St Pius X attended the Carnival and enjoyed a day where they played 6 x 15-minute games. The focus of the day was on participation and fun and as such there were no Premiership tables. It was great to see so many of our children enjoying themselves and working together as a team. For many of the children they had never played netball before, however they picked up the game very quickly and enjoyed participating. I was very proud of the children’s sportsmanship and behaviour throughout the day.

I would like to thank Cassandra Figg for her meticulous planning for the day which included, organising buses, permission notes, organising volunteers and highlighting draws for both parents and umpires, as well as helping to sort children into teams. This high level or organisation ensured that the day ran smoothly. I would also like to thank Angelo Zamparelli for teaching the children how to play netball and for ensuring we had all the equipment that we needed for the day. Finally, I would like to thank the wonderful group of parent volunteers who came along to assist at the Carnival. Without the support of volunteers, we would not have been able to take as many children as we did. Participating in events like the Netball Carnival, provides children with not only a sense of fun, but also helps them to build their teamwork skills. We look forward to making the Catholic School’s Netball Carnival an annual event in our calendar. 

Instrumental Concerts

Towards the end of last term, some of the 230 children enrolled in the instrumental program had the opportunity to perform for their parents. It is great to see so many children enjoying the benefits of learning to play a musical instrument or developing their singing and acting skills. I would like to thank Basia Jedrzejczak for her strong commitment and dedication to ensuring that as many children as possible may join our instrumental program and for inspiring all our children with a love and enjoyment for music. I would also like to thank the instrumental teachers for their wonderful work they do in teaching our children. We are very lucky to have such a strong music program at St Pius X school.

Community Events

Over coming weeks, we will be hosting 2 community events, please take notes of the dates below for your diary -

Friday 25^th August: Book Week Dress-up Parade.

Children will be invited to dress up for our annual Parade which will be held on the school oval at 9:00am. Parents and grandparents are invited to join us for the parade and then read a book with their child in their classroom.

Friday 1st September: Father’s Day Breakfast and class visits.

More information to come.

God Bless

Ashley Keane