Welcome back to all of you and hoping that you had a chance to have a break and enjoy precious family time together. Kelly and I returned from Europe last week (Paris, Tuscany and Rome) after 2 ½ weeks together and it was sensational. Kelly’s parents were so generous in looking after out 3 youngest children and they reported that they were wonderfully behaved! As parents you might understand a little surprise at this but wow.. what an opportunity for us to experience these amazing cities together. It was Kelly’s first time to Europe so we made up for this by visiting every church and place of significance. Suffice to say these moments will be cherished.

Meanwhile, back at St Pius X, things are moving at a good pace. We have demolished the Acton Ave house and have the preliminary plans for the Nature Play space which will occupy the area.  I am working with our student Eco leaders and in fact, all children, to gain input as to what this space could become. As far as the larger building project goes, we are completing finance loans and processes with the aim of building in early 2019. 

2018 Primary Mathematics Challenge
Congratulations to our classes, small groups and individual students who have been working on the 2018 Primary Mathematics Challenge. We have six entries that are being forwarded for State wide judging this Saturday. These include Nikolas Radic from Reception, a small group from the other Reception classes, Year 1M, Year 2G/L, Year 4 FS and Year 5 BT. They have all undertaken some marvellous Mathematics investigations and I look forward to hearing how they go in the State judging. Next Newsletter I will give more detail about their entries.

Class Placements
It’s that time of the year when our focus starts to move towards 2019 class structures and the first Newsletter of Term 4 offers the opportunity for parents to inform me about any thoughts that you have in relation to your child’s placement in 2019. As has been stated in previous years, this is not an opportunity to ‘pick a teacher’ but rather to provide us with some further insights into your child’s learning dispositions, friendship groups, talents and skills etc that you wish us to be aware of. Of course, teachers already have much of this information and you would be aware that placing multiple children across two and sometimes three classes needs a great deal of consideration. As has been stated clearly in the past, information from parents should not be considered as a guarantee of a particular placement. There are many factors that teachers weigh up including friendships, a balance of gifts, talents, learning and emotional needs across the classes. Sometimes, we can just see that a particular child will just ‘click’ and be inspired by a particular teacher. So, in summary, we will absolutely respect any information that you would wish to provide in relation to your child’s class in 2019. This will be added to all of the other information in order to discern the best learning environment for your child in our judgement.

If you would like to email your thoughts and considerations for next year please do so to info@stpiusx.catholic.edu.au. This information will be confidential to me if requested.

Welcome to Term 4!

I hope that your holidays were filled with many happy moments. The term break is a great chance to take a deep breath and reflect on our own journey. As we begin a new term, I hope that you find many moments to treasure.

There are a few liturgical celebrations in the coming weeks which I draw your attention to - on Thursday November 1^st, we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. The following day, Friday November 2^nd, we celebrate the Feast of All Souls. These are significant days in our faith life and as such, we will celebrate whole school prayer services on both days at 9:15am in the hall.

Please jot these dates and times in your diaries and join us for prayer.

Yesterday, I was sent a beautiful ‘prayer for parents’ from a family here at school. This prayer may be one you print off and keep in a special place and reflect on during your own child’s journey.

Dear Father in heaven, here are our children. We give them to You. Reach out and touch them with the finger of Your love, so they will stop where they are, sense Your presence and turn to You. Take them and make them what You want, not what we want.

Call them to adventures You have planned for them, not what we aspire to for them. Keep them from sin, but if they sin, draw them back to You. Keep them from smallness of spirit. Help them to know themselves, and enjoy the person You created them to be. Help them to use their gifts to serve You. Help them to plunge deep into the mystery of their union with You and love You above all things.

As for us, help us to love them without possessiveness. Help us to be firm and protect them when we must. Help us to be patient while they strive to find themselves. Help us to respect them for what You made them to be. Help us to guide them with Your wisdom. Help us to love letting them go.  

And when the work is done, and they are formed, and raised, and gone, help us to turn back to You, without our children, and continue the journey wiser and more understanding of You and Your way with all people, because we have born children of our own.

Amen

Wishing you many blessings for the week ahead.

Stalls Assistance

This year we are using the online booking programme ‘School Interviews’ to manage volunteer assistance with Gala Day Stalls.  Please go to www.schoolinterviews.com.au and follow these simple instructions.

 Enter the code h5fwu and press "Go"

• Enter your details
• Select the Stall(s) you are able to assist
• Select the time slot that suits you

When you click FINISH, your timetable will be emailed to you automatically. If you do not receive your email immediately – check your junk mail folder and check you have spellt your email address correctly.

You can return to www.schoolinterviews.com.au at any time and change your appointment(s) - until bookings close.  

Please contact Tania Colligan, P&F President via tcolligan@stpiusx.catholic.edu.au if you would like to discuss assisting with a Stall.  Thank you for your anticipated particiation in this annual event.

Staff Raffle

The Raffle is organised annually by our staff with all proceeds going to the P&F Gala Day profit.  There are three prizes of baskets full of wonderful goodies to help families leading up to Christmas.  The raffle will be drawn on Gala Day.

Raffle books have been distributed today with the eldest child in your family.  The tickets are 50 cents each with 5 tickets to a book.  Please return all sold tickets  stubs and money in an envelope and place in Box 1 in the student entry foyer by Friday 2^ndNovember 2018.

• Suki D who has won the Delaney Academic Scholarship for Kildare College in 2019. We are very proud of her efforts - and this achievement!
• Jaeyeong H, Jaei, H Roman N, Bryce Y and William McC competed in the Judo South Australia Championships recently and showed spirit, respect and humility for their opposition.  In their relative age and weight divisions the boys achieved the following results - Jaeyeong first place, Jaei and William third place and Bryce and Roman fourth place. The Federation President reported they were a credit to our school - well done boys!

For more than 30 years, the Australian Girls Choir has played a role in the growth and development of girls across the country. We provide an experience that goes far beyond the stage; your daughter will develop confidence, public speaking and presentation skills, resilience and friendships that will last a lifetime.

Our senior performers have entertained everyone from Queen Elizabeth II to Oprah, and have shared the stage with a long list of artists including Hugh Jackman and Pharrell Williams. For the past 20 years, we’ve been proud to represent Qantas at live events and in the ‘I Still Call Australia Home’ advertising campaigns.

Now accepting 2019 enrolments for our rehearsal venues in Glenelg and Glen Osmond.

Join us at our OPEN DAY on Sunday October 28 - call 08 8271 1622 or email headoffice@aspagroup.com.au