Term 2 concludes this Friday 5th July at 3:00pm.  

Monday 22nd July is a Pupil Free Day - OSHC will be available for those families needing care.

Term 3 commences on Tuesday 23rd July at 8:45am.

This year's Sports Day will be held at SA Athletics Stadium, Mile End on Friday 18th October (Week 1, Term 4).

Do you have a child who will turn 5 years of age between 1st November 2020 and 31st October 2021?  If you would like them to attend St Pius X School please complete and submit an Application for Enrolment From available from the school office.  Interviews for Reception students in 2021 will be offered in August.  If you have any questions about commencement dates and/or vacancies please speak with Susan Trimboli on 8261 4466.

Over the weekend I read about how, in the 1990’s, Iceland had the highest amount of youth alcohol and drug abuse compared to any other European country. It is now the lowest! I was interested in what they have done to change their youth culture. The information is, I believe, of  great interest to all parents.

‘Today, Iceland tops the European table for the cleanest-living teens. The percentage of 15 and 16 year-olds who had been drunk in the previous month plummeted from 42 percent in 1998 to 5 percent in 2016. The percentage of those who have ever used cannabis is down from 17 percent to 7 percent. Those smoking cigarettes every day fell from 23 percent to just 3 percent.’

The way the country has achieved this turnaround has been both radical and evidence-based, but it has relied a lot on what might be termed enforced common sense. “This is the most remarkably intense and profound study of stress in the lives of teenagers that I have ever seen,” says a key facilitator. “I’m just so impressed by how well it is working.”

How did they achieve this?

Laws were changed. It became illegal to buy tobacco under the age of 18 and alcohol under the age of 20, and tobacco and alcohol advertising was banned. Links between parents and school were strengthened through parental organizations which by law had to be established in every school, along with school councils with parent representatives. Parents were encouraged to attend talks on the importance of spending a quantity of time with their children rather than occasional “quality time”, on talking to their kids about their lives, on knowing who their kids were friends with, and on keeping their children home in the evenings.

A law was also passed prohibiting children aged between 13 and 16 from being outside after 10pm in winter and midnight in summer. It’s still in effect today.

Home and School, the national umbrella body for parental organizations, introduced agreements for parents to sign. The content varies depending on the age group, and individual organizations can decide what they want to include. For kids aged 13 and up, parents can pledge to follow all the recommendations, and also, for example, not to allow their kids to have unsupervised parties, not to buy alcohol for minors, and to keep an eye on the wellbeing of other children.

State funding was increased for organized sport, music, art, dance and other clubs, to give kids alternative ways to feel part of a group, and to feel good, rather than through using alcohol and drugs, and kids from low-income families received help to take part. In Reykjavik, for instance, where more than a third of the country’s population lives, a Leisure Card gives families 35,000 krona ($750) per year per child to pay for recreational activities. These activities included organised sport, Music, Arts.

The article inspired me to consider how these learnings might help shape our youth and the choices that they make. Strong school/home/community links, boundaries (laws) around what children can do and access, and direct funding to each child from 5-18 per year to pay for participation in a registered sport or Arts club.

I’d be interested in your thoughts as to whether this approach would work here in Australia?

(Information derived with  courtesy : Mosaic Science) 

This coming weekend the remainder of our First Eucharist Candidates will receive Holy Communion at our parish Masses. We pray for, and congratulate the following:

Gabriella, Tahlia, Adrian, Alexander, Olivia R, Orlando, Christian, Mai, Luca, Flynn, Elizabeta, Selina, Anton, Sophie, Jon, Ella, Angelo, Charlotte, Oliver S and Eva.

Thank you to those families who have brought canned food in for our Vinnies Canned Food Drive. We will be collecting cans on Friday. Our local Vinnies conference is extremely grateful for our support.

The Vinnies Wheelie Bins are full! Replacement bins should arrive any time now. Please bag up any donations of good quality second hand clothes and return to school. Your generosity is much appreciated.

Blessings for the week ahead.

Would you like to be able to read details and approve your child’s next excursion using your mobile device or ‘on line’ via email?

The benefits include -

• No need for notes in bags, notes getting lost, requesting replacement copies
• Saves paper
• Use your mobile device for one touch approval

This facility is now available through our SZapp!

What you need to do -  

• Install the Szapp app to your mobile device
• Once installed choose the ‘Manage’ tab on the app and select your child’s class along with Parents/Guardians - your selections will be ‘green’

The Szapp will alert you to notices and forms for your selected groups.  Whole school alerts and information (including the school’s Newsletter) will continue via Parents/Guardians.   

Your child’s class excursion permissions and other forms will be distributed via SZapp so please subscribe to your child/rens group(s) soon.

Please contact Susan Trimboli at the school office if you require assistance with this process. 

If you are unable to use the Szapp, paper excursion permission forms will need to be collected from the school office.

This Report is a requirement of the School's Assistance Act and is available here - 

2018_Report.pdf

Paper copies of the Report are available from the School Office.

On Monday 24^thJune, St Pius X School Choir participated in the Hub School Assessment in preparation for the Catholic Schools’ Music Festival in September. Our 32 students were joined by 9 other visiting schools making a total of 185 choristers singing their hearts out in the Hall to Ms Denise Rothall, the Festival Director.  It was a long morning, 9-11.30, but all students had a lot of fun singing and improving on their choreography.  Ms Rothall now has the unenviable task of placing all 80 choirs in South Australia on one of the 4 nights of the Catholic Schools’ Music Festival which will perform at the Festival Theatre in September (Term 3 Week 10), so that each night has a well- balanced, gorgeous sound. Ms Rothall also auditioned soloists for the 5 solo sections in the repertoire, reserved for primary school students. Schools had to have their own auditions for these solo parts, as each school could only put forward one soloist for each of the 5 songs at the Hub Assessments.  Congratulations to the 5 students who auditioned; Morgan S 6A, Emmeline A 5RD, Jacqueline K 5RD, Mariam B 5BL and Charlotte D 5BL. We will be notified in Week 1, Term 3 as to which night we will be performing on, and if any of our St Pius X soloists were successful in getting a ‘call back’ and progressing to the next round of auditions.