Newsletter 10 – 28 June 2023

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

I’m not sure how, but here we are in the last week of term. The saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ certainly rings true. Our students have enjoyed a fun filled term with various incursions and excursions, Cross Country Carnivals, Movie Nights, Sacraments, Liturgies, Assemblies, sports clinics, and activities with Clontarf students taking place. After a busy term, I am sure that our students, parents and staff are ready for a well-earned break from school routines.

Assembly

Thank you to our Year 1 students who entertained us with their ‘Minibeasts’ Assembly item last Friday morning. Our Year 1s not only showed off their repertoire of knowledge about insects but impressed us with their ability to remember their various lines and speak so clearly and confidently. We all thoroughly enjoyed their colourful Minibeast costumes, rap and dance moves, too. Congratulations to Mrs Keightley, Mrs Trimble and Mrs Mo for preparing our Year 1s so very well.

Canteen

Lindi, our canteen manager, is loving the new oven that was purchased by our wonderful P&F. Not only does it heat up much more quickly and cook more evenly, but it even has airfryer capabilities!

Bricks for Kids

We are exploring the possibility of hosting Bricks 4 Kidz after school workshops for our Year 1 – 3 cohorts in Term 3. The sessions would be offered on Monday afternoons from Week 2 – Week 9.

The Year 1 workshops would run from 3.15-4.15pm and costs $176 per student. During each 60 minute session students carry out a project using the LEGO robotics bricks.

The Year 2-3 workshops run for 90 minutes, starting at 3.15pm, and cost $208 per student. During these sessions, students learn how to program and code using the WeDo 2.0 junior robotics software.

In order for Bricks 4 Kidz to run the after-school classes onsite, they require a minimum of 12 students per group. The maximum number of students they will take altogether is 32. If you would like your child to participate in the after-school program, can you please complete the relevant survey below by Friday morning. If we have sufficient numbers, we will proceed by booking the workshops and parents who have completed the survey will be sent a link to pay their enrolment fees directly to Bricks 4 Kidz.

Year 1 survey link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H2RDGS9

Year 2-3 survey link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H2HHV7G

Farewell

At the end of this term we will be farewelling a few of our staff members.

Mr Kim Hughes will be leaving us to take up his new Assistant Principal position at Saint Maria Goretti’s Catholic School. We wish Mr Hughes well in his new posting and know we will continue to see him in our school community, particularly through our ‘Dads and Kids’ events.

We will also be farewelling our long serving Pre-Primary Education Assistant, Mrs Cathy O’Brien. After moving house, the commute to St Pius X proved to be too long, no longer making working in our beautiful school a viable option for Mrs O’Brien. We will miss Mrs O’Brien and wish her every success securing employment closer to home.

Miss Hayley Sherrington, our current Year 5 teacher, will also be leaving us at the conclusion of the term. We thank Miss Sherrington for her work over the past ten weeks and wish her all the best as she discerns her future career path.

Welcome

With the sad farewells, come the exciting welcomes to new incoming staff members.

Last Wednesday, our students had the pleasure of meeting our new Assistant Principal, Mrs Natasha Gregory. Mrs Gregory spent the day with us, learning about our school context and meeting with both Mr Hughes and Mrs Keightley for a thorough handover. In addition to fulfilling the role of Assistant Principal, Mrs Gregory will also be teaching in Year 5 for half a day, Monday to Friday.

We will also be welcoming Miss Eve Cohen, our new Year 6 teacher, and Miss Alexandra Ryan, our new Year 1 teacher. Both ladies have spent some time in their respective classrooms over the past couple of weeks, getting to know the students, the routines and conducting handovers with the current class teachers.

We also look forward to welcoming Mrs Lina Collazos in the capacity of Education Assistant in Pre-Primary. Mrs Collazos will be spending some time in the Pre-Primary class this week.

I am sure everyone will make our new staff members feel incredibly welcome.

Reports and electronic portfolios

Parents will be able to access their children’s Mid-Year Reports on SEQTA from tomorrow. After reading through the report yourself, it would be a good idea to read through it with your child. Following this, invite your child to share their electronic portfolio on Seesaw with you. Engaging in this process will provide a wonderful opportunity to celebrate your child’s achievements and discuss all the wonderful activities they have engaged in over the semester. It is will also provide the opportune time to talk to your child about goals for the coming semester and any areas they may need to improve. Such enriching conversations empower our children to acknowledge their achievements, take ownership over their learning and to develop reflective practices.

Thank you to our teachers who invest an enormous amount of time and energy into preparing student reports, scrutinising assessment data to determine grades and writing report comments that accurately capture student progress and qualities.

I wish all of our students and families a safe and restful two-week break from school. I look forward to hearing all about our students’ experiences during their holidays when they return. I’ll miss our games of Four Square and Basketball Bump before school!

God bless,

Melissa Vranjes
Principal

Dear parents, caregivers, students and staff,

Our wonder recycling rewards has now finished. Thank you kindly for all the bread bags you deposited into the pink boxes around the school. We have managed to save 10kg of bread bags from landfill😀. The bags will now be sent off and we will be given the choice of free sporting equipment for our students.

Thank you for your support!

Gaye Sanchez-Lawson and The Sustainability Committee.

ML CARNIVAL

On Friday the 16^th of June our Year 5’s and 6’s took part in the ASCS Modcrosse and League Tag Carnival. This carnival serves as a great opportunity to broaden our students’ sporting horizons by participating in sports they otherwise would not play. Each student gave their best and showed great spirit and sportsmanship. Thank you to Mr Hughes for running the League Tag training sessions and coaching the team on the day. I would also like to thank Mr Hughes, Miss Sherrington and Miss Vranjes for attending the carnival and to those parents and grandparents who came and supported our students.  Your presence and assistance is always appreciated. Well done to the Year 5 and 6 students and to the other participating schools for their great efforts throughout the day.

AFL & NRL CLINICS

Over the past week St Pius X students have been fortunate enough to be involved in Football clinics from the West Australian Football Commission. A big thank you to coach Saynab for all of her work, showing the ins and outs of Footy to all of our students. I know the Pre-Primary’s and Kindy’s in particular have thoroughly enjoyed their introduction to AFL.

Caleb Cooper
Physical Education Teacher