Newsletter 12 – 9 August 2023

Ever-generous God,
You inspired St Mary MacKillop
to live her life faithful
to the Gospel of Jesus Christ
and constant in bringing hope
and encouragement
to those who were disheartened, lonely, or needy.
We ask that our faith and hope
be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit so that we too,
like Mary MacKillop, may live with courage,
trust, and openness.
Ever-generous God, hear our prayer.
We ask this through Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

This week, we celebrated the feast day of Australia’s only saint ‘Mary MacKillop’ who is also known as ‘St Mary of the Cross’. We can all draw inspiration from Saint Mary of the Cross for she showed immense trust and faith in God and despite being faced with many challenges, dedicated her life to serving the needs of those less fortunate than her, providing an education to children in South Australia who otherwise would not have had access to schooling.

Mary MacKillop Liturgy
On Tuesday morning, our Year 6s led us through a beautiful, prayerful Liturgy centred on Saint Mary of the Cross. They spoke with such confidence, clarity and reverence. At the conclusion of the Liturgy, we discussed the connection between Mary MacKillop and the Sisters of St. Joseph to our school. Our students very aptly surmised that the qualities that Mary MacKillop and the Josephites exhibited are aligned with our school SEARCH values. In Sophie’s words: ‘Mary MacKillop pretty much lived out all of our SEARCH values’.

SNAFL Carnival
This Friday, our Year 5 & 6 students will be competing in the SNAFL Carnival. Well done to all our students who have been turning up to before school training on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, especially our Year 4 students who have been called upon to step in to make up the numbers for some of our sport teams. Making the effort to get out of bed that little bit earlier demonstrates our students’ commitment to the team and desire to improve their skill sets in their respective sports. Thank you to Mr Cooper for giving up his mornings to facilitate the training sessions.

Year 6 iPad Conference
Next Thursday, our Year 6s will be joining Year 6 students from Queen of Apostles, Corpus Christi, Orana and Our Lady of Mount Carmel for an iPad Conference. To kick off the conference, students will be addressed by Keynote Speakers from Waste Sorted and Apple. For the remainder of the day, students will be organised into groups comprised of students from the participating schools to solve ‘sustainability’ problems using various iPad applications. Each session will be facilitated by teachers from the schools involved. Critical thinking, collaboration and innovation will be on full display throughout the day. I know our Year 6s are excited to take part in the conference and we look forward to hearing their recounts of the day.

QCE Awards
St Pius X and Clontarf Aboriginal College have submitted a joint application for the Quality Catholic Education Awards. Our application falls under the ‘Community’ pillar and captures the positive outcomes of our partnership over the past two years. For the Clontarf students who have regularly visited our school, the experience has resulted in increased levels of confidence, sense of identity, and pride in their culture. They have built positive relationships with our staff and students and now enjoy stepping outside of their comfort zone and taking on leadership opportunities. For our students, the partnership has been equally enriching. Our students and staff have learnt, firsthand, about Indigenous culture through the Clontarf students personal anecdotes and experiences. Our students have also thoroughly enjoyed having Clontarf students lead small group literacy and art activities, too. Through these interactions, our students have developed an appreciation for and celebration of diversity and Aboriginal culture and have forged positive relationships with the Clontarf students.

Special thanks must go to Mrs Chelsea DeLuca and Mandy Royce for putting together the application and coordinating the partnership between our two schools.

Pupil Free Days
A gentle reminder that next Friday 18^th August and Monday 21^st August are pupil free days, meaning our school will not be open on these two days. Hopefully this four day weekend will provide our students with an opportunity to rest and reset so they’re ready to tackle the second half of the term.

Just a reminder our 3 Year Old Kindy students will still attend school on Monday 21st August. 

P&F Bogan Bingo
Our wonderful P&F have organised a St Pius X Parents Bogan Bingo night on 26^th August. An enormous amount of time and energy goes into organising events such as these so we truly hope we will have a significant number of parents attend.  It is a great opportunity to come together as a community and have a few laughs. We hope to see you there.

Wishing you a gentle end to the week filled with mindful moments and gratitude.

Melissa Vranjes
Principal

Hello Parents,

As Term 3 has rolled around once again we move our focus to our Athletics Carnivals.

The Junior Primary (K-PP) Athletics Carnival will take place on Wednesday the 6^th of September at James Miller Reserve from 9:30AM – 10:30AM. Note that students should wear their factions colours to school.

The Upper Primary (1-6) Athletics Carnival will take place on Wednesday the 13^th of September at Aquinas College from 9:10AM – 2:40PM. As this is such a large event, if you would be able to volunteer to help set-up, judge events such as long jump, javelin, or shotput, be a start marshal, finish line judge, or scorer, please let me know via email at caleb.cooper@cewa.edu.au, any and all help is greatly appreciated.

An official document with information surrounding the carnivals will be sent by the end of the week.

Thank you,

Caleb Cooper
Physical Education Teacher