Newsletter 19 – 9 December 2025

Dear Parents,

Here we are, in the final week of the school year. It has been a brilliant year, filled with many incursions, excursions, camps, carnivals, interschool academic events, a disco, movie night, water fun day, Edudance lessons, performing arts performances, and rich, engaging learning experiences. No wonder everyone is starting to feel that little bit tired!

End of Year Concert

It was so lovely to see so many loved ones gathered together, in support of our children, at our end of year concert. After much excitement, anticipation and dedicated preparation, our students were finally able to take to the stage. They presented a heartwarming re-enactment of the Nativity story and entertained us with their polished, high energy dance performances. Thank you to all our staff, students, Cassie our EduDance teacher and our amazing parents for making our concert so spectacular year in year out.

PP Assembly

Last Friday our Pre-Primary students captivated us with their expressive oral retell of the story ‘Wombat Stew’. I cannot believe they recited the whole story, complete with actions, and perfect intonation. On the pinup boards along the stage, their impressive writing pieces and artwork were on full display. Our Pre-Primary’s are certainly well and truly ready to move into the big part of the school next year!

Year 6 Graduation

This Wednesday we will be celebrating our Year 6 students Graduation with Mass in the Church at 1.40pm. Our Year 6s have done an exceptional job leading our school over the year; they have been wonderful role models to their younger peers. We wish our Year 6 students a fun-filled last week of primary school. No doubt there will be a few tears shed as the emotion of leaving primary school, their home for the past eight years, comes to the surface. We will greatly miss them and wish them every blessing as they venture off to high school. We know they will take with them many fond memories of their time at St Pius X. In much the same way, their warmth, energy, leadership and countless contributions will leave a lasting positive imprint on our school community.

Thank you to our P&F and CSAC

Thank you to our devoted P&F comprised of Kim Passmore (Chair), Nisha Fay (Vice President), Jessie Choate (Secretary), Naomi Charlton (Treasurer), Robyn Diggins and Alisha Trend. Each term, this group of dedicated ladies, give so generously of their time to plan for and coordinate countless community building events for our students and parents. We are so grateful for all that they do despite their busy schedules and for the way they exemplify our school’s SEARCH values in word and action.

Thank you also to our CSAC comprised of Michael Cain (Chair), Matthew Grogan (Vice Chair), Rob Ierace (Treasurer), Mark Kruger (Secretary), Jess Rahim (General Member), Kim Passmore (P&F Representative), Marie Chaperon (Parish Representative), Fr Anthony and Natasha Gregory. I greatly appreciate your support in ensuring St Pius X continues to go from strength to strength. We have much to celebrate and are proud of the strides our school has made over the years.

Thank you to our staff

Our students are so blessed to have such enthusiastic, committed, professional staff. Each and every one of our teachers, education assistants and admin staff go above and beyond to foster a Christ centred, student focused learning environment in which all students are supported to flourish. Just as our staff have high expectations of their students, they also have high expectations of themselves. They work tirelessly to ensure they provide engaging learning experiences for their students and foster a growth mindset in our children, helping them to grow not only academically but spiritually, socially, emotionally and physically. They engage in professional learning to ensure they remain abreast of current evidence based pedagogical practices and collaborate not only with one another but with staff from other schools, namely St Augustine’s, to plan lessons, assessments and to moderate student work.

Reports

Parents will be able to access their children’s End of Year Reports as of Wednesday. The reports provide a wonderful opportunity for parents to sit with their children and celebrate the growth they have made over the year and to set some goals for the coming year. As I had a read of our students’ comments, I was overjoyed by the effort and progress our students have made. I know you will be, too.

Farewell, Mrs Nichol

At the conclusion of the year, Mrs Marni Nichol will be resigning from her role as Admin Officer at St Pius X to embark on her new role as a retiree.

Marni started off her connection with St Pius X some years back as a parent. Her son, Jack, and daughter, Hannah, were students here. After many years of being an active parent who selflessly served on the P&F, she went on to nurture our students in a more formal capacity, in the role of Education Assistant. In true Marni style, she quickly expanded her services to include that of Library technician and Administration Officer.

Marni has been a dedicated employee of St Pius X for 20 years!! Of that 20 years, she has been the warm, welcoming face that has greeted families, students and staff in the office for the past decade. Visitors to our school and prospective families always comment on how ‘lovely’ Marni is and how lucky we are to have someone like her on staff. No truer words have been spoken!

However, Marni is more than a friendly face and ‘lovely’ person. She is incredibly efficient in her role as Admin Officer and a jack of all trades. If there is a bolt to be tightened, a contraption to be fixed, a problem to be solved, an event to be coordinated, Marni is there in the trenches getting the job done. No task is ever too big or small and there is no ‘I’m sorry, that’s not in my job description’.  Every task is completed to perfection, with grace and a genuine smile.

Over the five years I have been privileged to work with Marni, I have viewed her has an extension of our leadership team. She always has the best interests of our school community at heart, gives sage advice and attends to our staff, students and families with such compassion and care. Observing the way Marni tends to our students’ medical needs (aka grazed knees and bumps), melting away their worries is a sight to behold. Seeing her discreetly lay out a spread of baked goods, that caters for the diverse dietary requirements of our staff, just because, reflects the thoughtfulness Marni displays day in, day out.

Nothing is ever a bother to Marni. However, when our electric gate recently ceased to work and was reported to require a part that would take a week or more to arrive, I was certain I would see her come a little unstuck. How very wrong I was. Despite having to get up multiple times a day, over consecutive days, to unlock and lock the gate, Marni never faltered. There wasn’t a single audible sigh or complaint. She simply got up each and every time the bell sounded. As I watched through my window, I observed Marni greeting each person with a cheery disposition, making them feel like they were the centre of the universe.

It’s not surprising then that our school community will greatly miss Marni when she steps down from the helm at the end of the year. When our hearts are overtaken with sadness at the thought of Marni not being at St Pius X anymore, we must take solace in the knowledge we were incredibly blessed to have been graced with her presence and service all these years. It is now time for Marni to turn her attention to her family and enjoy this next chapter of life, especially given so much of her personal time was consumed by running errands for our school.

On behalf of our whole school community, I wish Marni and her family all God’s blessings; may this next chapter be filled with much travel, joy, leisure, laughter and the pitter patter of little feet in the not so distant future (no pressure Jack and Hannah!). After decades of attending to the needs of others, sprinkling her joy upon us and meeting deadline after deadline, Marni can finally enjoy a more gentle pace and do the things that fill her cup.

Mrs Yvonne Faulkner has been appointed as our new Admin Officer. Yvonne comes to us from Clontarf Aboriginal College and she previously worked at Yidarra Catholic Primary school. She brings with her a wealth of experience and knowledge of the role. To ensure a smooth transition, Mrs Nichol has generously offered to come in for the two weeks before school starts, to assist Mrs Faulkner in the preliminary back to school processes.

Farewell, Miss Sinclair

At the end of this year, we will also be farewelling Miss Asha Sinclair. Miss Sinclair has been an outstanding Year 4 teacher. In addition to teaching our Year 4 students, Asha has led staff in professional development in the Digital Technologies space. Asha’s gentle, warm nature and dedication will be greatly missed. We wish Miss Sinclair all the very best in her new role at St Hilda’s.

Farewell, Mrs Waldock and Miss Isabelle Johnson

Mrs Aleksandra Waldock has served as an EA at St Pius X over the past two years. Although she will be leaving us at the end of the year, I am confident we will be seeing a lot more of her yet. In the meantime, we wish Mrs Waldock a relaxing break with her family and look forward to a continued association with our school.

Miss Isabelle Johnson has been working as an EA in our Pre-Primary class on Thursdays and Fridays. We wish Miss Johnson well as she commences her Bachelor of Education next year.

Staffing 2026

Mrs Lee-Ann Trabucchi will be reducing her days to two days a week next year. As a result, she will be moving from Year 1 teacher to sharing the role of Year 2 teacher with Mrs Tricia Christian. Mrs Loiuse Rimmer, from Mother Teresa College, will be joining us as Year 1 teacher next year. Mrs Rimmer is an experienced Year 1 teacher and holds both an Early Years certificate and Masters in Education.

With Miss Sinclair moving on at the end of the year, Miss Fiona Dempsey will be moving up a year level to teach Year 4 next year. We welcome Miss Sage Breeze as our new Year 3 teacher for 2026.

Thank you

I’d also like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to each and every one of you. Our St Pius X community is an extraordinarily special one and one which I feel so very blessed to have been a part of for the past five years. I thank you all for your support, for the trust you placed in me to lead our special school and care for your precious children. I will greatly miss our beautiful students, families and amazing staff. Together, we have built a thriving school in which each student and staff member is nurtured to flourish spiritually, academically, socially, emotionally and physically. I know our school will continue to thrive and that it will be in great hands with Mrs Jacki Tucker next term and our brilliant staff.

I wish all our families a blessed Christmas and New Year. I hope you manage to enjoy some quality down time as a family and get to recharge your batteries ready for 2026.

God bless,

Melissa.