Junior School News 

• From the Head of the Junior School 
• Junior School Sport
• From the Junior Resource Centre
• Junior Chess

From the Head of the Junior School 

PRAYER

God of all peoples and nations,

As you accompany us on our Lenten journey,

May our fasting strengthen our commitment to live in solidarity,

Our almsgiving be an act of justice,

and our prayers anchor us in love and compassion.

Through living simply and loving generously,

May we care for our global family and our common home,

as we “Aspire not to have more, but to BE more”.

We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen.

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Below is an example of what donations can do for those less fortunate.

YEAR 6  BULLY ZERO PRESENTATION

Year 6 will experience a ‘Bully Zero' presentation on Friday.  The time has changed to Period 4.  This is a part of our e-safety campaign.  I am reminded of the old expression that it takes a village to raise a child.  It is important that the standards at home and at school are in alignment.  To that end there will be a webinar for parents from the same organisation that is presenting to your son on Friday.  The details for the Webinar are:- 

Webinar 7.00 pm, 4 March complementing presentation to Year 6 and 7, Period 3 and 4, Friday 26 February.

You are invited to a Zoom webinar.  

When: March 4, 2021 7:00 pm Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney  

Topic: St Pius X College - It Takes a Village (LP) 

Register in advance for this webinar: 

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-w8g5M14TTCQeEqRUALcUA 

AFTER SCHOOL STUDY

All Year 5 - 11 students are invited to After School Study from 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm in the enrichment classroom in the Junior School (the one at the end of the corridor - opposite 6 Red). During Term 1 this opportunity is available on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and concludes on Thursday 25 March. Students must sign in on arrival and have sufficient work or reading material for an hour. Students are not permitted mobile phones or food in the study space. Individual guidance with tasks is provided by Mrs Gunns.

MATHS DROP IN EVERY FRIDAY MORNING FROM 8.00 AM

Maths drop in is for any boy in Years 5 or 6 who:

• has a question about something covered in class
• needs assistance with homework
• needs guidance with studying for an upcoming maths test

I have been encouraging my students to attend and work through concepts they are unsure of, work they have missed when absent and to revise.

CHECK HAIR

I know this is going to make some of you itch but we have a case of head lice in a one of the Year 5 boys households.  Please check your son’s hair thoroughly.  Remind your son not to share caps!

CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE

The concept of the Lunar New Year Parade is for it to be loud so it wards off the evil spirits.  I can assure you that there were no evil spirits in the Junior School last Friday afternoon.  It was loud! The boys were very excited and had a memorable time.  Thank you to Mrs Lee for organising and bringing the study of Mandarin to life. Well done to the boys who spoke and sang, socially distant, at the Assembly at the conclusion of the parade. 

MERIT AWARD WINNERS

There were many Merit Award winners last Friday.  They received their awards for a myriad of reasons but when you go back to the core it has to do with effort.  Fide et Labore.  Well done gents!

CAMPS

All Parents/Carers of Year 6 students should have received a letter from Mrs Iwatani last week with the details of the camp and a form that you need to complete and return.

The Year 5 information will be coming out at the end of this week.

THE UPCOMING WEEK 

Thursday 25/2 – Summer Sport - U10 & 11 Cross-Country. Boys to return to Sport when they finish.  For the cross country - boys need their runners- not basketball boots!

Friday 26/2 – Brothers Swimming carnival at Riverview – Good luck to all the contestants. Thanks to Mrs Doheny and Mr McBrearty.

Friday 26/2 - Year 6 Bully Zero Incursion - Please note the time has changed to Period 4. If your son has a music tuition lesson at this time, please would you arrange to have it changed.  Thank you.

Saturday 27/2 – Remember sport is on unless informed otherwise.  Please ensure you have the college app.

Monday 1/3 – P & F Meeting.  All welcome. It will be in 'A' Wing at the Chatswood campus.  Parking available in the playground.  Alternatively, it will be also online using ‘Teams.’  Refer to P&F Page of Woodchatta for more information.

Tuesday 2/3 – IPSHA Swimming Carnival at Homebush.  Best wishes to the boys. 6.45 am departure from school.

Wednesday 3/3 – Peer Support for Year 5 Period 2 (9.50 am – 10.43 am) – Music tuition will need to be changed.

A THOUGHT TO PONDER

The theme for the earlier Lenten prayer and project compassion was:- 

"ASPIRE NOT TO HAVE MORE, BUT TO BE MORE.”

Saint Oscar Romero

Oscar Romero was the Archbishop of San Salvador.   He spoke out against poverty, social injustice, assassinations, and torture amid a growing war between left-wing and right-wing forces. In 1980, Romero was assassinated on 24 March in 1980 while celebrating Mass in the Chapel of the Hospital of Divine Providence. He died speaking out against injustice.

Thanking you for your support.

Mr Tim Long - Head of the Junior School 

2021 Chinese New Year Parade

On 19 February, the Junior School celebrated Chinese New Year with a parade during the Friday afternoon assembly. The parade began with Chinese New Year music ringing through the hallways of the Junior School. Year 6 students performed a cleansing ritual, parading through the classrooms wearing lion costumes, playing drums and cymbals, focusing especially on the corners of the classrooms, which in traditional Chinese culture is believed to cleanse the rooms of evil spirits that dwell in the corners of the rooms. 

Year 5 boys joined the parade waving hand-made lanterns through a welcoming corridor of Year 6 boys. During the Assembly, a representative from each Year 6 class presented a speech on Chinese New Year, and red packets were exchanged along with “Gong Xi Fa Cai”. The parade continued with four selected Year 5 boys singing the Gongxi Gongxi song to the audience, while keeping social distancing regulations. 

This event would not have been so successful without the support and cooperation of all those involved, so thank you. A special thanks to Mr Stephen Cummins from the Performing Arts Department for setting up the sound equipment and preparing the seamless transition of music. Thank you also to Mr Tim Long and Ms Tracy Bradley for the wonderful photography.

Ms Leanne Lee - Language Teacher

Junior School Sport

Thursday Sport: Saturday fixtures for this weekend are listed below. 

Bus Protocol:

Whilst on Chartered buses all boys MUST always wear a face mask. Please ensure your son has one to comply with this.

Oxford Falls Pick-up between 2.10 pm - 2.20 pm:

• Location: Outside the Caretakers House as you pull into the car park on the left-hand side. Please join the queue or if first one here please stop outside and start a queue.
• Please remain in your car at all times.
• As you approach the front of the queue, the teacher on duty will identify you and your son will be dismissed.
• Any boy not picked up by 2.20 pm will be available for collection from Chatswood at 3.00 pm.

Basketball:

Cross-Country:

Join our Senior leaders and top athletes, Matthew North and Dominic Panozzo, alongside our distance coach, Izzy Thornton-Bott for fun, varied and challenging sessions.

Beauchamp Park, Chatswood from 7.30 am – 8.15 am on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

Meet at the Grandstand in comfortable running gear and with a water bottle. You don’t have to aspire to run in the IPSHA Carnival - all students and abilities welcome.

Swimming Squad Training 2020/21:

Training continues this week as we work towards our two carnivals this term - Brothers on 26 February and IPSHA on 2 March.  All boys will go to both carnivals.

Location: Fitness First, Chatswood (24 Endeavour St, Chatswood)

Requirements: Suitable swimwear, goggles and swim cap

• Students wear PE/ Pius Sports Uniform to the sessions. At 8.15 am the boys are walked back to school by staff. They then change into school uniform. A snack/breakfast is also recommended at this point.

Monday mornings (7.15 am – 8.15 am)

8 February until 8 March 

Tuesday mornings (7.15 am – 8.15 am)

9 February until 9 March 

Friday Mornings  (7.15 am– 8.15 am)

12 February until 12 March 

Touch Football: 

 Mr Benn McBrearty - Junior School Sports Master

NSTA Tennis

After seeing the prediction of a 90% chance of rain it was exciting to see the sun and hear the kookaburras calling. The Pius vs Pius games are always my favourites to watch. The green ball games, which are all Pius vs Pius are often filled with laughs and humour and this weekend was no exception. At one point one of our players was running around the court, troubled by an ant! After some investigation, the ant was located on his person, removed and the games resumed. Never a dull moment at tennis!

Unfortunately, none of our seniors from the 10.00 am games were available to help out so the juniors were on their own when it came to umpiring. They did a great job (with a little help from the Mums and Dads watching on). Mrs Keighery as always, was out on the court helping our youngest players with their games, her support on the court is always appreciated. 

Matthew Lee and Ethan Auer (SPX 17) had a great run beating Redlands, 18 games to 4. It must have been the day for the Lee family because Justin Lee and Lucas Willems (SPX 26) beat SPX 29, 18 games to 0. Daniel Harper (SPX 22) blitzed it out on the court with some super serves to win his singles 6-0. 

A few sprinkles of rain didn’t stop us with the 10.00 am games, the boys were out to win. There were some great rallies on Court 8 with Christian Wong and Lucas Durey (SPX 12) vs Redlands 16. These boys were determined and played some great tennis to claim the win, 2 sets to 1. Equally Aiden Seifert and Lucas Youngman (SPX 6) played exceptionally well losing only 1 game over 3 sets. Congratulations to these 2 young men who were humble in their victory.

Make sure that you log into Xpoint this week to check that your scores have been entered correctly and also to check where you are playing next Saturday. You can access this information on Xpoint:

https://www.xpointsports.com/region/325/currentEvents

Don’t forget to send in your scoresheets to either your coach or Mrs Iwatani if you are playing an away game.

Mrs Samantha Iwatani - NSTA Convenor

From the Junior Resource Centre

Touchdown! NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover Safely lands on Red Planet

On 18 February  2021, NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover made its final descent to the Red Planet. Here are some of the ways you can explore this landing. 

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/

The Premier’s Reading Challenge 2021

The Premier’s Reading Challenge is preparing for an awesome 2021 reading year. This year’s artwork has been released in preparation for the challenge to open on Monday 1 March. This artwork was created by First Nations author Dr Bronwyn Bancroft, this is what she had to say about it: “The image I have created for the Premier’s Reading Challenge is a visual affirmation of the importance of the oldest form of communication, oral history. Every generation learns from each other and this results in rich history that is vibrant and alive. Being able to put the stories of our people, our families and our struggles into book form is amazing. To share is to educate and assists in diminishing ignorance.”

Remember, you can start your reading now. So, get reading!

CBCA Book Week 2021

Book Week is not until August but the artwork by Shaun Tan has been released this week and it's fantastic. ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds, Other Worlds’ is an incredible theme to inspire students. I am already thinking about my Book Week costume!

Library Monitors 2021

Introducing Liam Spatola and Robert Ponniah.

The Children’s Bookshop Glebe

Last Thursday I visited The Children’s Book Shop in Glebe. Thank you to Paul and Beth Macdonald for their hospitality.  We talked about books, authors and we also enjoyed visiting Louis, Viola and Gerry! Teddy was exhausted. If you are looking for advice on new books email staff@thechildrensbookshop.com.au

Mrs Martin’s Book Trail – 

The Legend of Spud Murphy by Eoin Colfer Not only is the library no fun, it's also the habitat of the legendary librarian Spud Murphy. If you put a foot wrong, it's rumoured she will use her dreaded gas-powered spud gun and you don't want that - just ask Ugly Frank how he got his nickname! Year 5 are enjoying this novel.#MrsMartinsBooktrail2021 #juniorresourcecentre

Ms Elena Martin – Teacher Librarian

JUNIOR SCHOOL CHESS CLUB

Registrations have now closed for the Junior Chess Competition. Training begins Week 8, Tuesday 16 March, 2021 at 7.30 am in the Junior Resource Centre.

Mrs. Elena Martin - Junior School Chess Convenor