From the Acting Principal

• Prayer
• The St Pius X Factor
• EREA School Renewal Accreditation
• Upstanders Morning Tea
• Trial HSC Examinations
• A Celebration of Learning
• P&F Meeting
• Saturday Sport
• Date Claimers

Prayer

Today is the Feast of St Mary of the Cross MacKillop, Australia’s first saint. 

Mary MacKillop co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, a congregation of religious sisters that established a number of schools and institutions throughout Australia and New Zealand, with emphasis on educating the rural poor.

Wherever she went, she managed to live a life of holiness by her love for God and her charity to each person she met along the way.

With gentleness, courage and compassion, she was the herald of the good news among the isolated battlers and the urban disadvantaged.

She was canonised on 17 October 2010 and beatified by Pope John Paul II on 19 January 1995.

Her sayings are certainly ‘food for thought’.  Let’s take an opportunity to reflect on some of these:

‘Never see a need without doing something about it.’

‘Find happiness in making others happy.’

‘Believe in the whisperings of God to your own heart.’

‘We are all but travellers here.’

Mary MacKillop Prayer

God of the Pilgrim,

Mary MacKillop trusted your guidance in her journey of life

and deepened her confidence in your will.

May we renew our trust in your Providence

to lead us to hope as we bring our prayer before you.

May we grow in the fullness of your love  and the depth of your mystery.

We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Way, our Truth and our Life. 

Amen.

The St Pius X Factor

Conscious that high achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectations (Kinder, 2014), a priority area for the College is to foster a learning culture of pride, self and collective efficacy and high standards. Our newly established Learning Routine - The St Pius X Factor - aims to ensure that we have a consistent approach of high expectations to cultivate classroom environments conducive to quality learning experiences.

The College staff and student leaders collectively agree that, to support a culture of high expectations operating in positive and productive learning environments, our learning routine needed to convey;

• a common understanding of the structure of a lesson or learning sequence
• consistent language used by teachers across the school
• clear expectation of the learning that is to take place in each lesson or learning sequence
• an understanding how the students can demonstrate that they have achieved their learning goal
• guidance to allow students to transfer the learning to a different situation
• regular and meaningful feedback

Our Learning Routine is displayed in all classrooms, and I communicated the shared expectations of the routine with the student body this week. A respectful three-way partnership between teachers, students and families is critical for successful learning outcomes. I encourage you to engage in conversations with your son about the value of consistent routines and the importance of high expectations, not just of others but of self. 

EREA School Renewal Accreditation

The college was very pleased this week to receive our formal accreditation for our EREA School Renewal.  The school renewal took place last term and accreditation has been granted by the EREA Council. The accreditation is valid until July 2029.

Thank you to all those who participated in interviews or surveys; your input has been greatly appreciated and taken into consideration.

Commendations and recommendations were made and these will be reviewed and used to assist with strategic planning. 

Upstanders Morning Tea

We were very pleased to congratulate and acknowledge our Term 2 Upstanders at a morning tea yesterday: William Aldons, Parker Ball, Zac Brazier, Liam Boswell, John Carroll, Billy Choi, Jack Fairbanks, Kei Lertamornthep, Josh Mathew, Robert Oner, Ethan Rahme, Riley Siu and Tristan Turri.  These students have contributed to the life of the college or wider community by their positive actions.

As several students were unable to attend yesterday we will organise another morning tea to recognise and thank these students later in the term.

Trial HSC Examinations

The Trial HSC Examinations commenced well this week.  Students have been settled and applying themselves to the task as they head towards the culmination of their schooling. The exams will continue for the next week and the final Trial examination will be on Monday 19 August. Please continue to keep our Year 12 students in your prayers.

A Celebration of Learning

We are looking forward to our Semester 1 Academic Award Ceremony at the Concourse tomorrow.  All parents of students receiving an award at the ceremony have been advised. 

The ceremony will be livestreamed for parents who are unable to attend.

The link to watch the ceremony is: 

The names of our award recipients from the ceremony will be included in next week’s Woodchatta.

P&F Meeting

Please note that our next P&F meeting has been rescheduled to Monday 19 August.  More information will be advised in the coming weeks.

Saturday Sport 

It was a weekend without rain and our teams across all sports were able to play their fixtures.

I was very pleased to watch our tennis teams play on Saturday.  There were some thrilling games and a great deal of sportsmanship – both from our Pius teams and our opponents, St Patrick’s College.

Congratulations to those students who played up from the development squad due to other players’ illness, and a big thank you to the students who assisted those players with their technique, skills and knowledge of the game; what wonderful students we have here at St Pius X!

Congratulations also go to our Preps 1st XV team who had their first win for the season last Saturday. 

All the best to all our teams for their games this weekend and we look forward to hearing of our teams who will head into semi-finals and finals in the coming weeks.

Mr Ronchetti Returns

We look forward to welcoming Mr Ronchetti back on Monday after his medical leave for the past several weeks. I would like to take this opportunity to thank those who stepped into other roles while Mr Ronchetti was on leave, including Mrs Jill Greenwood as Acting Deputy Principal and Mrs Samantha Iwatani as Acting Head of the Junior School.

Date Claimers

Friday 9 August: Celebration of Learning

Wednesday 15 August: Junior School Grandparent's Day - Liturgy and Walkathon

Saturday 17 August: P&F Trivia Night

Monday 19 August: P&F Meeting (rescheduled date)

Monday 2 September:  St Pius X Feast Day holiday

Please also review the Upcoming Events page of this week’s Woodchatta for information on other events during the coming weeks.

Fide et Labore

By Faith and hard work

Live Jesus in Our Hearts - Forever

Ms Elizabeth Watson - Acting Principal