Parent & Student Matters  

What's happening in the College? 

• Year 5 - 10 Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews
• Science Club Report
• Exemplar Expression
• Holiday Drama Workshops

Years 5 - 10 Parent/Teacher/Student Interviews

For this year, Parent/Teacher/Student meetings for Years 5 to 10 will be conducted ONLINE and will be held across two days:

Friday             26 June from 8.00 am – 5.00 pm

Monday         20 July from  8.00 am – 5.00 pm   

Bookings for both days will 

Open:      Thursday evening 18 June at 7.00 pm  

Close:      Thursday 25 June at 1.00 pm

• Bookings can be made using the link below:

https://schoolinterviews.com.au  and click the Make a Booking button and then enter the Event Code:  nyvpr

After making bookings, parents will receive an email containing ‘video’ links for each teacher they have made a booking.  Please ensure that on the day of the interviews, you can access the email that has been sent. 

At the designated time for the meeting, parents access the link on the email and will then be admitted into a waiting room and the teacher will be notified that you have ‘arrived’. Three people may attend each meeting from three different computers.  This does not include the teacher.  For example, parents could be at two different locations (work or home) and the student can be at a third location, but all three must have access to the link received in the bookings email sent from School Interviews (booking system) to join the meeting.

The meeting will commence once the Teacher grants permission for entry.

If you need assistance with booking or checking your bookings please contact Hilary Fromager during school days from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm on hfromager@stpiusx.nsw.edu.au or direct phone on 9414 4346.

Semester One Academic reports are scheduled to be available on the Portal after 3.15 pm on Wednesday 24 June. 

These meetings are an important part of your child’s learning journey. 

In addition to receiving feedback from teachers, they are also an opportunity for students to reflect and recognise achievements and identify areas for continual growth. 

Students are expected to participate in these meetings.

Meetings are scheduled for 5 minutes for Years 7 to 10, and 8 minutes for the Junior School.  This is to allow both teachers and parents to connect to their next interview in an appropriate time frame. 

If more time is required, then we encourage both parent and teacher to work together and find a suitable time for further discussion.  

Mr Alex Damo, Assistant Principal Teaching and Learning

Science Club Report

Our keen Science Club members were very happy to be back in Science Club, both last Thursday (11 June) and the Thursday prior (28 May). The boys were able to conduct some chemical experiments during both of these lunchtimes.

Thursday 28 May - The boys investigated a new acid/base indicator... butterfly blue pea tea. They infused the tea in some water, which turns it a bright blue colour and then used this to see the colour it turns in common household acids and bases.

Thursday 11 June - Our Year 12 leaders led the group and were keen to allow them to investigate the different colours of metal salts when placed in the Bunsen burner. All of the boys enjoyed an excuse to use Bunsen burners again after a long period out of the laboratories.

Science Club meets again on Day 4 - Thursday at 1.00 pm.

Mrs Jo Schuster, Science Coordinator

Exemplar Expression

Each week this term Year 11 Imaginative scripts that have been identified as exemplar pieces of writing will be published in Woodchatta.  We have never done this before and the students did not write these pieces with the expectation that they would be published in our school newsletter, however we felt that these particular scripts were so powerful that we wanted to share them.

Always be with me 

They tell me if you stand for nothing you fall for everything. They don’t tell you however, what happens when everything you loved in the world vanishes faster than a footprint in the sand. The endless bore of notes and lessons at school can only ever teach you so much about the cruel and conniving nature of life. No techniques taught at school will ever scare off the sombre abyss of death. How hopeless life really is. Humanity’s only purpose in life; to try to accumulate as many guests as possible for our funerals. At a ‘celebration’ of my father’s insignificant life, only the cold hands of sorrow grasp at me. Choking out all happiness and hope. 

He was everything for someone like me who had nothing. A sparkling glint of light in a world of only grey shadow. He always made time for me even when he knew he had none left. In a fight doctors called hopeless, he promised to never stop fighting. I never made promises, all they did was create ways for people to let you down. People are good at that, but that dreaded day I made an exception. 

“Promise me you’ll look after that garden.” His final words interrupted by the prolonged cry of a flatline. 

“I will.” My words falling on his lifeless body. 

I walk out of the church upsetting the already grieving people. Those phony people only came for three reasons: food, to socialise but most importantly to make themselves look like better people. No one there cared about my father. Not like I did. 

The soothing smell of lavender flows throughout my tired body as I approach the garden. A smile stretches along my red face catching the tears as they fall. A young girl skips along chasing a butterfly, making me laugh, making me reminisce. 

* 

Lying in your garden bed next to you I felt at home. The stress and worry of days gone by disappear into the meadow of contrasting colours. Watching the azure magnolias dance in the cool breeze. Dozing off to the cicadas’ lullaby. A butterfly frolics effortlessly in the mist with its vibrant orange wings. The glimmer of striking colour, the choir of calming sounds and the platter of divine scents sooth me. Feeling the warmth of your breath as you turn to me. 

“One day they will save someone’s life.”  As you point to your prized medicinal plants.

Lying there surrounded by the tranquil silence of your creation. Away from the inevitable future and destructive past. The gift to stay in the present. Where our love was the only thing that mattered. 

* 

The harshness of the sun brings me back into dreaded reality. The joy of that memory soon leaves me alone with my inconsolable emotions. You are now only a fragment of my memory. Hope is as absent in the future as you are. You were my everything. Now you are nothing. 

The young girl giggles as she tucks a frangipani behind her elfish ear, taking me away from my thoughts. Staring at her in silence. The heart-warming grin on her face as she watches a caterpillar struggle to climb up the flimsy stem of a blonde columbine. It makes me realise I was wrong. You are immortalised within your garden. You will bring me hope. You will bring people like the girl joy. 

I remain observing in silence until enough courage propels me to go back into your garden. I sit among those azure magnolias dancing in the breeze. The orchestra of birds and insects echo as the butterflies dance to their song. The sudden realisation that you were right washes over me.  Although your flora was never able to cure your sickness, it can do mine. A purpose in life as your final gift to me, is better than any tangible good. 

Whilst you have vanished from this world, you will always remain here with me in mine. Your legacy will remain in the stems of your flowers, holding up my joy, passion and love in its vibrant petals. Grief and hopelessness drift out past the horizon in my mind. Whilst I wish you would be here with me, if you truly love something it will never leave you, no matter how distant or impossible to reach it seems. Whilst your days are now spent above watching over me. Mine will be too; watching over you, your garden. Even in your absence you and your kaleidoscope of colour will provide me, the girl and many others with happiness.   

I start with the magnolias where my most fond memories lie. I picture you with me, as I pick out the weeds that try to overthrow the beauty of your kingdom. The plants rise up as I water their thirsty mouths. Birds chirp in harmony following my movements. Worms rise up from their depths of the soil splashing around in the mud. My beaming smile reflects the light of the sun. Experiencing feelings once again, last felt when you were alive. Feelings that will never subside as long as your garden blossoms. I understand why you cared so much for your orchard. It’s your gift for others. A home for some, a small moment of beauty and calmness in an ever-jostling world to others.   

There is always purpose in life for everyone. Humanity is often too blind or scared to see it. People often say life is a game and love is the prize. Love isn’t the prize, it’s the aim. If you don’t love you have no meaning. Life is never over. There are no game overs or levels. So, with all my love I promise to keep that promise made that dreaded day. Your garden; now our garden will always be here as a haven of hope. You were my everything, which is why you will never truly be nothing. You will always be with me in our garden. You will be immortalised in the roots of our garden with your beauty and our love on display in its leaves and petals forever. If you stand for nothing you fall for everything.   

Inspiring text: Sonnet XVIII with major theme of the timelessness of love and beauty despite humanity’s mortality.

by Max Marshall

“Maccie Rap”  

(To be read with a ‘duff-duff’ back beat rap music) 

After hearing, eavesdropping and listening, I have a realisation to see

An evil crime is about to happen, oh how could it be?

Lady M and Maccie sought a plan to end a man’s life, 

Killing, stabbing and torturing a man until he sees the light,

But not just any man oh no not a peasant or slave,

It is the King of Cawdor, and no he can’t be saved,

To overthrow the King, there’s only one option to pursue,

Kill the King, let him die, as if he’s in a curfew,

Now you’re wondering how did Lady M get this evil blood,

She prayed and wished for evil all around her just like a flood,

She wishes to be unsexed of her weak feminine powers,

She’s like a verisimilitude, she’s the serpent underneath her flowers,

Now unfortunately for Duncan, there’s not much he can think,

He’s alive and happy one second, but then he’s gone in a wink,

Now rest in peace Duncan, there’s not much more to say

Except Macbeth is now King. Hooray, Hooray, Hooray!

by Billy Sykes (written in 5 minutes during class)

Mr David Webster - English Coordinator

Marian St Theatre Holiday Workshops

The Marian St Theatre Company are offering July holiday Drama Workshops.

For booking information, please see the attached flyer.