Department News

• Library
• Performing Arts
• Public Speaking & Debating
• Science
• Visual Arts

Library

Would you like to “Write a Book in a Day”?

At this week’s assembly  Hamish Alexander from Year 10 encouraged students in Years 7 to 10 to sign-up for this year’s “Write a Book in a Day” (WABIAD). Hamish was the illustrator for his team in 2016 and he enjoyed working with friends to plan and write a 4000 word story around characters, setting and theme set by the National Writing Competition.

Hamish posed a series of  “do you like" questions for potential entrants to consider:

• Do you like being creative?
• Do you like working in team?
• Do you like writing?
• Do you like illustrating?
• Do you like managing a project with organisation and planning?
• Do you like editing, punctuation and being grammatically correct?
• Would you like the opportunity to entertain and give hope to young people sick in hospital?

After judging, books will be read by 10-16 year olds who are patients in hospitals and the proceeds from team registrations fund children’s cancer research.  

This fun, worthwhile but challenging day will be held on 21st June.  Students need to check their school email for an invitation to apply for a place on a team.  For more information visit, http://libguides.spx.nsw.edu.au/home/WABIAD2017

Ms K Keighery - Senior Teacher Librarian

Performing Arts  

MOTHER’S DAY LUNCH

Congratulations to the Intermediate String Quartet; Matthew Crotty (Year 10), Luke McManus, Young Oh (Year 9) and Thomas Van Dijk (Year 8) on their performance at the Annual Mother’s Day Lunch held at the Dougherty Centre in Chatswood. An appreciative audience enjoyed listening to repertoire including hymn tunes, folk songs and well-known classical works. These boys will also be performing on Friday night at the White Knight Fundraising Dinner, a big ask given they will have had a late night on the previous evening!

80th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT: ONE MORE SLEEP!

The Performing Arts Department looks forward to welcoming you to tomorrow night’s concert. Staff and students have been working extremely hard in recent weeks, polishing performances and putting the final touches to what is going to be an exciting night. Tickets will be on sale at the box office and there are still some good seats left in the Dress Circle.

At the conclusion of the Concert selected students in the Senior Concert Band, Senior Choir and Senior Guitar Ensemble will be required to help pack-up and return instruments to the College. All other performers will return to the College gym and a parent/care giver will be required to pick them up, as per the instructions in last week’s note.

The College yard will be open for parking on Thursday night.

YEAR 9 PERFORMANCE NIGHT

The students in the Year 9 Elective Music class will be presenting their first Performance Night of the year, next Wednesday 24th May at 5.00pm in the Band Room. Parents and friends are invited to attend and parking will be available in the Junior School yard.

MEET THE MUSIC

Years 9, 10, 11 and 12 Elective Music students are reminded that the next concert in the series is on Thursday 8th June at 6.30pm at the Opera House. Students will be given their tickets during class and should be in their seats by 6.15pm. The concert will finish at approximately 8.30pm.

Ms T Bates - Performing Arts Coordinator

Public Speaking and Debating

DEBATING

Last Friday St Pius X College hosted Marist College North Sydney and Holy Cross College, Ryde.  The 12B, 11B, 10A, 10B, 9B, 7A, 7B won their debates on the night.  Congratulations to all teams on their terrific efforts on the night.

This Friday 19th May, St Pius X College is travelling to Riverview by hired coach.  There will be no time for students to travel to Westfield to purchase their dinner so they will need to bring an extra sandwich and drink on Friday.  We will all have something to eat during training (3.30 - 5.00pm) before heading over to Riverview.  Parents will need to collect their son from Riverview; debates should commence around 7.15pm and students can be collected from 8.00pm.  The topic this week is ‘Australian Economy’.   

In Week 5 Round 5 (26th May) St Pius X College is hosting Rosebank.  Topic Area is Sport.

In Week 6 Round 6 (2nd June) St Pius X College is travelling to Our Lady of Mercy College, Parramatta.  Topic Area is Environment.

Please note below the date changes for the Elimination Round through to the Grand Final.

Term 2                                                                                         Term 3                                                                                      

Elimination Round 2:   June 16                                      Semi-final:    July 21 

Quarterfinal:    June 23                                                      Grand Final:  July 28

Thank you on behalf of the brilliant SPX debating coaches and senior student mentors.

THE NSW PLAIN ENGLISH SPEAKING AWARD

On Monday 15th May Jasper Choi of Year 11 and Andrew Jackson of Year 12 competed in the NSW Plain English Speaking Competition at Ryde College. Students from the following schools were presenting on the day:  Ravenswood, The Shore School, North Sydney Boys, North Sydney Girls, Monte Sant' Angelo, Mercy College, Willoughby Girls and Ryde Secondary College.

Both students presented excellent speeches.  The adjudicator was looking for a central thesis that was polished and refined and a supporting argument that acknowledged opposing ideas as well as revealing the social and economic impacts of the thesis. The winning speeches needed to take their audience on a journey through a topical issue using strong manner and method as well as providing a ‘call to action’.  Effective structure of the speech was essential and the presentation needed to be animated with appropriate tone, pace, pitch and projection. 

Andrew Jackson was one of three winners on the day and moves through to the finals.  Congratulations to both students and well done to Andrew for his brilliant presentation.  We were lucky enough to have the Principal of Ryde Secondary College, Mrs Cassy Norris, address and congratulate all of the presenters. In all an excellent day for our Public Speakers.

Mrs M Waterson - Debating and Public Speaking Convener

Science

The University Technology Sydney (UTS) is running a series of exciting  as well as educational workshops targeting primary and early secondary school aged students in the July and October school holidays.

The program is called Bright Futures and offers a unique combination of eye-opening experiences based around subjects studied at UTS including STEM, Robotics, Creativity and Forensics.

Details can be found in the flyer below.

Ms J Black - Science Coordinator

Visual Arts

Year 11 Visual Arts Excursion to the Art Gallery of NSW

Last Wednesday the Year 11 Visual Arts class went on an excursion to the Art Gallery of New South Wales. There were a wide variety of exhibits on show. Our main focus was however ‘The National 2017’. This exhibit was focused and heavily influenced by Indigenous culture and art making methods.

Works by Gunybi Ganambarr, an indigenous artist, were displayed featuring cultural patterns carved onto sheets of metal and conveyer belts; he incorporates and challenges traditional art making processes in his works as he sourced unusual materials to carve his exotic works.

This excursion really benefited the class as it was good to get out and look, and critique new upcoming artists and their works.

Harrison Pfeiffer - Year 11