St Pius X College Newsletter

Junior School News

Junior School students with the Guessing Competition for Halloween

  • From the Head of the Junior School 
  • Junior School Sport

From the Head of the Junior School 

PRAYER

November is the Month of Remembrance in the Church.  It begins with all Saints Day, followed by all Souls Day.   

 

A Prayer of Remembrance 

God, thank you for the special people in our lives whom we are remembering in a special way during the month of November. We thank you for being a compassionate God who walks with us in the our dark moments of grief and loneliness. We are thankful for all who continue to love and support us through our grief. Lord, continue to be a light for us, giving us hope, direction and courage. May we now live our lives treasuring the memories of those special people we have known and loved and help us to bring light and hope to others. We make this prayer through Christ our Lord, Amen. 

 

THIS WEEK IN THE JUNIOR SCHOOL

Plenty of exciting learning is taking place in between the boys doing their various assessments.

 

Year 5 are studying Space and yesterday Mr Patterson’s class was experimenting with their straw rockets that they had built. They were measuring the distance that each rocket travelled which is a  crossover with Mathematics.

 

Several Junior boys are working on the Apple Macs with senior boys in the Digital Music Ensemble.  It is amazing how computer technology has changed this industry – forget the old 8 tracks, there can be many more than that.  The board hanging at the back of the photo is from an old electronic organ and now the boys do all that and more with a keyboard attached to a computer.  Amazing!

 

 

HALLOWEEN

Halloween was last Friday and Mrs Martin was in her element.  She was dressed superbly and the library had wonderful decorations.  The boys could watch a scary clip at lunchtime and read while some still played chess.    A great time was had by all.

 

BOXERCISE

Many of the Junior boys like to do some Boxercise before school.  It is a great way to get some exercise in before the day starts.  Thank you to Mr Russo and a group of senior boys who lead the boxercise.

 

ORIENTATION MORNING

Last Saturday we had the online Orientation morning for the new Year 5 and 6 students and parents at 9.00 am and Year 7 at 11.00 am.  At the beginning of next year, on Wednesday 27 January, the current Year 6 teachers will have an orientation meeting with all the Year 7 teachers to pass on relevant information.  The Year 7 teachers will know their classes and the information will be fresh in their minds for the beginning of 2021.

 

MERIT AWARD WINNERS

Well done to the Merit Award Winners last Friday. Keep up the good work.

 

CERTIFICATES OF ACHIEVEMENT

Congratulations to the boys who had 5 Merit Awards and qualified to receive a Certificate of Achievement.  Well done.

 

THURSDAY - SUMMER SPORTS TRAINING

This Thursday the Swimming (Year 5) and Surf Safety (Year 6) Programs commence. Please note that the Macquarie Pool (alternate weeks for Year 5) is outdoors so a rash vest or sunscreen is required.  We will have sunscreen at the pool.  Sunscreen will also be at the beach for Year 6 and the surf program do supply a form of rash vest but sometimes boys wear their own underneath.

If you are picking up your son from the pool, pick up will be between 2.00 pm - 2.10 pm and just a reminder that if you want your son collected by another parent we need a note. The note can be for the four weeks if that is going to be the case.  We can’t leave a boy behind so if you are not there on time, we will have to bring your son back to school to be dismissed.

I believe swimming in Australia is a very important skill to develop so please encourage your son if he is a reluctant swimmer.

Please see Mr McBrearty's Junior School Sport below for important information on the Swimming Program.

 

FUTURE EVENTS

Thursday 5/11 – Swim program commences.

Sunday 8/11 – 15/11 – NAIDOC WEEK – moved from the 8 -15 July.

 

Performing Arts Parents Association (PAPA) AGM

Please see the invitation below for parents to attend the PAPA AGM.  It will be held on Monday 9 November from 7.00 pm on TEAMS.  Parents will receive an email invitation with the link.

        

THOUGHT TO PONDER

Today we had Wellbeing Wednesday for Year 6.  The Senior Prefects came into the classrooms and played a short meditation.  You may wish to consider doing it with the family. The link is below:

https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/mindfully/get-happy/10545120

 

Stay Safe as we are all in this together

Thank you for your support

 

Mr Tim Long - Head of the Junior School 

Junior School Sport

Junior School Sport News:  Saturday fixtures for this weekend are listed below. 

 

Thursday Sport:  Our Term 4 Swim Program starts this week with Year 6 at Dee Why and Year 5 at Macquarie University. Pick-up time at both locations is 2.00 pm - 2.10 pm. Any Year 6 boys who have not completed the digital waiver must do so immediately. Link below.  

 

PLEASE NOTE:  Boys are to attend school in PE uniform, with swimmers underneath, ensuring they bring plenty of warm clothing to wear before and after.  There will be NO ACCESS to changing facilities therefore they will return to school with swimmers under their PE uniform.  This applies to all Year groups and locations.

Waivers for Swim Program:  

Year 6: https://www.seaaustralia.com.au/school-waiver-form

 

Basketball:

 

Basketball Training Week 5:  Due to exams in the gym, training will be slightly different for Week 5. Please see below for Week 5 training times and locations: 

 

Week 5

 

Year 6 Cricket Training:For the remainder of the Season (Term 1, 2021) Cricketers in Year 6 will have training on Tuesdays. The boys will take a supervised bus departing 3.20 pm from Archer St (outside OLD) to Oxford Falls where they will train until 5.00 pm. Any boys not picked up by 5.00 pm will return to Anderson St Chatswood and be available for pick-up at approximately 5.30 pm. 

 

Swimming Squad Training 2020/21:

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 the conclusion of each session, they will return to school where they will then change into school uniform. A snack/breakfast is also recommended at this point.

Monday mornings (7.15 am – 8.15 am) Starting 19 Oct until 23 Nov (6 sessions)

Resuming 8 Feb until 8 March (5 sessions)

 

Tuesday mornings (7.15 am – 8.15 am) Starting 20 Oct until 24 Nov (6 sessions)

Resuming 9 Feb until 9 March (5 sessions)

 

Friday Mornings - *Term 1 2021 only* (7.15 am – 8.15 am)

Starting 12 Feb until 12 March (5 sessions)

 

Touch Football:

 

Mr Benn McBrearty - Junior School Sports Master

NSTA Tennis

Unfortunately, with the onset of rain, thunder and lightning, all 8.00 am games were cancelled. This is marked as a washout on Xpoint and all points are allocated equally for those games. 

 

Luckily the sun came out and the 10.00 am games went ahead as planned. It was a fun morning, with only 4 matches being played and 3 of those were Pius vs Pius. The game between Antony Autore and Aidan Seifert was a great one to watch; there were some excellent rallies between the two players with Aidan eventually winning 6-2. Ryan Fong and Rory Cooper both shone in their singles matches winning, 6-2 and 6-3 respectively. The battle between Pius 1 and Pius 2 was on with 2 tie breaks from the 3 sets. Andrew McKinnon and Max Leo (Pius 2) were the winners on the day both winning their singles. 

 

There have been a couple of errors with the scores recently so please ensure that you are checking your weekly scores, rankings and draw on the Xpoint site: https://www.xpointsports.com/region/325/currentEvents

 

Mrs Samantha Iwatani, NSTA Convenor