Junior School
News & Sport

Well done to the entire Debating Junior Team!

Junior School News and Information
Junior Debating News
Highlights from the Junior Resource Centre
Junior School Sport: SPX Rugby Supporters' Club Golf Day at Roseville Golf Club from 1pm on Friday 29 November

Prayer/Reflection: Gratitude

Thank you, Father, for having created us and given us to each other in the human family.

Thank you for being with us in all our joys and sorrows, for your comfort in our sadness,

your companionship in our loneliness.

Thank you for yesterday, today, tomorrow and for the whole of our lives.

Thank you for friends, for health and for grace.

May we live this and every day conscious of all that has been given to us.

St Pius X - Pray for Us

Blessed Edmund Rice - Pray for Us

Live Jesus in our Hearts - Forever

TERM 4

The termis progressing quickly and in the last week we have had a Year 5 excursion to the Kokoda Memorial Walkway; a large contingent of boys in the choir sang Mozart Requiem at St Mary’s Cathedral; three of our Year 6 Captains (one was in the choir) represented the College along with Mr Balboa and Year 10 students at the CSO Mission Mass and our debaters attended a Gala Debating Day at Abbotsleigh.

This week is the Performing Arts Festival Week where boys individually or in small ensembles perform in front of an audience which I personally think is very challenging but a great way to build confidence.

Congratulations to Oliver Butler for receiving a well deserved Principal’s award at Monday mornings assembly. Well done!

On Thursday we have the Year 6 2020 Transition Day where the 32 new boys will come to the College for an Orientation Day. On Saturday we will have the Year 5 and 6 Orientation Day.

SPORT: This Thursday is Summer sport training at Oxford Falls – normal timings. Please note that next week we will begin our swimming /surf safety activities. For Year 5, the pool is at Macquarie University and is an outdoor pool so I would recommend a rash/sun vest. Obviously for the boys to swim it can’t be too loose. Year 6 are supplied with a rash/sun shirt by the surf safety program but in the past boys have worn their own ones underneath.

If you wish to collect your son from the pool or the beach, we will require a letter to your son’s teacher and you will need to be there by 2.10pm just to ensure that your son doesn’t come back to school on the bus.

YEAR 5 EXCURSION - KOKODA TRACK MEMORIAL WALKWAY

The boys had the pleasure of hearing from several volunteer guides, one of them being Reg who is 95 years young and a Kokoda Track veteran. I don’t know if the boys realised how lucky they were to meet a veteran of the Kokoda Track as there aren’t many left.

We began the walk in the Lieutenant – Colonel Ralph Honner DSO, MC Education Centre. Ralph Honner was a great leader on the Track and his son is an Old Boy of our College.

The boys were excellent in their behaviour and manners and were a credit to themselves, their families and their school. Some of the boys tell about their experience in the document below.

Year 5 Excursion to The Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway.pdf

AFTER SCHOOL STUDY PROGRAM - VENUE E1

***No After School Study today (Wednesday 30 October) due to whole-school staff meeting.

The after-school study program runs on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons in E1 from 3:15 – 4:30pm. It is available to all students from Years 5-12.

P & F EVENTS

Year 5 Mums High Tea Celebration

Come and join in for the Year 5 Mums high tea celebration and book your ticket today!! We need at least 35 to 40 bookings to meet function requirements at the Killara Golf Club. Thanks so much for the 10 ladies who have already booked. Come join us and book early!!

When: Sunday, 10 November 2019 from 1.30pm to 5pm

Where: Killara Golf Club, 556 Pacific Highway

Cost: $50 per person includes sweet and savoury high tea delights, tea / coffee and a welcome drink. Additional beverages available to purchase at the venue

Trybooking Link: https://www.trybooking.com/566815

RSVP by Thursday 31 October 2019 for catering purposes

Please contact Cathy Thomson on cathythomson7@gmail.com with any specific dietary requirements

Year 5 Mums High Tea Invite.pdf

Year 5 Family Gathering

SPX Year 5 families come join in – siblings welcome

When: Sunday, 1 December 2019 from 3pm.

Where: Longueville Sporting Club ‘The Diddy’, Corner of Kenneth Street and River Road West

Cost: $10 per person for finger food served during bowling

Please purchase a ticket for each person in your family

Beverages available for purchase at the venue

Families welcome to stay for an optional dinner at ‘The Diddy’ Bistro – we all need an easy Sunday night dinner option!!

Trybooking Link: https://www.trybooking.com/GBJDY

Junior Debating News

We ended the season with our final debates at the Gala Day at Abbotsleigh Junior School last Monday 28 October. The boys were well prepared and presented very clever and well formulated arguments. Both topics were very challenging: That students should write reports on teachers and That school sport should be optional.

Well done to the entire Debating Junior Team for their committed approach to training and the speakers of both teams on their debates, working together and developing their caselines and clever rebuttal skills. The speakers on the day were: Ethan Auer, Robert Oner, Anthony Parissis, Rory McCallum, Adam Fitrzyk Issac Donlevey and Regan Yun. They had great victories against Wenona Junior School and Amity College.

Congratulations to the entire debating squad on their commitment to attending lunchtime training sessions throughout Terms 2-4. The boys should proud of their efforts in a very successful season.

Mrs B Spanyik - Learning Enrichment Teacher

Highlights from the Junior Resource Centre

Name that villain! Competition closes on Friday 1 November 2019

Fill out a guessing sheet with the name of the book that each villain can be found in. For an extra bonus, name the character. Drop your answers into Mrs Martin for a CHANCE to win a prize! Remember to keep the answers TOP SECRET.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! If you’re like me, you love reading favourite Halloween stories this time of year, and decorating the library for some spooky fun. Of course, there are the obvious scary stories and Halloween books to display, but Halloween is also a time to display some nonfiction titles too. Books about crows, bats, toads, snakes, and spiders from the 500s. Books about bones, skeletons and blood from the 600s.Poetry books by Edgar Allen Poe from the 800s and biographies about Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein). Check out some photos below.

Photo: Lunchtime activities in the JRC - Movie 'Abbott and Costello meet Frankenstein'

Mrs Martin’s Book Trail: Brick Dracula and Frankenstein by Amanda Brack, Monica Sweeney, and Becky Thomas

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are among the best-known horror stories of all time. These infamous tales have been retold with LEGO bricks. Each novel has been carefully abridged, maintaining the dramatic arcs and most memorable dialogue of both stories. For lifelong LEGO builders, horror-story aficionados, and young readers new to Transylvanian castles and the first mad scientist hope you enjoy these harrowing horrors in LEGO form. #MrsMartinsBookTrail

Happy Reading!

Mrs Elena Martin - Junior Librarian

Junior Sport

Thursday Sport: at Oxford Falls. Summer training continues for Basketball, Cricket, Softball, Tennis and Touch Football.

Athletics: Congratulations to James Patchett who has been drafted in to additional events for the CIS team for the PSSA (State All Schools Championships) on 6 and 7 November. James will now race in the U11’s 100m and 200m in addition to his selection for the Long Jump.

Term 4 Swim Program: All students will take part in this program. It runs as per the schedule above in lieu of regular Thursday Sport. Year 5 attend Macquarie Uni Aquatic Centre for a pool based program and Year 6 attend Dee Why Beach for a surf skills program. Students are required to complete the respective form issued this week:

Macquarie Uni Grading Form (Year 5) - hard-copy form distributed (and on the App)
SEA Australia Waiver (Year 6 boys) – electronic form accessed here

All details for each program, including a detailed information letter, can be found on the College App.

Swim Squad: Good luck to the team as they begin a fresh season with a friendly carnival at Trinity this Friday.

Basketball:

SPX Basketball Club AGM: We invite all parents to attend the SPX Basketball Club AGM at the Sarto Centre on Thursday 7 November 2019 at 7.30pm. Come along and catch up on news about SPX Basketball and be part of the AGM. We encourage you to join us on the night and look forward to seeing you.

SPX Basketball Club

Touch Football: The St Pius X College A and B Touch Football sides travelled to Tunks Park, braved a swarm of flies and had two extremely close matches against St Aloysius. The B game was the first game and there was end to end football, with many great runs from Finn Lonsdale and Harry D’Emilio. There was pressure from both sides and as a result the game ended in a four-all draw.

The A Side was led around nicely by Toby Moran and Xavier Hill with Louie Forbes pinning his ears back to score a couple of outstanding tries down the wing. Unfortunately the boys had a very hard to swallow loss, going down four tries to five with an absolute heartbreaker of a try by St Aloysius in the last few seconds,

We now head across town to face our Edmund Rice rivals Waverley College at Queens Park.

Mr Greg Virgona - Junior School Sportsmaster

Softball Report Round 8

It was fantastic to be on our home ground last Saturday ready for another fun morning of softball. This week our opponent was Trinity Prep and they were ready for a contest. St Pius sent Trinity into bat first. Our Pitchers, Joshua Floridia and Sebastian Doss, did some excellent work. They lured the Trinity batsmen in to strike at some well-timed deliveries. The Pius players were able to get Trinity’s second batsman out relatively quickly. However, from there we allowed 8 of their runners to score.

Next it was Pius into bat. The players were poised and ready to gain some runs as well to make this a competition. Ben Shoudra, Patrick Thomson, Martin Chan and Christian Fiore did some superb batting and were able to keep their cool and score the necessary runs. Going into the second innings St Pius were two runs behind Trinity. Tension was mounting amongst the spectators as this game could go either way.

After the second innings the score was still a difference of two runs but Andrew Montano, Matthew Sissons, Jack Morabito, Kayden Foo and Jasper Ghannoum were able to add to St Pius’ score.

Our final innings. The coaches were not sure if we had time to complete the innings, however with the score being so tight and Pius needing three runs to win, we continued the game. Harrison Hooper, our catcher, was kept busy and helped get Trinity out quickly. Pius were hungry; they could see a win in sight. We went in to bat. Pius were all safe on their bases, waiting patiently for the next batsman to help the runners home. Zach Brown hit a massive fly ball to the outfield and our runners made it home. St Pius were eventually able to have a total of nine players reach home base to make us outright winners.

Well done boys! Your excitement and sportsmanship was a credit to your parents and the school.

Thank you to Mr Thomson for keeping score.

Parents - please remember to bring a chair as many of our venues do not have seating.