Junior School News 

• From the Head of the Junior School 
• From the Junior Resource Centre

From the Head of the Junior School

PRAYER

The Feast Day of Saint Mary of the Cross MacKillop is this Sunday.  Mary MacKillop had to face a lot of adversity in her life.  Please think of an intention (it shouldn’t be too difficult during a lockdown) and in honour of our second patron saint of Australia we pray:

Mary MacKillop Prayer

Ever generous God,

You inspired Saint Mary MacKillop

to live her life faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ

and constant in bringing hope and encouragement

to those who were disheartened, lonely or needy.

With confidence in your generous providence

and joining with Saint Mary MacKillop

we ask that you grant our request ....

We ask that our faith and hope be fired afresh by the Holy Spirit

so that we too, like Mary Mackillop, may live with 

courage, trust and openness.

Ever generous God hear our prayer.

We ask this through Jesus Christ.  Amen

CLASS CAPTAINS

Congratulations to the following boys who were presented as Class Captains for this term at last week’s honour assembly

6 Red  - Simon Ellis

6 Blue - Noah Beuchat

6 Green - Changze Li

6 Gold  - Liam Spatola

5 Gold - Aidan Floridia 

5 Blue - Matthew Castorina 

5 Red  – Nate Riley

Speaking about the Merit Award ceremony, a special mention to the 5 Gold Class Captain, Aidan Floridia for presenting the Assembly Prayer.  We are now in Week 4 of our online learning so hopefully boys are getting into some good routines.  It is important that they do attend classes promptly and are active learners within the lesson and use the time wisely.  Using your time well then allows for the other important part of online learning, eating healthily and getting out and doing some exercise/ playing. 

MERIT AWARD WINNERS

Riley Atkinson, Lachlan McGrath, Eddie Stearn, Changze Li, Marcus Cicero, Simon Ellis, Owen Gleeson, Zach Fourie, Lucas Parino, Patrick Cornes, Ben Monger, Cooper Hill, Isaac Sharpe, Antonio Calcarao, Farid Chammaa, Francesco Mazzaferro, Ilan Avila, Teddy Hopkins, Blaise O’Brien, Shahe Tachjian, Ben Hair, Hamish Sullivan, Samuel Koudsey, Callum Koruga, Zachary Rapa, Brody Mendel Farid Chammaa, Liam Sutherland, Paolo Mirenzi, Adrian Yip, John Huckerby and Hamish Sullivan.

CONGRATULATIONS! 

A special congratulations to Liam Spatola who has achieved 5 Merit Awards and will be receiving a Certificate of Achievement.  Well done Liam.

I know the teachers are putting a lot of time and effort into their lessons and I thank them for this preparation.  As we would expect in a face to face situation, the boys need to fulfil their part of the equation by trying their best and respecting the online classroom situation.  I would also like to thank the vast majority of boys who are upholding the second part of our college motto of ‘faith and hard work.’

IPSHA SPORT

IPSHA sport has been cancelled for this term.  I know there are plans for the IPSHA Athletics Carnival to be held towards the end of Term 4 and many PSSA sports are also being moved into Term 4.  If you have been selected in any of these events you have a great goal.  Aim to keep fit and hone your skills during lockdown! Hopefully these events will occur in Term 4.

BIRTHDAYS

Congratulations to the following boys who celebrate or celebrated their birthdays in August:

Boston Bannister, Nickolas Cheung, Liam Cooney, Jared Fernandes, Zach Fourie, Ethan Hartley, John Huckerby, Rohan Jackson, Henry Jones, James Jurcevic, Oscar Kwiatkowski, Paolo Mirenzi, Rocco Musumeci, Kamran Nadeem, Matthew Opie, Riley Patten, William Pile, Lachlan Renshaw, Oscar Requin, Emilio Righi-Clayton, Thomas Rochford, Torryn Sargent, Lucas Tubman, Leo Ward-Harvey, Noah Watson, Jasper Wetherill and Harrison Zanello.

Enjoy!

A THOUGHT TO PONDER

A thought from Saint Mary MacKillop

"Do all you can with the means at your disposal and calmly leave the rest to God."

Thanking you for your support.

Mr Tim Long - Head of the Junior School 

From the Junior Resource Centre

Ted is staying on top of his reading!

Ted is keeping on top of his reading! As we continue with our online learning, I would like to remind you that you can access the Junior School Library website page for suggested reading ideas and access wheelers for any ebooks and audiobooks. We are here to help – please reach out to the library if you require any assistance. 

Bookmark Competition is on the Horizon!

Our students have been hard at work during lockdown. We are running a bookmark competition in the lead up to Book Week in Week 7. Be in it to win it!

CBCA Book Week 2021 

Dates to remain 21 -27 August, 2021

CBCA National Board has decided to keep the August dates for several reasons but mainly because no one can confidently predict when this lockdown will end, nor when another will begin. Lockdowns are different from state to state. We will still celebrate in August and SPX will adapt to our online festivities.

In short...

We will join in online for the announcement of the 75th CBCA Book of the Year Awards on the 20th of August at noon AEST. https://cbca.org.au/

Shan Tan is the artist and author who illustrated the CBCA Book Week Poster for 2021. His artwork invokes flight as a symbol of movement between our inner and outer worlds. CBCA and SPX JRC encourage everyone to have a paper plane at the ready as this is a strong motif in the announcement video and the perfect vehicle to launch CBCA Book Week and the 2021 theme OLD WORLDS, NEW WORLDS, OTHER WORLDS.

I encourage our community to keep the party going, and let’s celebrate online. 

If there was ever a great time to inspire a love of reading quality Australian literature in our community now is the time!

NSW Premier’s Reading Challenge.

Great news! PRC deadlines have been extended another 2 weeks due to restrictions of students not having the same access as when attending school. 

(Was 20-8-2021, now 3-9-2021).

https://online.det.nsw.edu.au/prc/home.html

Mrs Martin’s Book Trail: Shockingly Good Stories by R.A. Spratt.

R.A. Spratt is the best-selling author of Nanny Piggins, Friday Barnes and The Peski Kids. She is one of the great comedic children’s writers in Australia, up there with Roald Dahl, Paul Jennings, and David Walliams. This collection of twenty very funny short stories was written for these challenging times – and it offers the perfect opportunity for laughter. A good read aloud for home and is great for kids aged 7 – 70! #mrsmartinsbooktrail2021

   Mrs Elena Martin – Teacher Librarian