Junior School News & Sport

• Junior School News
• Junior School Sport

Junior School News

Thursday Sport:  Tomorrow sport will proceed as normal for Year 6 which means it will be after recess and the boys will travel to Oxford Falls.   

P & F Meeting:  You may have missed a very interesting P&F meeting last night with pizza and wine!  Remember to keep the 6th of April free for the P&F cocktail party.  I hope to see you there.

Year 5 Camp:  When you read this we will be on Milson Island.  Please note that there will be two camps arriving back at school on Friday so to avoid any confusion arrive in Archer Street, outside OLD (Our Lady of Dolours) church.  We will arrive back in Archer Street at approximately 2.30 pm.  Please be prompt as there will be many tired boys and 5 exhausted teachers and I am one of them! (2 camps in 2 weeks!) In the past parents have enjoyed the fact that they can park in the Chatswood Chase shopping centre and then collect their boys.

Year 6 Camp:  We were blessed with good weather and the boys had a great time.  The activities were designed to provide either challenge by choice, bushcraft, group work, leadership or simply fun in the outdoors.  The boys participated in initiative games, canoeing, orienteering, tree climbing, high ropes, building a catapult, bushwalking and camping/survival skills.  At night we played various tabloid games or had some fun around a camp fire. While all the activities were good I was surprised the most of the boys in my group said that the bushwalk with camping/survival skills was their favourite.  Overall it was a great experience for the boys.

IPSHA Swimming Carnival:  The boys in the swim team had a great day and enjoyed the wonderful experience of swimming in the Olympic pool at Homebush.  There were numerous smiles, especially when they won a ribbon. Thank you to Mr Virgona and Mr Carroll who were busy marshalling all day. 

Special congratulations to Jonathan Yang who qualified for the IPSHA team in the U11 50 metre breaststroke.  Best wishes at the CIS trial Jonathan.

Programming Club at Chatswood Library:  Enrolment into a programming class for children in Chatswood is starting now!  Take your child to an introductory lesson and help them start building their IT confidence.

Day:    Tuesdays

Time:  4.30-5.30 pm

Place:  Chatswood Library

After the initial free introductory lesson the cost is $40 per class.  Classes run for 1.5 hours with approximately 10 students in each class.  Visit http://au.alg.academy/ or call (02) 8056 3591.

School Holiday Programs at Macquarie University

Some Dates to keep in your diary:

• 7th March to 9th March – Year 5 Camp
• Saturday 17th March – Open Day
• Friday 6th April – P&F Cocktail Party

Thank you for your support.

Mr T Long - Head of Junior School

Learning Enrichment Notices

Competition Reminders

Say No to Bullying Poster Competition: Students are invited to draw a picture depicting their interpretation of the theme to identify and address bullying behaviours based on this year’s theme BULLIEVE IN YOURSELF.  Entries are to be original works on A4 paper. Come to Compass Club to work on your entry.  Entries close 16th March and are to be given to Mrs Spanyik.

Da Vinci Decathlon Competition:  Enrich, excite, challenge!  The event will be held at Knox Grammar School on Thursday 24th May. (NB: compulsory training sessions in Compass Club.)

This competition is aimed at students celebrating their academic gifts. Two teams are selected: eight boys from Year 5 and eight boys from Year 6.  Boys must sit a trial for this competition (Registrations of interest - Week 4 & 6) as follows:

Year 6 (Week 6):          Lunchtimes

                                             Wednesday 7th March and Friday 9th March

Entry into this competition is based on demonstrated academic ability and an ability test. The competition will be run in Term 2 with compulsory training beginning Week 1 of Term 2 on Wednesday lunchtimes during Compass Club.  Further details will be given at the next Junior School Assembly and link: http://www.davincidecathlon.com/davinci/index

Junior School Debating – Selection Trials

Boys in the Junior School have the opportunity to become involved in Debating. The College enters two teams in the IPSHA Debating Competition. Twelve boys from the Junior School form the two teams and these are selected to compete. The teams debate fortnightly on a Friday afternoon (during school hours Periods 4-6) during Terms 2, 3 and 4 on a rotational basis. The emphasis is on learning the skills of debating and workshops will be held during lunchtimes leading up to the competitions. Training begins every Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes beginning Week 10 of Term 1.

Boys are invited to present a short two minute speech either affirmative or negative to assist in selection of these teams. The topic for the speech is THAT PETS ARE A PEST. Further details will be given to the boys at the Junior School assembly. 

These speeches are to be presented during the set trial sessions on Wednesday and Friday lunchtimes:

Year 5 (Week 7)           Lunchtime (Room opposite 6R)

                                             Wednesday 14th March and Friday 16th March

Year 6 (Week 8)           Lunchtime (Room opposite 6R)

                                            Wednesday 21st March and Friday 23rd March

Mrs B Spanyik - Learning Enrichment Teacher

Junior School Sport

Thursday Sport: at Oxford Falls. Year 5 are on Camp. Year 6 will complete normal sport training for Basketball, Cricket, Softball and Tennis.

AFL, Football (Soccer) and Rugby - Winter Season:  Just to clarify - in the Junior School we are able to cater for all boys who wish to play AFL, Rugby and Football for the College. As long as boys have elected to play for the school (via their sport choice form) and turn up to trial, they will be guaranteed a place in a team. Trials will begin in Week 9 of this term during Thursday Sport at Oxford Falls. We use external professional coaches to assist in grading our Rugby and Football players.

Football (Soccer) Tour: We have had word that this Tournament will now be held in the Winter holidays. The tour will take place from the 20th-22nd July in Tamworth, NSW. We will therefore delay trials for the squad and issue further information on the process and logistics as we have it.

Basketball:

Mr G Virgona - Junior School Sportsmaster

NSTA Tennis

Please refer to the Senior School Sports Section.

Mrs S Iwatani - NSTA Tennis Convenor

Softball

Round 4:  Year 6 softball players had been on camp with little sleep and completing many challenging activities.  Despite this they arrived Saturday morning ready for a round robin of competitive softball games working with their Year 5 players. St Pius X College boys were on fire in each innings against their opponents. Eliot Sanders, Xavier Dwyer, Jack Harrison, Dominic Mitchell and Oliver Johnston scored our first runs.  We had five runs on the score board while our opponent, Trinity White, had two runs.

In our second fielding innings we kept the run rate to three for Trinity Green and SPX were looking in a comfortable position.  However, softball is not a game where you can be complacent and think you have won until the final ball is pitched. 

Our next batters, Benjamin Bromby, Max Lenton, Matthew Yee, Benjamin Shoudra and Jordan Moore were next to score runs. St Pius were on top of their game throughout the round robin, their communication was terrific and they played well as a team.  After the final ball was pitched St Pius were once again victors.

Thank you to Ms Ward for keeping score and Mrs Yee for taking photos.

Mrs J Williams - Softball Convenor