Student & Parent Matters

• Parent Information Evening - Year 12, 2018
• ​From the Head of Student Services:

            -    Year 9 Camps

            -    Student Leadership Camp

            -     Student Leaders' Speechcraft Courses

            -     Holiday Boxing in Redfern:  'Clean Slate Without Prejudice'

            -     Eddie Rice Camps:  Call for Volunteers from St Pius X College

• THIS FRIDAY - Book Breakfast in the Senior Resource Centre for Parents:  an inspirational event for fathers, mothers, sons and cricketers!
• SPX Athletes run for a great cause
• Frenchs Forest Traffic Changes - HSC Exams​
• Term 4 Parent/Son Bootcamp at SPX Sarto Gym
• General Notices:  -  St Joseph's College Spring Fair - Sunday 12th November 2017

Parent Information Evening – Year 12 2018

An information evening for parents of students undertaking the HSC in  2018 will be held on Wednesday 1st November in the College Gymnasium commencing at 6.30pm.

Mr A Damo - Assistant Principal Teaching & Learning

From the Head of Student Services

Year 9 Camps:  Making Waves at the SPX Year 9 Rites of Passage Camps at Huntington House

Overwhelmingly positive feedback from our Year 9 rolling camps has been the order of the day. Our students have expressed their gratitude to the College and Year 9 Pastoral care staff: Mr Ticli, Ms Foord, Mr McBrearty, Ms Fernando, Mr Anderson, Mr Kovacevic, Mr Olson, Mr Lacey, Ms Doyle, Mr Kennedy, Mr O’Byrne and Ms Whelan for facilitating this rich learning experience.  The four Homeroom classes so far have welcomed the opportunity to:

• Enjoy a stand up paddle board session on the lagoon under the guidance of Harry, who ranked #2 paddle board surf competitor in Denmark last week.
• Learn from a Coastal Lookout hike and informative education session with local indigenous elder and educator Stuart McMinn.
• Engage in a surf lesson with former world ranked surfer Amee Donohoe.
• Complete a spirituality and character self analysis reflection workshop.
• Consider issues around Sustainability, Inclusive Communities and Legacies and Act Locally through “Take 3 for the Sea” initiative.
• Participate in team building activities, food preparation, clean up and service exercises in the beautiful environment of the sunny Central Coast.
• Enjoy Luke Galati’s special pasta sauce recipes and fruit shop pickings around meals.
• Live without their mobile phones for the duration of the camp.

Please click on the photo gallery below:

Student Leadership Camp

Photos Below:  St Pius X College Student Leadership Team Elect Camp visits Fr Jim McKeon, Chatswood Parish Priest 2018 (photo below) and St Mary of the Cross Mackillop’s historic church and orphanage, Kincumber.

After promising pre-season performances in 1st XI Cricket, 1st V Basketball and All Schools Athletics, our College Captain Dan Hall, Vice Captains Nik Papastamatis and Jack Moran, House Captains and Prefects travelled up the M1 on Saturday evening for an intense Sunday to Monday Leadership Camp at Huntington House, between Year 9 Camps, facilitated by 2018 Year 12 Coordinator Mr Batchelor.

Breaks in both leadership training sessions, and the weather, enabled us to enjoy the Terrigal surrounds and we were able to celebrate the arrival of Year 9 Camp #4 on Monday with Mr Olson and Mr Lacey.

A generous visit to St Edward’s EREA College in East Gosford, hosted by their Social Justice guru - also former St Pius X College Staff member and EREA stalwart - Mr Pat Dell, allowed us to visit their outdoor indigenous learning area, engage in meaningful yarns with students of indigenous descent and challenge some contemporary misrepresentations of social justice and social stereotypes.

We also had the opportunity to link up with Bethany and Emily from the Eddie Rice Camps initiatives. (See the ‘Eddie Rice Camps call for St Pius X College Volunteers’ article below).

Thanks go to Mr Pat Dell and his outstanding students, and Mr Mark Bonnicci, St Edward’s Principal, who is soon to head over to Edmund Rice Schools in Kenya with some students to continue their EREBB Social Justice outreach work. Long may we continue the reciprocal learning arrangements between our great schools.

Student Leaders Speechcraft Courses

Our College Student Leadership Team elect, with the generous sponsorship of the SPX Old Boys Association through their President Mr David Bullard (’82), continue their Speechcraft learning sessions this Friday from 3.30 to 5.30pm with microphone set-up and speaking practice at the podium, gym lectern and Boardroom.

Their public speaking skills continue to develop in the lead up to the Prefect Investiture on Thursday 26th October and Speechcraft Graduation Dinner Monday 13th November.  

Holiday Boxing with the Redfern All Blacks and Tribal Warrior ‘Clean Slate Without Prejudice’ initiative

The following script was communicated at Monday assembly.

Good morning teachers and students,

Throughout the two Friday mornings of the Term 3 holidays, four Year 10 students, two Year 9 students and a few of the teachers attended the Tribal Warrior ‘Clean Slate Without Prejudice’ boxing program. This is a routine and boxing program built for developing a healthy partnership between the police and the Redfern community, trying to minimise the amount of aboriginal people going into custody from the influences of drug and alcohol addictions.

Chris Pelle:  Congratulations to the students involved as St Pius X College ambassadors who have been welcomed into this powerful celebration of community building, culture and language:

Year 10 - Chris Pelle, Ky Simpson, Jason Sacre, Jack Cooper;  Year 9 - Daniel Fileman and Sam Barrell.

Eddie Rice Camps request to St Pius X College for Camp Volunteers

Our Student Leadership Team elect were fortunate, during their Leadership Training Camp visit to EREA St Edward’s Gosford on Monday, to meet up with two Eddie Rice Camp leaders Emily and Bethany, who were training St Edward’s students to become volunteers at the Eddie Rice Holiday Camps.

Eddie Rice Camps address a contemporary need in our communities for various young people to enjoy a week holiday of fun, connecting and learning activities, which may not otherwise be available to them.

The upcoming NSW version of Eddie Rice Camps take place in the January holidays at Mulgoa and there are two training day options for would-be volunteers. As Friday 24th November is our Founder's Day Festival, Saturday 25th is the date on which a team of SPX students is invited to attend the Balmain-based training and then volunteer at a week-long January Camp to support this great initiative in action.

Our College, and Mr Pawlak’s Year 10 cohort in particular, have a long record of supporting Edmund Rice Camps with vital fundraising to facilitate attendance of some disadvantaged youth in need. There are also many ex-students who volunteer. However the call is out for support from our current Senior (Years 10 and 11) students to take up this very rewarding challenge.    

Click on the flyer or ask Mr Brannan, Mr Russo, or Mr Blake for more information.

Mr S Brannan - Head of Student Services

Don't get caught out:  Catch our very special Book Breakfast this Friday!

Book you and your son a place in history at the Senior Library’s first-ever book breakfast.

We are fortunate to have St Pius X College Dad, Greg Growden talk about his latest book, “The wrong 'un: the Brad Hogg story”. Greg is a highly regarded former Sydney Morning Herald journalist and author of 15 books.

Brad Hogg is a spin bowler, Test Cricketer and in his forties became a T20 superstar. At 46, he has just re-signed for another Big Bash season with the Melbourne Renegades. Greg will discuss how this biography came about, the writing process, Brad Hogg’s humour as well as answer questions.  Cricketers, coaches and their supporters will find Brad Hogg’s story inspiring, as well as Greg’s telling of it.

Join us for this fascinating presentation and there’s no need to have brekkie as a light breakfast awaits you on arrival.  Please RSVP here for catering purposes.

Ms K Keighery - Senior Teacher Librarian

SPX Athletes run for a great cause

On Sunday 15th October seven of our SPX athletes ran in the Annual SANRUNFORLIFE at Wahroonga in aid of the Accident Unit at the Hospital. Over 600 people were involved in the run on the day.  Our boys competed in the 5km run and won both the overall team event and the Schools Senior Trophy.

Pictures of our team below were taken by Danny John.

Times for 5km

• Oliver Sheather                8th         22.20
• Kiefer O’Brien                   10th       22.54
• Angus Cutbill                    11th        22.55
• Jamie Miller                      13th        23.53
• Nick Mackenzie                54th       28.35
• Fred Thornton-Bott        55th       28.35
• Sebastian Majarian         56th       28.36

Mr S Quilty

Frenchs Forest Traffic Changes - HSC Exams

Message from Roads and Maritime Services

"Roads and Maritime Services would like to thank you for your patience during the longer than expected traffic delays experienced by people this week around the Frenchs Forest area. We appreciate and are listening to the concerns you have about getting to your destinations on time, especially with HSC exams coming up as we know this is a stressful time for students.

The one-way arrangement is new and we’re working on implementing some measures to ease the congestion including:

• Proactively managing the traffic signal network to accommodate the changing traffic environment
• Installing additional CCTV cameras to monitor traffic
• Providing traffic conditions information on electronic message signs located on the network
• Providing a kiss and ride facilities on Frenchs Forest Road in front of Forest High School.

Intersections along Forest Way, Warringah Road and Wakehurst Parkway will continue to be monitored by the Transport Management Centre and Roads and Maritime Services traffic engineers to manage traffic flows.

We would like to remind students travelling to exams from Monday 16 October, to plan their journey, allow extra travel time, drive to the conditions and follow the direction of signs and traffic control to ensure you arrive at your exam destination on time.

There is further information about the traffic changes, available at our website, including a detour map and frequently asked questions. For the latest traffic updates, you can call 132 701, visit livetraffic.com or download the Live Traffic NSW App.

If you have any questions, please call 1800 014 307 (free call 24 hours per day), or nbhcommunity@ferrovialyork.com.au "

Term 4 Parent/Son Bootcamp at SPX Sarto Gym 

Please see details in the flyer below.

General Notices

St Joseph's College Spring Fair  - Sunday 12th November 2017