Junior School News & Sport

• Junior School News and Information
• Highlights from the Junior Resource Centre
• Junior School Sport:  
• Postponed SPX Rugby Supporters' Club Golf Day at Roseville Golf Club
• SPX Rugby Supporters' Club AGM on Monday 9 December at the Sarto Centre at 7pm 

Prayer/Reflection:  

The church year commences at the beginning of Advent.  This is the last week of the church Year .  (Year C – Gospel of Luke) and this Sunday begins the new church year  (Year A- Gospel of Matthew.)

Advent is a time when we are waiting for the coming of Jesus at Christmas.  It is a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Jesus.

In Year 5 this year the boys have been doing meditation with Mr Adrian Brannan and their teachers.  One of the meditations uses the word Maranatha.  Maranatha comes from the early Christian and it is an Aramaic word which means, ‘The Lord Comes’ or in the imperative case, ‘Come, Lord!’  The early Christians used this expression regularly throughout the year.     And so we pray

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.

Unite us in your love.

Heal our brokenness with your compassion. Breathe new life into our faltering faith.

Shatter our complacency with your urgency. Humble our pride with your poverty.

Penetrate our confusion with your simplicity. Gather us afresh as little brothers and sisters, walking together with you, Our Lord, guided by the Spirit’s wisdom, perfectly aligned to the Father’s will, looking for the coming of Your Kingdom.

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus.

THE WEEK THAT WAS:

Founders Day Festival – A great day was had by the St Pius X community.  A lot of effort went into the logistics of the day, including the band of parents who cooked the sausages.  Eugene did a wonderful job of singing in front of the whole school and Johanna Griggs was a very impressive speaker who gave the boys a good message about doing you best but realising that there will be hurdles along the way.

The Year 6 party last Sunday – Congratulations to the band of parents who put this amazing party together.  There has to be an overarching co-ordinator so I would like to especially thank Mrs Cheah and the Year 6 class parents.   We had 110 families attend and everybody seemed to have a great day.  Thanks also to the staff who attended on the day.

A word from Mrs Cheah:

Year 6 Graduation Family Gathering:

Thank you one & all for making Sunday's event a big success!

 It was a total of 450 people

Thank you to the following companies / people who dealt the deal to make our event possible

• Simon & Steph Turner  (proud parents & supporters of St Pius) from Cakes2u for cake & balloons
• Good things for the fabulous mugs
• Pat Scissons ( Yr 6 rep) for designing mug & printing the prayers
• Ms Iwatani for composing  the prayer & help in gathering the great shots of our boys & Glenda  for spending hours putting it together
• Sydney Snapshots
• Mobydisc
• Domino's Chatswood, Sushi Hub  & the ever faithful Woolies, Coles & ALDI

Very impressive to all of you  who swooped 1000 sushis , 30 platters of wraps, meats, cheeses, dips & fruits, 54 large pizzas, 2 massive cakes & 240 ice blocks!

Cheers to all !  Happy Holidays &  Stay Safe!

THIS COMING WEEK:-

This Thursday is Swimming (Yr 5) and Surf Safety (Yr 6).  Please note that the pool 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, you do need to be there by 2.10 pm please and just a reminder that if you want your son collected by another parent we need a note.   

Year 6 Reflection Day this Friday at Oxford Falls

Twilight Concert this Friday evening at 5 pm in the Junior School playground.  Come along, have a sausage and be entertained.  Who knows... we might have a special visitor.

Year 6 PLD buy back - All Year 6 parents should have received an email regarding the Year 6 PLD buy back.   The cut off is Sunday night (1/12/2019)  Letter attached.

PRESENTATION CONCERT TIMING

On 5 December we have a Presentation concert.  This is the last day for the boys so we have a school Mass at 10 am.  At 12 noon in the Chatswood gym we start the first part of the presentation.  From 12 noon to 1.00 pm we have the Sports Awards Ceremony.  If your son won a swimming or athletic award (e.g. age champion) then he will receive his trophy at this event.  Rugby and Soccer have already had their presentations so this is for all the other sports.   At 1.00 pm we will have an intermission (this is so the boys can have lunch, stretch legs etc). Coffee and tea will be supplied or you can go for a short walk to a coffee shop if you prefer.  At 1.30 pm we will commence the Academic Prize Giving which will conclude by 2.45 pm.  The boys will walk their chairs back up to class, collect their bags and meet their parents in the playground or be dismissed to go home for their summer holiday.  It is an SPX event so assistance from parents to stack their chairs at the end of the event would be appreciated.  We are still finalising who the prize winners are but we will be sending out an email approximately a week before to the parents of prize winners.  We will ask that you keep it a surprise so that your son only finds out on the day.  Of course that is up to you.

Summary - 5 December:

• Sports awards – 12 noon till 1.00 pm
• Academic awards 1.30 pm till 2.45 pm
• Parents of Prize winners emailed a week prior to event

PERFORMING ARTS:  Twilight at Christmas – Helping Out With the Drought

Friday November 29, 5pm at Chatswood – Bring Your Family

P & F EVENTS

Highlights from the Junior Resource Centre

 This week’s highlights are:

 Here are some more amazing Book Snaps from our creative Year 5 students

#booksnaps #librarylife

Book Snap by Brayzen Sargent

                                                                                    Book Snap by Marcus Kruger

Book Snap by Riley Meares

Mr Chicken All Over Australia by Leigh Hobbs on the loose all over the Junior Resource Centre.

Mrs Martin's Book Trail:  The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams 

David Walliams has something new for readers this time round   - a science fiction fantasy set in the future. This futuristic adventure will take the readers deep into an amazing world. Join the magical journey into a futuristic London, where the young Prince Alfred must battle the mighty Griffin to save the world…#MrsMartinsbooktrail2019

Happy Reading!

Mrs Elena Martin - Junior Librarian

Junior Sport

Thursday Sport: our final week of the aquatic program at Macquarie Uni Pool and Dee Why Surf Club for Yr 5 and 6 respectively. Venue details and information on the College App.

Junior School End of Year Awards: The End of Year Academic/Sports Award Ceremony takes place at Chatswood Campus on Thursday 5 December. Sporting awards will be acknowledged from Midday till 1pm, followed by Academia after the lunch break. Extra-curricular Certificates will be awarded to all students and sports awards, including the summer season trophies and major awards, will be presented. I personally will be away with the Yr 11 Snowy Hike but I’d like to pass on my congratulations to all awardees and thank all students for their fine contributions over the course of a huge year of sport.

Borrowed Uniform: Now that sport has wrapped up for 2019 can you please return all borrowed items of clothing to myself. This may include: Basketball singlets and shorts, Athletics and Cross-Country singlets, AFL gear, Touch Football singlets, Football goalie jerseys etc.

Basketball:  Well done to all players for the manner in which they participated this year. As the season has now finished, please return all singlets and shorts ASAP so I can organise for 2020. Players continuing Basketball next year must still return items as we will re-grade and re-issue uniform in Term 1.

Mr Greg Virgona - Junior School Sportsmaster

Touch Football:  The St Pius X A and B Touch Football sides travelled to Koola Park for the final game of the season against Newington College. The B game saw end to end football with many great runs from Aidan Lindsay and Harry D’Emilio. There was a barnstorming run which resulted in a try to Marcus Kruger. Unfortunately we went down with a 7-3 loss. 

The A Side played very flat in defence and marked up really well. This made for minimal holes and few tries by the opposition. Baily Yu led the team around very well from dummy half and Archie Harris was once again instrumental in attack, scoring 3 tries. We managed to secure a 9-2 win.

Thank you to all parents and friends who supported us throughout the season - the boys and myself really appreciated it. Good luck to those going to high school next year and I look forward to seeing the Year 5 players return for a bigger and better 2020 Junior Touch Football season. 

Mr Chris Ure - Convenor

Softball:  

Last Saturday was our final game for the season and it has been an explosive one. We were at our home ground, a little tired after a great Founder’s Day, however ready for a competition. Our opponent was Trinity Juniors. St Pius went in to bat first. Very quickly we were out.

In the second innings the players were ready to gain some runs, however, Trinity kept us at nil runs again. Our fielding had to be spot on for this innings, Matthew Yee, Matthew Sissons, Kayden Foo, Patrick Thomson, Martin Chan and Christian Fiore worked hard on the field. Though unfortunately we could not stop Trinity from scoring runs.

In the third innings Pius were able to get runs on the scoresheet which demonstrated their skills. Zach Brown, Joshua Floridia, Ben Shoudra, Jack Morabito and Sebastian Doss were all able to touch home plate. We looked like we were back in the game. Our fielders, Andrew Montano, Harrison Hooper and Jasper Ghannoum were doing their best to keep our opponent's score to a minimum. However, it was hard work and they did their best to focus and throw accurately to each base.

Though we lost, it had been a great season and I was very proud to coach this squad of young men.

Thank you to the parents for getting the boys to each venue in the correct gear and with all their required equipment.

To the Year 6 players I wish you all the best for your next term of sport and I look forward to coaching my Year 5 players again next year.

Thank you to Mr Hooper for keeping score.

Thanks also to Ms Cregan and Mr Yee for the great photos.

Mrs Jenny Williams - Convenor

NSTA Tennis:

It was perfect weather for our tennis finals and play-offs last weekend and the cheer squad, aka the parents, were ready to go! We had 10 teams playing in the finals with 5 teams placing first. Well done to the following teams:

Team 4: Max Leo and Jayden Chan (WINNERS)

Team 5: Aidan-Shearer-Hawkins, Richard Gauci and Jarred Lam (RUNNERS-UP)

Team 13: Sean Balaji, Tom Sweeney and Venedict Valerio (RUNNERS-UP)

Team 15: Steven Walter, Jake Forbes and Oliver Johnston (WINNERS)

Team 16: Connor Sweeney, Layton Chan and Lucas Halim (RUNNERS-UP)

Team 25: Josh du Moulin and Antony Autore (WINNERS)

Team 18: Alex Higgins and Luka Zaknic (RUNNERS-UP)

Team 20: Sid Rana, Freddie Allert and Adam Fitrzyk (WINNERS)

Team 22: Aiden Chan, Eugene Kim and Bryan Shon (RUNNERS-UP)

Team 23: Aiden Parsons, Callum Skinner and Daniel Harper (WINNERS)

Thank you to Mr Webster, Mr Cook and Mrs Keighery for their help this season. Please keep an eye out in the Woodchatta in the new year for information about the Term 1 competition.

Mrs Sam Iwatani - Convenor

SPX Rugby Supporters' Club Golf Day - Postponed

The Rugby Club Golf Day this Friday has been postponed.

Due to damage incurred during Tuesday's storms and ongoing safety risks, the golf club is closed.  More details to come.

SPX Rugby Supporters' Club AGM

The Rugby Supporters' Club AGM will be held on Monday 9 December at the Sarto Centre, commencing at 7pm.

Paul O'Neill - President SPX Rugby Supporters' Club

Tel: 0418-634750