Pastoral Care

• Year 9 Christmas Hamper Appeal
• James Baldock Rotary Speech
• Josh Jones Work Experience at the Reserve Bank of Australia
• Year 10 Immersions
• Our Lady of Dolours Parish Youth Mass
• 2020 Student Diary Planner
• EREA and St Pius X Service Awards
• Young People and Alcohol

Student Wellbeing Anecdote from the Diary

“Be the change you want to see in the world” Gandhi”

Year 9 Christmas Hamper Appeal

A long standing tradition at the College is the Christmas Hamper Appeal collection conducted by Year 9 students. This supports various charities and outreach services including the Frenchs Forest Parish Terrey Hills Hamper Collection, St Michael's Darlington Inner City Appeal. This year we will combine forces with Brigidine College St Ives to collect non-perishables and toiletries which we can contribute. Some students need to be recruited to attend the Hamper Mass and then assist with delivery to charities in the Northern Beaches / Brookvale area on Tuesday 10 December. Any excess material will then be delivered to rural and remote NSW towns in at least some gesture of empathetic support as the drought continues to bite hard in those communities.

Any Year 9s / other students who can help with:

• Collecting material brought in across the school during admin 
• Attending the St Anthony in the Fields Terry Hills Hamper Mass on Sunday 8 December at 9am or
• Delivery of the Hampers from Terrey Hills on Tuesday 10 December or from School on Thursday 5 December

should see Mr Brannan ASAP to volunteer some community service.

James Baldock (Yr 10) Rotary Speech

Congratulations to Year 10 student and Senior Debater, James Baldock, who was invited last Wednesday to speak to the Chatswood Rotary Club at Roseville on the topic: "What will Australia look like in 2035?". The opportunity was facilitated by Our Lady of Dolours Parish mainstay Mr Gerard Say who himself is a former long serving Principal of Holy Family School Lindfield, and before that a product of the town of Young in south western country NSW.

James used his experience from this year’s Annual Willoughby – Gwydir Shire Council exchange to Bingara, an initiative of another SPX “Old Boy” in former Mayor Pat Reilly, which James was nominated to attend along with Dom Panozzo and Nick Ward (Year 10) in July this year.

By all accounts James, who debated with our Senior Year 11 and 12 teams this year, was most impressive in his presentation to the audience and I look forward to hearing more about his insights and delivery over the coming days.

Josh Jones - Work Experience at The Reserve Bank

Last week Josh Jones (Year 10) took the opportunity of an invitation to conduct a week's work experience and learning at the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Martin Place offices. To quote Mr Pawlak, “Josh is a remarkable young man” who took full advantage of the opportunity. Josh tells me at one point he shared the office with 16 people who had achieved PhDs in Finance! Again we look forward to hearing more from Josh when he presents to his Year 10 cohort next week after the conclusion of Year 10, Term 5, Australian Business Week.

Year 10 Immersions

As we go to print, 4 Year 10 students: Joel Chand, Alec Ramsbottom, Joe Colgan and  Matthew Brannan along with Mr Reay and Ms Spanyk have travelled to visit our good friends at St Joseph’s Primary School Walgett on Kamilaroi Country, North Western NSW. Walgett is a town where two rivers meet: The Barwon and the Namoi, and sadly both are as close to bone dry as can be, forcing the town and surrounding districts to subsist of some heavily mineralised bore water. The St Joseph’s school is a terrific Primary School which our Red Dirt Immersion visited in July. It is overseen by Aunty Faye a highly respected Aboriginal leader within the wider community and co-Principals Ms Diana Feichtner and Mr Justin Matthews. Notably also Ms Hannah Pedersen daughter of our long serving P & F stalwart Christine Pedersen is completing her second year of teaching in this remote rural setting.

Unfortunately with the potentially catastrophic bushfires still affecting our Northern Rivers region of NSW, the Immersion to smoke and fire-affected St Marys Bowraville could not go ahead this week. Mr Mulheron has kindly subsumed those students into his Central Coast-based Immersion which I will visit today and tonight along with a visit to the students completing their Immersion at St Edward's Wahroonga. The Year 10 students at St Gabriel’s EREA School at Castle Hill will also be kindly visited today by Mrs Mulheron who works next door at Gilroy College. It is a team event!

We look forward to hearing reports and a presentations to their peers from all the students when they return from Immersion to Year 10 “Term 5” next week.

Our Lady of Dolours Parish Youth Mass Finale 2019

Another wonderful Youth Mass was celebrated by Fr Jim at 5.30pm last Sunday evening. The congregation featuring students from St Pius and Mercy Colleges felt extremely uplifted by Fr Jim’s homily and our students created a beautiful strong combined choir. According to Ms Waters: “They are definitely getting better and less intimidated by all the Church microphones!

The attached photo shows everyone gathered around our own departing Youth Minister, Mr Adrian Brannan, during the final blessing, which was “a lovely way to end the Mass”.

College Vice Captain Tyson McCallum spoke eloquently to give thanks for “The Good” Mr Brannan’s service to our community, as he similarly did in an encore performance at College Assembly on Monday.

We now look forward to our Final College Mass for the year on December 5 at 10am.

2020 College Student Diary Planner

At Assembly on Monday our student Reconciliation Action Plan sub-committee, consisting of Caleb Hanrahan, Ben Cullen, Ronan Crispe and Conor Ryan presented the Acknowledgement of Country which they have developed for the College 2020 Student Diary Planner:

In the spirit of reconciliation as we gather here today, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, The Cammeraygal people of the Eora Nation.  I would like to pay my respect to the Aboriginal Elders, both past and present, for they hold the traditions, memories and wisdom of Mother Earth that we place our feet upon today.

And the more succinct version for the back cover:

The students of St Pius would like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we stand on, The Cammeraygal people.

We acknowledge the knowledge and wisdom of the Cammeraygal People, past, present and emerging.

The St Pius X College Student Reconciliation Action Plan Committee have determined that the diary will feature the Prayer of the Aboriginal People:

Father of all, you gave us the Dreaming,

You have spoken to us through our beliefs,

You then made Your love clear to

us in the person of Jesus.

We thank you for your care.

You own us, You are our hope.

Make us strong as we face the problems of change.

We ask You to help the people

of Australia to listen to us and

respect our culture.

Make the knowledge of You grow

strong in all people.

So that You can be at home in

us and we can make a home for

everyone in our land.

Amen

Prepared by the Aboriginal people for Pope John Paul II’s visit to Alice Springs in 1986

EREA and St Pius X Service Awards

On Friday at our highly successful Founders Day Festival and at EREA headquarters over the weekend I experienced the profound honour of being presented with two very significant service awards:

Ms Donna Janes and myself were presented with 20 year Service to St Pius X College Awards, both having commenced in the year 2000, albeit in my case 4 weeks into the year following notice to De La Salle Ashfield. It was an exciting time as I had just returned from teaching in Chile, South America, and was really only drawn back by the opportunity for a warm surf and the 2000 Olympics that year, at which I worked supervising the Beach Volleyball on Bondi Beach!

The second award was an EREA National Charter Award for enhancing an “Inclusive Community” across our school and network. A humbling award which I really accept on behalf of our great school: the students who invariably rise to the occasion and support one another, inspired leadership by Mr Couani and Dr Wayne Tinsey at network level, and students leaders at our school level, the staff who work collegially, with great teamwork and mutual positive support, all of which characterises our St Pius X College School Community.

On reflection I particularly thank the following people who have contributed to my journey at St Pius including, but not excluding, the many others:

Br Des Kelly, Ms Ann O’Donovan and Mr Cunneen who first lead me on a Snowy Hike in 1985

Br Paul Leary who offered me a job in January 2000

Mrs Margaret Vere who taught me how to teach Physics

Mr Ross Masters who is the heart and soul of St Pius and students can only appreciate in retrospect his profound contribution

Mr Rick Russo who inspires all with his boundless energy and enthusiasm surrounds himself with good people

Ms Sue Cheney in the College administration without whom the College could not function efficiently.

But most importantly my ever patient wife Paola, who supported our kids through the HSC while I was often on Snowy Hike, Kokoda Expedition, Red Dirt Immersion, Cricket / Rugby Tour, and Edmund Rice Beyond Borders connecting in South America, PNG and South Africa.

In closing, Inclusivity at St Pius means teaching one another to listen with respect to one another’s story, not rushing to tell our own at any cost. Listening, particularly to those at the margins or those who are different from ourselves. Being curious, non-judgemental informed thinkers with a positive mindset and 'can do' attitude to what we can do in the world. Empowering others to be an empathetic, informed and accepting society.

Fide et Labore

Sean Brannan - Assistant Principal 

Young People and Alcohol

With the ‘silly season’ upon us - think formals, end of year parties, schoolies and Christmas, parents may find the below article helpful in managing the challenging issue of young people and alcohol;

https://www.theparentswebsite.com.au/andrew-fuller-10-reasons-teen-shouldnt-drink/