Junior School News & Sport

Years 5 & 6 Da Vinci Decathlon teams

Junior School News
Learning Enrichment Notices
Highlights from the Junior Resource Centre
Junior School Chess Club
Junior School Sport

Junior School News

PRAYER/REFLECTION: It is National Reconciliation Week, and with this in mind we pray:

Reconciliation Prayer

Holy Father, God of Love,

You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history

and the sufferings of Our peoples,

and we ask your forgiveness.

We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus

to reconcile the world to you.

We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another, as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better

future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.

Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.

Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld)

WELCOME SEBASTIAN VIRGONA! We welcome Sebastian Virgona to the world. Congratulations to Mel and Greg Virgona on the birth of their son, Sebastian. I’m sure he will be spoilt and probably bossed by his three older sisters, Sienna, Indiana and Mia.

DA VINCI DECATHLON: Congratulations to the Year 6 Da Vinci team who were awarded 3rd place in ideation (ie Philosophy) which is a very challenging category. This is a great result. Well done to Eliot Sanders, Patrick Frost, Lucas Spinetti, Maxwell Forbes, Cooper Anderson, Liam Boswell, Liam Carroll and Christopher Harris.

Both teams competed well, and by all accounts enjoyed the experience in a massive hall filled with many school teams.

SATURDAY SPORT AT OXFORD FALLS: Unfortunately there was an unexpected traffic nightmare on Saturday morning. Thank you to all those parents for trying to get to the game. The emails were appreciated by the coaches. Ironically the week before we had notification about traffic issues and nothing eventuated but last weekend there was no notification. If we hear of any future issues we will inform you.

Action Shots: No problems for the 7’s Rugby in getting to the venue. Mr Yee sent me these action photos of the boys enjoying themselves.

P&F NEWS

Year 6 Parents' Night Out: New Date Friday 15th June. Venue will be the WIlloughby Hotel. Details to follow.

Year 5 - Save the Dates

Friday 6th July (during the holidays) - Strike Laser Tag from 11am until 2pm at the Mandarin Centre - Chatswood.
Sunday 9th September - Play in the park for kids & parents from 2pm to 4pm at Beauchamp Park, Chatswood. Set aside 23rd September as a back-up date if it rains on the 9th.
Saturday 24th November - Year 5 Parents' Get-Together at 7:30pm - Venue TBA.

Entertainment Books 2018-2019: Please support your P&F and our boys, and save loads of money at the same time! Order your Entertainment Books and Digital Memberships via the link below and 20% of your Membership fee contributes to St Pius X College P&F fundraising.

https://www.entertainmentbook.com.au/orderbooks/2061c61

Digital orders are downloaded directly through the order process; hard copy books are sent home with your son. Please contact Clare at clarehb@bigpond.com if you have any questions.

UPCOMING EVENTS/ACTIVITIES

Friday 1 June: Holy Name of Mary Parish, Hunters Hill Confirmation practice day – many boys will be attending. This is a special time Gentlemen. A good discussion to have with your son is which saint he will choose for his confirmation name.
Monday 4 June: Year 5 Mary MacKillop Place excursion – boys will require their own Opal Card for this journey with at least $5 of value on it.
Wednesday 6 June: Junior Athletics Carnival. Mr Virgona is sending out all the details. Parents are most welcome to attend.
(No rugby training after school on that day – Under 11s cancelled)

Thanking you for your support.

Mr T Long - Head of Junior School

Learning Enrichment Notices

Da Vinci Decathlon 2018: This competition took place last Thursday at Knox Grammar School following our final week of training and preparation. Well done to the boys on their outstanding teamwork and commitment to the training sessions leading up to the day.

The competition places a particular emphasis on higher order thinking skills, problem solving and creativity. Students work collaboratively in teams, and are highly stimulated by competing in tasks that include Mathematics and Engineering, Ideation, General Knowledge, Code Breaking, Creative Producers, Art and Poetry, Science, English and Cartography.

There were 140 teams with a total of 1250 students from all over NSW present on the day. All boys competed with genuine enthusiasm and can be proud of their efforts against tough opposition. Of particular mention is the Year 6 team who received 3rd Place in the Ideation, the skill of combining Philosophy with creative and divergent thinking. Well done boys! I'm looking forward to doing it all again in 2019!

Year 5 Team: James Slade, Robert Oner, Christian Wong, Lucas Youngman, Aidan Seifert, Jaydon Akouri, Flynn Pavely and Sid Rana.

Year 6 Team: Eliot Sanders, Patrick Frost, Lucas Spinetti, Maxwell Forbes, Cooper Anderson, Liam Boswell, Liam Carroll and Christopher Harris.

GERRIC in 2018

GERRIC offers a range of school vacation programs for gifted and talented students from Years 3-10. This doesn’t mean you have to be a genius. Gifted and talented students are generally students who are capable of performing in the top 10-15% of their age-peers. Some of the courses include Chess Masterclass, Ecowarriors, Logical and Lateral thinking to name a few.

Applications for 2018 programs for the July vacation period are open and close June 17th.

Visit https://education.arts.unsw.edu.au/about-us/gerric/for-gifted-students/?mc_cid=0cc621912c&mc_eid=7ff506b5f 6 for more information.

Compass Club Term 2

Don’t forget the following due dates for competitions. Remember you can attend Compass Club when you are interested in participating in a particular competition.

Dorothea MacKellar Poetry Competition - http://www.dorothea.com.au/
Optional Theme: I have Promises to Keep
Due Friday 22nd June

IPSHA Junior Debating News

Congratulations to our debaters on their efforts in their first debate in Round 2 of the IPSHA competition last Friday when we hosted St Luke’s Dee Why. The boys won the affirmative and defeated the negative. Both teams were very well prepared, presented very convincing, well researched arguments and showed great teamwork. Well done on your efforts boys, on both debates and the commitment to debating training sessions.

The next debate we are hosting is on 8th June against Abbotsleigh at 1pm in the Sarto Centre. Parents are most welcome to attend.

Mrs B Spanyik - Learning Enrichment Teacher

Highlights from the Junior Resource Centre

A visit to our next door neighbour, Willoughby Library, where memberships were on offer as well as the opportunity for our students to borrow from this world-class collection. Students are to return the completed Membership Consent Form to the JRC by 8th June 2018.

Literature Promotion in the JRC: National Reconciliation Week 27 May – 3 June

This year during National Reconciliation Week, Reconciliation Australia invites all Australians to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories, to share that knowledge and help us grow as a nation.

This week the boys will have the opportunity to read My Australian Story: Our Race For Reconciliation by Anita Heiss. It has a clear messages of embracing individuality, commitment to culture, and the positive acknowledgement of, and healing from, indigenous issues in Australia’s history. It is also on the PRC: 4189. Bonus!

Mrs Martin’s Book Trail : How to Bee

by Bren MacDibble

How to Bee. Great title. This book for upper primary readers is fascinating.

A world not too distant. Real bees are extinct. The quickest, bravest kids climb fruit trees and pollinate by hand. A great original voice. This one is bound to win the CBCA award for 2018. This book is also on the PRC – 4668.

Poetry Guest Speaker in the Junior School Entertains and Inspires

During Term 2 Mrs Martin’s and Mrs Spanyik’s Literacy groups are focusing on Poetry, with the main focus being Australian poets. We were very fortunate to be part of the audience listening to a wonderful guest speaker, Mr Adrian Brannan, (AB Paddy), who is also the College’s Youth Ministry Coordinator, recite some well-known Australian poems. Adrian’s passion for poetry has inspired both classes to enter the Dorothea Mackellar poetry competition. Watch this space!

Mrs E Martin - Teacher/Librarian

Junior School Chess Club

Round 4 will see all our teams play at home. Please check the draw for further details.

Mrs E Martin - Junior School Chess Convener

Junior School Sport

Thursday Sport: at Oxford Falls. Winter training continues for Rugby, Football and AFL.

Athletics: The Junior School House Carnival takes place on Wednesday 6th June at the Sydney Olympic Park Warm-up venue, Homebush. Parents are of course invited to attend as spectators or in an assisting capacity (ribbons / recording etc.). A detailed letter and program has been uploaded to the App and emailed to parents.

Dance: Our Dance program begins on the 7th June and is integrated with our Thursday sport program of winter training. Please note the amendments to travel times in the table above. On the early departure days, boys will require a packed lunch. The cost of the 4 week program is $30 and will be charged to Term 3 Fees.

Rugby: Obviously heavy and unforeseen traffic issues on the weekend impaired the ability of many to make it to Oxford Falls and Warriewood. Unfortunately we had no forewarning of these road closures. Thanks to all for your efforts in trying to make it and don’t worry if you were unsuccessful. We modified games as necessary and did the best we could under the circumstances.

Mr G Virgona - Junior School Sportsmaster

Football: Round 4 results and Round 5 Draw

Mr P Cummins - Junior Football Convenor

AFL: We knew that Newington had been re-graded and so were wary that they would be a strong opposition, and they quickly met our expectations going to a 5 goal lead in the first quarter. Realising that we needed to concentrate more on defence, rather than being goal scoring heroes, the boys lifted their intensity in this area. Angus Hunt, Sam Hollinger and Lachlan Connell literally ‘built a wall’ in the backline which put to a stop Newington’s goal scoring momentum. Ably supported with some great spoiling and tackling by Zavier Ferreira, Rory Squires, Luca Spinetti, Ollie Johnston and Alec Sweeney, our goal scoring opportunities increased and we came away with a strong win. Thanks to our goal umpires Zac and Will and we hope Billy’s injured finger heals quickly.

Player Points: 3 – Angus Hunt 2- Sam Hollinger 1 – Lachlan Connell