July 25th, 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

A Note from our Principal

Ngata Families & Friends,

Mr Murrell is currently on the Melbourne Camp with our Grade 5/6's. We look forward to hearing all about their fun adventures when they return tomorrow afternoon.   A message will be sent out via the SZapp as soon as we are given an updated ETA for the buses.

Tomorrow marks the first day of our Ready, Set, School! program.  We are excited to welcome those children who are taking part and we hope it will be a rewarding  and helpful experience as they prepare to commence school in 2025.  Thank you to Mrs Parkinson for her preparation for tomorrow.

Ready, Set, School! program - TOMORROW!

Click below to register for our Ready, Set, School! program

Click here to Register

Sacrament of Eucharist 2024

The Sacrament of Eucharist is typically the third sacrament that is received and is the sacrament of initiation.  We have six students preparing to receive their first Eucharist. These candidates are Lincoln Steffenson, Alfie Parkinson, Ivy McDonald, Mason Halloran, Indie Kermond and Annabella McInnes.

Last Friday, these children gathered in our Hall with around 80 other candidates from the 6 primary catholic network schools. At this Parish Formation day, they were able to experience imaginative prayer and analyse modern artwork displaying Eucharistic themes.

The next part of this process is the Commitment Mass, benign help in our Church, St Pius X, on Sunday August 4th, at 9am.  The Sacrament will be celebrated on Sunday August 11th, at 9am. Please remember these students in your classroom prayers over the the next few weeks.

Kind Regards, 

Sara Graham

School Uniform

I am pleased to let our community know that we are making the progressive step forward to ensure our school uniform policy is gender neutral. The topic has been discussed at School Advisory Council and Parent and Friends level and there was a unanimous feeling that this was a step in the right direction. You will see all uniform communication from now and into the future with no written reference to 'boys' or 'girls' uniform, it will be referenced as summer, winter and sports uniform and list all uniform options available to students at St. Pius X. 

I begin the following message by saying if your family requires support with the purchase/supply of school uniform, please come and see Karen and Bec in the office - We can support you to obtain second hand uniform items with little or no cost. 

Students have this week been reminded about some aspects of the correct school uniform. Some common school uniform issues are:

Coats and beanies 

Students are permitted to wear coats and beanies to and from school, as well as in the playground, however, they are asked to remove them when in class. All learning areas have reverse cycle heating and cooling and are kept at a comfortable temperature regardless of the conditions outside. 

School shoes

Every day (except for their PE lesson day) students are required to wear ALL black shoes. These can be leather school shoes or all black runner style shoes. The key message is ALL black. See below for a visual explanation. I do understand that shoes are an expensive item to purchase and do not expect families to feel they need to buy black shoes immediately, if they don't have them - I ask that next time you replace your child’s school shoes this is considered. 

Short exercise shorts

Students have been reminded that short, form fitting, exercise shorts are not part of any school uniform. Students are asked not to wear these shorts. Please see below for an alternative (navy leisure pants). School sports shorts are the 'parachute' / quick dry style shorts (no logos) on sports days, see image below. 

Navy Leisure Pants

You will notice that navy leisure pants (no logos) have been added to the allowed school uniform. These will be available by the end of the year in our school uniform shop. In the meantime, if your child would like to wear these they can be purchased from various stores. Please see the example below. 

Uniform items

Food bank support

We are excited to propose the launch of a weekly community foodbank to support families within our school. This initiative aims to provide meals to those requiring some assistance, enhancing our strong and compassionate community. We invite you to express your interest in supporting this important cause, this would be in the form of going on a roster to cook/provide a meal. Together, we can make a meaningful difference in the lives of our fellow community members. Please text Lara on 0423 453 334 if you wish to participate or need more information. Thank you for your continued support and generosity.

Text Lara on 0423 453 334

Canteen Coordinator Term 3

We are currently seeking a volunteer who would be willing to coordinate our canteen during Term 3 (and possibly Term 4 if required).   

The duties involved normally only take 1 to 2 hours each week to complete and include checking the stock of and replenishing the following items;   frozen products including icypoles, nuggets etc,  kitchen items such as paper towel, serviettes etc. and tins of pineapple which need to be put into small snack bags for the freezer.

Shopping is usually done once a week (During the warmer months extra icypoles may be required) and duties also include a tidy/clean of the canteen when needed.   

If this is something you would be happy to undertake, your assistance would be greatly appreciated.  Please contact the office for further information.

Book Week Celebration Day

On Friday 23rd August, we will be celebrating book week.The theme this year is 'Reading is Magic.'Students are invited to dress up as their favourite book character but there is no expectation that new items or costumes are purchased. There will be some dress ups provided on the day for those who would like to borrow a costume. 

The students will participate in the following activities:

9:30-10:00 Book Week Parade.

10:00-11:00 Art Activities in Mixed-Age groups.

11:30-12:00 Reading Picnic. 

Parents/Grandparents/Special people are invited to join us at anytime throughout the morning. 
More information will be communicated closer to the date.

SchoolTV

In this edition of SchoolTV - SLEEP

Students today have extremely busy schedules, with ever increasing responsibilities at school and at home. Many kids, especially adolescents, are going to bed later and later and are at risk of sleep deprivation. This affects three areas of a child’s development: psychological, physiological and psychosocial. All three are essential to a child's growth, learning ability and overall wellbeing. Sleep is vital to a child’s overall development and is as important as diet and exercise.

Sleep also strengthens a child’s immune systems and supports their ability to function properly on a daily basis. Children who do not get enough sleep show increased levels of aggressive behaviour, are less attentive and are much less active. Trying to catch up on sleep on weekends is not the answer and can still lead to severe sleep deprivation.

In this edition of SchoolTV, parents will learn about the importance of sleep and how sleep deprivation can have adverse effects on a child’s health and wellbeing.

We hope you take time to reflect on the information offered in this edition of SchoolTV and we always welcome your feedback. If you have any concerns about your child, please contact the school counsellor for further information or seek medical or professional help.

Here is the link to the Sleep edition of SchoolTV
https://spwarrnambool.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/sleep

Meals on Wheels has recommenced!

After a break of some time, another of our services and community interactions has recommenced. Today Mrs Harzmeyer took some willing volunteers to help with Meals on Wheels. Next week we will revert back to usual practice with our Yr 6s once again heading out around town to deliver meals on a weekly basis. We are pleased to be able to reconnect with these community groups!

The Foundation Files

Finding Nemo

Musical?? We had so many questions about what it was? Can I do my own dance? I’m going to sing my favourite song! I love Finding Nemo - I’ve watched it at the movies!

We are now learning all about performing. We watched a couple of old musicals from the vault of St Pius X. We even picked out some of the performers that we knew. We have listened to our song and we have started to create some simple dance moves. We are learning more about how the musical is different to the movie. We are so excited to be learning and exploring performing arts with our friends at school. Stay tuned for more exciting news and get ready for us to be singing and practicing at home.

Excursion Reminder

Just a quick reminder that next Wednesday we are going on our first Term 3 excursion.

We are going to take a guided tour of the Lighthouse Theatre and explore the stage - front and back. We cannot wait to learn how musicals and productions happen.

After the tour we are going to visit our favourite place to read - the Warrnambool Library.

Don’t forget to fill out our permission forms online so that we can all get to attend. We cannot wait to share with you how our adventures go.

Dotted Thirds

Who can believe that we can now use dotted thirds to write our letters, our stories and do our spelling tests.

We have learnt about base lines, magic lines, high lines above and high lines below. 

These lines help us to make our letters the right shape and the right size.

We now have our very own dotted third book and we love writing a story each day and having a lot of space to draw a picture to match.

Check out some of our amazing writing efforts in just 2 weeks!! 

Under the Staff Spotlight.......

Let's get to know .............

LEESA BATTISTELLO - THE ARTS

What is your favourite sport to watch in the Olympics? Swimming

What music do you like to listen to? Taylor Swift

What countries have you travelled to? England, Ireland, Germany, Belgium, France, Spain, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, USA.

What is your favourite fruit or snack to have at school? Bananas and Yogurt. 

Who is your favourite artist? Claude Monet

Emma Stenhouse - Rescheduled to Next Week; Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday.

Not getting SZapp push notifications?

Here is some information from Schoolzine to help troubleshoot if you are having this issue.

Does the app notification show for the user in their feed but they did not receive the push notification? – if so, they may have notifications turned off for their Operating System or the App.

Have you got Push notifications turned on WITHIN SZAPP?

When using the app, select the manage tab from the top ribbon and ensure that there is push notifications turned on for the SZapp.

Have you got Push notifications turned on for your OPERATING SYSTEM?

Certain devices will have push notifications turned off by default when installing software. In order to receive notifications for your device you will need to ensure that both the Operating System notifications as well as the App notifications are enabled.

Was SZapp open when the notification was sent?

Sometimes applications will lie dormant or in ‘sleep’ status on your device in order to cache information and decrease load time when you are wishing to use the application again. Once you have finished using SZapp we recommend that you fully close the app in order to avoid push notifications not being received on some devices in this ‘sleep’ state.

Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club is open each Wednesday morning at 8:20am.   Again, a big thankyou to Foodshare for providing us with breakfast items and Woolies for providing the fruit! Of course, this wouldn't take place without our amazing parent helpers so a big thank you to Sarah & Virginia as well!

Mobile Phones

Our school understands that some families require their child to have a mobile phone for communication and safety needs before and after school. If your child is bringing a mobile phone to school it must be checked in with Karen or Bec at the office as soon as they arrive at school and it can be collected as they exit school in the afternoon. Families in this situation, can you please remind your child of this important school procedure. 

School fee payment plans

St Pius X is a low fee-paying school. Our global operating budget comprises funding from the Federal and State Governments, School fee collection, and fundraising.

School fees are a vital part of providing many aspects of your child's tuition at St Pius X. The 3 main options for paying your school fees are: Direct Debit, Credit Card (at the school office) and Direct Credit Payments.

Please take some time to consider which of these options is best for your family. If you would like to set up a direct debit payment plan please contact Bec Lawlor at the school office or email Bec at rlawlor@spwarrnambool.catholic.edu.au

Your support with this, early in the school year, would be greatly appreciated.

A special message just to say.............

The following students will be celebrating their birthday this week ........

Eva Searle, Emmy Rammage & Scarlett Tanner

Canteen Roster for next week.

Important Dates.

Wed-Fri, 24th-26th July - Gr 5/6 camp to Melbourne

Friday, 26th July - Ready, Set, School Program 9.30am - 10.30am

Wednesday, 31st July - Foundation excursion - Lighthouse Theatre / Library

Friday, 2nd August - Assembly 3pm in church

Friday, 9th August - Ready, Set, School Program 

Friday, 16th August - Young Vinnies to Emmanuel

Friday, 16th August - Assembly 3pm in church

Tuesday, 20th August - School Closure Day - Structured Literacy (DOBCEL determined date) 

Wednesday, 21st August - St Pius X Feast Day (Kaboom Sports)

Friday, 23rd August - Book Week celebration

Friday, 23rd August - Ready, Set, School Program 

Friday, 30th August - Assembly 3pm in church

Friday, 6th Sept - Ready, Set, School Program 

Friday, 13th Sept - Assembly 3pm in church

Wednesday, 18th Sept - School Production 7.30pm

Friday, 20th Sept - Last Day of Term 2.30pm 

Friday, 20th Sept - Ready, Set, School Program 

Remaining 2024 School Closure Days

Term 3

Tuesday 20th August- Structured Literacy Staff Professional Development (DOBCEL determined date)

Term 4

Friday 18th October - Religious Education Staff Professional Development

Uniform Price List

Before & After School Care.

Parish Contact.

Sunday Mass 9.00am @ St Pius X Church. School families are always welcome.

The Parish office can be contacted on 5562 2231

Other information and contact details can be found on the Star of the Sea South West Coast website: https://www.ballarat.catholic.org.au/parish/southwestcoast/