August 15th, 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

A Note from our Principal

Ngata families, 

I write to you this week with great excitement - We're going online!

St Pius X has a new way of ordering for Canteen, Uniform and Special Events. Flexischools is an app that can be used on both your mobile phone and computer to place orders for all of these things and the App is ready to download  now.

Flyers have been sent home today with the oldest student in each family and this  will give you instructions on how to download the App and set it up for ordering for your children.    

Ordering for the Canteen will be available next week, the first day being Wednesday 21^st August.   Please note however, that the Father’s Day Breakfast orders will be done using the App and this will be available from today. The cut-off date to place your orders for the breakfast will be the 27th August 2024.

If you need any help setting this up please see Bec or Karen in the office for assistance. 

Father's Day / Special Person's Day Breakfast

School Closure Day - Tuesday 20/8/24

Next Tuesday, 20/8/24, is a school closure day. There is no school for students on this day. Our teaching and learning support staff will be attending Structured Literacy Professional Development facilitated by Catholic Education Ballarat's Structured Literacy project leaders. 

This date has been noted on the school newsletter since Term 1. The timing of this closure day is CEB/DOBCEL determined. 

Book Week Celebration Day - Change of Date

Please note that due to a clash of activities, we have changed our Book Week Celebration Day to Thursday, 22nd August. 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:

9:15-9:45  Book Week Parade.

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

11:30-12:00 Reading Picnic in the Courtyard. 

Parents/Grandparents/Special People are invited to join us throughout the morning. Younger siblings are welcome to join us for our Book Week Parade and all are welcome to join our reading picnic. Bring a blanket, picnic and your favourite book. 

Ready, Set, School! program - Next session Friday 23rd August.

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

Click here to Register

Carpark Information

Please see the video below with information about pickup time in our carpark works, and what the yellow lines stand for. 

Country Bus for 2025

If you need your child to catch a Country Bus in 2025, please fill out the following form and return it to Bec Lawlor before the end of this term to secure your spot.  Copies of this form are also available from the office to fill in. Thank You.

Dumpling Making Workshop

Attention families of 5/6 students.

In two weekends time, on Saturday August 24th, our very own Jun Meredith will be conducting a Dumpling Making Workshop in the St Pius X function room. All proceeds will be donated to the school Parents and Friends committee. 

The workshop will run 10.30am-12 midday. Cost is $15 per student, payable on the day to Mel Steffenson. The workshop will be capped at 20 students. Students will make 30-40 dumplings each and get to try some before they leave and take the rest home. Students are asked to bring two containers to take their delicious dumplings home.    

Please contact Karen or Bec in the office to book your place.   If there are any food allergies, could these please be communicated when booking.

We will require some parent helpers on the day, if your child is coming and you're able to help, please let Karen or Bec know. 

Please see the flyer for details. 

We sincerely thank Jun for the concept and generous offer to impart some of her wisdom and expertise on to our school community.

As of today there are 12 student places remaining

Sports Reminder

Just a gentle reminder to people who still have pieces of the competitive school sport jerseys or t-shirts at home that your child may have worn during representative competition- can you please return these to school ASAP?
Moving forward, these will be distributed to the children on the day of the competition and collected at the conclusion of the event.

School Basketball

SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Good luck to all the students who are representing St Pius in the inter school basketball competition next week. The year 3/4 competition will be held on Monday and the year 5/6 competition on Friday- both at Emmanuel College.

The Foundation Files

Subtraction Stories

Check out our subtraction stories. We have learnt to find the difference between two parts. We have used a number track to count on or count back to find the 2 parts that make the whole. We have also been using our whiteboards to complete a daily review. We love it when we get the right answer. Counting and working with numbers is so much fun.

Psalm 148

A Psalm is like a poem or a song that can be found in the Old Testament of our Bible. The Psalms were written at least 1000 years before Jesus was born and there are 150 Psalms. A Psalm will be included in a Mass and will be something which is sung with a chorus that everyone repeats and then with other verses. Psalms will often be written to celebrate and give thanks to the world around us and the gifts that God has given us. We learnt all about Psalm 148 this week and we were able to read it and draw pictures to illustrate it as well. It is a Psalm which retells the Creation story which we have also learnt about.. 

Expanding our Sentences

We have been working on adjectives in our writing this week. An adjective describes what something is like. We have used words like - big, tasty, smart, funny, cute, black, messy. We have had to use adjectives to make our sentences more interesting and to make them longer. Look at the amazing sentences that we have been able to write on our own.

Coughs and Colds

We have a lot of coughs and colds hovering around us and we would like families to consider keeping their child at home as germs will only spread further.  Bedrest, fluids and panadol at home would benefit anyone not feeling themselves at anytime of the year.

Under the Staff Spotlight......

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

LOUISE CRISPE - Learning Support Officer

What do you love to do on the weekend?    Shopping, Sewing, Gardening, Walking.

What is your favourite animal?  The Wombat.

Which TV show do you like to watch with your family?   I recently enjoyed watching the Olympics.

What is your favourite meal to cook?  Vegetable Lasagne.

Where did you go to school?  Noble Park and Cranbourne Primary Schools.

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

Breakfast Club

A friendly reminder that Breakfast Club is running on Wednesday mornings from 8:20am. It is open to ALL students before school to enjoy some yummy toast, yogurt, cereal or a piece of fruit and take part in a morning conversation with others. We look forward to seeing everybody there!

 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!

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

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

Lincoln Watts, Indie Kermond & Chelsea Astbury.

Canteen Roster for next week.

Important Dates.

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 - Father's Day / Special Person's Day Breakfast 7.45-8.45am

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/