July 28th, 2022

Acknowledgement of Country

Prayer

A Note from our Principal

Ngata Families & Friends,

As we move through the third week of term, we are well underway with our preparations for our school production at the end of term. It is great to hear the music echoing through the school and also coming out of the odd car in the carpark at the beginning and end of school. In today’s newsletter we have published a guide to classroom costumes. Our intention is to make this as uncomplicated as possible for families.

We thank all families who have been supporting our fundraising efforts this term, and ask you to consider supporting either the Chitticks pie drive or the Vision Portraits fundraiser in place this week and next. More information is included in today’s newsletter.

Thanks to families who have kept us updated with positive cases or close contact status. We are still required to keep accurate records of COVID status and to communicate this data with DOBCEL, our governing body. Please continue to test if symptomatic and keep the school updated if required.

Since changing our newsletter and app communication over to Schoolzine, we have had positive feedback for the format of the newsletter, but only a relatively small email list. If you would like to subscribe to the newsletter via email, please click the mail icon at the top of today’s newsletter.

Joe Ewing

Principal

Congratulations Fr Bill!

On Friday evening at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Ballarat two new priests were ordained for the Ballarat Diocese. We congratulate Fr Matthew Restall and Fr Bill Lowry. Fr Bill has been appointed to the Star of the Sea Parish (Warrnambool) and will be living in the St Pius X Community with Fr John Corrigan. No doubt we will see Fr Bill visiting our school soon, and saying Mass for our students and staff.

Sympathies

We extend our sympathies to the Heenpalla family on the death Navya’s Grandmother. Our best wishes to Evonne & Nalinda and to their wider family at this sad time.

Farewell Lulu

Next Wednesday we farewell Lulu Martyn from our school. Lulu and her mum Belinda are moving to Melbourne, with Lulu to attend Northcote Primary School. While we will certainly miss Lulu and Belinda from our school community we wish them the very best with this new opportunity.

School Advisory Council

Members of our SAC are reminded that a meeting will be held tonight. An agenda was shared with all members earlier this week.

Home Social Media Use

Most families will have read the note that was forwarded on Monday around social media use in the home. I thought it wise to draw this to everyone's attention firstly as a safety issue and secondly as there is no guarantee who is, and who isn't affected by these online situations.

I again urge all families to be clear around expectations for social media use in the home, and for parents to have ongoing supervision of social media use by their children.

The Australian E Safety Commission has suggestions for keeping children safe online and responding to unsafe behaviour.

Phones & Smart Watches

We have a number of children with phones and smart watches at school. Parents are reminded that student phones need to be kept in the school office during the day and that smart watches should have internet functions switched off for school hours.

Circuit Breaker Long Weekend

A further reminder about the circuit breaker long weekend, which all families were notified about on June 24th. The school will be closed on August 12th and 15th. This measure has been instituted by our school’s governing authority DOBCEL, to alleviate the pressures of sickness on school organisation, attendance & staffing. A letter from Mr Tom Sexton is again provided later in the newsletter.

TheirCare will be providing onsite care on these days. Bookings can be made at https://theircare.com.au/

Vision Family Portraits Fundraiser

Are you overdue for a family portrait or some beautiful shots of the kids to share with loved ones? Our P & F are hosting a Vision Portaits fundaiser on Saturday August 6th at school.

Please help the P&F raise funds & book your photo session.

• Includes a free digital image

• 100% of your booking fee goes to the school

• 50 families will raise over $1500

• Gorgeous family memories AND supporting the school.

BOOKINGS NOW OPEN - Still 7 time slots available!

To book simply go to:

https://stpiusxwarrnambool.eventbrite.com.au

and secure your booking time!

For further information, call 03 8689 0033

Chitticks Pie Drive

A Chitticks pie is a great option for a family dinner in the midst of Winter! Why not support our P&F who are running a pie drive in conjunction with Chitticks. Simply click on the link below to access the online order form. Payment should be made to the administration office. Orders close tomorrow at Midday and will be available for pick-up on the 11th of August.

Gateway Plaza Promotion

Gateway Plaza is planning a promotion to coincide with the 2022 Commonwealth Games, giving shoppers the chance to win sporting equipment for their local primary school.

For the duration of the Games, shoppers will be asked to drop their Gateway Plaza receipts into their school's entry box at the plaza. These boxes are located between Coles and Lowes.

Each dollar spent earns a point for our school. The total points are calculated based on the number of students in each school.

1st Prize: $1500 worth of sporting equipment

2nd Prize: $1000 worth of sporting equipment

3rd Prize $500 worth of sporting equipment

Please consider supporting the school when shopping at Gateway Plaza!

Rotary Father of the Year

A number of our students took entry forms and details for the Rotary Father of the Year awards. If these are at home please return these before next Tuesday, as a Rotary representative will be collecting them. Over the years a number of dads from our school community have been the recipient of this special award. We know we have loads of dads and other special men who are deserving also!

Mini Vinnies

Hello, I'm Charlea and I'm Kate from the mini vinnies group, we are a proud group in the St Pius X school community helping those in need with fundraisers and random acts of kindness. We've organized lots of fundraisers this past term including, the cereal domino challenge, crazy dress up day and we have also helped raise funds for project compassion. We are looking forward to helping our community a lot more in the future and we are also currently coming up with more fun ideas for fundraisers and acts of kindness this minute.

Kind regards from the Mini Vinnies team and Mrs. Julie Keely

Some Great Achievements.....

Congratulations are in order for several of our students who have recently competed in athletics and calesthenics carnivals.

On the 17th July, Zarli Best participated in the Little Athletics Casterton Regional Cross Country, where she placed 5th in the under 10's 1500m race.  Zarli was also a member of the team which won the first ever Western Country Region Medal.   Well Done Zarli!

Rosie Kelly and Caitlin Hunt both competed at the Calisthenics Eisteddfod held in Mount Gambier last weekend.   Calisthenics  combines dancing, singing, gymnastics and other techincal skills and as can be seen by the ribbons on display, both girls had a very successful Eisteddfod indeed.  Congratulations Rosie and Caitlin!

Sports Night With Our Dads

On September 2nd, we would like to invite all dads, grandfathers and special men to school for a special sports afternoon between 4.00pm and 6.00. There will be a number of organised sporting clashes on this afternoon, but there will also be some sporting equipment left out for use by everyone at their leisure.

A sausage sizzle will be cooked during the afternoon. Attendees will have the opportunity of ordering  sausages in the coming weeks.

Hot off the Prep Press!

Buddy Time

Last Friday we had our first catch up for Term 3 with our buddies. They took us down to the Big Hall and we played TeePees and Indians and  then we did some throwing and catching with tennis balls and bean bags. It was so much fun. Our buddies are always so helpful and we just love spending time with them!!

Wonder and awe

Over the holidays the Prep students were asked to find something from our natural world and bring it to school to form part of our morning prayer ritual. Our ‘wonder box’ has an array of items from leaves, flowers, rocks and shells that have been collected from different parts of our environment, even our backyards. As well a our wonder box we also have created a ‘wonder tree’ that will display our terms learning about our world and how we can care for it. We can’t wait to discover all the wonderful things and places in our town.

Writing Groups

This term we have started writing groups in the classroom. In our groups we are learning that there are lots of different skills we need to learn to be great writers. Some of our activities include tracing, forming sentences, writing recounts with our teachers and even learning how to write using dotted thirds, like the Grade 1’s do! These certainly keep us busy and we have been told that even some practice has been happening at home too.

The Arts

This week we were thrilled to have the Mara Band visit our school and perform for us.  We were entertained with Turkish, Kurdish, Welsh and thanks to a solo teaching performance by Blake Harzemeyer, even some German songs. Students were encouraged to join in with the lyrics and actions that we have been learning in our Arts lessons and it was great to see so many smiles on students' faces. What an interesting lot of instruments the Mara band carry in their suitcases. Check out the photos to learn more.

Hands on Learning

In light of news coverage about the low percentage of females in the trade area, it is great to see so many of the girls in our school involved in Hands on Learning and enjoying working with their hands. Well done to Charlea MacLeod and Isabelle McMahon for completing a very complicated project at the Men’s Shed. They have made a fruit bowl and it can be turned upside down to make a foot stool.

The Great St Pius X Tournament of Books!

In preparation for Book Week, the books are playing off for the title of St Pius X Book Champion for 2022. Classes will be reading two of the Book Week Nominated Books and voting which one they like the best. This is a knock out competition that will end with the whole school reading the final two books and deciding on the winner! Stay tuned to see who the first round winners are!

Book Week this year will be held on Monday 22nd August, beginning with a Book Week Parade in the big hall that family members are welcome to attend.

ReLATE Student Survey: Please Help!

We reported that last week would be the last week for the ReLATE survey, but the researchers at Monash University would like a larger sample than they have currently received (12).

We would really love families with children in the Yrs 4-6 bracket to take a few moments to complete this survey which wil support the school’s work in implementing the ReFraming Learning and Teaching Environments model. The survey is designed to be completed by parent(s) and their child.

There are 21 questions about safety, school environment and the teaching relationships that your child(ren) experiences. Our school will receive a report based on the findings that will be distributed.

Please use the link below with your child if they fall into the Yr 4-6 age range.

First Eucharist

This week our Eucharist families have begun their first activity booklet: Celebrating Being Christian. A reminder that MP4 is available to families after school to complete these activities with other families. If you and your child are completing this at home we remind you to complete the activities regularly and to make this a special time with your child.

This Sunday, all of our Eucharist families are invited to church at 10.00am to be presented and blessed at the end of Mass.

Eucharist Dates

July 31st Children presented at Mass 10.00am 

August 1st Family Group 2

August 7th Children’s pictures displayed in the Church

August 8th Family Group 3

August 14th Prayer scrolls distributed at Mass

August 15th Family Group 4

August 21st Sacrament of Eucharist 10.00am

Book Fair - Save the Date!

The annual school book fair will run from

Monday 5th September until Wednesday 7th September. 

Each learning area will have a buying day:

Monday - Juniors

Tuesday- Middles

Wednesday- Seniors

The theme this year is Paws for Books! 

The Jungle Book Kids

Costumes

All leading cast members will have costume items provided to them. The remainder of our classroom cast members will need only simple items as listed below:

Prep: Monkeys

Black tee shirt (can be long or short), 

Black pants, leggings or shorts.

Yr 1 - 6: The Jungle

Black, brown or dark pants / shorts 

Black , brown or dark top (long or short)

Choir

Black, brown or dark pants / shorts

Black, brown or dark top (long or short)

Sets and backdrops

Our production crew is beginning to make props for the stage for our play and is looking for some cardboard boxes to make a wall. We have started using Hello Fresh boxes and we need more of these.  If you get Hello Fresh meal boxes delivered, or know someone who does, could you phone the school office if you are able to save them for us. We will collect them from your residence.  

Rehearsal

See the links below to the music and lyrics to the Jungle Book Kids. Students are welcome to practise at home as well!

Before and After School Care

We remind everyone about TheirCare, our outside school hours care provider. Bookings can be made at https://theircare.com.au/

Please select St Pius X Warrnambool as the booking location.

Crisis Meals

Each week a volunteer has been rostered to provide a freezable meal to our school to be distributed to a family experiencing hardship, grief or unforeseen circumstances. These meals have been regularly distributed and the families receiving them have been most grateful.

The volunteer for this week is Bec Stebbins

The upcoming roster is below. More volunteers are always welcome!

Ideally meals should be easy to freeze & serve, and should be labelled so that the type meal can be easily identified. Any other families wishing to volunteer can now do so by calling the office directly. Meals can be dropped to the office.

Second Hand Uniforms

Families seeking low cost uniform items are welcome to contact Angela Verspay (mum to Dylan and Finn) who has stock of many donated uniform items. Ph: 0477660119.

Recently we have had a call on  second hand uniforms.  We are desperately in need of larger sizes to replenish our stock.  If you have any school uniform clothing in reasonable condition we would very much appreciate your support.  Please contact Angela if you are in a position to assist.

Breakfast Club

Every Wednesday from 8:15 breakfast will be available in the function room for any students that would like to have some breakfast before the school day starts! Everyone is more than welcome to come along, even if they have already had breakfast at home. It is a great initiative supported by FoodShare who provide fruit, yoghurt, cereal and yummy toast. 

Thanks  to our parent volunteers Maddy and Tracey.

Footy Tipping

The footy tipping ladder was turned on its head after the weekend. As predicted, the World Class Woodwards have ruthlessly moved to the top of the table, stealing first place from Bluesfan17 on margin points! But the Woodward family cannot rest as a number of hungry tipping families are nipping at their heels! We’d all but said ‘Thanks for playing’ to the Dandelyons, but they are well and truly in contention with one more joker to play.

Well done to the top tippers for Round 19; last year’s champ Scott48337 & jamiew3 - 9 winners each!

Thanks to our generous sponsor:

Bojangles Pizzeria Restaurant

61 Liebig St

Warrnambool

5562 0666

Class Awards Week 2

Parish Contact

Sunday Mass 10.30 @ 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/ 

Upcoming Dates

Tonight: School Advisory Council meeting 7.30pm

Jul 29 Prep Wonder Excursion (rescheduled)

Aug 6 Vision Portraits Fundraiser

Aug 8 Feast of St Mary MacKillop

Aug 10 Brauer Lion King Performance (Yr 5/6)

Aug 11 Yr 3/4 Hooptime

Aug 12 Circuit Breaker Long Weekend

Aug 15 Circuit Breaker Long Weekend

Aug 16 Volleyball Yr 3-6

Aug 19 St Pius X feast celebration

Aug 21 Sacrament of First Eucharist

Aug 21  St Pius X feast day

Aug 22-26  Book Week

 Aug 25 Rock-It Performance

 Aug 25 School Advisory Council meeting 7.30pm

Aug 26 Yr 5/6 Hooptime

Aug 29 Parents & Friends meeting 7.30pm

Sep 8 Pupil Free Day: Staff Professional Learning

Sep 14 School Production: The Jungle Book Kids

School Canteen Roster

Living Long Enough...

While North Melbourne Football Club is experiencing lean times currently, many will remember the glory years of the 70s when Ron Barassi came to Arden Street Oval with a winning plan. Working quickly to take advantage of a change to VFL rules on player contracts, North Melbourne’s recruiters put together a strong team that immediately challenged for premiership success, winning the Grand Final in 1975 and 1977. The Premiership success of 1975 was emotional for North supporters who had grown accustomed to their team being the ‘cellar dwellers’ of the competition.

Prodigious forward Malcolm Blight, later recalled what it was like to return to Arden Street Oval the evening after winning the 1975 Grand Final. “Just going back to North Melbourne, and seeing those older people. It was as though their whole life had been fulfilled”.

In Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus prompts his disciples to be grateful for the things that they had seen Jesus do and the things that they had heard Jesus say, noting that many generations who had come before had longed to see and hear these things with their own eyes and ears. Jesus is making the point that his words and actions fulfil the hopes and dreams of the people who have come before him.

I wonder how our grandparents or great grandparents would comprehend the changes that have taken place after their lives were ended. We live with realities that they only dreamt of, or maybe hadn’t even considered. I wonder about the positive changes our grandchildren and great grandchildren will see.

Personally I am glad I have lived to see a time of greater equity and equality in our society, but I dream of a time when this isn’t even considered, when it is just taken for granted. Jesus talked about this time as ‘the coming of the kingdom’.

We pray that the kingdom comes.

Our Diocesan Community

The link below opens the quarterly diocesan magazine that features news from across the Ballarat Diocese.

COVID 19 Arrangements

Masks

All education sectors in Victoria are strongly promoting the wearing of masks for anyone in an indoor school setting, aged 8 years and above. The wearing of masks has been a recommended practice for some time (the letter from education sector heads is included below).

Students will be required to wear masks in certain circumstances including bus travel or a period of high levels of prolonged transmission in the school or in a specific area of the school.

Any staff of students who are identified as close contacts must wear a mask indoors.

RAT Kits

Staff and students should only be tested with a RAT kit when symptomatic or when testing daily as a close contact over the 7 day quarantine period.

Another supply of RAT kits was sent home this week. Families who require extra kits should make contact with the administration office.

Vaccination 

St Pius X strongly supports vaccination for all in our community who are eligible. However, the new COVID regulations have lifted the mandate for all employees and volunteers to be vaccinated. This means there will be no requirement for adults entering the school to declare their vaccination status.

All community adults are reminded of the child safety requirement to sign in when attending the school between 9.00am and 3.00pm

Transport 

Parents who have tested positive to COVID 19 are permitted to drive children to and from school during their 7 day isolation period. They are required to return home immediately afterwards and not attend other locations.

Managing a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19 

As soon as a staff member or student becomes aware of being a suspected case - that is symptomatic (fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, loss of smell or taste:

1. The suspected case is required to leave the school site, or be isolated on-site until they are able to leave.
2. The suspected case is required to be tested with a rapid antigen test. A positive test result must be reported to the Department of Health
3. Positive cases must be isolated for 7 days, testing again on day 6.

In the event that school receives notification that a staff member or student was infectious while onsite:

1. All staff must use a rapid antigen test if they have symptoms.
2. All students must use a rapid antigen test if they have symptoms.
3. Staff and students will be strongly encouraged to use rapid antigen tests for the following 5 days if they don’t have symptoms.

Where a positive case is recorded from a staff member or student who has been on site, the school community will be notified. Personal information will not be released in this communication.

If a staff member or student tests positive with a rapid antigen test but does not have symptoms or has not been in contact with a positive case, a PCR test is recommended. If a subsequent PCR shows a negative result the staff member or student can return to school.

Close Contacts

A close contact (a person who has spent more than four hours with someone who has COVID 19 inside a house, accommodation or care facility) is no longer required to quarantine, as long as they follow the additional safety measures:

• Notify the school if returning within the 7 day period.
• Undertake RAT testing on school days within the 7 day period (unless the 4 week exemption applies)
• Wear a mask indoors if an adult or a student (aged 8 years or above).
• Not visit hospitals or care facilities.
• Avoid contact with people at higher risk of infection.
• If symptomatic take a RAT or PCR test.