August 22nd, 2024

Acknowledgement of Country

A Note from our Principal

Ngata families, 

Today’s Book Week Dress Up Day was truly amazing! It was sensational to see so many students and staff dressed up as their favourite book characters, bringing literature to life in such a fun and creative way. A huge thank you to our families for the effort put in at home—your support is what makes days like this possible.

We were also delighted to see so many of you joining us in the classrooms this morning and participating in our family picnic during the first lunch. Your involvement added to the joy of the day and highlighted the strong sense of community we share.

The day was a tremendous celebration of community, fun, and literature, reminding us all of the joy that books and storytelling bring into our lives.

Kind regards,

Nick Murrell

Principal

Happy Book Week from Cat in the Hat, Thing 1, Thing 2, Thing 3 and Thing 4!

Flexischools App

St Pius X now 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  and use now.    The instructions are as follows:

Canteen Ordering:

Father's Day / Special Person's Day Breakfast

Please use the new Flexischools App to place your order for the Fathers Day Breakfast.  Orders must be placed BY Tuesday, 27th August to allow time for catering.

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

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

Click here to Register

Dumpling Making Workshop - Bookings now close Tomorrow Morning!

Attention families of 5/6 students.

This 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 from 10.30am-12 midday and the cost is $15 per student, payable on the day to Mel Steffenson. The workshop will be capped at 20 students. As of today, we have 10 places remaining.  If you would like to join in, please book in by Midday tomorrow to secure your place. 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 a 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.

Community Health Update

Please be aware that there has been a case of Whooping Cough in the Warrnambool area. There have been no positive cases within our school community, however, a member of our school community has been exposed to a positive case. They are now isolated. This is important information for our community to have in case someone in your family develops a cough over the next few weeks. 

Carpark Information

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

St Pius X in the news!

KABOOM Sports

Yesterday we had a visit from the team at Kaboom Kids Sports.   This whole school event saw our students participate in a range of fun and engaging activities.   The program gives everyone the opportunity to enhance their skills in cooperation, leadership, teamwork and resilience while enjoying movement and fitness.  Check out some of the fun below!

Book Week Celebration Day

Today the school yard was a sea of colourful costumes and characters as we celebrated Book Week.  It was also wonderful to see so many family members join us for the parade and then later on for the "picnic" in the courtyard.    Following is just a small selection of the amazing array of creations on display.

SchoolTV

In this edition of SchoolTV - Managing Screen Time

As a result of the global pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift in the amount of time people spend on screen-based devices. Families are transitioning back to pre-COVID routines but many are still struggling to re-establish the boundaries and rules around screen use. Some continue to deal with digital conflict and tech-tantrums on a daily basis. The latest research found that 77% of teenagers spend more than five hours on screens per day, but it is important to note that not all screen time is considered equal.

Parents play a crucial role in modelling a positive and healthy approach to using screens and assisting children to navigate the content they watch. It is better to model and mentor screen use, rather than monitor it. Children tend to do more of what they see us do, and less of what we tell them to do. However, it is still important to outline the risks and highlight the benefits of screen use to ensure you keep a balanced attitude. Encourage discussions around the issues that people experience in monitoring their screen time and be honest about your own difficulties.

Parents need to remain firm in their approach to managing screen time. Excessive screen time can be detrimental to a child’s overall wellbeing. Ensuring the correct privacy settings are in place is vital to prevent children from being inadvertently exposed to inappropriate content or online predators. Parents need to also be mindful of the potential impact screen time can have on a child’s social, emotional, educational, behavioural, and even physical domains.

In this edition of SchoolTV, care-givers will be provided with a range of guidelines and strategies to help manage screen time at home.

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 Managing Screen Time edition of SchoolTV
https://spwarrnambool.catholic.schooltv.me/newsletter/managing-screen-time

School Basketball

Good luck to the 5/6 students who are representing St Pius in the inter school basketball competition tomorrow.  Following is a copy of the draw.

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.

The Foundation Files

St Pius X Feast Day - Wednesday, 21st August

Today was a very exciting day at school. We have learnt that a Feast Day is the celebration of a person who became a saint. It’s a bit like a birthday or an anniversary. Guiseppi Sarto became Pope Pius X and when he died and was then cannonized, his Feast Day began.

We celebrated being a part of this great school community by participating in Kaboom Sports. It was so much fun. We then got to watch some of the movie, Finding Nemo. We practiced our school musical dance and then in the afternoon we went to the church with our buddies for a special liturgy.

Book Week

Today was Dress-Up Day. Check out our amazing costumes. We came to school as ………… and there were 3 Little Pigs in charge of us. Our day began with a Whole School Fashion Parade.

Part of our day was spent creating and making some special craft activities based around the selected Book Week books such as ‘If I Was A Horse’, ‘Bowerbird Blues’ and ‘Everynight At Midnight’.

We had an extended lunch - a Reading Picnic!!....And with the time left over we went to our specialists as well. What another great day at school!!

Louise’s Birthday and Bon Voyage

We are all excited to be wishing Louise a very happy birthday. This birthday is a special one as she is celebrating her 40th!!!!!! We all love you Louise - have a great day! 

And we know it will be a great day as Louise and Ms Osborne and their families will be flying overseas to spend time at the Paralympics and Cruising the Mediterranean. Travel safe and bring back lots of amazing stories and photos to share.

Watch out for Jaylen Brown (No.3) who will be representing Australia in the Wheelchair Basketball Rollers team. GOOOOOOOO JAYLEN!!!!

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 ........

Henry Johnson, Patrick Miller and Savannah Read.

Canteen Roster for next week.

Important Dates.

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 Day

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/