Dear Parents and Carers,

The Minister for Education has announced changes to the guidelines for Kindergarten Orientation. This is welcome news as our Kindergarten students will now have the opportunity for an on-site orientation, COVID style. The children have been placed in pre-school groups and will attend two sessions with their new teachers for 2022. As per current guidelines, one fully vaccinated parent or carer per Kindergarten child will bring their child onto the school site for the Orientation. The nominated parent will only be allowed outdoors and will not be in-close proximity to other cohorts of students.

Community is so important at St Pius X and this will be a great opportunity to build connections with our new students and families. My hope is that in 2022 we can acknowledge our new parents with a special Welcome BBQ.

We are also in the process of ensuring that we farewell our Year Six students in a safe way. I am pleased that under the current restrictions our Graduation will be able to take place .

Finally, this week I had the pleasure of signing off on our strategic vision for 2021. We have achieved a great deal, and never lost sight of our vision, even when faced with challenging circumstances. I am delighted to report the following 2021 achievements:

• a re-imagined Vision Statement endorsed by the community
• completion of our Adventure Playground (It has been a big hit!!)
• an emphasis on analysing data to ensure learning outcomes are precise and meet the needs of the learner
• audit of our Awards System leading to consistent awards and processes

I would like to leave you with a beautiful quote that I certainly felt was timely. It has been music to my ears to listen to the noise and excitement of school once again!

Yours Sincerely,

Pauline Chrostowski - Principal

Staffing

We have now finalised classes for 2022. As you can appreciate many factors are taken into account when placing students into a class and I thank you for your support of this process. 

The students will have the opportunity to meet their new teacher and visit their 2022 classroom on the morning of Tuesday 7^th December 2022 .

Summary of Important Dates

ASPECT

Throughout the next two weeks students and teachers from the Aspect support class will visit the St Pius X school site. The students from the Aspect support classes will become an integral part of our school in 2022 where they will undertake learning experiences provided by Aspect.

On behalf of the St Pius X  community I wish the students and staff from the Aspect support class a very warm welcome.

Fee Update

Dear Families,

Please find attached the information regarding paying your 2022 School Fees via instalments. In summary:

• New families – complete the Request to Pay by Instalment form
• Existing families already paying via instalments - you do not need to complete a new request form
• Existing families who would like to change from annual account (paid in full within 30 days of invoicing) to instalments - complete the Request to Pay by Instalment form

IMPORTANT: Please note that if you currently have a child or children at another school in the Diocese and you are paying by instalments at that school, you will not need to complete another Request to Pay by Instalment. The instalment request carries over from school to school with the same frequency of payment eg Weekly, fortnightly, etc. 

Lauren McDonald

Healthy Choices

Here is a 5 min video:

Kindergarten Orientation – Live Life Well @ School - YouTube

Sun Smart

With the onset of warmer weather it is a great opportunity to discuss sun safety with your children and being sun smart at school. We are extremely proud to be recognised by the Cancer Council of Australia as a “Sun Smart School” and there are a few key points for our students to remember to assist in keeping this title.

• Hats: we ask that students remember to wear their hats whenever outside the classroom, including at arrival and dismissal times.
• Water Bottles: Students need to be bringing their own water bottles at this time as our bubblers are not in use due to COVID-19 restrictions.
• Sunscreen : There is sunscreen in all classrooms and the students are encouraged to apply this before playtimes. We also encourage the application of this at home in preparation for the school day. Please notify your child's classroom teacher if they have an allergy to sunscreen.
• Play Spaces : We have endeavoured to provide shaded spaces on all of our playgrounds for the students to take time out of the sun during their breaks.

Notables

Our Year 6 students celebrated the “Night of the Notables” in a very different way this year. What is normally a community event held in the evening became a day event which was filmed for parents and friends to view at home.

I congratulate the students for their mature approach to these changes and embracing them so positively.

The performances on the day were amazing and I often felt I was speaking to the notable themselves.

We had a range of Australian notables on display including entertainers, explorers, scientists and artists.

Thank you to Mrs Starcic and Mrs Staples for leading our students in their learning and study of their notables and for organising a fantastic, COVID friendly event.

CLOSED until 2022.