ST PIUS X SCHOOL NEWSLETTER SCHOOL VISION Learn to Love and Love to Learn At St Pius X Catholic Primary School, the values lived by Jesus Christ are the foundation for everything we do. Newsletter 15 Week 6 Term 2 27 May 2015 DATES TO REMEMBER Thursday 28 May PP Excursion to Museum Friday 29 May Staff Professional Day Monday 1 June PUBLIC HOLIDAY Tuesday 2 June Staff Catholic Day No School Wednesday 3 June LifeLink Day Over the last couple of weeks I have had several conversations with staff and parents regarding resiliency and strategies in which we can constantly develop these life skills in our children. Some children are resilient by nature their make up helps them to be mentally and psychologically stronger. These children get straight back up after a setback or disappointment. Events that lead to some type of rejection in the playground or classroom don t faze them. Unfortunately, not every child has such natural resilience and therefore as parents we need to step up to the plate and assist these children when the need arises. Friday 5 June P & F Executive Meeting 9am Lightning Carnival Winter Sports Years 5/6 @ Buzacott Reserve 9.30am Tuesday 9 June School Cross Country PP-6 @ 1pm Thursday 11 June Year 2 Excursion to Museum Most of the research shows us that resilience can in fact be nurtured and developed, particularly when parents themselves are resilient and they actively foster it in their kids. Resilient kids share four basic skill sets - independence, problem-solving, optimism and social connection. From a resilience perspective we need to coach children through some of their more challenging moments and revisit what they may have learned for next time and how they can use this situation to help them for the future. Avoid solving all their problems for them! This one is hard but give it a go! The four points that I pinched from Michael Grose that can assist us in this journey are: 1. Having a positive attitude yourself. Your attitude as a parent impacts on the child s ability to bounce back from some of the difficulties they face. Make sure you model a you can do it attitude for your child when they meet some of life s curve balls. 2. Look for teachable moments. Many learning opportunities are disguised as problems. Make the most of these opportunities so that children can grow and learn from some of the challenges they face. Telephone (08) 9450 2797 Website: www.stpiusx.wa.edu.au Email: admin@stpiusx.wa.edu.au
3. Make children active participants in the family. Active participation in a family develops the self-help, problem-solving and independence skills of kids that are necessary for resilience. Being active doesn t mean they run the family either! 4. Build children s coping skills. There are plenty of strategies you can pass on to kids to help them cope when life doesn t go their way, including acceptance (hard to do), getting away for awhile or changing the setting, and normalisation. Promoting and developing resilience is a not a single event but a continuous learning process that requires adults to be supportive when things don t go their way. It also requires us as parents to have an understanding of resilience, so you have faith in yourself, and your child s ability to cope. If you get the time, Google it and see the many articles that come up and even more strategies. On a lighter note I moved this up from the PS to the main body now just loving footy at the moment it doesn t get much better than this, actually it would do if the ladder was just flipped over a little bit only at the top. I can live with this! Take care and enjoy the extra long break this weekend and rest well we all need it. Daine Burnett Principal burnett.daine@cathednet.wa.edu.au Dates A quick reminder that school concludes on Thursday this week as the staff attend a Professional Development on Literacy and Learning Difficulties on Friday. Monday is the Public Holiday and Tuesday is our Catholic Day. We look forward to seeing the students back on Wednesday 3 rd June for LifeLink Day. LifeLink Day and Free Dress Day To celebrate the launch of the Archbishop s LifeLink initiative we will be having a free dress day on Wednesday 3 rd June. The children are asked to bring a cold coin donation. As always please make sure the children are in appropriate free dress and shoes. We will also be having a DVD presentation, class activities and then fundraising stalls to conclude the morning activities. Last year the St. Pius X Community was acknowledged as part of this initiative and was nominated for the Archbishop s Spirit Award so it would be great to continue to show this support. The students will need a small amount of change to purchase items during the morning. More information is in the newsletter further on. Before and After School Can I please ask all parents to ensure that if you are having a chat before and after school that your child remains with you. The staff try exceptionally hard to ensure that the students are collected at the end of each day, however this is becoming increasing hard as parents can be distracted by others, then forget where their child is or where they belong. Staff have been instructed to send children back to their parents. To those families using the school for after school activities, I would ask the same that the students remain with you until school has concluded at 3.25pm.
Children leaving at the end of this year If your child is not returning to St. Pius in 2016 (other than the current Year 6 students) can you please let the office know as soon as possible as we currently have children on the waitlist for some classes. Uniforms Please make sure your child has the correct uniform on each day and double check that your child has their NAME on each item, especially jumpers, as we come into the colder months and the children remove these during the day. The uniform shop is open every Friday morning with the ladies ready to help you out. The new tracksuit tops have arrived and look sensational on the students that have picked these up already. Mercy Care Before and After School Care One of the requests that we have been trying to accommodate over the past couple of years from parents has been Before and After School Care. We have had numerous attempts at doing this, however due to physical space and facilities have not been able to get it over the line. We were approached by Mercy Care who specialises in Child Care to operate this facility and have been working with the St. Pius X Parish to use the church hall for this. I am very pleased to announce to the community that the Parish Council has approved this service and we will be moving forward with this. We thank the parish for the support of this initiative. There are obviously lots of questions and information to be relayed. Therefore, on June 17 th the Mercy Care staff will be here to run Parent Information Sessions and be available for discussion between 2.30-6.30pm with Parent Information Talks at 3.15-3.45pm and 6-6.30pm. These sessions will be held in the library. Please refer to the attached flyer for further information and contact details. Cross Country Congratulations to the many students who have been attending before school training sessions. We have been very fortunate with the chilly though stunning mornings and students have shown great improvement in fitness. Due to the next few sport days falling on public holidays and carnivals, the next cross country training session will be on Friday 12th June for the Interschool Team only. (Students for the interschool team will be notified following our school carnival) It would be great therefore, if children could get a few runs in at home to maintain their fitness before the carnival. A reminder that the PP-Year 6 Cross Country Carnival is on Tuesday 9th June, 1pm-2.30pm at James Miller Reserve. We are in desperate need of parent help for the carnival, so if you are thinking of coming, it would be great if you could assist as a route marshal for even just a few events. Please notify me as soon as possible if you are able to assist. Winter Sport Carnival Year 5/6 Students This will be held on Friday 5th June, 9.30am-1.40pm at Morris Buzacott Reserve, Kardinya. Students have been notified of the sport they will be competing in on the day. Please ensure your child comes to school prepared for the day. Details can be found in the note which was sent home last week. Linda Matthews Physical Education Teacher
MacKillop Club Update 22 May 2015 This term, it has been very exci ng to welcome some Year 3 students to the ranks of the MacKillop Club. These students have hit the ground running and are already showing some impressive crea vity and thinking skills. For their first task, they were required to unpack and prepare our new Lego Mindstorms Robo cs equipment, purchased courtesy of our generous P & F. Needless to say, the students are very keen to start programming these robots as soon as possible. As of this week, however, MacKillop Club students will begin training for the Tournament of the Minds compe on, which will be held in Term 3. Watch this space for more details of this exci ng compe on. Bre Wilkie Assistant Principal
Executive Committee Newsletter Notice Term 2 #6 Week Commencing: Monday 25 May 2015 KINDY TO YEAR 3 PYJAMA MOVIE NIGHT A big THANK YOU to all the children who attended the movie night for Kindy to Year 3 last Friday night. It proved to be a great success judging by all the happy faces! A huge thanks to the Kindy and Year 1 class reps for organising the evening and to all the parent volunteers who helped supervise on the night. P & F BINGO FUNDRAISING EVENT We are currently seeking nominations/volunteers to assist with the organising of our P & F Bingo Fundraising Event. This is our major fundraiser event for this year. Money raised through silent auctions, ticket sales, donations etc. will be used to assist the school in building a Naturescape for the big kids. This will include climbing equipment, ropes etc. Our aim is to be able to provide the school $30K over 2 years. If you think you will be available to help with assisting in organising this event, please email lidia@dacsair.com.au or matlis@amnet.net.au YEAR 4 TO 6 QUIZ NIGHT The annual Quiz Night for students in Years 4, 5 and 6 is back. anticipated event is coming up on Friday 19th June 2015. This much Tickets cost $15 and will be going on sale this week. Bring your friend from class and grab your tickets - or we can partner you up with a class mate. Tables of 6 (2 Year 4's, 2 Year 5's and 2 Year 6's) will be made up by the class reps. Your ticket includes snacks, drinks and of course the chance to win heaps of great prizes on the night! ENTERTAINMENT BOOKS We still have a few Entertainment Books available from the school office so pop in and grab one in readiness for the extra long weekend. Thank you all for your continued support. St Pius X P&F Executive Committee
St Pius X and MercyCare team up to provide a new Before and After School Care Service We are pleased to announce that St Pius X and MercyCare Child Care Services are teaming together to provide a Before and After School Service, from the Parish Hall, each term weekday, and that we hope to commence the service in the last term of 2015, ready for new enrolments in the new school year in 2016. An Information Afternoon will be held as follows: WEDNESDAY JUNE 17 TH St Pius X School Library 3.15pm 3.45pm 6.00pm 6.30pm Senior staff from MercyCare will actually be in attendance from 2.45pm until 6.45pm to speak with people who cannot attend either of those sessions. These sessions will answer your questions including: How much are the fees? What is my rebate from the Government? What to do you feed the children? What activities do you do? Are your staff fully qualified? Who are MercyCare and where else do they provide services? In the meantime if you would like to enquire about enrolment or make a booking call Vicky Murray at MercyCare on 9442 3483 or 0407 778 267 See you on the 17 th June 2015