School Vision

St Matthew’s School empowers children to embrace life-long learning, and grow and develop as God intends.

Invite Us Deeper

Almighty and ever living God,

you invite us deeper into your world, your people, your Lent.

May this time be one of outward focus;

seeking you in those we often ignore.

Help us live a Lent focused on freedom, generosity, and encounter.

Give us hearts hungry to serve you

and those who need what we have to give.

 Dear Parents & Carers,

Over the last couple of weeks, there have been many opportunities for our parents to connect with the school, both formally and informally. I would like to thank all of our parents who have supported us by attending these events. These opportunities help us to work together for the benefit of the children in our care.

LENT – a special time of year

Last Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent, the 40 day period in the Church calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and finishes on Holy Thursday. This is a special time of year for prayer, penance, sacrifice, and good works. Traditionally, people would give up something for Lent, usually a favourite food or perhaps a pleasurable activity. There’s nothing wrong with suggesting that children give something up for Lent, as long as they understand why they’re doing it and do it in the right spirit. So it’s important to explain that giving something up for Lent can help us focus on God and that depriving ourselves of something we like gives us an appreciation for all we have. It’s also a good idea to have the children do something positive related to what they’re giving up. For instance, if they’ve given up chocolate for Lent, then they could take the money they would have spent on the chocolate and put it in a jar to be used for an organisation which helps children in need. If they’ve decided to give up watching television one day a week, then they could use the time they would have spent watching TV helping someone or praying.

Busy Bee 25 March 8:30am

On Saturday 25 March, we are asking our families to support our school by attending our annual Busy Bee. Some of the jobs that need completing are the transporting and spreading of sand and pinebark; removing, planting and repotting plants; preparing the site for the chicken coop; pressure cleaning the centenary pavers and generally tidying up the grounds.

If you are able to donate your time and hard-working hands for any period of time from 8:30am to 12:30pm on Saturday 25 March, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au, or just turn up on the day. Children are naturally welcome to come and help, or just to play! A sausage sizzle will be available for all our hard-working heroes.

Garage Sale 25 March 8:30am

To help raise funds for our new chicken coop and sustainability projects, St Matthew’s will be holding a Garage Sale on 25 March. Along with parent donations, the school will be selling a variety of school resources and furniture items. A list of items will be popped on the school Facebook page prior to the sale.

We would love our families to support this undertaking by:

• Donating good quality items to be sold. Items can be dropped off to the Undercover Area from Monday 13 March. In the meantime, photos of items can be emailed to susan.milton@cewa.edu.au.

Or simply attending the garage sale and taking home a bargain!

Chicken Pen SOS

We need some clever, clever people to help design and build our chicken pen.

Can you help????

We need some handy and talented parents to manage this masterpiece. Ideally, we would like to prepare the site and start planning during our Busy Bee on March 25, however, we are happy to fit in with other people’s work schedules.

If you think you can help, either by donating materials, designing the run, building the structure or building the laying boxes, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au or speak with your classroom teacher.

Mary Poppins – purchasing recording

Thanks to the generosity of our P&F, families are now able to purchase a recording of the evening performance of last year’s whole-school musical, Mary Poppins on a USB for $15.00 a copy. This is heavily subsidized price to ensure that all our beautiful families can have a keepsake of this amazing performance. 

They’ve Arrived! New Sports Jacket Now Available

Families are now able to purchase a new sports tracksuit. This consists of a blue and red jacket and matching tracksuit pants. The new items are a more modern design, more durable, more cost-effective and available through a reliable supplier.​

The current tracksuit jumper and pants will be phased out. Parents will still be able to purchase this item until stocks are depleted. Some discount on this item will be available. Students will be able to continue to wear these items until the end of 2023.​

Narrogin Festival of Soccer

On the 18 March, Narrogin will host the Festival of Soccer. Free Junior clinics for school-aged students commences at 11am. This is followed by a series of matches. Our wonderful P&F will be there selling food and drinks to the players and spectators. If you are able to help out on the day, please contact Zeta O’Rouke, or your P&F rep.

Principal KINDNESS award

On Monday mornings, I present the Principal’s Award for Kindness. Children are able to nominate each other for this award during the week. Last week, the award went to Bodeen (Yr 4) for being a kind, positive and helpful team member. This week the award has gone to Bramuel (Yr 6) for helping his classmates to learn new games in a positive and supportive way. Congratulations boys!

Principal Focus –  Happy Families With a Little Help

Last newsletter, I introduced a few podcasts and websites that I have personally found really helpful, in both my role as a parent and as a teacher. This week, I would like to add two more to the list.

The first is The Fathering Project’s Fathering Channel :  “The Fathering Project was founded in 2013, by Professor Bruce Robinson in Western Australia, with the aim of supporting fathers, and father figures, to be the best parent they can be so their children can thrive.” This website covers many topics including Real Dad Stories, Father-child bonding and Discipline. There are webinars, podcasts and even cooking classes.

The second online resource I would like to share is Dr Justin Coulson’s (PhD) Happy Families. Dr Coulson explains, “My goal is for parents, teachers, and those who work with children to see them for the precious humans they are; to connect with them in meaningful ways; and to guide those children to become strong, caring, whole adults.” I would particularly recommend the third episode, “Things Every Child Should Hear Every Day”:

The words we say have enormous impact on our children. All too often we get preoccupied and distracted, and struggle to talk with our children in the loving way they need. It’s one thing to eliminate the negative, but we need to know what to replace it with. What are the five things our children need to hear from us every day?

* Thank you

* I’m sorry

* You tried so hard

* I love you

* What do you think?

If you have any favourite podcasts, websites or parenting books that you would like to share, email them to susan.milton@cewa.edu.au. We are all in this journey together, and there is no harm getting a little help along the way.

Thank you,

Susan Milton