School Vision
St Matthew’s School empowers children to embrace life-long learning, and grow and develop as God intends.
God, thank you for our children.
Please draw them to Yourself and hold them close.
Help them to grow up to know You, love You and serve You all of their lives.
Please keep them right in the centre of Your will and keep them safe there.
Please also give us the strength, courage and wisdom to raise them well.
Amen
Dear Parents & Carers,
Welcome to Week 7! In the weeks that remain of this term, St Matthew’s has planned several events that focus on the importance of sustainability in today’s world. By providing our families with an opportunity to contribute to our school Busy Bee and Garage Sale, we are providing an active way to contribute to our Waste Wise initiatives and in doing so, help continue the education of the children in our care. Our changing environment prompts us to stop and think about how we live on our planet. We are called to respond and to adopt new ways of living as Pope Francis highlights in his encyclical, Laudato Si’: On the Care for our Common Home.
Commissioning Mass
All over WA, Catholic school staff gather together each year to commit to uphold and live the Gospel values in our schools. On Sunday, our beautiful staff committed themselves to Catholic education during the St Matthew’s 2023 Commissioning Mass. We also commissioned our three new staff members, Mr Antonio Muto (Assistant Principal), Miss Bella Sutton (Year 3) and Mrs Mel Grieve ( EAL/D Education Assistant). It was lovely to see all of us join together in prayer, and I thank all of the families that supported us on the day.
Faction Swimming Carnival
The Faction Swimming Carnival for students in Years 3-6 will be held this Friday, 17th March at the Narrogin Leisure Centre. If you are able to help, please email antonio.muto@cewa.edu.au. We wish all of the children a fantastic day!
Busy Bee 25 March 8:30am
The countdown is on! The staff are busily finalising our list of jobs. Thank you to the families who have already confirmed to donating their time and hard-working hands. We would love to encourage all other families to attend for any period of time from 8:30am to 12:30pm on Saturday 25 March. If you are available, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au, or just turn up on the day. At present, we know that we will need hard-working volunteers to move sand, spread pine bark, prune trees, prepare the chook pen site and tidy up garden beds. For these jobs to be completed, we will also require the use of:
- shovels
- rakes
- gardening gloves
- wheelbarrows
- trailers/utes
- gardening tools
If you are able to supply any of this equipment, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au prior to 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
If you are not able to help out at our BusyBee, maybe you can help raise funds for our Sustainability projects by supporting the Garage Sale also on 25 March 8:30am – 12:30pm.
We are encouraging families to donate good quality items to be sold. Items can be dropped off from Monday 13 March. Alternatively, photos of items can be emailed to susan.milton@cewa.edu.au to be placed on our Facebook page.
The other option is to just come along and pick up a bargain. All items will be priced to sell. This week we will start popping up some of the treasures on our Facebook page. Feel free to encourage family, friends and community members to attend.
Any unsold items will be donated to charity.
Chicken Pen
Thank you to the wonderful families that have offered their help with the chook pen by supplying materials or their own willing hands. At present, we still need someone to take up the challenge of designing the pen. If you think you could help, even if it was just to draw a plan, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au or speak with your classroom teacher.
Mini Vinnies
Mini Vinnies empowers primary school students to become advocates within their school and local community by putting their values into action. At St Matthew’s, children can join our Mini Vinnies group from Year 4 and meet each Wednesday morning with Sr Sahaya to learn about social justice issues, develop leadership skills and engage with the wider St Vincent de Paul Society. At present, our Mini Vinnies group is collecting school supplies and other donations to support children at school. These donations will be shared with the local schools. If you would like to donate, there is a basket located in the Undercover Area. I congratulate our students on this thoughtful initiative.
Year 6 Easter Hamper Fundraiser
A big thank you to all of our families who have supported the Year 6 end-of-year excursion and graduation fundraiser. Raffle tickets are sold each recess for $1 each. There are several Easter Hampers full of goodies to be won.
2023 Project Compassion Appeal
Students have brought home small collection boxes to fill, and then combine into their class boxes at the end of the term. The funds raised by Catholic schools all across Australia directly impact the lives of those in our world in dire need.
Please give generously “for all future generations”.
NAPLAN
NAPLAN is a national literacy and numeracy assessment that students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 sit each year. It is the only national assessment all
Australian students have the opportunity to undertake. The NAPLAN test window starts on Wednesday 15 March and finishes on Monday 27 March 2023. Parents of students in Years 3 and 5 should have received an information leaflet regarding these assessments. Please contact your child’s teacher if you did not receive this leaflet, or have any further questions regarding NAPLAN
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 Focus – Dealing with Disappointment
As we prepare ourselves for the up-incoming swimming carnival, I can’t help but think back on my own experiences of carnivals. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am not an overly sporty person and for me, swimming was definitely my nemesis. There were no medal moments for me. However, as an adult, I now appreciate how important it was for me to lose at those carnivals and experience all the emotions that came with those losses.
Naturally, none of us like to see our precious little people dealing with disappointment. It hurts to see their gorgeous faces crumble. However, as parents, we all realise that disappointments are a part of life and as such we have a responsibility to help teach our children how to deal with these feelings.
Maggie Dent explains in her article “Helping Our Kids Master Disappointments”:
Feeling disappointed in ourselves or in our lives, or in the world around us is normal because we are human. There is no perfect. The more that we can armour up our children with helpful information, strategies and a ‘get back on the horse’ mentality, the more we increase their chances of living meaningful, successful lives.
We are meant to fall out of trees and we are meant to graze our knees when we run too fast. We can certainly lose our minds when we lose a game or miss a goal or target. However, recovering from these moments is what matters the most. Every one of those moments has a gift of grit for us and our children.
Here are some tips to help you build disappointment ‘smarts’ in your kids:
- Always validate how it sucks and feels unpleasant.
- Don’t avoid or minimise the emotions that arise.
- Teach strategies to shift the emotional energy – deep breaths, walking, patting the dog, playing music.
- How can you make it right? Celebrate effort and persistence.
- Do you need my help?
- Remind them of previous moments of disappointment that they have overcome.
- Remind them about learning to be stronger and grittier.
- Choose an affirmation that works “I have got this” or “I am, I can, I will,” or “I am more than this…”
- Reassure them of your love for them which does not change when things go badly – You love them always and forever – no matter what.
We cannot leave it to chance to raise our children to believe that this rollercoaster ride we call life will ever be a peaceful field of daisies without any prickles.
You’ve got this!
Susan Milton
