School Vision

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

Beginning of Term Prayer

Dear Lord, 

help me to live each day quietly, easily. 

To lean upon your strength truthfully, restfully. 

To wait for the unfolding of your will patiently, serenely. 

To meet others peacefully, joyfully. 

To face tomorrow confidently, courageously. 

Amen.

Dear Parents & Carers,

As Term 3 begins, it has been very clear to me how lucky I am to be part of such a supportive community. As a school, we aspire to develop close parent-school relationships with all of our families. Obviously, due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was very difficult for all of us to connect face-to-face last term. It is for this reason, that I am so happy that we can once again open our doors wide and invite our parents and guardians to contribute to our school life. Over the weekend, many families willingly accepted this invitation by volunteering at our school Busy Bee and/or attending the Sacramental workshops. Throughout the term, there will be several more opportunities to engage with your children’s education through attending information sessions, assisting with parent rosters, attending assemblies, worshipping with us at class Masses and Prayer Services, volunteering at the Athletics Carnivals or contributing to the whole school musical. More information about all of these events will be provided in this and future newsletters, as well as through the school app.

Busy Bee

A huge thank you to the wonderful families and staff members who volunteered their time and talents during the Busy Bee on Saturday. It was wonderful to see our community working together to create safe, attractive and functional environments for our kids to work and play in. I also appreciated all of the advice given on how to update our Kindy/Pre-Primary area. By the end of this term, I would love to put together a group of parents/guardians and staff members to plan a future make-over for this area. Please let me know if you would be interested in contributing to this committee.

Sacramental Workshops

On Sunday, all Sacramental candidates for this year were invited to attend the Commitment Mass and Parent/Child Workshops. A big thank you to Jane Dyke, Sr Sahaya, Mark Collins, Jessie Allington, Colleen Quartermaine, Mark Tenney and Father Jay for organising and hosting these two events. I know you would all appreciate the time, effort and dedication our staff put into ensuring that the celebrations of these Sacraments is meaningful and memorable for our families. We are proud of the positive relationship we continue to foster with the St Matthew’s Parish.

Kiss and Drop Term 3

Thank you to all of our families who supported our Kiss and Drop initiatives by abiding by their set pick up times. Thankfully, we have now returned to our normal 3:00pm finishing time. We invite all families to collect their children from 3:00pm; however, I would encourage parents of older students to consider coming a bit later to help alleviate congestion.

Play Café Launch

It is with great pleasure that we announce that the St Matthew’s Play Café for 2020, will commence this Friday 31st July at 8:30am in the Kindy classroom. Play Café is an opportunity for children (aged 0-5yrs) and their parents to socialise and play in a safe, child-centered environment.  We have a capacity of 20 children between the ages of 3 months and 5 years. Children under 3 months are welcome to attend and will not be included in the total capacity.

The St Matthew’s Play Café Information Booklet can be located on the school app and website. Please pass on information to other families in the community who may be interested, including those that filled in an expression of interest earlier in the term.

Bookings are essential. Please contact the school on 9853 9500 to secure your child’s/children’s place.

2020 Australian Mathematics Competition

On Monday 3 August, many of our Year 3 to Year 6 students will be competing in the Australian Mathematics Trust (AMT) 2020 Australian Mathematics Competition (AMC). This competition provides students with an opportunity to test their maths skills against the rest of Australia. Please ensure all entry monies are paid as soon as possible.

Headlice Information Sessions

Many of us have experienced the frustration of removing headlice from our children’s’ hair. Unfortunately, this is a very common problem in primary schools. Tanya Hart has generously offered to run a practical headlice information session for parents on August 7 at 3:10 pm. In her profession as a hairdresser, Tanya has acquired a lot of information about the best way to handle these overly friendly pests. Afterschool supervision will be provided. Tanya will also be running sessions for students during the normal school day.

Keeping Safe Information Session

On Tuesday 28 July, Mrs Vivienne Marwick (CEWA School Support Consultant) will be presenting a parent information session on The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) from 2:15 until 3:00pm. The teaching of a Child Protection curriculum is a requirement of all Non-Government school’s registration with the Department of Education. The Keeping Safe: Child Protection Curriculum (KS:CPC) is an evidence based, best practice curriculum developed collaboratively with child protection experts, teachers, educational leaders and other professionals. The KS:CPC teaches all children from a young age, in an age-appropriate way, to:

• Recognise abuse and tell a trusted adult about it
• Understand what is appropriate and inappropriate touching; and
• Understand ways of keeping themselves safe.

All parents from Kindy to Year 6 are invited to come and learn more about this important curriculum.

Uniform Shop $5.00 Stocktake Sale

Friday 31 July (Week 2) Is the last chance to pick yourself up a $5.00 bargain.

All other items remain at the usual price.

Principal Focus – Parent Engagement

Throughout this newsletter, I have been referring to ways that parents can engage with our school. At St Matthew’s,  we fully recognise the importance of a close relationship with our families. The following article extract is reproduced from Learning Potential, a product of the Australian Government Department of Education:

Parent engagement in education is about parents and carers, schools and communities working together to ensure that every parent can play a positive role in their child’s learning, school community, sport, and social life.

Parents and families play an important role in supporting their child’s education. Research has shown that when schools and families work together, children do better, stay in school longer, are more engaged with their school work, go to school more regularly, behave better, and have better social skills. Parent engagement also results in longer term economic, social and emotional benefits. (https://www.education.gov.au/parent-engagement-children-s-learning)

It is for these reasons that we are so happy to be able to invite our parents back into our classrooms. Please be aware, however, that as Western Australia is still at Phase 4 of the COVID-19 recover plan, we need to be aware of the necessity to abide by social distancing requirements. Teachers may request parents to sit/stand in certain places to ensure that the 1.5m is maintained between adults.

Take care,

Susan Milton