School Vision
St Matthew’s School empowers children to embrace life-long learning, and grow and develop as God intends.
This prayer is chosen to recognise Remembrance Day on November 11:
God of justice and peace,
we pray for those who have been injured
or disabled through war.
For those who have lost homes
and security through conflict;
for those who have lost loved relatives in wars;
for those who face danger and take risks for peace;
for all those, especially children, caught up in current conflicts;
for refugees and all those in need of aid and other help.
God of encouragement
and Saviour of the despairing,
comfort those who remember past sacrifices
and guide us in building
a just and peaceful community for all.
Amen.
Dear Parents & Carers,
As we enter the last few school weeks of 2023, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our families for their support this year. I feel very fortunate to work in a school where our families appreciate that we are all here for the same reason – the growth and well-being of the children in our care. With this in mind, over the next month, many teachers will start contacting parents to discuss their child’s successes and challenges this semester. During these meetings, I know that we will all remember that we are a team and are all shooting for the same goal.
We Need Your Help
Over the next few weeks, we are hoping to build our chicken run and complete the remodeling of our Kindy and Pre-Primary play area. Although most of the hard work is organised, there are several jobs we need parent assistance to complete:
- Fencing the garden for the chicken run
- Laying roll-on lawn
- Moving soil and sandpit sand
If you are able to assist in completing any of these jobs, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au We will happily work around your schedule.
Dockers Visit and Sports Colours Day November 16
On Thursday 16 November from 12:00–12:45 p.m., we will have a visit from the Fremantle Dockers. The WAFC staff will facilitate a Q&A with the players. The topics will be healthy eating, social media, and the importance of sleep.
Students are invited to wear their favourite Sports Colours on this day. We will undoubtedly see many Dockers and Eagles jerseys, however, students are free to represent any sport that is important to them, including dance and gymnastics. Students are asked to bring a gold coin donation on this day. This donation will be forwarded to St Matthew’s Parish.
Uniform Orders for Pre-Primary & Year 1
Parents of Pre-Primary and Year 1 students are asked to consider ordering their school uniforms for next year now to ensure that we have enough stock for all of our little people. For information regarding the uniforms for these year levels, please refer to the information brochures that were sent home with Kindy and Pre-Primary students last week. Please be reminded that the older sports shorts and sports jumpers cannot be worn in 2024. Pre-Primary students are also not allowed to wear the school skorts, as these items are part of our formal uniform.
Volunteers’ Afternoon Tea Wednesday 22 November 1:30pm
I would like to invite all of our hard-working and generous volunteers to a Thank You Volunteers’ Afternoon Tea at 1:30pm on Wednesday 22 November in the Undercover Area. This will be followed by the Rock Band Assembly at 2:10pm. Whether you have listened to reading, helped in the Library, timed at carnivals, or cut up fruit in Kindy, please join us on this afternoon so that we can thank you all in person.
School Band Performance 2:10pm Wednesday 22 November
Every year our Year 4 to 6 students are invited to audition for our school band. The successful musicians then work with Mrs Hastie to extend their musical skills by performing modern songs in a band setting. This year’s band members are:
Guitar- Adam
Keys – Uzoma and Ellice
Bass – Evan
Drums – Blake
Vocals – Emma and Holly
All community members are invited to attend a performance on Wednesday 22 November at 2:10pm. Please come along and support our budding musicians.
Captains 2024
Last week, I was fortunate to join Mr Muto, Mr Tenney and Mrs Kilpatrick to hear the wonderful leadership speeches presented by our Year 5 students. They spoke very well, and will no doubt, make fine leaders for their peers to look up. All of our Year 6 students are leaders of the school and will have significant responsibilities throughout 2024.
The captaincy positions will be announced at the Thanksgiving Mass on Wednesday 6 December at St Matthew’s Church. Mass begins at 9:30am.
P&F Meeting 6:00pm Monday 20 November
All parents are invited to come along and support our beautiful school. We will also send out a ZOOM link closer to the date.
Kindy Excursion
The Kindy children, Sister Sahaya and Mrs Prideaux will be visiting a farm on November 14. This will help consolidate their learning in the Health topic , “Farm Safety”. The excursion will also benefit the children in their oral language and social skills. Please see the note on the school app for more information.
Year 2 & 3 Excursion to Wagin
The Year 2 and 3 students have been learning about the history of our region. On November 20, the two classes will travel to Wagin Historical Village. Please see the note on the school app for more information.
T20 Cricket Blast School Cup
On Friday 24 November, our Year 4, 5, and 6 students will participate in a friendly interschool cricket day at the Clayton Rd Oval, hosted by WACA. The students will walk to and from the event, and will be supervised by their class teachers. Please see the note on the school app for more information.
Christmas Concert Wednesday 29 November
Our beautiful children have all been practicing very hard to prepare for our biennial Christmas Concert. The entertainment will commence at 6:00pm with all Pre-Primary to Year 6 students performing at least one Christmas item. Children will need to be delivered to their classrooms by 5:45pm. Parents and community members will then be able to take a seat in the Sr Isabel Hall. The concert will be followed by a BYO picnic on the grass. The BBQ will be available for use. Please keep an eye out for information from individual class teachers regarding any costume or prop requirements.
Last Assembly for 2023 Friday December 1
During this last assembly, we will be proud to award the best and most improved reader in each class Year 1 to Year 6. We will also award the students who has achieved the greatest growth and the best overall achievement in Maths in Year 5 and Year 6. Individual parents will be notified if their child will be receiving one of these accolades.
Class Transition
On Wednesday 6 December, our students will be visiting their new teachers for 2024. Teachers will have an opportunity to introduce themselves and outline the special features of their year level.
Semester Two Report
Semester Two Reports will go live on the Seqta Engage website on Tuesday 12 December. In order to access these reports, you will need to login to Seqta Engage. If you are new to St Matthew’s School, or have never used Seqta Engage before, you will receive an email asking you to set up a username and password. For all other users, it is important that St Matthew’s has a current email address, and that you remember your Seqta Engage username and password. It would be appreciated if all parents could login to Seqta Engage prior to 6 December to ensure that everyone is able to access the website. –
https://matthews.coneqt-p.cathednet.wa.edu.au/
Please contact Mark Tenney (mark.tenney@cewa.edu.au) should you require a new password, or if you have any difficulties logging into this site.
Year 6 Graduation
The Year 6 Graduation ceremony will be held in the Sr Mary Library on Wednesday 6 December at 6:00pm, and followed by a dinner in the Sr Isabel Hall at 7:00pm. This is a lovely way to conclude our Year 6’s primary school journey. In order to ensure this runs smoothly, I would like 4 community members to assist with serving, clearing and washing dishes. Any volunteers are welcome to join us for dinner and wiil be paid a small amount for their time. I suggest that this might suit senior high school students, however, would welcome any help offered.
Important Dates
All important dates can be viewed on the St Matthew’s app calendar. Of particular note are:
- Dockers School Visit 16 November
- School Band Performance 22 November
- Cricket Carnival Yrs 4 – 6 24 November
- Christmas Concert/ Sundowner/ Disco 29 November
- Awards Assembly 1 December
- Thanksgiving Mass 6 December
- Year 6 Graduation 6 December
- Student’s first day back 2024 31 January 2024
Principal Focus – Kids & Water
The following was taken directly from Royal Life Saving Australia:
Drowning deaths in young children are preventable. For more than 25 years, Keep Watch has been advising Australian parents and carers on how to keep their children safe when in, on or around the water.
Drowning is one of the leading causes of death in children 0-4 years of age. Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that drowning is the number one cause of death in one-, two- and three-year-old children (ABS 2019).
Between 1 July 2002/03 and 30 June 2021/22, 549 children aged 0 to 4 years drowned in Australia. The drowning risk triples when children turn one. Royal Life Saving research found that 222 children aged one year have drowned over the past twenty years, equating to 40% of all child drowning under the age of five.
Most deaths in children aged one occurred in backyard swimming pools (51%) and during the summer months (38%).
Almost all of these deaths were due to a lack of active adult supervision.
For every toddler drowning death approximately eight children are admitted to hospital as a result of non-fatal drowning.
Royal Life Saving is asking all parents to Supervise, Restrict, Teach and Respond to keep their children safe around water. Because ‘Kids can’t help themselves around water, you need to. Keep Watch.’
When implemented together, these Keep Watch drowning prevention actions help to maximise child safety around water.
The Keep Watch program is proudly supported by the Australian Government.
Keep Watch,
Susan Milton
