School Vision

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

Eternal God, 

our prayers today are where our hearts and minds have been during these last days; 

with those communities and individuals whose lives have been damaged in differing ways by the bushfires.

We pray for those who have lost their home and property

or are facing such loss:

for those who have been forced to leave

their memories and belongings.

We are aware of those who have lost stock,

or are watching their stock suffer;

we are conscious of those

who are struggling to find feed and water

for the stock under their care.

We pray for all involved in fighting the fire:

for our career and volunteer firefighters and their leadership

and all those we know and those we do not know;

We are mindful of the days, weeks and months ahead,

for seasons of recovery and rebuilding,

of homes, farms, lives and communities;

we pray for strength, courage, patience and hope

Amen

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

Last week was a difficult and distressing week for many of our farming families. The prayer printed above echoes the thoughts, feelings and wishes of all of us at this time. I would like to thank Courtney in Year 6 who beautifully read this prayer before lunch each day last week.

To all of the members of our community who have been affected by the fire, know that we are here to help and support you in any way we can. Please do not hesitate to ask for any assistance, including support with fees or support sessions with our school psychologist. 

We also send out a heartfelt thank you to all those who helped and supported those in need. Many volunteer organisations, including the SES, have worked tirelessly to help keep everyone safe. As a school, we will be organising a fundraiser to support these organisations before the end of term. Understandably with COVID restrictions, it is a bit harder to plan events; however, we are committed to coming up with an idea that will pay tribute to all those involved.

COVID-19

Over the last week, I have sent out up-to-date COVID-19 information via the school app. Please ensure you have read these updates as they explain how the current restrictions apply directly to St Matthew’s School.

Parents at Kindy & Pre-Primary

I am very aware of how difficult and unsettling it is for the parents of our littlest people to be unable to enter school buildings due to COVID restrictions. To assist with morning drop off,  Kindy and Pre-Primary parents may stay for a short time and complete morning activities with their child outside in the Kindy/Pre-Primary playground. Masks must be worn and social distancing must be maintained.

Parent meetings

The Parent Meetings scheduled for this week have been cancelled. Instead, teachers will upload a slideshow presentation to SeeSaw by Friday 18 February. If parents would like to discuss individual student concerns, please contact your class teacher to arrange a suitable time and place for this to occur.

Annual Community Meeting

Families will receive a copy of the PowerPoint presentation which outlines the achievements for 2021 and the planned outcomes for 2022 by Friday 18 February. We will attempt to reschedule the School Advisory Council and the P&F Community Meetings at a suitable time.

Fee Payment Agreement and Plan

Families will have received a large white envelope that contained the Fee Payment Agreement and Plan. These forms were due back to school last Friday. As it is now a legal requirement that all families provide this information, we request that any outstanding forms be returned to school as soon as possible.

Uniforms

In response to the Uniform survey that was conducted last year, we are slowly transitioning to a new style of sport shorts. These are now available from the Uniform Shop. Both this new style and the original type can be worn this year, with the older style being fazed out by the end of 2023. We are also going to slowly faze out the summer dresses by the end of 2023. Please rest assured children will be able to wear all uniform items purchased until December 2023.

The Uniform Shop is open Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 4:00pm.

Flags

Some of you may have noticed the poor condition of the school’s Australian and Aboriginal flags. For this reason, they have officially been retired. We have ordered new flags and will hoist these as soon as they arrive.

Term Overview

To further support our commitment to reducing our waste footprint, we will no longer send home a paper copy of the term calender. The online calendar can be accessed through the school app by clicking “Important Dates”. We will also continue to remind parents of future events through the newsletter, FaceBook and sms.

Fr Jayan

The gorgeous Fr Jay is taking 3 months Long Service Leave – 8th Feb to second week of May 2022. In his absence, Fr. Geoff Aldous will be the supply priest. When he can’t come to Narrogin, the Bunbury diocese will arrange a priest to supply to our parish.

Lunch Orders

We are pleased to inform you that Narrogin Primary School Canteen is once again available for Lunch Orders. This service is available Mondays and Fridays. All orders must be submitted before 8am on the day of ordering; however, for convenience, parents may place orders prior to the ordering day. St Matthew’s will not be able to accept any orders at school. Unfortunately, orders can not be brought to school in reuseable bags; orders must be made and paid for via QuickCliq. Any lunch orders bought to school can not be honoured by Narrogin Primary School canteen.

Learn more about QuickCliq

If you require any further information about this service, please phone Narrogin Primary on
0436 925 8069

RCIA – Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults

St Matthew’s Parish is planning to commence an RCIA Program. If you know of anyone who would like to be part of this journey to become a Catholic, please email the contact details to the school and we will pass these on.

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. This week, the award went to  Totenda (Yr 4) and Ekam (Yr 4). The girls were nominated for helping a classmate who was playing by herself.

Principal Focus – We Will Get Through This

We certainly live in challenging times. This article by Maggie Dent, Helping Children Cope in a Crisis, offers some advice on how to help children accept that this too will pass:

When flood, fire or other natural disasters hit our communities, it can take a while to realise the full horror of the destruction and devastation for families, communities and livelihoods.

It can also be a long time before normal lives can be resumed and this process will be particularly distressing for children, who so need to feel safe and rely very much on routine and cues from the adults around them in order to do so. The adults in this disaster zone have an enormous task ahead and will likely be focused on the very practical details of cleaning up and rebuilding their homes and businesses. This is on top of managing their own grief, trauma and exhaustion.

My thoughts at these times are often very much centred on the precious children who have been caught up in the disaster … there are some things parents and carers can do to really help ease their distress now and hopefully avoid ongoing trauma.

Firstly, we have to remember children hear way more than we adults think so we need to be careful of what we say near them.

During times of natural disaster or other crises, I would avoid leaving the TV on with its endless images of the destruction. We know that children under four can have difficulty with reality – and the same scene can appear to be a new scene and children get really frightened by that.

For those in the midst of it, keep reassuring your children that things will get better. Tell your children they are safe because they are with you. Indeed, repeatedly saying affirmative things like “we will get through this, this will pass, together we can help each other beat this,” even humming or singing will help both adults and children to feel hopeful and optimistic.

To soothe children we need to keep safe touch happening holding them, holding their hands, rubbing their heads and giving lots of gentle kisses will really help. Keep their soothing comforters like special blankets and soft toys close and also be mindful of the power of pets in a trauma. When a child soothes a beloved toy or pet they are soothing themselves. If they have lost their special soft toy, get a replacement as soon as possible.

It is also a great time for Dads, in particular, to practice their ridiculousness because laughter is a very powerful mood changer, brain chemical changer and it really bonds people together.

Top Tips for Soothing Children

1. Take the distress seriously
2. Meet the child’s feelings with the right voice and energy – validate their feelings
3. Be calm and clear with boundaries
4. Use physical soothing – if you can’t, because you are angry or upset, find someone else
5. Use existing habits and rituals – hand games, nursery rhymes, songs and bedtime rituals
6. Magic tapping – emotional freedom techniques help diffuse emotions – the release points on the fingers points are on the side of the finger nails, closest to the thumb.
7. Key ways of triggering oxytocin

– Touch and massage-especially tickle point across the top of the shoulders

– Sucking

– Warmth – approx 21°C

– Low soothing sounds

– Novelty, laughter

– Avoid overstimulation.

Another thing that helps children process and come to terms with trauma, is for them to be able to help in some way. They can be encouraged to give hugs, get drinks and even help with clean up. These small things can make a huge difference to children and it helps to mobilise much of their inner distress, as does play. I know I have often seen play corners and play volunteers in evacuation centres on the news at such times, and this is wonderful.

It may seem like kids are just playing to prevent boredom, however, this is how children explore their physical world and process their emotional world, especially when there is significant change and social dislocation.

Having massive social change is often like a death to a child. It is normal for children to exhibit distressed behaviours – and meeting their needs for reassurance can be difficult to meet when parents are also struggling with the stress of losing homes and businesses, and grieving lives lost. Their primary carers are always who children want to be near. Sometimes they need to keep an eye on their parents and want to protect them. Also having their children around can keep parents motivated in their rebuilding efforts because they will be constantly be reminded to be grateful for the most precious gift that they still have – life.

Stay safe,

Susan Milton

Principal