School Vision

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

A Children’s Prayer for Lent 

Lord, please show me what I should give up for Lent 

And when I’ve given it up 

Remind me to pray to You instead 

To thank You 

To love You 

To hear from You 

Each and every day in Lent 

Amen

Read more at: https://www.lords-prayer-words.com/times/meaning_of_lent_prayers.html

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

I would like to begin this newsletter with a huge thank you to the wonderful P&F parents who volunteered to cook sausages and sell drinks at the Narrogin Festival of Soccer on Saturday. Your dedication to our school is so appreciated. I know it was hot and humid, and I can only imagine that there were a million other things you could have been doing. So I offer this heartfelt thank you on behalf of all of our school community.

BusyBee 13 March 8:30am

The countdown is on! This week, the staff will be busily finalising our list of jobs. Thank you to the families who have already confirmed that they are able to donate 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 13 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
remove a section of lawn, transport and spread pine bark, help with the construction of cubby/play equipment and planter boxes, plant and repot plants, prune trees, clear gutters and lay pavers. For these jobs to be completed, we will also require the use of:
A Dingo (removal of lawn)
Shovels
Gardening gloves
Wheelbarrows
Trailer
Gardening tools
Tools
If you are able to supply any of this equipment, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au prior to Saturday.

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 13 March 8:30am

If you are not able to help out at our BusyBee, maybe you can help raise funds for our new Harmony Garden and Nature Playground, through supporting the Garage Sale also on 13 March 8:30am – 12:30pm.

We are encouraging families to donate good quality items to be sold. Items can be dropped off to the Undercover Area on Friday 12 March from 8:30am until 6pm. In the meantime, 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.

Faction Swimming Carnival and WaterFun Day

The Faction Swimming Carnival for students in Years 3-6 will be held Tuesday 9th March at the Narrogin Leisure Centre. To coincide with this day, the lucky Pre-Primaries, Year 1 and Year 2 students will take part in a WaterFun Day. Information regarding both of these days has been sent out via the school app and/or sent home in paper form. We wish all of the children a fantastic day! 

2021 Sunsmart Country Schools’ Tennis Classic

This is an Interschool team event held annually within all zones across Western Australia – metro and country. It is a round robin format. This year we will be sending 16 Year 5 and 6 students to compete. Our zone will be conducting its tournament on Wednesday 10th March, commencing at 9am.  It will be held at Narrogin Tennis Club. I am sure they will all display wonderful sportsmanship and represent St Matthew’s with pride.

Linda Kilpatrick

P.E Teacher

Uniform Survey

Last newsletter, I invited staff and parents to complete a short survey about our current Uniform Policy. We received 60 responses and I sincerely thank you all for your feedback. The Leadership Team will now work together to revisit our current policy. It is our intention that this will be put out to our families by the end of the term.

Basketball Court Update

Unfortunately, due to last week’s wet weather, we have had to reschedule the application of the linemarkings until this coming Tuesday. Fingers crossed, the weather will be fine.

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE!!

As part of our Whole-School Positive Behaviour Management Systems (Ping Pong Points), all three factions (Phelan, McFall, and Gibney) have reached their Major Award Milestone. This means, on Friday 12th March, students from PP-Year 6 may wear free dress to school, have extra playtime at recess, and enjoy half an icy-pole at lunch. Please ensure suitable covered shoes are worn

Principal Focus – Win, Lose or Draw

On Tuesday, our Year 3 to Year 6 students will be heading down to the pools for our Faction Swimming Carnival. Each year this event brings up many different emotions in our youngsters. I feel that sporting carnivals provide opportunities to teach our kids several important life skills – how to deal with disappointment, face challenges, be gracious winners or just deal with the fact that unfortunately things don’t always go the way we plan. Maggie Dent explains:

If we are able to allow our children to experience as many authentic moments of disappointment as possible with our guidance and support, they will gradually create neural pathways that will help them manage and cope. Yes, from not being allowed a biscuit before dinner, not being able to get a pony, not having yet another story before bed, not being allowed to go naked in public…the list goes on from toddlerhood to teenage-hood. So many wonderful opportunities to practice understanding and navigating disappointment.

When thinking specifically about our swimming carnival,  I feel that many parents experience the natural desire to protect their children from dealing with disappointment – no one likes to see that bottom-lip wobble. However, we must always remember that children look to their trusted adults as their emotional barometers, and it is how we face these moments, that will have the biggest impact on how they deal with successes and disappointments in the future: 

From board games to competitive sports, winning and losing will come up many times throughout your child’s life. These important early play experiences help us learn how to process our feelings. Teaching your child how to recognize their feelings and react around others is an important life skill that will help them socialize and learn how to celebrate life’s joys while also ride out the more difficult moments. Losing a game or coming last in a race may seem like something small, but it can be a difficult moment for a child.

Young children don’t have the ability to express all their feelings or understand some of their emotions. They may cry and get upset, or run around the house screaming “I won, I won.” This is just part of the learning process. Eventually, they should improve their reactions to winning and losing in different situations, but this doesn’t come without help from you!

Try these easy tips to help your child learn how to process their feelings about winning and losing:

Talk it out!

Prior to playing with friends talk about different scenarios with your little one. If they lose the game, how will they feel? How will their friend feel? Explain how even though they wanted to win, they can move on, play a new game, and maybe win the next one! Talking about what may happen helps. Knowing losing is possible can make it less upsetting because you don’t expect to win 100% of the time.

Praise Child’s Effort

Tell your child how proud you are because of the effort they put into an activity—regardless of whether they win or lose. Even if they won, tell them why you’re proud, “you did such a great job working with your teammates to set up the final goal.” If they lost, you should do the same thing! Praise their effort instead of the end result.

Practice Graceful Winning

In the same way you would talk to your kids about how they should react when they lose, you should also talk about appropriate ways to react if they win. Explain that they can always say, “good game” and give their friend a high five. If their friend wins they can also say, “Congratulations” and maybe ask them if they want to play again. Practicing graceful winning will also help your child become better at processing their emotions when they lost because both scenarios require using emotional control, an important executive function skill.

Even though kids may not understand what the words “good sportsmanship” or “empathy” mean yet, they can understand how their words and actions make others feel. Kids are so busy going from sports practice to art class to school and tutoring; that their busy schedules can increase the sense of competition they feel with peers. Therefore it’s really important to explain early that they can’t always win but they can make the best of every situation. This is a life lesson that is very valuable for children of all ages. By teaching them how to accept winning and losing, some of the pressure they feel fades away. Children are more likely to try new things, and young minds greatly benefit from a variety of activities and new experiences.

https://pathways.org/talking-child-winning-losing/

I genuinely hope that there will be no lip wobbles on Tuesday; however, I am confident that we will all be there to help our kids to become good losers and modest winners,

Susan Milton

Principal