St Matthew’s School Narrogin

St Matthew’s School Narrogin

School Vision

 

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

 

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbours.
If there is to be peace between neighbours,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

 

 

 

 

Dear Parents & Caregivers,

 

I hope all of our students are enjoying their extra day off today. With spring just around the corner and the sun shining, today seems a great day to head outside and have an adventure.

 

Book Week

St Matthew’s will be celebrating Book Week from Monday 30th of August.The theme for this year is ‘Old Worlds, New Worlds and Other Worlds’.
On Tuesday, 31 August, we will be celebrating Book Week by holding a whole school dress-up day. Children are invited to dress as their favourite book characters. Children are asked to please bring along the book or a printout of the cover page to help our secret judges choose several award winners. This year, we have extended our prizes to include:
Best dressed
Most creative
Best group/family
Best character
Parents are most welcome to join us for our parade at 9:00 am in the Sr Isabel Hall. You can even dress up if you like!

 

St Matthew’s School Band

The St Matthew’s School Band has been working hard all year to create an exciting repertoire of songs and we would love to present them to you as part of our school celebrations for St Matthew’s Day, Friday, 24th September. The concert will begin at 2:10pm in the Sr Isabel Hall. Everyone is welcome! Please mark your calendars and be sure to make the time to see what our talented musicians have achieved.
Hope to see you there,
Fiona Hastie
Music Specialist

 

Congratulations Everyone!

All factions have earnt themselves the major award by receiving enough Ping Pong points for good choices at school. This Wednesday 25 August, all students from Pre-Primary to Year 6 are invited to wear free dress for the day. They will also enjoy ½ an icey pole and 10 minutes extra play.

 

Athletic Carnivals Week 8

The St Matthew’s School Faction Athletics Carnivals will be held on Tuesday 7 September (at school) and Friday 10 September (at Thomas Hogg Oval on Bannister Street, Narrogin). Each child from Year One to Six will be given a programme of events, highlighted with the events he/she is in. It is essential that we are informed if your child is unable to attend either of the carnival days.
Parental assistance on the day is essential for the carnival to run smoothly. If you would like to help, please contact Linda Kilpatrick (linda.kilpatrick@cewa.edu.au). We will need helpers for both Jumps and Throws on 7 September and the main events on 10 September.

New Languages

Over the past few weeks, St Matthew’s has been gathering information to help us support our community members who come from a non-English speaking background. Thanks to the participation of our parents, we have increased the number of translated languages for our newsletter. By selecting the black “Translate” tab at the bottom of the newsletter screen on our Connected app, parents are able to have the newsletter translated into:

  • Afrikaans
  • Shona
  • Malayalam
  • Punjabi
  • Hindi
  • Indonesian
  • Vietnamese

 

EAL/D Survey

We would like to continue to make these types of changes to ensure that all our community members are able to access information and contribute to our beautiful school. We would invite all families from non-English speaking backgrounds to complete this EAL/D survey to help us, help you.

Kindy Enrolments

I will commence conducting Kindy interviews for 2022 in Week 6 of this term. These interviews give families an opportunity to learn about our Kindy curriculum and  school procedures. More importantly, it provides us with an opportunity to welcome new families into our community. If you know of any families ready to send their little people to Kindy, please encourage them to pop into the Office to pick up an enrolment pack. 

Narrogin Show Build a Bee Hotel Competition

At this year’s Narrogin Show on 16 October, schools have been invited to take part in a Build a Bee Hotel Competition. Children need to compete in groups of four. More information is contained in the flyer below. If your child or family are interested in representing St Matthew’s, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au.

 

Principal Focus – Our Scary World

I am sure you will all agree with me that this has been quite a scary couple of weeks. Between COVID lockdowns, floods, fires and civil wars, we have been bombarded with bad news stories from all over the world. As adults, this can be confronting, however, it is important that we consider what this might be like for our little people. When trying to work out how best to answer those tricky questions, The Scholastic article “How to Explain Scary News to Kids” suggests:

The best way to help a child deal: Be honest. After all, you can’t shield him from the news forever. If you ignore the situation, try to change the subject or squash emotions, your child’s imagination is likely to dream up even scarier scenarios.

If you’re devastated by an event, it’s okay to admit that you’re sad; in fact, sharing your sorrow will also give your kids permission to express any feelings they may have. Don’t vent your fears, though, or you might alarm your children. “Just give a brief explanation of what’s happened, suggest talking about it later, and wait until you’re in a better frame of mind to follow up with a discussion,” says Mary Jo Rapini, M.Ed., a psychotherapist in Houston.

The Scholastic article offers a selection of scenarios and suggestions on how to answer a variety of questions for different age levels. It outlines how important it is to try to only answer the question that is asked; children will ask a follow up question if they want more information. 

The article concludes by focussing on the importance of empowering our kids:

Another way to empower kids is through helping others. “It can be as simple as drawing cards for a family who suffered a loss or collecting clothing for natural-disaster victims,” Dr. Rapini says. “Kids who make these types of gestures gain confidence in their own ability to make the world a kinder place.”

I would like to add to this by never forgetting the importance of prayer in times of trouble:

Prayer also helps to express our concerns for those who are affected … It is an important means, in faith, to support our brothers and sisters who not only need material support but also spiritual support to live life to the full.  (https://www.socktober.org.au/liturgy)

God Bless,

 

Susan Milton

Principal

 

 

Susan Milton

Principal

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