School Vision
St Matthew’s School empowers children to embrace life-long learning, and grow and develop as God intends.
This week’s prayer has been chosen for our Confirmation candidates:
Lord, You send out Your Spirit to touch the hearts of all people,
so that they may believe in You and in Jesus whom You sent.
Look kindly on all candidates for Confirmation as they listen to Your voice.
Open their hearts to Your Spirit and bring to fulfilment the good work that You have begun in them.
As we prepare these children for Confirmation, make each of us an instrument of Your love.
Teach us to appreciate what is holy in others, and to be patient with what we do not understand.
Deepen our faith in the Gospel and help us to pass it on by our example.
We pray that You will continue to guide us and sustain us.
Through Christ our Lord,
Amen.
Dear Parents & Caregivers,
Welcome to Term 4! It was fantastic to see so many of our students happy to be back. By the end of this week, all families should receive the term planner, class term overview and a parent letter through the school app. This should help parents plan the term and understand the learning goals for each of their children. I would also encourage all parents and caregivers to check the calendar on the school app weekly, as this is the most up-to-date source of information.
Interschool Athletic Carnival Postponed Until Monday 25 October
The second half of the Interschool Athletics Carnival was scheduled to be held this Wednesday, 20 October. Unfortunately, the organising school has decided to postpone until Monday 25 October due to forecasted bad weather. Parental assistance on the day is essential for carnivals to run smoothly. If you would like to help, please contact Linda Kilpatrick (linda.kilpatrick@cewa.edu.au).
Learn more about the Interschool Athletics Food & Drink Stall
Sacrament of Confirmation
I join with all of our school community in wishing the Confirmation candidates from the school and the parish all the best for the upcoming Sacrament this Sunday 24 October commencing at 9:30am. The children have been well prepared by Mrs Quartermaine, Mr Tenney and Sr Sahaya. I’m sure it will be a beautiful celebration.
Bishop’s Visit
Bishop Gerard Holohan will be visiting our school on Friday 22 October. This year, Bishop Holohan has been celebrating his Jubliee, 50 years of being a priest. He was first ordained as a deacon, then a priest and then ordained as a Bishop in 2001. To acknowledge this important anniversary, we will hold a special assembly at 2pm on this day. Our beautiful choir will sing and we will present Bishop Holohan with congratulation cards from each class. Everyone is welcome to attend.
2021 Peter Scott Literacy Award
In 2018, St Matthew’s School celebrated 100 years of Catholic Education. Mr Peter Scott, a former student at St Matthew’s, provided a generous donation to enhancing Literacy in our school. This donation enabled us to purchase new books for our school library, introduce a literacy intervention programme and fund the Peter Scott Literacy Award until 2028.
This year, all students in Years 1- 6 completed a narrative on the topic of ‘Triumph’ or ‘Found’. Teachers then nominated the top 4-5 stories from each class. Winners of the Peter Scott Literacy Award will be announced at the assembly on Friday 22 October at 2pm. All short-listed narratives will be on display in the Library during our Open Day on 10 November.
Busy Bee Saturday November 6
On Saturday November 6, we would love some volunteers to build our chicken coop (see below for more details), assemble the “Our Story” family pickets and complete a general tidy up of the school gardens and grounds.
If you are able to donate your time and hard-working hands for any period of time from 8:30am to 12:30pm, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au, or just turn up on the day. Children are naturally welcome to come and help, or just to play! A sausage sizzle will be available for all our hard-working heroes.
Chicken Pen
As part of our commitment to reducing our waste footprint and teaching our students about sustainability, St Matthew’s will be adopting some chickens next term. We would love to build the chicken pen this term. The run will go alongside and behind the sports sheds. We now need some handy and talented parents to project manage this masterpiece. Ideally, we would like to start building the structure during our Busy Bee on November 6, however, we are happy to fit in with other people’s work schedules. If you think you can help, either by donating materials, designing the run, building the structure or building the laying boxes, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au or speak with your classroom teacher.
Open Day
St Matthew’s will be having an Open Day on Wednesday 3 November. This will coincide with the Year 3 and Year 4 STEM Showcase. Parents and Community members are invited to visit our school from 2:15 – 4:15pm. Visitors will be able to visit classrooms and join in learning activities.
Staffing 2022
For many years, St Matthew’s has been very lucky to have enjoyed a very stable staff. We have had the benefit of many teachers choosing Narrogin as their home and therefore, providing our school with many years of dedicated service. This year, however, it is with a heavy heart that we will be farewelling some of our longest serving staff members:
Mark Collins – Mark has been with us since 2004. During his time with us, he has taught children from Year 2 to Year 5, and has been an Assistant Principal since 2020. I am sure Mark will most fondly be remembered for his epic puppet shows, STEM projects and unfailing support of our beautiful school. Mark will be moving to Albany next year to be closer to the family farm. He has accepted a position at St Joseph’s College.
Jodie Collins – Jodie came to St Matthew’s as a practicum teacher in 2008. It was all very exciting when we celebrated her engagement and subsequent marriage to Mark in 2010. Although I did ask if she would consider staying, Jodie has decided to move to Albany with Mark and their three beautiful girls. Understandable really!
Jodie Blyth – Jodie has been an Education Assistant at St Matthew’s for over a decade. Over her time with us, Jodie has eagerly donned many creative costumes to brighten the days of our students. With Jodie’s own children now being fully grown, Jodie has decided to take a well-earned rest.
Karen Evans – Karen has been a member of the St Matthew’s community since 2010. In 2020, Karen took time away from school in order to focus on other projects. During this time, she has established a local division of the “Secret Agent Society”. This program is designed to assist children to develop social skills and self-confidence. Although Karen will not be returning as a permanent staff member in 2022, she will continue as a relief teacher.
Ben Quartermaine – Ben has been teaching with us for 2 years; however, as he is a past St Matt’s student, we feel he has been with us so much longer. Ben has been a real asset to St Matthew’s, dedicating himself to the health and well-being of not only the students, but the staff as well. Ben will be leaving us to return to Perth.
Claire Graham – Claire will be taking a year’s leave in 2022 to spend time with her beautiful family. Over the last 11 years, Claire has dedicated herself to creating a fun, positive Kindy experience in which each student is truly valued and loved. Although she will be greatly missed, I am sure she will visit us often as her Kindy friends are very important to her.
I know the St Matthew’s community joins with me in wishing all of these amazing people all the very, very best for their futures. We will miss you dearly and hope you will visit us often.
Although it has been the tradition to announce staffing at the Annual Community Meeting in December, this year it will be outlined in the Week 8 newsletter as the ACM will be held in February 2022.
A Letter from Narrogin Dental Therapy Centre
The Narrogin Dental Therapy Centre has now completed its annual dental van run where we provide dental care to surrounding towns of Narrogin.
Staff will begin the Narrogin cycle at our clinic at the Narrogin District Hospital where we will provide free dental care to students enrolled at
– East Narrogin Primary School
– St Matthews Primary School
– Narrogin School of Agriculture
– Narrogin Senior High School.
After the students at these schools have been seen, staff will then proceed back to our main clinic at Narrogin Primary School where we will see students enrolled at Narrogin Primary School.
We remind parents that the school dental service provides free dental care via a waitlist system. Your children will receive a letter from us with a dedicated appointment for a dental check-up when they are at the top of our waiting list.
If your child has moved to a new address please ensure this has been updated with us by calling us on 0428 984 100 or email us on : Narroginmobile@health.wa.gov.au
We look forward to seeing you all at your appointment.
Jade and Kaz
Narrogin School Dental
School Bus Feedback
A terms of reference feedback form will be emailed out to families who use the school bus service. This is in response to the parliamentary inquiry into who can and cannot get access to a school bus. Parents are asked to fill in the Parent Section of the spreadsheet and forward it to johnd@buswa.com.au
Principal Focus – Respect Property, Respect Others
During our Pupil-free Day on Monday 11 October, the staff looked carefully at the Student Code of Conduct and our classroom rules. Following our discussions, we have decided to focus on the following whole school behaviour this term:
Respect your own and others’ property
Naturally, we all want our resources to look nice and last a long time, however, teaching respect for school property is also important for children’s own social development. Children need to make the connection between respect for school property and personal consequences. The school belongs to the student as much as it belongs to the staff. When a child disrespects her school, she is hurting herself and those around her.
Teachers will explicitly teach this rule to their classes and we will all look for opportunities to positively reinforce this behaviour throughout the school.
In conjunction with this, starting next Monday, I will be presenting a Kindness Award at the Monday Morning Line-up. Students will be given the opportunity to nominate their friends for this award by filling in a nomination slip and popping in the Kindness Box in the Undercover Area. Recipients of this award will have their photo added to our Kindness Tree and be able to choose a reward from the prize box. By acknowledging these positive behaviours each week, we will be helping ensure that all our students feel safe and valued at school.
In kindness,
Susan Milton
Principal
