School Vision

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

Dear Parents & Carers,

We all want to wish our beautiful St Matthew’s families a happy and holy Christmas but words just don’t seem enough to demonstrate how much we appreciate the love and support you have shown us over the year. For this reason, please keep a close eye on our FaceBook page and your emails for a very special message from all of us.

Exciting News Staffing 2023

I am proud to announce that we have employed an additional Assistant Principal for 2023. His name is Antonio Muto and he has come to us from Perth where he has been teaching at Yidarra Catholic Primary School/Corpus Christi College Primary School since 2016. We are very excited to have Antonio join our St Matthew’s Community and I know he is looking very forward to meeting everyone next year.

We are also happy to announce that Melissa Grieve will be joining us as an Education Assistant next year. Mel has been connected with the school for many years, both as an employee and as a parent. Mel’s new role will be to primarily assist teachers in catering for students with English as an additional language or dialect. Mel will be a very welcomed member of our team.

Sad News Staffing 2023

I am sad to announce that Rachel Pederick will not be continuing at St Matthew’s next year. Rachel has taken an Early Years teaching position at Wagin District High School. We wish her all the best and hope that she will visit us often.

Final News Staffing 2023

These  significant changes will obviously make a difference to staffing for next year, however, all classroom teachers will remain the same as published in the Week 8 newsletter.

Semester Two Report

Semester Two Reports will go live on the Seqta Engage website on Tuesday 13 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 user name 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 user name 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.

Save The Date ACM & Sundowner 

The Annual Community Meeting for 2022 will be held on 9 February 2023 at 5:30pm in the Sr Mary Library. At this meeting, our P&F and School Board will present their reports, and the academic data for the 2022 school year will be shared. We would like to invite all of our families to not only join us for this important meeting, but also invite for a BYO everything family picnic/sundowner.

Nominations for P&F 

I would like to remind everyone of the opportunity for parents to nominate to be part of the P&F executive committee. This is a unique opportunity to be more actively involved with your child’s school life. I encourage all of our parents to consider volunteering to take an active role in our P&F by nominating themselves prior to the ACM. The nomination form is available from the office or can be emailed to parents upon request.

Should you require any more information, please do not hesitate to contact the school, or any of the current executive members. 

Nominations for School Advisory Council

Parents are also invited to nominate for the School Advisory Council. 

The Advisory Council assists in the planning of present and future strategy of the Catholic  school  and brings  the  voice  of  the  community  into  the  school,  playing an important role in building relationships with key stakeholders across the Catholic school community. Membership of the Advisory Council,where possible,will reflect the diversity of the school community.The inclusion of different voices, experiences and perspectives that support the Catholic ethos of the school will enable all groups found in the school community to be represented on the Advisory Council. We encourage parents with the following skills to nominate:

• Finance
• Administration
• Construction & Building
• Community knowledge
• Multicultural
• Education knowledge
• Pastoral care

It is imperative that members act in line with CEWA’s Code of Conduct, as well as act honestly, diligently, confidentially and carefully in relation to all matters. It is essential that Advisory Council  members  have  the  capacity  to  work  cooperatively  and  constructively  with the principal. 

The nomination form is available from the office or can be emailed to parents upon request.

Should you require any more information, please do not hesitate to contact the school, or any of the current members. 

Calling All Dads

The School Advisory Council is very interested in developing projects or events that will encourage our amazing fathers and father-figures to be more engaged with the school. We would love to hear from you if you would like to be involved in this initiative or have any information or ideas that you would like to share by emailing susan.milton@cewa.edu.au

Christmas Dress-Up Day

On Tuesday 6 December, children were invited to wear their most festive Christmas attire as a fundraiser for the purchase of a Defibrillator Machine for St Matthew’s Parish. I am very proud to announce that due to the incredible generosity of our families, we were able to raise over $200. We will plan to present the new Defibrillator Machine to the Parish at the first Mass next year. Thank you so much for supporting this worthwhile cause.

Uniform Update

Thank you to all of our parents who support our school by ensuring their children are dressed in the appropriate uniform. As we head towards 2023, I would like to remind parents of current uniform expectations and outline some changes for the coming year. 

CURRENT REMINDERS

• Formal uniform shoes – students are allowed to wear all black leather-look sports shoes with both the formal and the sports uniform; however, these shoes must be fully black and not have any obvious logos or netting. 
• Sports uniform shoes –  students are allowed to wear any colour sports shoes with their sports uniform; however, conserative colours are preferred. As previously stated, students are allowed to wear all black leather-look sports shoes with both the formal and the sports uniform; however, these shoes must be fully black and not have any obvious logos or netting.

Correct Footwear

Incorrect Footwear

• Socks – white socks are not to be worn with the formal uniform.
• Jewellery – A small, plain, inexpensive watch. Small, plain metal earring studs/sleepers. A stud containing a small birthstone is also acceptable. A small chain with Christian medallion or Cross/Crucifix. Medical bracelets/necklaces are permitted (eg. Medic Alert bracelet/necklace); however, the school must be notified of the child’s medical condition.
• Shoulder length hair (and longer) needs to be tied back using simple, plain hair ties, scrunchies, head bands or ribbons colour matched to hair colour or to colours in the current uniform being worn. This is the case for both boys and girls. Hairstyles should not attract undue attention or be deemed by the school Leadership Team to be too extreme.

CHANGES IN 2023

• From January 2023, families will be able to purchase a new sports tracksuit. This consists of a blue and red jacket and matching tracksuit pants. The new items are a more modern design, more durable, more cost-effective and available through a reliable supplier.
• The current tracksuit jumper and pants will be phased out. Parents will still be able to purchase this item until stocks are depleted. Some discount on this item will be available. Students will be able to continue to wear these items until the end of 2023.