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.

 

Mary MacKillop
join us in our gratitude
on this 10th anniversary of your canonisation.
Be with us in this time of crisis in our world
as we gather fresh courage around us
for working in God’s healing mission.
Keep us participating as a people of the Gospel
engaging with our neighbours for the good of all
and serving with Christ in our common home.
Holy Spirit strengthen us.
Amen

Dear Parents & Carers,

A big thank you to all of the families who came and said hello to me on Saturday at our beautiful display at the Narrogin Show.  I even had people asking if I needed a drink or lunch – very thoughtful. Thank you to all the staff and students that made this display possible. I was very proud.

Parent and Caregiver Survey (PaCS)

We are currently collecting information to help us make informed decisions about how we can improve our school. The aim of this process is to build and maintain a positive school climate in which your child/children will flourish.

To help us in our efforts, we are inviting you to respond to the Parent and Caregiver Survey (PaCS), developed at Curtin University. Your response will provide us with the information and foundational focus points that we will use in planning our school improvement efforts.

To respond to the PaCS at St Matthew’s School, please go to www.NSIPartnerships.com.au and enter the code SMSPACS in the Start Questionnaire field

Your confidentiality
To protect your confidentiality, the PaCS is completely anonymous, there are no names attached to the data and there is no way for us to access your individual response. All responses go directly to NSI, where the results are analysed and aggregated into feedback reports. NSI is bound by a Code of Ethics and follows strict professional conduct.

Use of the data
NSI will aggregate all responses and provide us with a comprehensive feedback report. To enable us to target our decisionmaking, we may be provided with information based on your background information (e.g., are you the mother, father or caregiver). To protect your anonymity, we will only be provided with this information when responses from four or more people fall within any given category.

More information will be available on the school app and via your email.

If you require more information or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us or the NSI Team.

Email: NSITeam@NSIPartnerships.com.au

Your time and consideration are appreciated and we look forward to working with you to improve our school.

Important Dates:

  • October 17 (Monday) – Parent & Caregiver Survey commences
  • October 17 (Monday) – Yr 6 Graduation Meeting
  • October 21 (Friday) – Crazy Sock Day
  • October 21 (Friday) – Yr 6 Assembly
  • October 24 (Monday) – P&F Meeting
  • October 27 (Thursday) – Year 2 & 3 Excursion
  • October 26 (Wednesday) – Yr 5 Growth & Development Session 1
  • November 2 (Wednesday) – – Yr 5 Growth & Development Session 2
  • Sacrament of Reconciliation Parent/Child Workshop
  • November 7 (Monday) – Musical rehearsal
  • November 9 (Wednesday) – Musical rehearsal
  • November 11 – Yr 5 Captain’s Speeches
  • November 14 (Monday) – Musical rehearsal ALL COSTUMES TO BE AT SCHOOL
  • November 16 (Wednesday) – Musical rehearsal
  • November 18 (Friday) – Musical
  • November 21 (Monday) – PP to Yr 2 Swimming Lessons commence
  • November 25 (Friday) – Cricket Carnival Yrs 4 – 6
  • November 30 (Wednesday) – Year 3 and 4 Mass
  • November 30 (Wednesday) – Kindy Concert
  • December 2 (Friday) – Award Assembly
  • December 8 (Thursday) – Narrogin Christmas Street Festival – Choir performing
  • December 9 (Friday) – last day for students
  • December 12-16 – Reports go live

 

Uniforms

As the weather warms up, I thought it was best to remind everyone about the formal uniform requirements this term. Children are able to choose the uniform items that allow them to dress according to their needs (play style, age and personal preference) and to suit the weather. This means that items which were traditionally only allowed to be worn during the winter months, can now be worn all year round. I would like to particularly remind parents, that girls are to wear navy socks with all of the formal uniform items; white socks are only to be worn with the sports uniform.

GIRLS – Formal
Navy skort OR navy pants OR Formal shorts with blue shirt, OR Formal dress
Formal School Jumper
Navy Hat
Black leather “dress” school shoes, black leather sports shoes OR plain style ‘Mary Jane’ black shoes (ie: no embellishments such as studs or ribbons)
Navy blue ankle socks, or tights
Brown or black school sandals

BOYS – Formal
Grey school shorts, or grey college trousers
Blue shirt
Formal School Jumper
Navy Hat
Black leather “dress” school shoes or black leather sports shoes (not boots)
Grey socks
Brown or black school sandals

 

Mary Poppins Costumes

Our school musical, Mary Poppins, is approaching fast. All students need their costumes at school by Monday, 14 November. Please see the school app or your emails for information about costumes specific to your child’s year level and/or lead role.

 

Mary Poppins Tickets

Tickets to the St Matthew’s School Music: Mary Poppins, are going fast, especially to the evening performance.

Date: Friday 18th November (11:30am Matinee or 6pm Evening show)
Cost: Free (Gold coin donation appreciated. Proceeds go to local charities)

Use this link to secure your tickets:

https://www.trybooking.com/CCJMZ

Please be considerate when booking.

 

Crazy Socks for Socktober

On Friday 21 October, children are invited to wear their craziest socks to support Catholic Mission’s Socktober fundraiser. Socktober invites schools to engage with mission in an holistic way within the head, heart, hands model: encouraging a learning mind, an open heart and hands for action. This year, children will learn about life in Ethopia and other developing countries, and be encouraged to take concrete action by supplying a gold coin donation.

 

Term Overviews

Year level specific term overviews will go out through the app on Monday. Please note as part of our commitment to reducing waste, no paper copies will be provided. I would encourage all families to regularly access the calendar on the school app to keep up-to-date with cancellations and additions.

P&F Meeting

Our first P&F meeting for this term will be held on 24 October at 7pm. Babysitting is available (contact the Office if this is required). It would be wonderful to see as many parents as possible represented at this meeting.

2023 School Bus Transport Assistance

If you live more than 45km from St Matthew’s School, you may be eligible for Transport Assistance.

Principal Focus – Let’s Get Creative!

Spending Saturday surrounded by our children’s art at the Narrogin Show, helped me to appreciate how important it is that we as educators and parents, provide our beautiful little people with opportunities to express themselves through art and music.

Maggie Dent, Let’s Get Creative – It’s Good for Your Health and Wellbeing explains:

Healthy creativity in children and adults has four main elements

  1. An active imagination. Many of the modern passive activities that use screens too early and excessively can numb children’s imaginations and stunt their capacity to explore their imaginary world in a positive way.
  2. The second requirement for creativity is the courage to express oneself as honestly as possible. Courage is needed because you may be judged. Even pre-schoolers are sensitive to judgement and criticism, and will curtail their creativity if they feel they risk being judged unfavourably.
  3. The third requirement is freedom, when we are allowed and also encouraged to express ourselves however we like, in whatever form suits us.
  4. The final requirement is very simple – opportunity – in the home, at school and even in the workplace.

When all four of these attributes are present, children can experience the healing potential of creativity. They can diffuse excess energy, unexpressed emotions and experience safe transcendence by connecting deeply with their inner selves. Problems can be externalised, a sense of powerlessness and their fear about how the world appears to them can be expressed.

How many opportunities are we offering our children to be creative, original and as expressive as they wish?

  • Are you comfortable with dirt, mud, paint, water and glue?
  • Do you have an area around your home where your child can get down-and-dirty with their creativity?
  • Do you have a strategy that helps your child keep their creative ‘mess’ outside, like a cleaning bucket or bowl and towel?
  • Do you join in with your child when invited?
  • Do you keep the ‘creation’ as your child leaves it or do you quickly clean it away, as soon as possible?
  • When did your child last make a cubby – inside or outside the house?
  • Have you brought home any big boxes lately for your child to play with?
  • When did you last watch ants or butterflies with your child?
  • How many sand castles and sculptures have you made?
  • How many mud pies have you ‘cooked’?
  • How many dozen pipe cleaners or popsicle sticks have you bought?
  • How many sidewalk chalk packs have you been through?
  • What does your fridge look like?
  • Have you hand-painted kids’ T-shirts with them?
  • How many framed ‘kids’ bits’ do you have?
  • How many homemade kites have you made and flown?
  • When did you last have races with leaf or bark boats?
  • When did you last make fresh play dough?
  • When did you last have fresh sand in the sandpit?
  • How often do you dance with your child?
  • When did you last have a treasure hunt in the garden or park?
  • When did you last play hide and seek with your child?
  • Have you kept kisses or wishes in a jar?
  • Has your child grown anything from seed?
  • When did you take your child to the library to pick out story and picture books they wanted?
  • Do you have a box of dress-up clothes?

 

Notice these suggestions seldom cost much money – it’s more about commitment of time and energy by you the parent or carer, someone they love to spend time with.

Keep creating,

Susan Milton

Translate »