School Vision

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

This prayer is chosen to acknowledge the second week of Lent:

God of love,
you love each of us at every moment of our lives.
Give us confidence in that love, and help us to love as you do.
As we listen to the needs around us with our physical ears,
open the ears of our hearts to receive
and respond to those who come to us in their time of need.
In your all-loving name, we pray.
Amen

Dear Parents & Carers,

Welcome to the second newsletter for 2024.

School Communication

It is naturally important to us that all of our beautiful families stay fully informed about school events and therefore, I would like to sincerely thank the community members who have provided feedback about school communication. Based on this feedback, we are in the process of centalising our school communication via the website. In short, this means that all the content that is produced, regardless of the platform, will originate from a single source.

In the meantime, please be aware of the following:

• The school app is the main source of information – Newsletter (every second Tuesday – odd weeks); Whole-school communication (announcements, incursions, excursions, Mass information etc); Whole-class communication (invitations, excursions, term overviews etc); absentees
• Emails and phone calls are used for one-on-one communication between staff and parents
• SMS is used for alerts and remainders
• SeeSaw is used to celebrate student work and share homework

The School App

Items posted to the app are general and do not contain any personal information about students. Therefore, to provide easier access, we have decided to remove the password.

Handy hint: If you are having trouble navigating away from a document once you have opened it, swipe right from the left edge of the screen and this will return you to the app.

Download the School App Instructions

LENT – a special time of year

Ash Wednesday marked the beginning of Lent, the 40 day period in the Church calendar that begins on Ash Wednesday and finishes on Holy Thursday. This is a special time of year for prayer, penance, sacrifice, and good works. Traditionally, people would give up something for Lent, usually a favourite food or perhaps a pleasurable activity. There’s nothing wrong with suggesting that children give something up for Lent, as long as they understand why they’re doing it and do it in the right spirit. So it’s important to explain that giving something up for Lent can help us focus on God and that depriving ourselves of something we like gives us an appreciation for all we have. It’s also a good idea to have the children do something positive related to what they’re giving up. For instance, if they’ve given up chocolate for Lent, then they could take the money they would have spent on the chocolate and put it in a jar to be used for an organisation which helps children in need. If they’ve decided to give up watching television one day a week, then they could use the time they would have spent watching TV helping someone or praying.

SunSmart Country Schools’ Tennis Classic

Congratulations to the Year 5 and 6 students who have been selected to be part of the St Matthew’s School team in the 2024 SunSmart Country Schools’ Tennis Classic on  Wednesday 28th February:

Estella, Totenda,  Elisha, Piper, Morgane, Iyana, Sofia, Emma, Mia, Noah, Uzoma Charlie D, Dowling, Blake, Charlie S, Oscar, Bodeen, Jackson 

We all wish you well and hope you have a fabulous day.

Faction Swimming Carnival

On Tuesday, 12 March, students in Years 3-6 will participate in the St Matthew’s School Swimming Carnival. Students will walk to Narrogin Leisure Centre at 9.00am for a 9.30am commencement time. Prior to the carnival, students will receive a program of the day’s events with their individual events circled.

We require the assistance of many parents for the smooth running of our carnival. If you are interested, please email antonio.muto@cewa.edu.au

Faction Swimming Carnival Note

Please ensure the slip indicating the events your child is competently able to compete in,  has been returned to school. This information is essential for planning.

P&F Swimming Carnival Lunches

Our amazing P&F will be organising lunch orders for the faction swimming carnival again this year.  This will be their first fundraiser for the year. More information about this will be supplied shortly.

A Message From Miss McCormack

We are doing lots of fun hands-on activities in the garden for STEM. If anyone has manure/soil donations for the school garden beds, that would be very much appreciated. Please email Miss Meka McCormack for more details at: meka.mccormack@cewa.edu.au 

We Need Your Help

A Huge thank you to Danielle van Rooyen and Annie Viljeon for offering to stain our new Kindy & Pre-Primary cubby this week. There are several jobs we still need parent assistance to complete:

• Laying roll-on lawn
• Finishing off the sensory path 

If you are able to assist in completing any of these jobs, please email susan.milton@cewa.edu.au We will happily work around your schedule.

Important Dates

All important dates can be viewed on the St Matthew’s app calendar. Of particular note are:

Keep Communicating,

Susan Milton

Principal