Communication at St Matthew’s

St Matthew’s Primary School values and promotes partnerships between parents/carers, students and staff. We are committed to respectful, measured, sensitive and constructive communication. In adhering to these principles, we aim to strengthen the goodwill and the positive partnerships between the school, our families, the parish and the broader Catholic community to enhance our children's wellbeing and learning opportunities.

A few decades ago, communication with teachers occurred via handwritten notes or by booking meetings through the front office. Not much of a teacher’s day was taken up with communicating with parents. Over the last twenty years, technology has made it easier and easier for parents to approach teaching staff and communicate with them. We acknowledge that email is very convenient for parents who may find it difficult to speak to or meet with school staff during regular work hours. In many ways, easy access to email communication promotes excellent working partnerships with our parents, which we value and appreciate. However, it can also become a challenge for teachers if they are spending their preparation and planning time each afternoon reading and responding to emails. 

Here are a few important points to note about communicating with the school: 

• Outside of working hours, with the exception of extenuating circumstances or in an emergency, staff are not expected to access or respond to emails from other staff, parents, students or external agencies.
• In most instances, if parents/carers have concerns that need addressing regarding the social, emotional, or academic needs of their students, the classroom teacher is the first contact. However, responding to non-urgent, frequent emails impact teachers’ planning and preparation time. 
• Please call the front office for urgent matters or matters about lost clothing, lunches or pick-up arrangements. 
• During the day, from 8.20am, teachers are teaching, on duty, or preparing lessons, and will probably not read emails until the end of the school day.
• Emails to teaching staff at St Matthew’s are responded to within two school days. 
• To make an appointment for a face-to-face or telephone meeting, contact the front office, or email the class teacher. Unscheduled or impromptu meetings before or after school are strongly discouraged. Teachers prepare lessons, complete administrative tasks and attend meetings at these times. 
• If you have an issue related to other students or parents in the school, please bring this to the attention of the Principal or Leadership Team, instead of trying to deal with it yourself. 
• If parents would like to make a complaint, they are encouraged to discuss the issue with the classroom teacher or school Principal in the first instance, depending on the nature of the complaint. If it is not possible to have a conversation, an email is also acceptable, and will generally be followed up with a phone call or meeting. Many issues can be resolved quickly through discussion. Catholic Education’s Complaints Policy can be found here. 

Students should feel comfortable speaking with staff members about matters that need addressing. In the first instance, students should discuss concerns or ideas with their classroom teacher. When this is not appropriate or possible, students should identify another trusted member of staff with whom to have a discussion. This could include the School Counsellor.

Regular, whole-school communication is available to parents through:

• St Matthew’s Primary School Website, which is regularly updated
• Our fortnightly newsletter
• Facebook
• Compass
• Morning Assemblies to which you are always warmly invited
• Award assemblies, held on Friday afternoons in the hall approximately twice each term. 
• Meet the Teacher evenings, which take place early in Term 1
• Semester Reports
• Parent Teacher Interviews

Effective communication between a school and its parent community is crucial for building trust, addressing concerns, and ensuring that students receive the support they need to thrive academically and emotionally. We are very grateful for your support.

If you have any questions or suggestions about communication at St Matthew’s, don't hesitate to get in touch with our Principal, Sarah (sarah.lowe@cg.catholic.edu.au) or our Assistant Principal,  Petra (petra.cole@cg.catholic.edu.au).

Petra Cole

petra.cole@cg.catholic.edu.au 

Lighting the Way as Pilgrims of Hope

As we embark on the 2025 school year, our theme, "Lighting the Way as Pilgrims of Hope," draws deeply from the Catholic Church's theme of "Pilgrims of Hope" and the Jubilee. 

The life of faith is often described as a pilgrimage toward the light of the Risen Lord. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is 9:2). This great light is Jesus, who gathers every people and nation by His Word. As a school community, we are called to reflect this light in our daily lives, offering hope and unity to one another.

The Jubilee is a time of spiritual renewal and growth, encouraging us to restore our relationships with God, each other, and creation. We strive to find our light, inspire others, strengthen our community and embrace world hope. Through acts of kindness, faith, and encouragement, we have a powerful opportunity to make a positive impact, lighting the way in our classrooms and our wider school community.

Upcoming Events

Term 1 boasts a wonderful time of reflection and celebration. We always warmly welcome you to our school events. Please add the following to your calendar.

Ash Wednesday Mass - 5th March @ 12pm

Holy Week Reflection - 10th April @ 9:30-11:00am

Sacramental Program

As our Sacramental Program starts again, we invite you to enrol your child in the upcoming Sacrament of Reconciliation. For Baptised Catholic students, this is an important step in their faith journey and will help them experience God's loving forgiveness.

Please enrol your child via the QKR application through the St Matthew’s and St Vincent’s Parish page.

Thursday, 27th February @6pm will be our online parent information session for enrolled families of students undergoing their Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Link to Zoom https://cgcatholic.zoom.us/j/64251875983

See the attached document for further information.

Technology at St Matthew's

At St Matthew’s, our students and teachers have access to a wide range of technology to assist with teaching and learning. Each of our classrooms has an interactive panel that enables teachers to display content to enhance learning. Students in Kindergarten to Year 3 have access to iPads with a wide range of educational apps. We also offer one-to-one Chromebooks for students in Year 4 onwards. This initiative enables students to access the internet promoting collaboration through digital tools and real-time feedback, using many of the Google Suite applications. 

Internet Safety Day

This Friday, our students in Years 3 to 6 will participate in a day dedicated to learning about how to be safe and aware digital citizens. 

Some of the content that will be covered includes:

• Recognising ways in which digital devices can be distracting.
• Identify ideal device-free moments for themselves and others.
• Understand that you should never give out private information online.
• Understand that it's important to think about the words we use because everyone interprets things differently.
• Understand what responsibilities we have for the digital footprints we can create.
• How clickbait uses the curiosity gap to get your attention.
• Cyberbullying and the impacts it has on people.

Students in Years 3 to 6 will receive their ICT agreement form at the end of the day. This agreement outlines the students' responsibility to use technology safely at St Matthew’s. Once this form has been signed and returned to school, students will have their log in details distributed so they can access technology at school.

Stay Tuned...

Each fortnight, in my column, I will include a variety of tips about remaining safe and aware digital citizens. Stay tuned!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to 2025! We have a big year ahead in all things sports. 

Well done to all students who participated in this year's annual swimming carnival. A great day was had by all. Thank you to all of our parent helpers on the day. Without your support, running days like this would not be possible. 

Ribbons and regional qualifiers will be announced in the next couple of weeks.

This term, all students will be participating in touch football clinics. These clinics will be run by both Wests Rugby and ACT Touch Football. If your child is interested in trialling rugby as a sport, links to their respective websites are below:

Wests Rugby - https://www.westslions.com.au/

ACT Touch Football - https://touchfootball.com.au/act/

Reminder: All expression of interest notes for the ACT Futsal Gala Day are due by Friday 14th of February. 

Cross Country Carnival

We will be hosting our annual Cross Country Carnival at the Stromlo Walking Track. The date is set for Friday 28th of March (Week 8). If you are able to attend and assist on the day, could you please email Mr Payne via dillon.payne@cg.catholic.edu.au.

St Matthew's Sporting Star

During the holiday break, Lorenzo, in Year 3, represented the ACT Futsal team at the National Championships held in Sydney.

Congratulations, Lorenzo, we are proud of you!

If your child has been participating in sporting and extracurricular events, we would love to hear about it and share it with our school community. 

Yours in sports, 

Dillon Payne

Library Bags

It’s no secret that regular reading has stacks of benefits for your child’s growing mind: development of literacy, imagination, focus, social and communication skills, to name a few. Your child will be carrying books home constantly – that’s where a great kids’ library bag comes in.

A dedicated library bag or satchel keeps your child’s borrowed reads safe and separate from their other belongings whilst travelling to and from school – it’s an important item in their school bag! A library bag needs to be hard-wearing, so seek out something well-made with strong materials, as well as one that is waterproof. This helps to keep books protected from drink bottles and food items in school bags.

If your child does not already own a library bag, please purchase one asap. Waterproof library bags can be purchased from shops such as Officeworks (see here), Best & Less (see here), or Kmart (see here). You can also order personalised ones from various online stores.

Thank you for helping to ensure your child has their named library bag ready for each library lesson!

Book Clubs for 2025

This year, we are trialling a new book club through one of Canberra’s local book shops, The Book Cow. This will be the first book club of every term, and we will continue to have Scholastic Book Club as the second book club each term. When you purchase books through either book club, our school gets a commission that we can use to purchase new books for our library. However, there is never any obligation to order. 

The Book Cow’s book club catalogues will be coming home in the next week or so. This book club will be run in a similar way to Scholastic. Parents will be able to order online, following the details on the back of the book club catalogue. The Book Cow staff will be conducting weekly drop-offs to our school. Our school will receive a 15% credit of the total sales to spend on new books for our library. Families will also receive a 5% credit on any purchases they make. Please note that some of the books listed in the catalogue are due for release at a later date, so you will need to wait until their publication date for those books to be delivered to our school.

As this is the first book club that The Book Cow is running, please send any feedback about the process to the Education Team at schools@bookcow.com.au or to me at sally.judd@cg.catholic.edu.au, and I can pass it on.

Thank you,

Miss Judd

Hi, parents and carers,

My name is Jo, and I am happy to be returning to St. Matthew's as the school counsellor this year.

The school counselling program can be used as a first port of call in supporting and addressing your child’s mental well-being within the school environment. As the school counsellor, I can work with your kids using a short-term, child-led intervention model to support them in addressing any concerns relating to big feelings, relationships, growth and emotional regulation and expression. Through sessions that involve a lot of play, art and talking – I aim to facilitate a safe and objective space for children to explore their feelings and provide guidance and strategies for them to learn to manage and regulate themselves in different contexts.

Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or would like to enquire further about the service and whether it might be helpful for your child.

If you would like to make a referral for your child, please use the link below to access the online form. Once this referral has been made, I will be in touch as soon as possible to discuss your concerns and how the service might be helpful to support your child.

https://catholiccare.force.com/housing/s/school-referral-form

I look forward to working with you and your school throughout 2025.

Go the the form online