St Matthew’s Primary School

WEEK FOUR
Thursday 23 May	North Belconnen Regional Cross Country Stromlo Dance Workshop Confirmation Faith Formation Evening for parents and children held at 6 pm at St Vincent’s Church in Aranda
Friday 24 May	Year 3 Prayer Celebration in the School Hall at 8.55 am K-2 Cross Country Carnival commencing at 10.00 am Clothing Pool open 2.45pm Flexischools Lunch https://user.flexischools.com.au/login?returnUrl=%2Fhome
Saturday 25 May	Confirmation Commitment Mass 6.00 pm St Matthew's Church
Sunday 26 May	Confirmation Commitment Mass 8.30 am St Matthew's Church and 10.00 am St Vincents, Aranda
WEEK FIVE
Monday 27 May	Reconciliation Day - Public Holiday
Tuesday 28 May	Assistant Principal Network Meeting - Mrs Cole attending
Friday 31 May	Year 1/2 attending Mass at 9.30 am Didjeribone Indigenous Performance - Whole School Clothing Pool open 2.45pm Flexischools Lunch https://user.flexischools.com.au/login?returnUrl=%2Fhome

Learning Exhibition and Celebration

Last Thursday, our school hosted the Learning Exhibition and Celebration, showcasing our students' talents and hard work. I was impressed by the diversity of projects and artifacts, which highlighted their creativity and deep understanding of the topics.

From innovative engineering models to captivating art pieces and detailed reports, the exhibition was a testament to our students' outstanding effort and enthusiasm. Each display demonstrated their knowledge and ability to think critically and express their ideas effectively.

I extend my congratulations to all the students; your presentations were impressive, and your passion for learning was evident. Thank you also to our families and friends who came to the celebration.

A special thank you to our teachers, whose support and guidance have been instrumental in the student's success. This exhibition would not have been possible without your hard work and dedication.

I look forward to seeing more amazing work and celebrating future achievements together. Keep up the excellent work!

National Simultaneous Storytime

National Simultaneous Storytime (NSS) is held annually by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA). Every year, a picture book written and illustrated by an Australian author and illustrator is read simultaneously in libraries, schools, pre-schools, childcare centres, family homes, bookshops and many other places around the country.

Now in its 24th year, the event aims to promote the value of reading and literacy, using an Australian children's book that explores age-appropriate themes and addresses key learning areas of the National Curriculum for Foundation to Year 6.

Thank you to Miss Judd for organising the teaching resources and to all of you, our parents and carers, for getting in the spirit of the event and sending your child to school with blue accessories.

Safety Reminders

It is that time of the term again to remind families about the safe Pick-Up and Drop-off procedures.

Inspectors regularly patrol Stutchbury and Chewings Street during our morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up times. Parents and carers have recently been booked whilst lining up to drop off or collect their children and for parking in a No Parking Zone. The following procedures will ensure that you do not get booked by police:

enter Stutchbuty Street from Chewings Street
whilst you are lining up, remain close to the centre line, with your right indicator on
if you are parking near the Junior Playground on Stutchbury Street, only park in the designated car parks
do not park within 20 metres before or 10 metres after a pedestrian crossing
only drive into the car park by the entry - do not enter via the exit ramp

Thank you for your assistance in making the morning and afternoon procedures run smoothly.

2025 Enrolments - Due 31 May

If you have a child starting next year, please call the office. An enrolment pack will be sent home.

Enrolment information can be found on our school website, and enrolments can be made online.

https://www.stmattsps.act.edu.au/thinking-of-enrolling https://stmattsps.act.edu.au/enrol/how-to-enrol

https://enrolments.stmattsps.act.edu.au/primary-act/start

Please help spread the word about St Matthew's!

Yours in peace and love,

Mrs Sarah Lowe

Learning Exhibition and Celebration

On Thursday of last week, every student in the school participated in our Learning Exhibition and Celebration. Each student had the opportunity to present their learning journey to their peers, parents, and families, with two or three artefacts to show in their individual ‘exhibition spaces’. These artefacts included artworks, posters, and informative texts.

Students and visitors walked from classroom to classroom with carefully prepared questions for exhibitors to answer:

What did you learn?

What was most successful about your learning?

What was challenging about this learning?

What would you do differently if you had another chance?

What new skill/s did you learn?

Now that you know what you know, how do you intend to take action?

These questions are important for students to consider. At St Matthew’s, the student’s learning is about living out our vision of a Christ-centred school in the Catholic tradition where students learn to engage fully with society and serve their communities as people of action and hope.

Exhibitors engaged their visitors with interesting facts and also with calls to action. It was noisy and exciting, and the pride on the students' (and teachers’!) faces was obvious. This event was another roaring success and evidence of the wonderful learning at St Matthew’s! These benefits include the development of engaged, confident, competent learners who have increased initiative, self-direction and empathy.

Thank you for supporting our students. We’ll see you at the next Learning Exhibition and Celebration in Term 4.

Child Safeguarding Corner

The Child Safe Standards provide tangible guidance about how to create cultures, adopt strategies, and act to keep children safe from harm. Each fortnight, we’ll present one of the standards and ask you to reflect on how you think we’re addressing the recommendations.

Child Safe Standard 2: Children participate in decisions affecting them and are taken seriously.

The aim of this standard is that students are encouraged to speak up and are believed. Children are safer when schools teach them about their rights to be heard, listened to and believed. A child-safe school actively seeks the opinions of children and, when doing so, considers their age, development, maturity, understanding, abilities and how they communicate. Students are encouraged and supported to regularly contribute to decisions that affect them.

Our aim is to prioritise this standard for child safety in what we say and do:

Students express their views and participate in decisions that affect their lives.
The importance of friendships is recognised and support from peers is encouraged, helping children feel safe and be less isolated.
Students from Kindergarten to Year 6 participate in programs that assist them in dealing with unsafe situations.
Staff are attuned to signs of harm and facilitate child-friendly ways for children to communicate and raise their concerns.

If we are addressing this standard successfully, we would expect children to say:

Teachers at my school listen to me and ask my opinion about things that affect me.
I have friends I can talk to.
I can talk to my teachers if I feel unsafe, even if the conversation is difficult.
I know that teachers sometimes need to tell someone else if I need extra support.

If you have any questions or feedback about how we are addressing this Standard, please email me (petra.cole@cg.catholic.edu.au).

Petra Cole

Assistant Principal

Book Fair - Save the Date

Musica Viva “Game Day”

In week two, we were treated to a whole school Musica Viva performance called “Game Day.” The Phoenix Collective Quartet, comprised of string instruments, taught us how professional sports and classical music are connected. We learnt that both have performers who train for hours so they can do what they love for their fans. They showed us what it means to work together to accomplish their goals and how teamwork really does work.

Introducing St Matthew's Community Council Executive

From left to right: Nadia, Mick, David, Kylie, Cody, Larissa & Cheryl

Term Two Meetings

We had our first meeting for Term 2 last Tuesday night (Week 3), and we are excited to share our vision for fundraising and nurturing the St. Matthews community spirit with all of you.

Our goal for fundraising this year is to purchase more Chromebooks for St. Matty’s students.

We have several fundraising ideas such as cookie dough buckets, chocolate boxes, Bunnings BBQ, special school lunch orders, a colour run, spell-a-thon and a disco.

Our next Community Council meeting will be held in week 8 on Tuesday, June 18th, from 6 to 7 p.m. It will be an open meeting, and everyone is welcome to attend. We will provide an overview of our upcoming events and be available for questions and ideas. We will also have a workshop on Spelling Mastery and a tour of our new school facilities.

If you have any suggestions for other fundraising avenues or any questions in general, please feel free to talk to us at school or reach out via email.

stmatthewscommunitycouncil@gmail.com

We hope to see you at our open meeting.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead.

Kylie and the Community Council