'Partners in Learning' Parent Survey

The 'Partners in Learning' Parent Survey is a comprehensive questionnaire covering several aspects of your perceptions of your children's experiences at home and school. It is based primarily on Joyce Epstein's framework for fostering positive school and community relations. Successful schools foster greater communication with parents, encourage parental involvement in their child's schoolwork, and enlist parents to volunteer at the school and participate in school life. The survey also provides feedback to schools about how parents feel the school supports learning and positive behaviour and promotes a safe and inclusive environment.

The survey includes seven separate measures, scored on a ten-point scale. A score of 0 indicates strong disagreement; 10 indicates strong agreement; 5 is a neutral position (neither agree nor disagree).

The data gathered from this survey helps us form our Annual Improvement and Strategic Plans. Of course, we welcome a conversation at any point in time about concerns so that we can address these immediately. 

The data is also provided to the Catholic Education Office, and we would love them to hear about the wonderful things happening at St Matthew's. Hence, we encourage all parents and carers to participate. The more responses we receive, the more accurate our data is.

Please click on the following link to complete the survey: http://tellthemfromme.com/stmatthewspage

Your survey response is encouraged by Monday, 16 August 2024, at 4.30 pm.

The graph below shows an overview of our 2023 results. Out of approximately 230 families, 88 parents responded.

Invitation Parent Breakfast 30 August

K-2 Parent Workshop - DIBELS Assessments

Thank you to the parents who attended the K-2 Parent Workshops yesterday. if you missed the opportunity and would like to learn more about DIBELS and how you can support your child with their early literacy development, please contact Mrs Cole or your child's classroom teacher.

AFL Championships Success

A huge congratulations to Elsie Hamilton on her recent success at the Australian Schools Australian Football Championships held in Geelong.

Although the ACT team did not place in this competition, Elsie was named as the Player's Player Award recipient for the week.

Sue Whiting- Author Visit

Today, we had Australian Author Sue Whiting visit St Matthew's.

Sue is an award-winning children’s author, editor, and former teacher who has worked in publishing for more than twenty years.

Sue has written numerous books for a variety of age groups, from picture books to Young Adult Fiction, including the bestselling Missing, the acclaimed The Book of Chance and a number of CBCA Notable Books. 

Sue’s latest books are Tilda, a historical novel for readers 10+ and Pearly and Pig and the Lost City of Mu Savan, the second book in her new junior fiction series.

Sue is a wonderful storyteller and performer. Today, she had our students fully engaged with her entertaining and passionate storytelling.

She is passionate about the power of stories and is an advocate for reading and writing for pleasure.

I would like to thank Miss Judd for organising Sue Whiting's visit to St Matthew's.

Attendance

We know that every day of school attendance adds to your child's chances of success and achievement from kindergarten to high school. You play a key role in making sure your child attends school every day, and you do this because you understand that attendance leads to success, not just at school but later in life. Every day at school counts towards your child’s learning.

We realise some absences are unavoidable due to health issues or other circumstances. However, we also know that when students miss too much school, no matter the reason, it can cause them to fall behind academically. The more absences your child has, the harder it is for them to catch up on missed work and stay connected to their school community. Absences add up quickly. If your child is absent just one day every two weeks over a school year, this will add up to 20 days of lost learning. This is almost half a school term.

Along with many other schools across Australia, we have noticed a significant increase in absenteeism since COVID-19. We understand that this is partly due to parents being vigilant about keeping sick children at home, and we appreciate this; however, some absences can be avoided.

The following table indicates the levels of attendance.

Catholic Education Canberra Goulburn has asked each school to aim to achieve an attendance rating of 90% or above. Below is the attendance breakdown per grade for Term 2 at St Matthew's.

Kindergarten	92%
Year One	90%
Year Two	89%
Year Three	89%
Year Four	90%
Year Five	87%
Year Six	91%
School	90%

Unfortunately, we currently have 26% of students with an attendance rate of less than 90%; 4% of these fall into the Chronic Absenteeism category.

Part of my job is to respond to all emerging and chronic absenteeism (less than 90% attendance) with support to improve attendance. This may involve an initial letter or phone call, subsequent letters, and creating a Student Attendance Plan.

We want your child to succeed at school and know that you do as well. Please let us know if you require support in ensuring your child attends school on time each day.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

Bullying - Important Conversations to Have With Your Child

St Matthew’s Primary School is participating in the Bullying No Way: National Week of Action this week, 12 to 16 August 2024.

By working collaboratively within our community, we can collectively help reduce bullying.

Parents and carers play an important role in helping your child understand bullying and know how to respond to it.

If your child tells you about things at school, or you observe something in public that involves conflict or bullying, take the opportunity to talk about what bullying is. You can learn more about what defines bullying at bullyingnoway.gov.au.

Questions you could ask:

• What do you think bullying is?
• Have you seen it? How did you feel?
• Have you ever felt scared at school because of bullying?
• As well as me, who are the other adults you would talk to when it comes to things like bullying?
• Have you or your friends left other kids out on purpose? Do you think that was bullying? Why or why not?
• Have you ever tried to help someone who is being bullied? What happened? What would you do if it happens again?

Remind your child that bullying is never okay and discuss how they can respond safely if they experience or witness it.

Encourage them to seek help from a trusted adult and keep seeking support if needed.

By promoting open communication, we empower children to stand up against bullying and create a safer environment where everyone can feel that they belong.

For more information, visit bullyingnoway.gov.au.

Child Safeguarding Corner

The Child Safe Standards provide us with tangible guidance about how to create cultures, adopt strategies and act to put the interests of children first to keep them safe from harm. Each fortnight, I present one of the standards and ask you to reflect on how you think we’re addressing the recommendations. We welcome ideas and feedback from our families and community! This week, we’re looking at Standard 7. 

Child Safe Standard 7: Staff are equipped with the knowledge, skills and awareness to keep children safe through continual education and training. 

The aim of this standard is to ensure that we invest in building staff skills, abilities and confidence. This standard is important because training gives staff the confidence to respond to abuse if it is detected. It also reinforces the importance of child safety and that it is everyone’s responsibility. 

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

• We provide ongoing education and training opportunities for staff. 
• We have a Child Safe Advocate. 
• Our staff understand how to identify, respond to and report child abuse. 
• Our annual plan includes a schedule of learning opportunities for staff. 

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

• Adults understand how to keep me safe. 
• I understand that adults are taught how to behave around me. 
• Adults notice when I feel sad. 

We now have a page on our school website dedicated to Child Safeguarding, and we encourage you to view it. 

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

Petra Cole

Assistant Principal ┃Child Safe Advocate┃Classroom Support Teacher

It has been so lovely being back from maternity leave and with the Saint Matthew’s community. I marvel at the joy our students carry with them and the moments of encounter they provide for me and each other. I am looking forward to working with you through the Sacraments, prayer celebrations, and masses as we enter the last six months of the year. 

This term, we are continuing our theme of Encountering the Power of the Holy Spirit. During our whole-school prayer celebrations, we will explore the gift of Right Judgment. We will use discernment between right and wrong to avoid poor choices and live as God would want us to live. 

The Feast of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary 

Today, Thursday 15th August, is The Feast of The Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary. The students have been exploring the scripture of the feast day, and we will be celebrating mass as a whole school on Friday with our Parish community. Below is the Gospel that will be used during the feast day mass broken open with some pondering questions for you and your families. 

Gospel Reading

Luke 1:39-56

Mary greets Elizabeth and sings God's praise.

The assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven has long been held as an important Catholic belief. The belief teaches that Mary, who was without sin, was taken, body and soul, into the glory of heaven.

The day's Gospel highlights Mary's faith. Elizabeth and Mary recognise the work that God is doing through them. With eyes of faith, they see God's power and salvation breaking through into their lives and into the world. In the Gospel, Mary responds to Elizabeth's greeting with her song of praise, the Magnificat. 

Gather as a family and talk about what you know about Mary and her being a model of faith. Read together today's Gospel, Luke 1:39-56. In this reading, we hear Mary's song of praise to God, the Magnificat. Invite each person in your family to write or draw one or more ways in which they see God working in your family life and in our world today. Use these prayers of thanksgiving to create your family's song of praise to God. Conclude by praying together this song of praise (adapted from Loyola Press). 

Upcoming Events 

Thank you!

Our Year Four students were buzzing with excitement this week when their new fleet of Chromebooks arrived.  A huge thank you to our Community Council and the broader school community for assisting with fundraising for these devices. 

The purchase of these new Chromebooks has enabled us to provide one-to-one Chromebooks for students in Years Four, Five and Six. 

The iPads used in Year Four have been reallocated. We have been lucky enough to redistribute a fleet of iPads to the Library and Learning Support areas. 

Classroom teachers in the lower primary were provided with additional iPads, increasing our supply of iPads in Kindergarten, Year One, Year Two and Year Three classes to fifteen devices per class.

You should have received the Term 3 school fees last week. Our head office sends them out via email.

If you did not receive your invoice and have checked your junk or spam folder first, please contact our Finance Manager, Chris.

Payments are preferred via BPAY as the school incurs a substantial fee for payments made through Compass Pay.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris.

Fathers Day Stall - Friday 30 August

Trivia Night - Save the Date - Friday 20 September

BRAIN BOOSTER WEEK AT OSHCLUB

We have been celebrating Brain Booster’s week, which is all about hands-on STEM activities.

We have celebrated this by having a “make it float” challenge. The children worked very hard using a variety of materials and taking turns to test it in the water to see if it floats.

On Tuesday, we became inventors!

We asked the children to think about their favourite toy, gadget or everyday object and try to make it better or more useful. We had some amazing designs created and are excited to display these throughout OSHClub.