Dear Parents and Carers

Exciting News

We have been officially informed by the ACT Government Block Grant Authority that the school’s application for a grant to refurbish the building has been successful. Due to the large number of applications the Grant has been confined to Stage One. A reminder that Stage One was for those classrooms at the “church end” of the building including the current Years Six, Four and Three. This area will be transformed into seven classrooms.

Obviously the building works will require the affected classes to be relocated into other areas of the school. At the moment these areas include the School Hall, Library and Creative Arts room. The use of the hall will obviously impact on Out of Hours Care which will need to be relocated to an area which has been licenced for use as an alternative child care space. The hall use will also have implications for our capacity to hold normal activities such as assemblies, dance/gym and community gatherings.

I will keep you posted during this term as plans become more certain.

Despite these inconveniences the final result will be a state of the art building fit for purpose for 21^st century teaching and learning.

Meet the Teacher

I hope you found this week's meetings helpful. This model is quite unique to St Matthew’s School, in that the intention is to provide the parents with an opportunity to inform the teacher of your perception of your child’s strengths and weaknesses. In essence it completes the handover process which commenced late last year when the departing teacher met with the incoming teacher to exchange data and other notes.

It was lovely to be able to reconnect with parents once again at last Friday’s Beginning of the Year function. Everyone appeared to have a great time catching up despite the inclement weather. Thank you to the team of staff, ably assisted by our parents who helped cook the barbeque.

May God bless you and your families 

Graham Pollard

Principal