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