Dear Parents and Carers

As they learn, our children make approximations toward proficiency in all areas of life - walking, speaking, and sporting endeavours are good examples. In order to become proficient, children need good models for demonstration, high expectations, responsibility, time and opportunity. Students at St Matthew’s are learning how to communicate respectfully with each other and with adults, as they play, learn and live peacefully as members of the St Matthew’s community.

Recently, I attended a Principal’s Retreat with the theme of mercy and an opportunity for prayer, listening and conversation. As part of our learning, we explored an Instruction issued earlier this year by the Congregation for Catholic Education, called The Identity of the Catholic School for a Culture of Dialogue - a wordy title, no doubt, but a document with some wise advice from Pope Francis about how we might interact with one another. Pope Francis suggests three fundamental guidelines to help dialogue: the duty to respect one’s own identity and that of others, the courage to accept differences, and the necessity of communicating with sincerity of intentions. Dialogue isn’t a strategy for achieving predetermined goals; instead, it’s a path to truth and cooperation. 

Together, teachers and families can educate young people about how to communicate and learn from each other in a way that favours peace and dignity, giving witness to the Gospel message of love of God and neighbour, and service to the world. The way we communicate with each other should be a model for our children, and I thank you all for the way in which you demonstrate this every day in your polite greetings to staff, your formal and informal conversations with teachers and our front office personnel, and your email correspondence. The behaviour of your children is a reflection of this, and it’s something that is central to  the way we do things here at St Matthew’s.

Upcoming Events
We have our Kinder Orientation and Parent Information Session on 23 November, which is an exciting time for all of us here at St Matthew’s as we welcome new children and families into our community.

On 25 November, our Grandparents’ and Grandfriends’ Day Picnic will be held. Flyers for this were sent home last week. Please contact the Front Office if you didn’t receive one. Let’s pray for fine weather so that we can enjoy ourselves outdoors.

Parent/Teacher Conferences will take place on 28, 29 and 30 November and booking information will be sent home next week through Compass.

Year 6 Camp
Our Year 6 students had a terrific experience on camp at Jindabyne - including a snowy Wednesday morning! Thank you to our Year 6 students who represented St Matthew’s with respectful participation, good humour and joy. On behalf of our parents, I wish to also express my appreciation to all of the adults who accompanied our students, giving up time with family and the comforts of home to ensure that camp was a success.

Crossing and Car Park Safety
It’s come to my attention that some students are not crossing Chewings Street in a safe manner. If your child uses the pedestrian crossing in the afternoon, please have a chat with them about the importance of following the instructions of the two teachers on duty. Likewise, it is very important that families refrain from walking students through the staff car park before or after school. This area is very busy at these times. It’s vitally important that our children learn to use the stairs at the front office and then choose a safe pathway around or across the ‘blacktop’ to reach parked cars.

St Matthew’s School Spirit
This week, I was reminded, yet again, of the spirit of St Matthew’s that is exhibited by our families and students with correspondence from a Year 1 parent who explained that, as a result of our 2022 OzTag clinics, a group of Year 1 parents have entered a Year 1 team for the summer OzTag season:  

It was such a joy to have eleven Yr 1 parents, carers and kids excited to join and create a fabulous team named ‘Marvellous Matty’s’. Not all the kids play together at school, or are in the same Yr 1 class, but they have all embraced the team sport making their parents and carers proud and showing beautiful St Matty’s spirit. Ultimately if you hadn’t organised for OzTag to be a part of the St Matty’s sport program we wouldn’t have this amazing team. So thank you for making such a difference to my family life in such a positive way.

Petra Cole
Principal (Acting)