St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School

2 Tebbutt Street Telephone: (02) 4577 3463 PO Box 406 Facsimile: (02) 4577 6461 Windsor 2756 Email: stmatthews@parra.catholic.edu.au Web Address: www.stmatthewswindsor.catholic.edu.au

NEWSLETTER 11th February 2016

ST. MATTHEW’S SCHOOL FOCUS FOR WEEKS 3 “Hands off keeps us safe”

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Welcome to the new school year! We have had a few days of school already and it has been a great start to the first term. It is great to see students of all ages come into school for the new year. Each and every one is filled with emotions as they begin the 2016 school year. The younger students arrive with the anticipation of a new teacher and the excitement of seeing their friends again. The older students enjoy seeing friends again and getting involved in another year of learning and activities. Our first two days with the MAI assessments were a great success. I would like to thank all parents for your support of this initiative. We were able to complete all but a few of the children’s assessments, which have since been completed. As a result of these assessments teachers have begun planning the next step in the teaching cycle for the students. Thank you to all those who were able to support the welcome Bush Dance/BBQ on Friday evening. It was a great community event for all those who attended. My thanks to the Good Samaritan Committee for their behind the scenes organisation of the evening and to the parents who assisted with the BBQ, serving and cleaning up at the end of the night. 2016 will be a year full of promise and possibilities; a chance to continue to deepen our faith as a Catholic community; continue to engage in diverse, challenging teaching; an opportunity for us to become the best learners we can be! Throughout the year, our school will be a place where staff, students and families have opportunities to experience God’s presence in their lives, through liturgy and prayer. Our opening school mass will be tomorrow, Friday 12th February, where we will welcome our new Kindergarten students, induct our Yr 6 leaders and celebrate as a faith community. We warmly invite families to this, and all, celebrations to share in and witness to our faith life with the students. Education today is a complex engagement because of the intensity and variety of external influences particularly through various forms of media and electronic communications. Our school has a unique role in assisting every parent with the education of their children, so that all children will develop a sense of personal responsibility in learning to use it responsibly. We all know that children receive the best education when parents and teachers work as a team. Parents’ enthusiasm, support and involvement are integral to the success of our school as are the skills, dedication and professionalism of teachers. Together, staff and parents can provide educational excellence for every student, so that they can achieve their personal best. Together, we can support one another to provide an inviting, collaborative learning environment and a place to celebrate our achievements.

“God, our Father,

we ask that Your Spirit be a constant influence in the lives of all who make up our school community. As we begin this new school year,

lead us to be welcoming to everyone new to our community, students, families and teachers. We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen In partnership let us work to develop in the children strong minds and gentle hearts Peace and Best Wishes for a wonderful year ahead, Timothy Vane-Tempest, Principal

CALENDAR DATES

TERM 1

Feb 17

Wed

Parish Mass Yr 4

9:00 am

Feb 17

Wed

Parent info night 7:00-8:00 pm

Feb 22

Mon

Hills Zone Swimming

Hawkesbury Oasis

Feb 23

Tues

Reconciliation Stage 3

12:00 pm

Feb 24

Wed

Yr 3 Excursion

Road Bike Safety Education Centre, King Street,

Campbelltown depart 8:20 am

Feb 29

Mon

Young Leaders Day

Allphones Arena Homebush

Feb 29

Mon

Assembly Yr 4 & Yr 1

2:25 pm

Mar 1

Tues

Yr 4 Reconciliation 12:00 pm

Mar 2

Wed

Parish Mass Yr 3

9:00 am

Mar 2

Wed

First Communion meeting

7:30 pm

SCHOOL FEES 2016

School fee accounts for Term 1 will be posted soon.

Families have the option to take up the Flexible Payment Plan offered and

the information regarding this will be sent with the school fee account. Fees

can also be paid by Cash, Cheque, Bpay and Eftpos.

For those families who had setup a payment arrangement in 2015 you will

now need to renegotiate a new payment plan for 2016 school fees.

Please contact Stacey Roberts on 4577 3463 should you have any queries or

need to setup a payment plan.

School Hours

The school day begins with certain routines and activities such as roll call. It is important that children arrive at school by 8.55am. The school grounds are open to pupils from 8.30am each morning and remain open to pupils until 3.40pm each afternoon.

Notes and Newsletter Day A reminder that we will, as far as possible, have one day in the week for sending home information and notes. That day will be THURSDAY.

Teachers As Learners 2016 will be another busy year of professional learning for all staff at St Matthew’s. This year staff will be engaged in a range of professional learning courses to support our school goals. Mrs Digwood began her training as a Reading Recovery teacher in the first week of this year. Completing this training is a significant commitment of time and energy which will continue throughout 2016. Last Thursday evening I had the privilege of witnessing Miss Farmer being commissioned as a teacher in the Parramatta Diocese. The ceremony was held in St Patrick’s Cathedral at Parramatta. This is a significant event in the teaching life of Miss Farmer and marks the culmination of years of study and dedication towards becoming a teacher.

Greetings everyone at St Matthew’s! It is wonderful to be back! Welcome back to a new school year. This year is also The Year of Mercy. Pope Francis has proclaimed this year- 2016, as the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. The Year of Mercy began on the 8th of December 2015 until the 20th 0f November 2016. This is a special time for all the people of God to remember the gift of mercy from our loving Father and for us to show mercy to everyone we come into contact with. A great way to remember God’s message of mercy to us is “The ABC’s of Mercy.” Ask for His Mercy. Be Merciful. Completely trust in Jesus. We ask for the help of our Mother Mary to open our eyes and ears to those around us and show them the face of God’s Mercy through our actions. Tuesday this week was Shrove Tuesday and we had the blessing and burning of the palms, in preparation for Ash Wednesday. Our Good Samaritan Team very kindly offered to make pancakes for all our students. Our students are also learning about the history and relevance of Ash Wednesday- the beginning of Lent. Lent is a time of conversion and reconciliation with God and others. All students and teachers will receive a Hail Holy Queen prayer card. Pope Francis has asked us to honour Mary Our Mother during this special Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. Teachers and students will be praying the Hail Holy Queen during the year in class and other whole school opportunities. This is a special time for family prayer: before meals, at bedtime, reading a passage from the Bible or reflecting on an image of Our Lady or on the Merciful Heart of Jesus. As we live out the message of Mercy in our daily lives, let us turn to Jesus and Mary our Mother to help us grow together in faith, love and mercy. “ Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6 : 36) God Bless, Ann Climpson Jesus in our hearts – Forever!

World Youth Day 2016

In 2016 three of our staff, Miss Cullen, Miss Trefoni and Miss Keane have committed to participating in the World Youth Day pilgrimage to the Philippines and Kraków in Poland. World Youth Day is a gathering of catholic youth and young adults aimed at deepening learning, renewal and faith of the pilgrims. WYD 2016 will take place from July 15th - August 2nd. To begin their pilgrimage pilgrims will participate in a mission experience to the island of Bohol in the Philippines. In 2013, a 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated Bohol Island in the Philippines. As part of the first leg of the pilgrimage to World Youth Day 2016 in Kraków, pilgrims will be working alongside Filipino youth; teaching, mentoring, painting, preparing vegetable gardens, feeding malnourished children and completing repairs to buildings. The learning that comes from such a significant experience will come back to enrich our children and wider community. From my own pilgrimage experience in 2014 this will be a significant time of growth for our teachers. As a community we will be holding some fundraising events to support our teachers in attending this significantly important faith experience.

Kinder Ben Nicholas Shelby Mitchell Jack Caldwell Hunter Adams

For trying hard in handwriting. For a great start to kindergarten. For great effort in writing. For a great start to kindergarten

Year 1 Kate Xie Savanah Flewin Penelope Gage Noah McCabe

For drawing an amazing self-portrait in creative arts. For drawing an amazing self-portrait in creative arts. For producing quality work during guided reading activities. For producing quality reading responses during guided reading activities.

Year 2 Montana Charles Jacob Dessmann Cooper Naylor Logan Robertson

Showing great responsibility and an excellent start to the year . Always striving to do his best. Fantastic thinking and strategies in maths. Excellent contributions during religion.

YEAR 3 Charlotte Cook Coen Williams Bridget Steer- Max Turner

Justifying her mathematics answers in detail, well done! Participating cooperatively in PBL groups, well done! Participating cooperatively in PBL groups, well done! Participating in class discussions, well done!

Year 4 Taylah Lyons Harmony Martin Taylor Kerin Audrey Zhou

Making a great start as a learner and a friend at St Matthew's. Congratulations on entering God's family through Baptism and making a great start in our school community. For hard thinking and enjoying challenges in our new maths warm ups. For showing great concentration skills with doing hard thinking in reading.

YEAR 5 Willem Machin Alyssa Kirk Tatiarna Valente Richard Muscat

For staying on task and completing his work. Working quietly and setting a good example. Being a focused and organised worker. Being a mature and independent member of Stage 3.

Year 6 Rebecca Burke Luke Lyons Kaitlyn Touma

For having a growth mindset in Mathematics For setting a good example and working quietly. For being a focused and organised student.

Whole School Assembly Our first Award Assembly for the year was held on Monday of this week. Kinder will attend our next assembly on Monday 29th February. As outlined last week these assemblies will be mainly to acknowledge students achievement. We look forward to seeing parents joining us at these important community gathering times throughout the year.

SWIMMING CARNIVAL

Congratulations to all of our Zone competitors who qualified in their events. Our carnival this year was unfortunately amended due to poor weather conditions, however, it ran smoothly and quickly allowing us to not get caught up in the rain. Our winning house colour was Hawkesbury (green)!! A huge thank you to all of the parents who came to help out on the day, we appreciate it.

The Hills Zone Swimming Carnival will be held on Monday February 22nd at the Hawkesbury Oasis.

Our qualifying students are:

Year 6 Rebecca Burke Ellie Galea Bronagh Miskelly Sienna Simpson Kaitlyn Touma

Year 5 Charlie Burton Jon-Pierre Dagher Edward Kennedy Keiara King Danijela Prasnicki Monique Toth

Year 4 Jude Deguara Brett Facchin Amy Galea

Year 3 Noah Burton Georgia Crozier Emerson Finch Holly McKay Matthew Simpson Max Turner

Year 2 William Crozier

Medical Forms & Medicare Number Throughout the year there are occasions when students will attend excursions or represent the school at sporting or cultural events. To avoid asking for multiple forms throughout the year we are asking all families to complete and return a medical form for each child at the school which we will keep and use when needed. Included on this form is a space to record your child/rens Medicare number to assist should medical treatment be required whilst on an out of school activity. It would be appreciated if these forms could be returned to school by Friday 26th February.

Over the counter medication

Over the counter medication including analgesics or homeopathic preparations must not be administered by school staff unless a written request is received from the student’s parent and is accompanied by written advice from a medical practitioner with the medication in the original labelled container.

Kindy Nicholas Spiteri Zach Baldacchino Jack Caldwell

Zahlia Baldacchino Pyper Phillips

Year 1 Louis Gatt Savanah Flewin Gwenllian Gregory

Alishya Zhou Dominique Xerri

Year 2 Hannah Kent Luka Layton Emily Su

Lucas Sheehy Grace Dale

Year 3 Coen Williams

Year 4 Jack Isles Mitchell Cwojdzinski

Year 5 Noah Holland Kate Mitchell Keiara King

Year 6 Simon Hindy Ellie Galea Sophia Machin

School Banking St. Matthew’s is excited to offer the Commonwealth Bank School Banking program to all students. If your children are not currently involved in the School Banking program and you would like to know more, please ask for a 2016 School Banking program Information Pack from the School office.

The School Banking program provides children with an opportunity to deposit money into their Commonwealth Bank Youthsaver account at school each week. The program is about how often your child makes deposits, not how much they deposit. To encourage regular savings behaviour the program offers an exciting Rewards Program. The rewards available during 2016 are:

Flying Snake Tail

Wildlife Writer Set

Mud Splat Handball

Outback Pat Bag Tag

Backtrack Eraser Pen

Jump and Skip Rope

Bush Fly Fan

Wriggly Glow Worm

School Banking is also a great fundraiser for our school. Our school receives $5 when a student makes their first ever School Banking deposit and 5% on every deposit made through the school (to a maximum of $10 per individual deposit).

Thank you for supporting the school banking programme and don’t forget Monday is school banking day.

Issuing Exemption Certificates for Absences

The Minister for Education has approved changes to the use of the Attendance Register codes for 2016.

These changes will implement the ACARA National Standards for Student Attendance Data Reporting. ACARA developed the National Standards to establish nationally consistent parameters for the collection and reporting of student at-tendance data.

As part of the implementation of the National Standards, holidays taken by students outside of school vacation periods will now be included as absences. A Certificate of Exemption can no longer be granted for this purpose.

Families are encouraged to holiday or travel during school vacations. If travel during school term is necessary the following considerations apply:

If the principal accepts the reason for the absence, the absence will be marked as “L”

If the principal does not believe the absence is in the student’s best interests and does not accept the reason, the absence is unjustified and will be recorded as “A”

If the period of absence is in excess of 50 days, the student may be eligible to enrol in Distance Education.

Leave of ten (10) or more school days will require a formal application for leave in writing. This letter of request should be addressed to the Principal prior to commencing the leave period indicating the specific reason or purpose for the request of leave.

Principals should consider each application as it presents individually, and notify parents, carers, and class attendance roll teachers in writing of the outcome of this request

Appropriate Use of Photographs and Video This a reminder to all parents, as we start the new year, about the appropriate use of digital images or video.

At this point there is no restriction on parents wishing to take and use photographs of their own child or children at school activities.

However, the use of photographs that include children other than your own, where permission has not been sought from the other child or children’s parents in not acceptable. This is a significant breach of privacy and we all need to be aware and respect the privacy of others.

It is possible that the taking of any digital image, be it a still photograph or video at school events by parents and families may be prohibited if material is not handled and used appropriately. It would be unfortunate if this were to occur however, the privacy and security of others is an important consideration in respect to this matter.

Uniform Shop Hours

Friday 9:00 am - 12 noon

Uniform orders can be placed at the

front office or the form can be

downloaded from the website.

Any uniform sales or enquiries,

Amanda will be able to assist you on

Fridays only between the hours of

9:00 am & 12 noon.

BOOK CLUB ISSUE 1 HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED

ORDERS NEED TO BE

RETURNED BY WEDNESDAY 17TH

FEBRUARY

School Uniforms

The Uniform is available through the school

office. It is as follows:

Summer Worn 1st and 4th Terms

Girls: Check dress with yellow tab tie

Short blue socks

Black shoes (those which can be polished - no

joggers or skate shoes)

Hair ribbons in school colours

School bucket hat

Boys: Blue shirt (short sleeved)

Grey shorts

Short grey socks

Black shoes (those which can be polished – no

joggers or skate shoes)

School bucket hat

Girls/Boys Sport shirt

Navy school sports shorts in summer, navy

track pants in winter

Plain, short white socks

Joggers/sandshoes

Navy school hat

PLEASE NOTE …………….Parking restriction in front of school. No parking 8 am - 4 pm (School buses accepted)

Kiss & Drop Area

The Kiss & Drop area is located in the drive through at the front of the school in Little Church St. It has been established to assist with traffic flow and for parents who wish to drop off children without parking.

The important guidelines for using the Kiss & Drop zone are:

Kiss & Drop operates between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and then again for the afternoon pick up.

Cars will follow in single file through the drop off/pick up zone

Drivers should move as far as possible into the zone before stopping to allow children to get out

For safety, children need to exit the car on the left hand-side so they are not walking behind or between cars using the zone

No overtaking of vehicles in the Kiss & Drop zone

Drivers need to stay in their car at all times – no parking is permitted in the Kiss & Drop

When leaving the Kiss & Drop zone be aware of other drivers and pedestrians.

If you are interested in learning an instrument at school,

Musicorp can be contacted on 1300 858 911 or you can call

at the school office and complete an expression of interest