New Devices

We have recently significantly enhanced our educational resources at St Matthew's and acquired new technology to support our students' learning experience.

We are delighted to share that we have purchased 10 new iPads for Year 3 students and 10 Chromebooks for Year 5 students. 

With this new addition, each student in Year 5 now has access to a school-provided one-to-one device, fostering personalised learning experiences tailored to their individual needs. This initiative aligns with our commitment to equipping students with the necessary resources to thrive in today's digital age.

At St Matthew's, we understand that technology is one tool, along with many, used to support the learning and development of our students.

With the support of the Community Council, our next aim is to equip each student in Year Four with a Chromebook. Please support the Community Council in their fundraising endeavours this year to assist with this.

Catholic Schools Week

Catholic Schools Week is scheduled for Week 2, Term 2, 6 - 10 May. During Catholic Schools Week, we invite prospective families to come in and take a guided tour of St Matthew's with a member of our Leadership Team and a senior student. Following this, we have an information evening on Wednesday, 15 May, at 5.30 pm.

If you know of any potential enrolments, please share this information. Please help us communicate with others what a wonderful school St Matthew's is.

Tour bookings can be made by calling the Office on 6254 2653.

If you have a child ready to start school next year, don't hesitate to get in touch with the office, and an enrollment pack will be sent home.

Information can also be found on our school website:

https://www.stmattsps.act.edu.au/thinking-of-enrolling  https://stmattsps.act.edu.au/enrol/how-to-enrol  

Enrolments can be made online https://enrolments.stmattsps.act.edu.au/primary-act/start  

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 large 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.

Part of my job is to respond to all emerging absenteeism (less than 90% attendance) with support to improve attendance. This may involve an initial letter or phone call, followed by subsequent letters and the creation of 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. Feel free to contact me to discuss this or any other concerns.

Compass App and Browser

Adding an attendance note via Compass is straightforward, either on the app or the web browser. 

To access the shortcut on the app, look at the bottom of the page, select the blue circle with the plus in the middle, and select "Submit attendance note."

If you want to look at your child's attendance via the app, please select "More" at the bottom, then "Open in Browser". This will take you to the browser view (the same one you would see if using Compass on your computer). Select "Profile", which will take you to your child's profile dashboard. From there, you can select "Attendance", which will take you to the summary page. Any squares in red are days when your child has an unexplained absence. You can add a note by going to the "Notes" tab and selecting "Add Attendance Note".

Child Safety Corner: Keeping Children and Young People Safe Online

Next week, our students in Years 3 - 6 will be participating in ThinkUKnow presentations. ThinkUKnow Australia is an evidence-based education program led by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), delivered nationally in partnership with police and industry partners to prevent online child exploitation. 

At St Matthew’s, we have taken a number of steps to help our students to be safe online. These include:

• Teaching everyone at our school about online safety issues and about appropriate online behaviour
• Helping all of our students understand online risks, how to navigate the online world safely and empowering students to be able to keep themselves safe online
• Clarifying the importance of keeping personal data and information safe and secure.
• Making it clear that everyone at our school is responsible for the online safety of our students
• Outlining how we’ll respond to the misuse of digital devices and to unacceptable online behaviour and having clear processes for reporting online safety issues or breaches of acceptable use policies.

We encourage you to support us by taking a look at the eSafety Kids website with your child and by contacting us if you have any questions or concerns. 

Petra Cole

petra.cole@cg.catholic.edu.au

Crazy Hair Day

We had a wonderful turnout for Crazy Hair Day last week, with some very creative hairstyles. Thank you to all our parents and families who donated. On this day, we raised almost $600 for Project Compassion and its mission to serve those in need. 

 

Project Compassion

We were also very lucky to have Samantha Hazlett from Project Compassion, who spoke to our students about the great work they do. Samantha provided some key statistics that our students and staff found quite interesting.

Through partnerships with local organisations and Church networks, and as a member of Caritas Internationalis – the second largest humanitarian network in the world – Caritas Australia is able to reach where the need is greatest and work together for a just future.

Last year (2022-2023), Caritas Australia directly supported over 760,000 people worldwide, delivering 108 projects across 36 countries. 90 national and international partners were fundamental to the success of these development programs and humanitarian responses.

Over the year, over $1.7 million was raised for the people of Turkey and Syria and over $2.6 million to support other emergencies, including Ukraine and the Africa Food Crisis. In Ukraine, this translated into 1.9 million people receiving food packages, 690,000 receiving hygiene kits, and 290,000 benefitting from protection services.

For every dollar fundraised through Project Compassion, 83 cents go to recipients in poor countries through our project partners, 4 cents go towards Caritas Australia administration and staff, and 13 cents are dedicated to ongoing fundraising.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Project Compassion, which, along with Caritas Australia, is celebrating its 60th Anniversary this year.

As we have now finished Lent, we have submitted our final donations to Project Compassion and in total, St Matthew’s has raised $1615.55. We are so grateful for all the donations we can now pass on to Project Compassion. 

Holy Week

Last week, we also reflected on the events of Holy Week when we remembered Palm Sunday, The Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane, and the Crucifixion. 

Our students were so excited to share their part of the story with the school and their families. It was a special event, and the students did a wonderful job helping us create a reverent and reflective space as we remembered Jesus and his journey. Thank you to the families and friends who joined us in commemorating this event.

This week, we completed the story with The Resurrection and shared the joy of Easter. The Year 6 team did a wonderful job sharing this with us through drama and music. 

St Matthew’s was also lucky enough to have a visit from our Easter Bunny, who hopped on by and delivered a chocolate egg to all our students. Thank you, Mr Bunny!

We hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend and were able to celebrate with all your loved ones.

Recent Sporting Events

Congratulations to all St Matthew’s students who participated in the 5/6 Futsal Gala Day. It was a great day for all who attended. Well done to all students as you showed cooperation and healthy competitiveness. 

Well done to our student representatives who participated in the Belconnen District Carnival. 

School Cross Country

The Years 3-6 Cross Country Carnival will be held at Stromlo Forest Park on Tuesday, 7 May, Week 2 of Term 2. The students will be transported to the track in the morning and return after the races. The event timetable will be published in next week's newsletter.

The K-2 Cross Country Carnival will be held on Friday, May 24th, on the school ovals. Further details will be distributed prior to this day.

Compass Events have been created for both carnivals to assist with organising the day. These will be distributed tomorrow. If you can attend and assist with any jobs for the day, please answer the questions on Compass and/or email them directly to me at dillon.payne@cg.catholic.edu.au.

Please disregard the first Compass Event email about this event earlier this week; unfortunately, we published the wrong date. I am sorry for any inconvenience this has caused. 

Thank You!

I would like to thank all the parents who have offered their help and guidance over the first term. Carnivals and Gala Days would honestly not be possible to organise and run without parent helpers. 

Representative Trial Dates

If you would like your child to trial for any of the following representative sports, please go to School Sport ACT https://schoolsportact.org.au/ and register them by the date indicated below. Please keep an eye on this site for other representative sporting trials.

Sports Superstars of the Week!

This week's sporting success story features Nixon, Christian and Archer in Year Two. These three students made it to their competition's grand final, where they played well into overtime, only missing the result by 1 point. Excellent season, boys!