Welcome Back to Term 4!

Welcome back to all our St Matthew’s families! We hope you enjoyed a restful and refreshing break and are ready for a wonderful final term of the year.

This term, we welcome Aarvi and Jasmine to KB, Ugyen to 1B, and Jack to 4B. We hope they and their families feel warmly welcomed and quickly settle into our St Matthew’s school community.

We have a busy and exciting term planned, with plenty of opportunities for our students to shine and our community to come together. 

Let’s make Term 4 a joyful and memorable one!

Congratulations and Welcome, Mrs Edwards!

During the holidays, Miss Sophie Murdock celebrated her wedding, and we are delighted to now welcome her back as Mrs Edwards! We wish Sophie and her husband every happiness as they begin this new chapter together. Your St Matthew’s family is so thrilled for you, Mrs Edwards!

End of Term 3 Disco

We ended Term 3 on a high note with our whole-school Disco! 

A huge thank you to our School Community Council for organising this fun event, and to Disco Dave (aka David Jepsen) for keeping the dance floor buzzing. The students had an absolute blast showing off their moves and celebrating the end of term together.

It was wonderful to see everyone dressed in their favourite team colours and jerseys; such a fun and spirited way to finish the term!

Grandparents & Grandfriends Day

We look forward to welcoming everyone on Thursday, 30 October 2025 for our Grandparents and Grandfriends Day. 

This year’s celebration will follow a new format:

• 9:30 am: Mass in the Church, followed by classroom visits 

• 11:00 am: Morning tea on the Junior Playground

• 11.45 am: Back to the 70's Concert

A Book Cow stall will be set up on the playground. All books purchased from this stall will be donated to our school library for all students to enjoy.

Parents and carers are invited to attend all or some of the Grandparents and Grandfriends Day activities, depending upon your schedule.

Parents and carers, we would love your help to make the morning tea special:

• Please send in a paper plate of food to share, either on the morning of the event or the afternoon before.

• Volunteers are needed to help set up the morning tea (9:30–11:00 am). If you can assist, please contact Brooke in the office on 6254 2653.

Tuckshop Ordering Changes – Starting Friday 24 October

From Friday, 24 October, there will be a change to our tuckshop ordering options for students. We have found that the company associated with Flexischools has frequently delivered orders late or with missing items, which has created challenges for Mrs Town and, most importantly, resulted in some students missing their lunch.

After careful investigation, we have decided to switch to Subway School Lunches for Friday lunch orders. Subway school lunches can be ordered online and include a $10 six-inch sub, drink, and cookie package, with the option to upsize to a footlong sub. Please note that even though other drinks are listed, it is only the 'kids drinks' that will be delivered. If you order another option, a 'kids drink' will be delivered instead. The ordering process has been shared via Compass.

Please note: Sushi will still be available for ordering on Tuesdays next term.

The School Explorers - Kindergarten Transition Program

This term, we are excited to welcome our future 2026 Kindergarten class through The School Explorers – School Transition Program. This initiative will offer our new starters a wonderful opportunity to experience a variety of Key Learning Areas. Not only will it introduce them to classroom activities, but it will also help them become familiar with our school facilities, staff, and their fellow students.

The program is designed to ease the transition into school life, ensuring our new Kindergarten children feel confident and comfortable as they take their first steps into primary school.

On Friday, 7 November, Team Kids have organise a coffee van for our existing and new parents and carers.

Do you know a child starting school next year? We would love for you to encourage them to visit! Please contact the office to book a tour and learn more about what St Matthew’s Primary School has to offer.

We are also currently accepting enrolments for our 2025 Kindergarten and Year One classes.

Safety Reminders

It is that time of the term again to remind families about the safe Pick-Up and Drop-off procedures.

Thank you for your assistance in making the morning and afternoon procedures run smoothly.

With blessings,

Sarah Lowe
Principal

Friendology

St Matthew’s is proud to be a URSTRONG school. URSTRONG provides a friendship skills curriculum, Friendology 101, that helps students establish and maintain healthy relationships, manage conflict with kindness, and increase their overall resilience. 

Student conflict can be classified into two categories: Friendship Fires & Mean-on-Purpose Behaviour. Most conflicts at primary school are Friendship Fires. These are normal, low-level friendship issues like misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and disagreements. Friendship Fires occur, for example, when a friend forgets your birthday or suddenly changes the rules of a game and says, “Ha! Ha! You’re out!” or when a friend asks someone else to be their work partner. 

Mean-on-Purpose Behaviour is far less common but does happen from time to time. It is intentionally rude, cruel, or malicious behaviour that’s intended to hurt feelings, and it’s important that our children know how to deal with it when it happens. Here are the steps we encourage students to use:

1. Say a Quick Comeback in a firm voice. This is a short statement that works in all Mean-on-Purpose moments. It’s not mean and is said assertively: “Not cool!” “Excuse me.” “That’s not very kind.” “Woah!” “That’s unacceptable.” 
2. Immediately walk away. If you don’t, things might escalate, and you might say/do something you shouldn’t!
3. Report to a grown-up. Give the grown-up just the facts. We don’t report to ‘dob’ – it’s just to provide the adult with information. 

We encourage you to join URSTRONG for free and support our school by sharing the same messages and teaching the same skills that we teach here at St Matthew’s. URSTRONG provides simple but meaningful language and skills to open up a dialogue with your children. You can join URSTRONG for free at https://urstrong.com/.

Petra Cole

Assistant Principal ┃Child Safe Advocate┃Classroom Support Teacher

Term 4 School Fees

Term 4 school fee statements will be distributed via email this week.

Fees for Term 4, 2025 are due by Week 4 (7 November), unless you are paying by regular instalments. Please note that all 2025 school fees are to be finalised by 30 November 2025.

If you do not receive your statement or have any questions regarding your fees, please contact the front office for assistance.

Welcome back to Term 4

This term, our focus is on embracing world help, which beautifully aligns with our school theme for the year: Lighting the Way as Pilgrims of Hope. It’s a time for us to reflect on how our hope, kindness and compassion can ripple outwards and connect us not only with one another, but with the wider world.

As a Catholic school, we are blessed to be part of a global Church, and this term offers us the opportunity to witness our faith and hope across the world. This message of hope leads us into one of the most anticipated seasons in our liturgical calendar, Advent, as we prepare our hearts for the joy of Christmas.

Throughout the term, we have a number of special events planned as part of the Religious Life of the School. These are prayerful and community-centred moments, and we warmly invite all families and friends to join us in these celebrations. Please see below for a brief overview of upcoming events.

Week 3 Thursday, 30 October @ 9:30am - Grandparent’s Day Mass

Week 4 Friday, 7 November @ 2:15pm - Year 1 leading an All Saints Prayer Celebration

Week 7 Friday, 28 November @ 2:30pm - Year 2 leading an Advent Prayer Celebration

Week 9 Friday, 12 December @ 2:15pm - Kinder leading the Nativity

Week 10 Tuesday, 16 December @ 1:30pm  - Farewell Grad Mass

Week 10 Wednesday, 17 December @ 12:0pm - Year 5 & 6’s Light of Leadership Prayer Celebration

Sacramental Updates

In the Catholic faith, the Sacraments are sacred and significant milestones that support and strengthen our relationship with God. These special celebrations are received by students who are baptised Catholic and are an important part of their faith journey.

We are currently reviewing our records and kindly ask families of Catholic students or those interested in learning more to complete a short survey. The survey will help us understand which Sacraments your child has already received and whether you would like them to participate in any of the remaining school-aged Sacraments.

Please complete a separate form for each child in your family.
You can access the survey here: Sacramental Program Survey

This information will help us identify students who may need to catch up on a Sacrament, as well as those preparing to receive one next year.

If you are interested in the Catholic faith and would like to explore what the next steps might look like for your child, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We would be more than happy to meet and discuss this with you.

Thank you for your support.

We kick start Term 4 with a sports story from the school holidays. Josh in 4B competed in the 2025 National School State Futsal Championships held in QLD, which his team finished second in. His team consisted of 7 randomly selected boys across the ACT, whom came together and practiced for 7 weeks before they became the undefeated champions in their age pool. After scrapping through the grueling quarter final and semi final, they were unfortunately defeated in the finals. Well done, Josh!

On Friday last week, we held our Playground Games Tabloid sessions, which was a huge success. Students from Kindergarten to Year 6 rotated through a variety of fun and inclusive games such as Nutmeg, Stuck in the Mud, Sardines, Duck-Duck-Goose, and Jockey Up. Each group enjoyed four rotations across different playground areas, guided by our amazing teachers. The event encouraged teamwork, active play, and lots of laughter. A big thank you to all staff for their thoughtful preparation and enthusiasm in making the day so enjoyable!

If your child has a sporting achievement or good news story to share, feel free to send me an email with a photo and a short blurb to feature in the next newsletter.

In sporting spirit, 

Hannah Beissner

hannah.beissner@cg.catholic.edu.au

Protecting Your Information

Personal information is anything that identifies you. This might include your first and last name, address, date of birth, workplace or financial details.

Why is it important to protect personal information? 

• It is important because it can be easy for someone to use it to pretend to be you. This is called identity theft.
• Personal information can be revealed in images and videos as well as text. 

How can I protect my information?

• Privacy settings: Check the ‘help guide’ for the website or app you are using to change privacy settings. 
• Location settings: Avoid sharing location information. Turn the GPS off on your device if you don’t need to use it.
• Use a strong password: Use upper and lower case letters, numbers and keyboard symbols.
• Know how to spot a scam: Criminals may try to steal money or personal details using scams. Visit www.scamwatch.gov.au to learn more about how to spot a scam.
• Only shop on secure websites: A secure website will have “https” or a padlock symbol at the start of the web address.

 ThinkUKnow’s top tips for protecting your personal information

• Read the terms and conditions carefully before agreeing to anything. 
• Be careful not to click on links in suspicious emails – delete them straight away. 
• Don’t give out your email address or phone number unless you know how that information will be used. 
• Make sure you use a strong password. 
• Remember – if it looks too good to be true, it probably is! 

Visit www.thinkuknow.org.au for more information and tips!

Daniel Hunt

ICT Coordinator

Term 4 Library News

Dear wonderful St Matthew’s families,

The end of the year is fast approaching, which means it’s almost time for our annual library stocktake. To help this happen smoothly, we’d really appreciate your help.

•     Our last day of borrowing for 2025 is Friday 28th November.
•     ALL library books need to be returned by Thursday 4th December.
•     Take home readers need to be returned to your child’s classroom by Friday December 12th.

Books can be easily misplaced, so please search your house carefully for any books that may be hiding behind bookshelves, under beds, in the back of the car, down the back of the couch, etc! To avoid having these books charged to your account, please return them on time. If you have any questions about this, please email me (sally.judd@cg.catholic.edu.au). 

Thank you,

Sally Judd

Teacher Librarian

Steampunk Victoriana Fair

Last weekend, Josephine (Year 6) and Dorothy (Year 4) attended the Steampunk Victoriana Fair, at the Goulburn Historic Waterworks, dressed in amazing steampunk costumes made by their mum! The Fair was a celebration of imagination and history, blending Victorian-era style with futuristic creativity. The girls enjoyed live music, art, roving entertainment, a costume parade, and tours of the historic steam machinery in action. 

Free Coffee with Team Kids!

Positive Partnerships Free Workshop

Canberra Writers Festival