With the shortest days of 2024 now behind us, the start of Term 3 marks the beginning of the second half of the school year. I am sure like many of you, this just draws attention to how quickly the year is getting away from us. It feels like it was only a short time ago that we were commencing the new school year and yet here we are heading rapidly towards those events and milestones that remind us how swiftly our children’s school years disappear before our eyes.

Whilst the core purpose of our children’s time at school is for them to grow academically, of equal importance is their holistic growth and development as they learn to live life in all its fullness. Many of the events and activities that are part of school life are deliberately designed to help young people build relationship skills, resilience, compassion, curiosity, a sense of joy and a myriad of other life skills. It is important, therefore, that students have the opportunity to participate fully in the activities that are planned for them.

There are numerous events scheduled throughout Term 3 that your children have the opportunity to participate in including, amongst other things, house feast days, excursions and overnight camps. Of particular note are the Year 6 trip to Canberra, the Year 5 overnight camp to Hill End and the Kindergarten excursion to the Western Plains Zoo. We want all our students to have the opportunity to benefit from these amazing experiences. If your children are anxious, worried about or even disinterested in activities such as these, it would be wonderful if we could work together to help prepare and encourage them. If you find yourself having some challenging conversations at home about attendance and participation in school events, I urge you to reach out to your child's class teacher sooner rather than later so we can discuss ways to support you and your child. We know how quickly the years fly by, and we don’t want students to miss out on any of these formative experiences if we can possibly avoid it.

As always, we are looking forward to a positive, vibrant school term. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need support to ensure that is also the experience for your children.

God bless

Angela Myles

St Matthews School TV

Social Networking Age Guide

Safe Social Networking Support for Parents

Kids Helpline

Justin Yeo

St Matthews Way Value: Service

Service @ St Matts means to contribute to society by using our gifts and experiences for the betterment of others all the while expecting no praise in return.

Jesus said "I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you."
In giving this command, Jesus asked each and everyone of us to serve others. His constant service towards others showed His humility and love for all.

To serve can allow you to:

• discover abundance: the radical shift from 'me' to 'we.'
• express gratitude for all the graces given to us
• see a change in yourself to align with your actions
• increase connection with others
• become an instrument to create harmony and balance.

On the back end of a fantastic contribution toward the SVdP, the challenge is to continue this wonderful act of serving others. If you google ‘service opportunities in Mudgee’ there is a link to a NSW Government Volunteer page that shows over 600 opportunities, albeit some in our ‘region’ rather than town. While we are all busy, it is timely to be grateful for what we have but, if we can, seek to find more for the benefit and goodwill of another person or group of people.

As a Catholic School, we seek to provide high quality education in a christ-centred approach but our role also involves striving to make a difference in the lives of individuals and in the wider community. The SMW allows us to challenge others to be more and answer the call, through God, to find meaning and value in their lives and reach their full potential as compassionate, contributing, life-giving members of society who are highly informed, tolerant, open and just.

Ross McKeown

Leader of Mission

Religious Education

Each day in Religious Education lessons at St Matthews the students are demonstrating a growing understanding of the Catholic faith and the mission and loving presence of Jesus in our lives.

In term 2 Kindergarten students were learning about the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph). KM shares some of their wonderful learning about Mary here, and shows us their amazing ability to transfer their English knowledge over to their Religion studies.

Thanks for sharing your tremendous Religion work Kindergarten! We look forward to sharing the work of other grades over the coming weeks.

Matthew Cassidy
Religious Education Coordinator - Primary

Attendance Matters

The impact of school absences, even seemingly small ones, can accumulate and affect a child's learning significantly. The cumulative effect of absences over time can lead to gaps in knowledge and understanding. Consistent attendance is vital for academic success, as each day in school provides valuable learning opportunities.

If your child is expressing reluctance to go to school regularly, it's essential to address the issue promptly.

Dillon Price

Leader of Wellbeing (K-12)

All Schools Cross Country Championships 2024

Alfie competed at the NSW All Schools Cross Country Championships in Sydney on the 23rd July. After a tough start to the event, Alfie made up the ground well and came 4th out of 76 competitors in the 12-year-old boys age group, which has secured him a place on the NSW team for the upcoming Nationals Competition in Melbourne at the end of August.

Congratulations Alfie on this outstanding achievement and good luck at the Nationals Competition - we will be cheering for you!

Adam Coughlan

K-6 Sports Coordinator

Book Week Character Parade

The theme for this year’s Book Week is, “Reading is Magic’’.

Like every Book Week Parade at St Matthews, we encourage all the students to dress up as their favorite character from a book. It doesn’t have to relate to the theme whatsoever. The students come to school in their costumes and wear it all day.

I have been mentioning the event during library lessons and at assembly as well and the students are all very enthusiastic and full of ideas. Please contact me if you have any queries about this annual event.

Premier's Reading Challenge

This is a reminder that we have just over 5 weeks until the PRC closes to students so it’s time to complete reading logs.

The Premier’s Reading Challenge closes on 23rd August 2024.

If your child has entered the challenge, could they please log all of the books that they have read on the PRC website. If they have lost their login and password, please get them to see me in the Library at break time.

Annie Mort

Teacher/Librarian

Commencing in Term 3 we will be making some changes to the way payment is made for additional excursions. These are excursions that are outside the class charges for your child, normally sporting events.

At the time of approving your child to attend these events you will be required to make the payment with a credit/debit card via Compass. The cost of the excursion will be indicated on the note and in the portal once you approve your child to attend. For excursions with additional charges that have already been emailed to families the charge will still be added to your school fee account and payment is not required beforehand.

For families in genuine financial hardship and unable to make these payments I encourage you to contact the Fees Office so alternate arrangements can be made and we can assist you with this.

I would also like to remind families of the importance of responding to compass notifications in a timely manner, this greatly assists the excursion organisers in planning events.

If you have any questions regarding this process please feel free to contact me by email

Annette White

Finance and Operations Manager

John Freebody
Creative Arts Club Coordinator

St Matthews has a Smartwatch and Mobile Phone Policy that was produced through consultation with parents, staff and students. This policy is in place to protect all students at St Matthews with regards to privacy, child protection and limiting distractions whilst in the learning environment of our school.

For our students, Smartwatches are any wearable device that is able to receive and/or send messages, receive and/or make phone calls or have access to the internet.

Unfortunately, multiple issues have arisen this year with children wearing or bringing these devices to school. We have been made aware of students contacting or being contacted by parents during the school day, recording conversations in the playground and taking pictures of other students.

This is to remind families of our policy and the consequences our students face if failing to adhere as we work in a challenging online world to provide a safe, nurturing environment for our students.

Primary Students:

• Students in Primary are not to bring personal mobile phones or smartwatches to school unless permission from the Executive Principal has been successfully sought by parents who have outlined the health, safety or personal reasons that justify the student being in possession of a mobile phone or smartwatch. In this instance, unless instructed otherwise, mobile phones and/or smartwatches should be handed in to Student Services at the start of the day and collected at the end of the day.
• Students using mobile phones and/or smartwatches outside of this policy will have them turned off, confiscated, and delivered to Student Services where they will be stored securely. Students are responsible for collecting them at the end of the school day. Repeat offenders will not have devices returned until a parent/carer comes to collect it. If a student’s device is confiscated after 1:40pm, it will remain at the office until the end of the next school day. If you need to speak to your child at any time during the school day, please contact the front office.

Alternatively when children collect their phone or smartwatch at the end of the day, they will be able to use it for messages or changes to afternoon plans.

Justin Yeo

Head of Campus - Primary

To support the busy start and end to our school day, we remind families of a number of strategies put in place that reduce the impact to traffic along Lewis Street and also provide a safe environment for our students. We are currently experiencing issues with the impact on traffic and reinforce with families the need to abide by the processes we have in place. The strategies are supported by Mudgee Police and the Mid-Western Regional Council (MWRC), therefore we ask all families to be aware of the following in the Drop Off & Pick Up Zone:

• Family names displayed on the dashboards of cars in the afternoon.
• Parents and guardians remain in their cars at all times, no exceptions. If you child needs help entering or exiting the car, or needs a hug to say farewell in the morning, please park and support them away from the zone in front of the school.
• If your child is late to pick up in the afternoon, please do a lap and join the end of the queue.

Our school social media pages are an important source of information and reminders about upcoming events in our school and Parish community.

Flexischools is St Matthews Catholic Schools preferred way to order from our canteens. The cut-off time is 9am, please allow yourself enough time to complete an order. An order can be placed the night before or even days in advance.

Orders that are phoned through via reception after 9am will be offered a simple sandwich, a drink and snacks only. No Hot Food will be offered. Credit Card details must be provided at the time, no exceptions. This ensures no further follow up for payment is required.

If parents are experiencing issues with Flexischools, please contact Flexischools directly using the Parent Help Line Number- 1300 361 769 (8am-12pm)

1. Introduction to Flexischools
2. How to Register with Flexischools
3. How to Place an Order (Canteen)
4. How to Place an Order (All Services)
5. How to Top Up Your Flexischools Wallet

Please let your child know if they are having a lunch order and what they are having. Some of our younger students are accidently throwing out their “tokens”. They need the token to redeem any frozen item/slushie/special that may have been ordered for them.

Lunch Orders

Breakfast Menu

Birthday Bucket & Classroom Cupcakes

Primary Canteen Manager

Year 2 Families - Week 2

Ross McKeown

Leader of Mission

EFTPOS only, no cash.

Enjoy the convenience of online shopping. Save time and energy by ordering your uniforms online in six easy steps:

1. Go to midford.com.au
2. Select St Matthews Catholic School from the Online School Shops tab
3. New users to click the ‘Register New Account’ button
4. Start the registration process by selecting St Matthews Catholic School from the drop-down menu and add the unique school pass phrase: “Matthews1912”
5. Add your personal information, create a username and password
6. Order the items you need, select pick-up in store/deliver to school.

If you have any queries please contact the uniform shop directly:
Phone: 0439 442 509 or Email: st.matthews@midford.com.au

Parents and Carers of new or existing students enrolled in St Matthews can apply for free school bus travel with Ogden's Coaches for every route (except Botobolar and Cudgegong which is serviced by Booth's Bus Service)

• free school travel is available for Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 students no matter how close or far away they are from school.
• if students are not eligible for free bus transportation they can still ride on the bus by paying a fare or by purchasing a book of 10 tickets or a term/annual pass from the Ogden's Coaches office.
• students who changed address or schools must update existing details through the NSW Transport online portal
• if you are unsure whether or not your child has a current bus pass, please contact our office.
• to travel on our bus service, students must present their bus pass to the bus driver morning and afternoon.

Apply for student bus passes through the Ogden's Coaches website

Select ‘Schools’ tab in top header then select ‘Apply for a New Pass'

Fill in the application form for each child and you will be notified of eligibility via email from Transport NSW. Bus passes will be distrubuted by post to students home address.

Ogden's Coaches - Mudgee

(02) 6372 2489