Welcome back! I hope the holidays provided you with an opportunity to enjoy some time away from the day to day routine of school and that your family feels rejuvenated and ready for the final term of the year.

Term 4 always has a special feel to it. As the weather warms up and end of year festivities loom a little closer (with Christmas decorations already well and truly in the shops), this final term of the year brings with it a sense of freshness and perhaps even a little anticipation.

Term 4 is also a time of transition as we start talking about orientation days for next year’s Kindergarten students and the end of primary education for our Year 6 students. Students in other grades may also be starting to think about what it will mean to move on to another class and teacher. We are blessed at St Matthews to have wonderful systems in place to help support our students as they transition through the various stages of school life.

If, however, you feel your child may find a particular transition challenging, it is a good idea to reach out and check in with us. Your child’s class teacher would be a great place to start, but you can also contact our Learning Support Teacher, Mr Howes, our School Counsellor, Mrs Dyer or any of our Stage Coordinators. If you are not sure who to speak with, our amazing office staff will be able to point you in the right direction, so please don’t hesitate to pick up the phone.

All the best for a wonderful term ahead.

God bless.

Angela  Myles

We welcome back all families and hope you were able to enjoy the holiday break.

Each week this year we have started our Monday mornings with a brief assembly in the playground and the message for students to start Term 4 was of our value of ‘Respect’. Students were encouraged to remember to be respectful each day in their thoughts, words and actions when in the company of all students and staff. With St Matthews highlighting ‘Respect’ throughout the term in regards to all of our interactions, it would be a great support if these similar discussions were also had at home.

Many events are to take place this term, with one of the most important being our Grandparents Day in Week 3, Monday 28th October. This day is always one of the more special on the school calendar and very well attended by families of all students. There will be further details provided to families in the coming days regarding the Liturgy, Open Classrooms and Lunch in the playground and we look forward to seeing families on site for this special occasion.

With this in mind, I encourage families to check the school calendar for this term to assist with any planning and organisation. The St Matthews Calendar can be accessed through the Compass App or via our St Matthews website. It will include all events throughout the term, including ‘Pink Up St Matthews - Mufti Day’ on Friday of Week 2, the sporting pathways of Diocesan Summer Sports for Years 4 and 5 and the Year 2 Excursion in Gulgong to highlight a few in the coming weeks.

Justin Yeo

SMW Value for Term 4: Respect

This term, as we are called to follow Jesus by living the St Matthews Way, we are asked to answer that call through showing and enlivening respect in our interactions within our community. We attempt to do this by fostering an appreciation for the goodness, value and rights of everyone and everything through our thoughts, words and actions.

First Holy Communion

Our Year 3 students are edging closer toward the weekend of 26 and 27 October when they will receive the Sacrament of Eucharist for the first time. A reminder that booklets are asked to be completed prior to this day and if you have any questions please contact me by email or the Parish.

Ross McKeown | Leader of Mission

Religious Education

Year 5 is learning about our role in caring for God’s creation. They have been reflecting on the human impact and the terms ‘awe’ and ‘grace’ when discussing creation. Writing prayers and taking guidance from Scripture has been an important part of this learning.

This week, the students have been discussing the importance of Church leadership in caring for our environment, starting with Saint John Paul II and his call to stewardship, a call that has been renewed and expanded on in Pope Francis’ encyclical letter of 2015, Laudate Si’ (Praised Be), about care for our common home.

As our Year 5 students begin their journey towards leading our primary school in Year 6 next year, we commend them on their work and reflections about the need to care for our common home. Thank you to 5M for sharing some of your work about God’s creation.

Matthew Cassidy | Religious Education Coordinator

Over the past 18 months we have been refining our approach to working restoratively with our students. With the support of the team at Real Schools we have put together a statement of our aims and some of our processes of what restorative practice looks like at St Matthews as a K-12 school.

In 2025 Sheila from Real Schools will be delivering a parent information session to further unpack what restorative practices in schools looks like. If you have any questions please don't hesitate in getting in touch with me by email.

Dillon Price

Leader of Wellbeing (K-12)

St Matthews Netball Gala Day

Last term, over 120 girls from Years 3-6 participated in the annual St Matthews Netball Gala Day.

We welcomed local schools as well as schools across the diocese for a day filled with netball and fun. The girls played 8 games and I would like to commend them all on their sportsmanship and the respect they showed throughout the day.

A huge thank you to the parents who came down to help on the day and also to our secondary students who gave up their day to umpire the games. The day would not have been possible without your help.

Lynette Watson

Netball Coach

October fee statements have been emailed to families. It is important that all families review their account and ensure they are finalised or be on track to be finalised by March 2025.

If you are making regular weekly/fortnightly payments there are 20 weeks left until March 2025 so please ensure your payments are sufficient to have a zero balance by this time.

If you are a term or ad hoc payer all accounts are now overdue and should be finalised immediately.

As always if you have any questions regarding your school fee account please contact the school fees office.

Annette White

Finance & Operations Manager

Picnic on the Green!

We would like to thank the families who attended our picnic at Craigmoor Wines. We hope you had lots of fun.

St Matthews P&F Meeting

We would like to invite all students in Years 3-6 to join the Creative Arts Club. For the remainder of the year, we will focus on drama.

John Freebody

Creative Arts Teacher

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.

Over the last 18 months, we have been working with Transport for NSW to rollout a new system called Transport Connected Bus (TCB) which is being progressively rolled out on all NSW Government contracted buses in NSW.

TCB enables all regular passenger and school bus services delivered under TfNSW contracts to be tracked and monitored, providing passengers and the public with real-time location, on-time running and passenger loading information. We have been advised by TfNSW that services in this region will be going live at the end of October 2024.

What does this mean for School Buses?

All school buses will continue to operate as they have been, with no changes to routes, timing or bus orders because of the implementation of TCB.

It is a requirement that all school bus services complete the entire scheduled route every operating day and not divert from the scheduled route path. In cases where students are not at a school location or at a different location on an operating day, bus services are still required to operate to that school bus stop and not depart until the scheduled time.

School buses have been allocated route numbers starting with an “S” then three numbers as its unique identifier. We will continue to use the current names and will display the S numbers alongside the names on both the Perspex display boards and electronic destination signs. A complete list of new route numbers is included below.

How can I access real-time tracking information?

There are many third-party phone and tablet apps that give real-time tracking information on the NSW bus network. A few have been listed below but a complete list can be found on the following website

More information on the TCB project can be found on the Transport Connected Bus Program Page.

If have any further questions please contact us on 6372 2489 or by email 

Breakfast Menu

Bought directly from the canteen with cash.

Must be ordered by 9am to allow enough time to cook & eat before school starts.

Lunch Orders

Flexischools is St Matthews Catholic Schools preferred way to order from our canteens.

Lunch orders 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 called 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)

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.

How to Cancel a Flexischools Order

• From the Order icon on the bottom navigation bar, select the student whose order you'd like to cancel.
• On the relevant order, select the ..... icon to expand the available options. From here, select "Cancel Order"
• Tap yes to confirm. Your order will be cancelled and the funds will be returned to your Flexischools wallet.

If you are unable to cancel an order, it may have already been processed by the Canteen Staff (order lables are printed each day at 9:05am) You will need to contact the school office and request the order is held for another day. Please do this as a matter of urgency.

• If hot food has been heated, we cannot keep this food for another day, it will be forfeited.
• If fresh food has been prepared, we can keep it until the following day unless it has been sent out in the lunch tub, in which case it will be forfeited.
• Any snacks and drink items can be provided on another day, providing they come back to the canteen (if they have gone out in the lunch tub)

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

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