St Matthew's Catholic Primary School

Parish Priest: Fr Florentino (Boy) Galdo

School Principal: Mr Bob Brown

Deputy Principal: Mrs Rachael Spooner

School Email: principal@smfawknernth.catholic.edu.au

School Phone: 0393595423 

St Matthew's Primary School is committed to creating an environment where the safety, wellbeing

and participation of all children within our care is paramount. 

A warm welcome to all our Students, Parents, Staff and Friends of St Matthew’s,

Yes, it has been a number of weeks since our last newsletter, mainly due to our two shortened weeks. Please make sure you check the Dates page, print it out and stick it on the fridge. November & December are very busy months. You do not want to miss out on anything.

MULTI-AGE STRUCTURE FOR GRADES PREP AND GRADES ONE.

After much consideration, deliberation, thought and discussion with the School Advisory Council, Parish Council and Staff we have decided we will be having two Multi-age Grade Prep / One classes next year, no straight Grade Ones. Let me explain why: Funding and enrolments both play huge factors in determining the grade structures each year in all Catholic Primary Schools, for example:

In 2021, we had 54 Prep enrolments. This year in 2022 we had 34 Prep enrolments in 2023 we have 20 Preps enrolled. With families leaving in Grade 6, moving suburbs and moving interstate we are decreasing by over 20 students to 252. When we decrease by 20 or more this affects our overall staffing quite considerably, meaning we do not have the funding for as many teachers, hence not the same amount of grades.

The Prep and Grade One Parents for next year have received a leaflet taken from a research article explaining a number of questions that most parents would ask. I think this really puts parent’s minds at ease and helps settle the unknown. There are further copies available from the office if other parents would like one.

We are not the only school decreasing in numbers. If we go east & west of here at St Stephen’s, East Reservoir and St Gabriel’s Reservoir I am led to believe they both have less than 5 enrolments for Prep next year and Corpus Christi in Glenroy has their lowest numbers in 27 years

READY SET PREP

Last Friday we commenced our five sessions of Ready Set Prep with Mrs Helen Howden (our Religious Education Leader) leading the students and their parents through all about out our Religious Education program and working through the Parable of Zaccheus using Godly Play. The next four weeks are on Mathematics, Literacy (Reading), Fine Motor skills (Writing) and Phonics (Sounding out). It was great to see so many of the parents and students working together getting ready for prep next year. We look forward to seeing everyone again this coming Friday.

FATHER BOY TURNED 70

Can you believe it? He certainly does not look that old.

We celebrated Father Boy’s 70 Birthday with a 12 Noon Mass on Sunday 16th October. It was a full church with Staff, families and many families from other parishes that Fr Boy had been a parish priest at. This was followed by a feast of three pigs, on spits and plenty of other food provided by parishioners. Fr Boy had a great day!

SWIMMING LESSONS

For the first time since 2019, all our students in Grades Prep to 5 were able to have their full amount of swimming lessons. Many thanks to the Fawkner Pool and Mr B for their negotiating to swap days because of the amount of wet weather. Also many thanks to the parents, LSOs and Teachers who walked the students to and from the pool and assisted them there. Your assistance has been invaluable and much appreciated. All going well the last two lessons will finish up, this Friday. It is so important that all students participate in these lessons, as water safety is such an important part of society. Unfortunately many toddlers, children and adults drown each year because they panic once they are in a water situation. Swimming lessons certainly help our students to have the confidence to feel comfortable around water and how to react if they do fall in. When I ask them “How was swimming today? The response is usually “Great!

ARE YOU MOVING SCHOOLS?

It is that time of year where we are planning already for next year. As happens from time to time families move house and relocate to other suburbs or even interstate, hence their children move schools. If your children are moving schools, please let us know ASAP as we are trying to finalise grades within the coming month.

REMINDER - PEOPLE AND CAR MOVEMENT IN SELOLA COURT

The families that are using Selola Court for drop off and pick from school would all be well aware of the damaged fence at the house next to the school. Parents please be extremely careful when walking your children through this area (stay right next to the cones and tape) or use the other footpath and if you are doing your U-Turn near the gates. Pedestrians take priority at all times.

Please Note: there is no dropping off or picking up in the U-Turn area.

Enjoy the warmer weather and dodge the predicted raindrops.

Yours Sincerely,

Bob Brown - Principal

MANY DATES TO REMEMBER - STICK IT ON THE FRIDGE

Tuesday 15th November - School Advisory Council meeting

Wednesday 16th November - Year  & 6 Open Doors, Human Sexuality Course 7-8.30pm

Thursday 17th November - School Nurse for Preps

Thursday 17th November - 4A Numeracy Ardoch Buddy excursion

Friday 18th November - Mercy 2023 Year 7 Transition day

Friday 18th November - Ready Set Prep Session 3

Friday 25th November - Preps and Green Team Assembly in the hall commencing at 2.45pm

Friday 25th November - Ready Set Prep Session 4

Friday 2nd December - Whole School Sport Colour Day

Friday 2nd December - Ready Set Prep Session 5

Monday 5th December - Year 6 Excursion to Funfields

Tuesday 6th December - Annual Christmas Carols

Gates open at 5.00pm for Food Trucks and Carols commence at 6.30pm  - 7.30pm

Thursday 8th December - Final Advisory Council Meeting

Friday 9th December - Prep/1 2023 Orientation Session, 9.30 - 11.00am

Friday 9th December - 2A Assembly in the hall commencing at 2.45pm

Tuesday 13th December - Year 7 Transition for Government Secondary Schools

Wednesday 14th December - Semester 2 Reports available for parents to access online

Friday 16th December - Whole School Orientation 2023 classes, 9.30 - 11.00am

Friday 16th December - Prep/1 2023 Orientation Session 2, 9.30 - 11am

Friday 16th December - End of Year Whole School Mass, 12.00 - 1.00pm

Friday 16th December - Principal Awards and Farewells Assembly from 1.00pm in the church

Friday 16th December - Year 6 dismissed at 1.40pm in readiness for Graduation

Friday 16th December - All other students to be dismissed at 3.15pm for end of Term 4, 2022

Friday 16th December - Year 6 Graduation Mass commencing at 6.30pm in the Church followed by Supper and Ceremony in the hall

During Italian Week Celebrations the children engaged in a variety of fun activities:

Preps created colourful gelati and the Italian flag

Grade 1 and 2 participated in outdoor games on Tuesday such as Salami Relay, Pizza Delivery, Mozzarella/Bocconcini Zig-Zag Relay, Italian Sports Car Race

Grade 1 created Italian Costume People using the 3 colours of the flag on Thursday

Grade 3 coloured in pizza and added crushed coloured pasta to create the effect of their pizza ingredients and crust.

Grade 4 designed their own Venetian Masks

Grade 5 made 2D colourful landmarks of St. John’s Baptistry, the church of Santa Maria Della Croce and theTower of Pisa.

Grade 6 participated in a collaborative artwork creating a pasta mosaic of the “Commedia Dell'Arte '' character Arlecchina and colouring in an Italian scenery.

A big thank you to the children, parents and teachers for their incredible costumes - they were absolutely amazing. The costumes made by the children and their families added to the magic and fun of Italian on Wednesday. School captains, Jack Reid and Alessia Falcone, had the important role of choosing the two best dressed children in each class while Miss Josie chose the two best dressed Grade 6 children.

The best dressed for Italian Day in each class were:

Prep A     Charbel Lewis, Valentina Tagliamonte

Prep B      Alessia Mella,  Adrian Giuliano

Grade 1A  Grace Hilasaca, Luca Ganzter

Grade 1B  Eloise Offerman, Lucas Greco

Grade 2A  Scarlett Moran,  Levi Mantello

Grade 2B  Ricky Younes, Jocelyn Isho

Grade 3A  Ross Karefilakis, Seth Tahir

Grade 4A  Stephania Pitruzzello, Daniel Barel

Grade 4B  Helena Korkes, Leo Paganis

Grade 5A  Valentina Riyadh, Dante Serra

Grade 5B   Mariella Conci, Liviu Isho

Grade 6A   Katia Scarfo, Nicholas Grillo

Grade 6B   Miguel Hannouch, Lucas Pitruzzello

Thank you to Anna El-Khoury for organising the canteen to be a special week for the children to celebrate Italian week.

A very big THANK YOU to all the ladies, Stella Fileccia, Maria Mella, Francis Pitruzzello and Mary Maatouk for volunteering their time to assist in the canteen during the week. 

A special thank you to Nonna Stella Fileccia who cooked zeppole, sfinge and arancini for children and staff to purchase at the canteen and experience traditional Italian festive foods. 

Thank you to Marina Falcone from Eatalian Made for providing the food for the Italian lunch order last Wednesday.

Thank you to Bushra Giliana for assisting with the preparation of the Italian artwork and in particular with the Arlecchina.

Italian Week is about immersing ourselves in one of the cultures and languages in our rich and diverse country. It is a celebration of our children’s participation in our Italian Program.

Buona Festa Italiana.