Last week we held the Annual General Meeting of our Parents & Friends Association.

In the past, one of the major roles of school P&F Associations was to raise funds to support the needs of the school. In more recent times, with all of us becoming increasingly time poor, many P&F’s have moved away from a pure fundraising model by introducing a P&F levy. At St Matthews, this levy is itemised on your school fees as a voluntary annual contribution. Applying this levy enables the small group of parents actively involved in our P&F to allocate funds specifically to areas that directly benefit your children. It also means that parents are not regularly asked to be involved in fundraising activities such as fetes and food stalls.

The funds generated by the P&F levy can support the purchase of items that improve student experiences at school. The levy also supports the purchase of important resources that fall outside of our annual school budget. One example of a resource that the P&F has funded recently are the stunning new plants and pots at the entrance to our Primary Campus. The P&F has also purchased trees for the Secondary Campus that will provide shade for students long into the future. Over recent years, the P&F has funded filtered water stations for students, playground seating and much more. At the moment, they are looking to source some grant funding to support the installation of fans in our Primary Gym.

In addition to discerning how best to allocate your P&F levy, our Parents & Friends Association also does an amazing job of organising events designed to bring joy into the life of the school and to encourage connections between families. They have been working hard, for example, to organise the Easter Egg Raffle that is currently happening at both campuses, and they will also be responsible for facilitating a ‘new look’ Mothers Day Stall for our primary students next term (keep an eye out for more information to come on this).

Our P&F is also responsible for introducing the initiative of having parent contacts for each year level at our Primary Campus. As we previously communicated, all K-6 Parents and Carers are invited to opt in to a Whatsapp group which has been set up to connect the parents in your child's year group. The purpose of the group is to share reminders about upcoming events, volunteering opportunities and to provide a simple avenue to gather feedback that can be taken to our P&F meetings. All you need to do to get involved is click on the relevant link to join the appropriate year group(s):

Year 6 link: Anna Macdonald
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FBS2lOMw8tCJq0pFTOhCZa

Year 5 link: Trine Gay
https://chat.whatsapp.com/JluasaIRDqh1JpvFoKwh8v

Year 4 link: Kate Day
https://chat.whatsapp.com/Csbqghx0cuN6bp4yr8wK6d

Year 3 link: Amanda French
https://chat.whatsapp.com/IhmuX06DuRz6gIpQI7Q9V8

Year 2 link: Alice Barnett
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FCDdhHM7HyDFEaE1GtuHox

Year 1 link: Jen Walters
https://chat.whatsapp.com/JTygogkZeKR9x2S03PeaCF

Kindy link: Gina Fitzgerald
https://chat.whatsapp.com/EU6usMTmjvZG70oYjPQZgC

You are also welcome to touch base at any time with the following parents who have been elected to the 2025 P&F Executive Committee. You don’t need to join the committee to get involved. This wonderful group of parents are always eager to speak with members of our school community who can help out in a wide variety of ways… both big and small, in either an ongoing way or just with a one off event.

President - Jillian Lee
Vice President - Sarah Gaffney
Secretary - Adelle Minahan
Treasurer - Annette Halpin
Executive Committee Members - Rebecca George & Jennifer Walter

If you would like any more information about the great work being done by our Parents & Friends Association, I am sure any of these parents would be happy to speak with you.

God bless
Angela Myles

Pick-Up Zone

Families who utilise the Pick Up Zone in front of the school each afternoon would recognise the vast improvements in waiting times, traffic congestion and safety for our students and their families. The new strategies put in place by Mid-Western Regional Council are continuing to be monitored by council staff and we must thank our families for their continued support of these changes with a much more streamlined process in action daily.

Please continue to be aware of the following:

• Cars should not be parked in the pick up zone until children are ready to be collected at the end of the day. This means that arriving at 3pm and waiting in the queue until your child arrives 15mins later is not an option. Our advice to all families is to wait until 3:15pm or later to enter the pick up zone. That allows time for students to leave classrooms and make their way to the front of the school.
• If you are waiting for your child for 2 mins or more, you will need to lap around and join the queue again.
• If your child requires some support getting into and out of the car, staff are available to assist, or you may want to consider the option of parking elsewhere and walking to meet them at the gate instead.
• Please note: The fine for stopping in this zone for more than 2 minutes is $227 and the driver also incurs 2 demerit points.

Diocesan Winter Sports Selections

Last Friday 35 students travelled to Bathurst to try out for the Bathurst Dicoesan Winter Sporting teams. The sports included Soccer (boys & girls), Rugby League, Netball and Hockey. From these trials we had a record number of 15 successful students, who will now join other students from around the diocese and represent at the Polding Trials in Bathurst on May 2.

A massive congratulations to all students pictured and we wish them well on this sporting pathway.

ANZAC Day March

Being our last Primary newsletter before the break, we remind families that Friday April 25th is ANZAC Day which falls during the last week of school holidays. On this day each year we are invited by the Mudgee RSL Sub-Branch to participate in the ANZAC Day march. We encourage any students who wish to support this day on which we remember all Australians who served and died in war and on operational service to do so by marching as a school community. The spirit of ANZAC, with its qualities of courage, mateship, and sacrifice, continues to have meaning and relevance for our sense of national identity.

Rugby League Gala Day

Last Wednesday, 91 students from Years 3 to 6 travelled to Dunedoo to participate in the Yeo/Henry Rugby League Gala Day. Teams of 10 played against other neighbouring schools from Dubbo, Dunedoo, Gulgong, and Mudgee and had lots of fun kicking off the season.

The school would like to thank all those parents and school personnel who helped make the day successful.

John Freebody | Coordinator

Catholic schools are Australia’s largest non-government education provider, delivering choice, affordability, and value for all.

Briefing Paper:

Benefits and Priorities: 

With the election coming up, parents might be interested in finding out more information by going to the National Catholic Education Commission website.

National Catholic Education Commission 

Each year, Years 3-6 students, participate in two rounds of spelling bees to determine four students to represent our school at the Diocesan Spelling Bee.

Stage 2 and Stage 3 word lists has been emailed to families.

Spelling Bee Timeline

Monday 7th April: Class Spelling Bee

Friday 9th May: School Stage Spelling Bee

Wednesday 28th May: Diocesan Spelling Bee

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me by email.

Mell Hunt | Stage 3 Coordinator

Open to all children commencing Kindergarten in 2026. 

Registrations for our Bright Beginnings Playgroup Sessions are now open!

Four Consecutive Wednesdays: 28th May, 4th June, 11th June, 18th June

Session Times: 9:30-10:15, 10:30-11:15, 12:30-1:15, 2:15-3:00

Register via the QR code below:

Please email St Matthews Enrolments for any questions or enquiries.

Cindy Freeman | Enrolments Officer K-12

Primary School Photos will be on Thursday 15th May 2025

Please find attached instructions for booking school photos. A small number of envelopes will be available from the school office for those families who are unable to purchase online.

We are please to once again offer sibling photos for families with children at both campuses. More information regarding this will be communicated to families close to the date. The cut off for sibling photos will be 12am midnight Monday 12th May. 

At St Matthews, we take great pride in our school and the appearance of our students, and we insist that their uniform is neat and tidy for school photos. Full winter uniform must be worn, no sports uniform. Winter shirts should be tucked in and ties properly done up. A reminder that a our uniform shop is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays during the school term for any items you may need.

If you require any further information, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

Cindy Freeman | Head of Campus Assistant - Primary

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

How to set up your Flexischools account

• 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.
• There are several students in Years 5-6 who are not coming to the canteen to collect their lunch orders. It is not the responsibility of the canteen staff to find students to hand out food.
• 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, so please do not ask). 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)

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)

As a birthday treat for students, the canteen is offering a Birthday Bucket or Classroom Cupcakes.

Birthday Bucket

A bucket of frozen Quelch Sticks will be delivered to your child’s class for them to share and enjoy with their class.

Available Monday to Friday, 7 days notice is needed.

Order and Pay via Flexischools - $18 (enough Quelch Sticks for the whole class)

Classroom Cupcakes

A platter of Cupcakes with vanilla icing and rainbow sprinkles will be delivered to your child’s class for them to share and enjoy with their class.

Available Monday to Thursday, 7 days notice is needed.

Order & Pay via Flexischools - $32 (enough cupcakes for the whole class)

Alicia Cowden | Primary Canteen Manager

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 by email

Ally Lusty | Uniform Shop Manager