St. Matthew's School

International SEL Day

Hello Families,

We hope you are all warm and safe on this dreary day we are having. Today Friday, March 27 is the very first "International Social & Emotional Learning Day" #SELDay.

The CASEL tip for the day according to @caselorg is:

Parents: " Being is close quarters can be hard. Throughout the day, model for your family what consideration looks like. Say aloud things like 'Thank you for helping with the dishes, I'm grateful to have such a thoughtful child'.

Please thank all of your children on behalf of all of us here at St. Matthew's for being such thoughtful students and for being brave champions in their social distancing that is really helping all of us globally.

We are so proud of our courageous students and if you could pass that message along to all of our kids for us, we would be so grateful!

Have a safe and happy weekend with your loved ones,

Take care,

Charmayne, Valerie and Staff at St. Matthew's School

Dance into Friday, March 27

GOOD MORNING TIGERS!

Are you ready to DANCE INTO FRIDAY?!?

Survivor: Eye of the Tiger

Show us your dance parties!!!!

Thursday, March 26

Morning check-in

Good Morning Families,

We hope that the sunshine this morning is greeting you all well with love, safety and gratitude. We have all been thinking about our students and families so much over the past few days and send our positive vibes to each and every one of you.

We would like to share with you some information regarding a webinar that Eastern Health is offering today titled: Parenting in a Pandemic. The registration information is below.

Register using link below:

https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1812360606080823053

We are very thankful for the messages that we have received from you and the connections that you have made with your child's teachers during this time away from school. If you require support learning about the ways technology can bring us together, please reach out to us.

Throughout the school year we have been focused on social and emotional learning (SEL) as a community of learners at St. Matthew's School through the CASEL (The Collaborative for Academic, Social, Emotional Learning) construct. We have been teaching SEL to our students through guest teaching in all of our classrooms, in our daily classroom practices and our Safe and Caring Schools Leadership Team has been supporting our classes in gaining Virtue bands for classroom Rainbows. You may have seen these Rainbows posted outside the doors of your child's classroom during one of your visits to the school.

Our Rainbow Virtues are:

Respect

Kindness

Acceptance

Forgiveness

Responsibility

Honesty

Team Work

​​​​​​​Over the coming weeks we will be posing virtual activities for our students and their families to continue our efforts of attaining Virtue Bands together. Please check our Twitter handle @StMattsTigers and those of your child's teacher(s) to stay connected in this venture.

We will be sharing tips for the day through email, Twitter and/or our Google classrooms. Our CASEL "Social" for today is:

"At mealtime or bedtime each night, take time with your family members to share one thing you are grateful for and why"

For today we would like to express our Gratitude to you all and your children for enriching our lives as teachers and giving us all the strength and courage to "weather this storm" together in this new journey we are all on. We may not be seeing your lovely faces each and everyday, but we sure do miss you all and are thinking about our families from the comfort of our own homes during this time.

Take care, stay safe and connect together,

Charmayne, Valerie & Staff at St. Matthew's School

Learning at Home Launch

Hello Families,

Please see the most recent release from District regarding an online resource Learning at Home: Good at Learning-Good at Life

http://learningathome.nlesd.ca

The Newfoundland and Labrador English School District is launching a resource to assist and guide families with continued learning opportunities while in-school instruction remains suspended. The resource, Learning at Home: Good at Learning-Good at Life (http://learningathome.nlesd.ca) is a Google site, a platform familiar to our students and staff. The site will provide opportunities to foster a passion for learning through engaging online and offline adventures and activities.

For now, there is no expectation for families to be teachers and there is no expectation for teachers to assign grades or values to any work students complete while they are at home. However, students are encouraged to share their learning and routines with their teachers for feedback.

As has been indicated throughout this entire situation, our current collective focus is on our learners and our staff; on maintaining and even strengthening our relationships. While we hope to find ourselves back with our students and co-workers soon, the uncertainty remains.

We recognize not all families have access to online resources. We continue to look for opportunities that will make resources accessible for all. Learning at Home: Good at Learning - Good at Life can be accessed directly from the main District website at www.nlesd.ca.

We hope you are all doing well today and are finding creative and fun ways to practice social distancing at home with each other. Your child's teachers will be reaching out to you in support as we progress through this new learning site just released today along with suggestions of their own and ways to connect with their students.

As always if you want to reach out, please email me at any time.

Take care and stay safe,

Charmayne Rumbolt

Principal

IMPORTANT UPDATE

NO PUBLIC ACCESS TO SCHOOL

UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

Good Evening Families,

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding as we work through this difficult time. We regret to inform you that the plan for the retrieval of student belongings is called off.

Based on the most recent COVID-19 update from the Provincial Government and the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District is further limiting access to school facilities, effective immediately.

We have just been notified of this decision which we feel is certainly in the best interest of the public at this time. All student items have been bagged and organized and will be in storage until school reopens or we can safely distribute them.

Please know that we are all collectively thinking about all of you at this time and are sending our huge Tiger hugs and positivity to our students and the entire St. Matthew's School Community.

It was very difficult for teachers and staff to gather student items on Thursday and Friday of last week to get ready for parent pick up, as the classroom is certainly where we wish we could all be. We are all missing our students and each other during this sudden and unexpected closure.

We will be reaching out to our families through various means from this point onward and will continue to support our students and their families in our new capacities.

Please continue to maintain contact with your child's teacher, check our website and Twitter for updates, announcements and St. Matt's virtual activities.

We look forward to seeing our beautiful students again on the other side of this journey.

Stay safe and healthy,

Charmayne, Valerie and Staff of St. Matthew's School

Pickup of personal items CANCELLED

Hello again Families of St. Matthew's,

Due to new updates from the school board the pick up of student belongings has been cancelled.

We hope that you are all safe together at home enjoying quality time with each other during this time. Although our daily routines are disrupted at the moment, please know that we are always thinking of our students and their well-being.

We miss you all.

Stay safe,

Your St. Matthew's School Family

Moving forward, Thursday, March 19

Good Afternoon Families,

Please see the most recent memo for release by the school District on steps moving forward for our teachers, students and families.

Our teachers will remain committed and dedicated to you and your children during this time and will be working together over the coming days/weeks to ensure our relationships will continue and that we can be of support to your children socially and emotionally as we navigate this time in our history.

Please reach out to Valerie and myself as well as your child's teacher(s) whenever you feel the need for support or to have questions answered. We are a huge family here at St. Matthew's and our hearts are certainly with each other and our families right now .

We will communicate further plans for student item retrieval later this evening once a schedule is finalized.

​​​​​​​Take care and enjoy the time you are spending with each other practicing self-isolation at this time.

You can always look to our website https://stms.nlesd.ca for immediate updates as well as our twitter handle @StMattsTigers

United as a Tiger family,

Charmayne & Valerie

Thursday, March 19

مذكرة للآباء بشأن استرجاع متعلقاتهم

Good Morning Tiger Families,

First of all, we would like to let you know that we are all with you during this time. We are here to work with you and support you through what we understand may be a very difficult time for some of our families. We miss our students very much and hope that everyone is keeping busy and staying healthy.

We know that many of you have questions about your child’s education. At this point, our teachers will not be sending any instructional materials or text books home to your children. There will be further clarification of this coming from the district.

Our concern right now is the returning of personal belongings. In order to facilitate the necessary cleaning of the building, we will need to have these items removed, while also keeping in mind that it is necessary to comply with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Public Health Emergency and maintain social distance.

Please respond to your child’s teacher directly if you have items at school that need to be picked up and we will make arrangements for that to occur. We will communicate a list and a schedule for pick up as soon as we are able. The list will be alphabetical in nature and we will be making assurances that we are in compliance with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's current Public Health Emergency. We will also create this schedule to accommodate parents that have one than one child so that only one trip for retrieval needs to be made.

​​​​​​​Please note that this procedure if only for the picking up of student personal belongings and not to drop off any items that students currently have at home. We will make arrangements regarding those items at a later time.

Thank you for your continued patience, support and cooperation through this trying time.

Charmayne and Valerie

Tuesday, March 17

Urgent Memo to Families

Please be advised that effective immediately, no student or parent will be provided access to the school. The only exceptions will be for the retrieval of critical items, such as medical equipment or prescriptions currently housed at the school.

If you need to make arrangements for the transfer of these items please email the Principal (Charmayne) directly at charmaynerumbolt@nlesd.ca

Please see the attached memo just released from the District.

Take care and be safe,

Your St. Matthew's School Family

Urgent Memo to Families

رسالة عاجلة من الهیئة التعلیمیة الخاصة بالمدارس:

School Climate Survey

Thank you families for those who have already completed the Family portion of the School Development Survey that opened in February. For those of you have have not yet completed the survey, it would be greatly appreciated if you could spend a few moments to answer some questions to provide feedback to the District on our practices. Please click the link below to access the survey. There is an attached information letter for parents as well.

The deadline for survey completion is next Friday, March 20, 2020.

https://www.research.net/r/SDFamily1920EN

Thank you so much ,

Family Survey 2019-2020 ​​​​​​​

Charmayne & Valerie