We hope you will all enjoy a restful and enjoyable break before we head into the final months of learning and friendship together at École St. Matthew's School for the 2023-2024 school year. We look forward to welcoming all our staff, students and families back to school on Monday, April 8, which will be Day 5 on our schedule.

Here's to an amazing April at ÉSMS!

Charmayne & Allison

Charmayne Rumbolt, Principal

Allison North, Assistant Principal

Please review the important information linked below pertaining to the

upcoming solar eclipse on April 8: Memo for Families Solar Eclipse

Our ÉSMS Lucky Strike 50/50 Fundraiser closed with total ticket sales of $8470.00. Thank you to all those who promoted this fundraising effort and/or purchased tickets - our Tigers think that's GRRRRRRRRRREAT!

Congratulations to our winner and to our learners who will benefit from the kindness you have all shared.

Our Grade 7 Girls Volleyball Team had a friendly game of volleyball against some brave teachers who were willing to take them on. The teachers graciously accepted their defeat - it was a lot of fun and a great effort by both teams!

As part of Literacy Week, students and teachers decorated doors with a favourite book in mind. These covers show how much we appreciate our reading and they recommend our most-loved titles to our friends throughout the school!

THANK YOU to our school community for donating gently used books for our students to choose a "new to them” selection at our HUGELY successful book bazaar! Students in grades K-7 were thrilled to get a new book to read and couldn’t believe it was FREE!

Planting Positivity was the theme of our Literacy-Education Week festivities. We’ve got a lot of good things growing at Ecole St. Matthew’s School!

Sincere thanks to Brilliant Labs for getting us started in robotics building. Generously supplying us with b-boards, servos, microbits and a host of other parts and pieces, Brilliant Labs has continued to support our development with the hardware of learning.

Thanks to staff and students for supporting our last Silly Squad. We raised $82 for Matt’s Market!

Our next Silly Squad will take place on Friday April 12, 2024. On this day staff and students are asked to wear blue to help celebrate World Autism Day. Spare change will be donated to the Autism Society.

Grade 3 students coded Microbits to make multiplication flashcards, and Grade 4 Core French classes made robots:

Grade 5 students built working automata:

And to help us observe World Water Day, all elementary students learned about the challenges of transporting and sanitizing water in developing nations (and Canada, unfortunately).

The Makerspace is still on the hunt for these supplies:

• Cardboard tubes from paper towels and wrapping paper, tissue boxes, egg cartons

• Old fabric and leftover yarn.

• Clean styrofoam meat trays

• Number 6 clear plastic salad containers

• Yogurt tubs

• Legos, Kinex, building blocks, gears

• Old technology (VCRs, calculators, etc.)

• Old toys with motors, moving parts or blinking lights

• Straws, plastic water or soda bottles, plastic spoons, pool noodles

If you can contribute these recycled items it would be great!

School lunch ordering for April closed on Wednesday, March 20. Registration is available online only and is required to order meals. If you missed out on ordering forApril, you can still register and order for May when ordering opens on Tuesday, April 9. To register please visit https://schoollunch.ca/. We also ask that you attempt to select menu options that your child will eat to reduce food wastage.

You can also access the ordering calendar HERE.

Ms. Taylors Grade 4/ 5 and Ms. Tibbs Kindergarten classes enjoyed working together to make polar bear dioramas!

The deadline for completion of Family School Development Surveys. You now have until Friday 29 March to share your thoughts by clicking on the following link:

https://www.research.net/r/SDFamily2324EN.

Thank you for your participation and for being a valued member of your school community.

École St. Matthew's School will be newly introduced to Student Transportation services starting in September 2024.

Bus Routes for the 2024-2025 school year have not yet been finalized, but families MUST visit the Parent Portal section of the NLSchools website to create an account.

You will require your child's STUDENT ID number to create your account. If you do not have this information, please request it via the STUDENT TRANSPORTATION PUBLIC INQUIRY FORM or contact the school. Your parent account will enable you to access the transportation details pertaining to your child when the new bus routes become available in July.

In anticipation of the removal of the 1.6 km for the upcoming school year, NLSchools is seeking qualified drivers to join our school teams. Check out the recruitment materials below.

Our 2023-2024 School Council looks forward to working in partnership with all members of our school community to ensure engagement and learning for all.

A list of current council members, together with meeting minutes and upcoming meeting dates can be found on our ÉSMS website. Should a member of the school community wish to attend a Council meeting to speak to a particular matter, please send along a note to charmaynerumbolt@nlschools.ca including name and topic for discussion. This information will then be forwarded to Council Chair John Cowan for inclusion in the next meeting agenda.

The next meeting of the ÉSMS School Council will take place on May 15, 2024 at 5:30 pm.

The weather is changing, from day to day and hour to hour! It is very important that your child is prepared for outside learning and wellness each day as we will continue to go outside for movement breaks and learning as the seasons change. We ask that you encourage your child to check our Lost & Found if they are missing items, and to keep a spare pair of socks in their backpacks should their boots fill with snow, rain or mud while outside.

Thursday 28 March

Last Day of School Prior to Easter Break

Monday 08 April

School Reopens Following Easter Break

Friday 17 May

Staff Professional Learning Day: No Classes for Students

Monday 20 May

Victoria Day Holiday

Friday 07 June

Term III Reporting Day for Teachers; No Classes for Students

Thursday 20 June

Last Day of School for Students; Term III Reports Released