St. Matthew School is a special place where students live the motto Seeking Knowledge + Modeling Christ + Serving Others in their daily lives. Students are encouraged to learn and grow in their faith and find true joy in their service to others.
Seeking... St. Matthew School's vision seeks to integrate into every learning experience the religious truth and values revealed by Jesus Christ and the teaching of the Catholic Church. This integration begins at kindergarten with the introduction of a faith vocabulary. The Faith First series for kindergarteners, along with the We Believe program for grades one through eight, provide the basis for the St. Matthew religion curriculum. These programs are supplemented with a broad spectrum of resources and experiences to enliven each student's embracing of the Catholic faith.
Modeling...To put their Catholic faith and the teachings of the Church into practice, students are provided with a broad array of opportunities to model Christ in their own lives. Some of these opportunities include reciting daily prayers, observing the liturgical rituals at the student Masses twice weekly, and serving as readers, altar servers, or choir members at the student Masses. By praying the Rosary and participating in First Friday Adoration, students model commitment to a lifestyle of conscious and deliberate prayer. Second and eighth graders engage in specific preparations for the Sacraments of First Communion and Confirmation. St. Matthew students participate in the Prayer Buddies Program where older students are paired with younger ones for shared faith experiences. These and other traditions at St. Matthew School create memorable experiences for students to model Christ daily.
Serving...In keeping with one of our belief statements, St. Matthew School seeks to raise the awareness of students to the needs of others around them, in their communities, and throughout the world. This goal is achieved through the third portion of the motto, Serving Others. The overriding service opportunity at St. Matthew School is to our sister school in Haiti, Our Lady of Miracles. Students in all grade levels conduct a variety of initiatives on behalf of Haiti throughout the school year. Beyond these efforts, the Hope for Haiti Summer Challenge engages all students in devoting one day of volunteering to raise money for Our Lady of Miracles. The methods used are limited only to the creativity of each student. Students in each grade are avid participants in additional service projects, including kindergarten's snack bags for the Ronald McDonald House, second grade's used book collection for Smithson Craighead School, and the middle school's involvement with Room in the Inn and Special Olympics.