Dear School Community Members,

All students should be into the habit of reading regularly as part of their Home-Reading program. As parents and role models, we have the opportunity to project and model the importance of reading onto our children. Professor Anne Bayetto from Flinders University in South Australia highlighted students who read:

Less than 1 minute per day will read 8000 words a year

4.6 minutes per day will read 282 000 words a year

20 minutes per day will read 1.8 million words a year

How can they ever catch up? Our role, as teachers, is to explicitly teach students how to decode the text and comprehension strategies that children require to be successful readers. As parents and role models, your job is to give the opportunity for them to practise these skills. We expect all students are engaged in a regular home-reading program. For our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students, this will include a prescribed program where they bring home a ‘take-home book’ co-selected by the student and their teacher.

Our older students should be engaging in a more independent home-reading program where books have been borrowed from the school library, local libraries or a home library.

Please contact your child’s classroom teacher if you require further support with your child’s Home Reading program.

Literacy, Numeracy and Book Week: Mano will celebrate Literacy and Numeracy Week from Tuesday (25th August). Many fabulous activities have been planned to continue to develop the love of reading and books and a strong appetite for all things maths. Key events will be our traditional Book Week Parade on Tuesday from 9:15am, a Family Maths competition and a Masked Reader competition. Further details have been provided via Seesaw.

School Values – Safe Sally: As we continue to promote our school values at Mano within classrooms and at assembly, I encourage families to continue the promotion of our values at home. Safety is anything that people do to protect themselves or others from harmful accidents. A safe person prevents accidents or harmful events by following safety measures. Our students will continue to learn, through explicit lessons and role playing, about ‘safety’ and how being safe will enhance and enrich their life. We look forward to the support of our community in promoting our values.

Gr 6 Camp: Congratulations to our Grade 6 Learning Community on their camp last week to Cave Hill Creek. Highlights from our students and staff include the Bike Riding, Canoeing, Ropes Courses and the opportunity to strengthen their friendships (and hang out in the cabins). Thank you to all six staff members and Zoe and Sarah (parent volunteers) for providing a wonderful program of activities for our Grade 6 students.

Sunsmart Hats: It is that time of the year when we need to ‘dust’ off the Mano Sunsmart Hat. All students are required to wear their Sunsmart Mano hat during all outside activities. This is part of the ‘Student Dress Code’ and ‘Sun Smart’ policies of our school. Students will be required to play in a designated shaded area if they don’t have their Sunsmart hat.

Thank you for supporting our school and have a great week.

Christian Smith

Science Week