Dear School Community Members,

By now, all students should be into the habit of reading regularly (both independently and being read to). 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, Grade 1 and Grade 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.

Mano Art Show – Wednesday 6th September: Our Art Show is fast approaching with all students and staff working tirelessly to ensure a fabulous show. Information regarding out Art Show has been provided through our various communication platforms (newsletter, Compass and Seesaw). We look forward to showcasing the incredible art work our students produce! A huge shout out to Mrs Hardman and Mrs King for their coordination of the Art Show.

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 from Friday 1st September during all outside activities. This is part of the ‘Uniform’ and ‘SunSmart’ policies of our school. From next week students will be required to play in a designated shaded area if they don’t have their SunSmart hat. Please locate your child’s SunSmart Hat and send along to school from tomorrow.

Teacher Professional Learning – School Improvement Teams: School Improvement Teams is a contemporary approach whereby teachers meet regularly to action and oversee the implementation of an aspect of the school’s School Improvement Plan. These teams are dynamic and responsive to the needs of the school. At Mano, our School Improvement Teams for 2023 are:

Wellbeing
Student Voice and Agency
Writing
Numeracy

Each of our teachers are a member of one of the School Improvement Teams and meet regularly to work on their designated ‘Problem of Practice’. Each team works on their identified aspect of the School Improvement Plan until it is achieved. I am pleased to report incredible progress from each team and look forward to providing an update from each team in the coming weeks.

School Council: School Council gathered again on Monday night and the key agenda items were:

Reviewing, updating and ratifying our ‘Sun Protection’ and ‘Visitors’ policies – available from school website
Discussed replacement of Junior Playground and formed a sub-committee to guide the replacement process. We also acknowledged the incredible efforts and commitment of our Parents and Friends committee in coordinating the fund raising for this to occur
Endorsed the 2024 Voluntary Financial Contributions (school fees)
Further discussed the review and update of our Student Dress Code Policy
The 2023 Attitudes to School survey (opinion survey for Grade 4 – 6 students) data was tabled and discussed. School Council acknowledged the wonderful improvements in our 2023 data.
Tabled the Mano Teaching and Learning Model

Father’s Day: Happy Father’s Day to all our dads for Sunday. We hope you are all spoilt and get to spend some quality time with your loved ones. Thank you to our wonderful group of volunteers for providing the Father’s Day stall for our students.

Curriculum Day – Writing: I am pleased to share that our Curriculum Day last Friday 25th August was extremely productive! As communicated, our focus on the day was on the teaching of writing. Highly regarded consultant, Andrea Hillbrick, led our staff through a series of lessons that focussed on the Writers Workshop Model. Staff were highly engaged and we are well placed to provide all students with high quality writing instruction.

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

Christian Smith

STEM News