News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

National Reconciliation Week:

Next week is National Reconciliation week, an opportunity for us as a community to celebrate the rich culture and history of Indigenous Australians. National Reconciliation Week is a time to build better relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and other Australians—and a time to come together to acknowledge the enormous contributions that Australia’s First Peoples have made to shape our nation. It is also an opportunity to explore how each of us can contribute to achieving reconciliation in Australia. This year’s theme is: ‘Bringing Now to Next.'

Two dates are significant in the history of reconciliation. The 27th of May is the anniversary of the date of the 1967 Referendum, which successfully removed from the Constitution clauses that discriminated against Indigenous Australians. The 3rd of June is the anniversary of the High Court decision in the Eddie Mabo land rights case handed down in 1992. Our students will engage in discussions and activities that will assist them in deepening their understanding about our country’s rich history and realise that our past goes way back before 1788. Each class will also develop their own Acknowledgement of Country that will be displayed and utilised at our weekly assemblies. We encourage our families to use next week as an opportunity to reflect and celebrate the wonderful traditions and customs our Indigenous Australians have.

Promoting Positive Behaviour – Bullying Prevention:

Student wellbeing is of the highest priority at Manifold Heights Primary School. Our school improvement agenda clearly highlights the significance and importance we place on the health and wellbeing of every student. Like all aspects of a child’s development, the partnership between home and school is vital in the growth of a child’s wellbeing. On Monday night at our School Council meeting, we reviewed our Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy and our Bullying Prevention Policy. Part of the review included a discussion regarding the importance of families clearly understanding the process for informing our school of incidences of ‘bullying’. Please note the following:

Bullying is defined as: an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause harm.
Whilst needing to be addressed and corrected, an isolated incident of unwanted verbal, physical and/or social behaviour is not ‘bullying’.
As per our Bullying Prevention policy, we request parents or carers to contact a member of our schools Leadership Team if they have concerns regarding incidences of bullying by:

Phone: 52 29 9643

Email: manifold.heights.ps@education.vic.gov.au

ATT: SCHOOL LEADERSHIP – BULLYING

Later in the year we will recognise and promote the National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. This is a wonderful opportunity to continue to educate our students and community on a culture of kindness – more about this in the coming months!

Curriculum Day:

Our Curriculum Day last Friday focused on the Department of Education’s new approach to the teaching of Reading. We had highly regarded consultant, Rachael Buck, provide all staff with an informative professional learning session on each of the elements of the new approach. Whilst much new learning was acquired by our staff, it was incredibly validating that our current pedagogical approaches are very much aligned with the Department of Education’s new reading framework. We look forward to sharing with our families this new approach as we begin implementing over the coming months.

Parent-Teacher Conferences:

Manifold Heights Primary School is committed to developing an effective ‘Home – School’ partnership to maximise the opportunities and outcomes for each student. With this in mind, we can confirm our Parent Teacher Conferences (interviews) will take place on:

Date: Thursday, 3rd July

Time: 2:00pm – 7:40pm

Please note:

Students will be dismissed at 1:30pm on this day (Thursday, 3rd July)
After School Care will commence at 1:30pm on this day – bookings can be made with VillageOHSC

Further details, including times and how to schedule a Parent Teacher Conference will be available in the coming weeks.

Staff Professional Learning – Maths:

Our staff forum yesterday afternoon focussed on ‘maths’. Led by our Maths School Improvement Team Leader, Rachel McLeod, our teachers participated in a session that specifically focused on our ‘Launch, Explore, Summarise (LES)’ model. The LES model is a maths instructional framework that promotes inquiry-based learning and student-centred teaching. It shifts the focus from the teacher delivering content to students actively exploring and solving problems, guided by the teacher. Here at Mano, our students engage in one LES maths lesson per week.

This Professional Learning session is part of our School Improvement Plan and our commitment to further developing the maths outcomes of our students.

School Council:

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

Staff representatives provided an update on our School Improvement Plan: Wellbeing, English, Numeracy, and Curriculum and Assessment
Discussed our enrolment pressure (due to increased student enrolments over the last 4 years) and the need to begin advocating for increased facilities at Mano
Reviewed and endorsed the following policies:
- Child Safety Code of Conduct
- Child Safety Responding and Reporting Obligations Policy and Procedures
- Child Safety and Wellbeing Policy
- Bullying Prevention Policy

Each of these policies will be available from our school website in the coming weeks.

Confirmed and endorsed our Parent Teacher Conferences for Thursday, 3rd July

Each of our School Councillors are deeply committed and invested in our school. Please contact them if you have any feedback or concerns.

Email: manifold.heights.ps@education.vic.gov.au

Att: School Council

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

Christian Smith