Dear School Community Members,

As a dad of four children, I am regularly seeking ideas, tips and advice on parenting. Goalcast is a regular source of mine and one that provides me with timely and practical ideas on developing my capacity as a parent. One of the most influential and powerful Goalcasts I have viewed is titled, ‘How to raise an independent and Free Thinking Child’ by Dr Justin Coulson. In this four-minute videocast, Dr Coulson shares his advice on creating independent children, and in turn a happy and harmonious family, by developing agreements and rules through autonomy rather than control. Dr Coulson states, “Great relationships build autonomy, which allows us to leverage trust, which builds massive influence on our children ......” Each time I watch this short clip, I am reminded and motivated to create agreements with my children rather than set rules. This videocast is well worth watching. https://youtu.be/Krnq1wFsJmE

Swimming Program: Following the huge success of the Grade 3 and Grade 4 swimming program, our Junior swimming program is running extremely smoothly with incredible growth of all students. Once again, I acknowledge Mr Quinlan and our staff for their dedication in coordinating a highly effective program.

Mano Colour Run – Friday, 8th November: As communicated last week, planning for our Colour Run is in full swing! On Friday, 8th November, our students will engage in a fun afternoon with a Colour Run thanks to our wonderful Parents and Friends committee. Details regarding our Colour Run were sent home last week – thank you to the many families who have registered their child and begun fundraising. A reminder that all money raised from the Colour Run will be directed to our ‘School Ground Improvements’ program.

Staff Professional Learning: Each week, our staff engage in professional learning activities to build our capacity and to maximise each student having access to high quality instruction. Led by Mr Fleming and the Writing School Improvement Team, staff participated in a session focussed on our Writers Workshop model, specifically the writing process. Teachers collaborated on developing strategies, resources and tools for the ‘Generating and Collecting Ideas’ phase of the writing process. This suite of strategies, resources and tools will be utilised by our teachers to engage our students in the process of generating ideas from a ‘seed’. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of this session through our ‘Writer of the Week’ award.

Christmas Concert – End of Year Celebration: I am pleased to inform you that the date and details for our Christmas Concert and end of year celebration has been finalised.

Date: Thursday, 19th December

Time: 9:15am – 11:00am

Each Learning Community (Year Level) will perform a ‘song’, our Term 4 Unleashing Potential awards will be presented, along with some other awards and announcements. We look forward to sharing with you further details as we get closer.

2025 Planning: To assist with our planning for 2025, if your child will not be attending Mano in 2025, please advise the office ASAP.

Safety – Parking at Drop off and Pick Up: Recently we have had families report dangerous driving behaviour, especially in Purrumbete Ave. Parking on or encroaching the pavement or footpath does compromise the safety of our students.

Local By-Law Officers will be present over the coming weeks to monitor our school surrounds at ‘pick up’ and ‘drop off’ times. Let’s all work together to maximise the safety of our community.

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

Christian Smith