News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

Mano Colour Run – Thursday, 6th November at 2pm:

It was fantastic to see Mr Hambrook and our House Captains showcase some of the fun our students will have with our Colour Run at our assembly on Monday. Thank you to all families and students who have registered. Students will be able to wear casual dress on this day with a white t-shirt. All fundraising efforts this year, including the funds raised from the Colour Run, will go directly towards our Playground Upgrade program.

Student Leadership:

Student leadership is a high priority for us at Mano as student voice is a critical element in a high performing school. With this in mind, we continue to expand the leadership opportunities for our students. This includes our School Captains and Vice Captains, our House Captains, our Positive Behaviour and Wellbeing Ambassadors, our Class Ambassadors and our Junior School Councillors. These opportunities commence at Grade 2. Our 2025 Student Leadership Team have been instrumental in so many aspects of our school this year and I look forward to highlighting this in the coming weeks.

Recently we continued our selection process for our 2026 Student Leadership Team and I was blown away with the leadership capacity we have at Mano. The team ethos, the passion of Mano, the enthusiasm, the care for each other, the aspirations, the honesty and the selflessness was on full display. I am incredibly confident in another positive and successful 2026 under the guidance of our 2026 Student Leadership Team.

Building Fund, Classroom, ICT, Specialist Program Resources & School Ground Improvements Donations:

I would like to thank and acknowledge all of our Mano families who were able to support the school by donating to our Building Fund, Classroom Resources, ICT Resources, Specialist Program Resources and School Ground Improvements in 2025.

We received an amazing $34,460 in donations and this has funded the following items:

Famers Market Cubby House & Sandpit for our Prep Learning Community
Board Games & New Furniture for our Grade 3 Community
New Student Chairs for our STEM Room
Synthetic Turf for our Junior Playground
Upgrade to our Oval Irrigation
Painting our Student Toilets
12 x iPads

2025/2026 Transition program:

Transitions into our school, within our school and into secondary school for our Gr 6 students is of high priority. An effective transition program provides students with confidence to move from one learning environment to the next. When successful transition programs are in place, students develop a sense of certainty, clarity and an increased ability to focus. This ultimately allows students to learn more effectively as they can process information more coherently. With this in mind, our next transition session is on Friday, 7th November from 9:30am until 11:00am. All students, including our 2026 Prep students, will engage in activities to support their transition into their next year level.

School Council:

Our School Council met again on Monday night where key agenda items included:

Our School Council President tabled a plan to continue advocating for increased learning spaces for Mano, including a sports stadium and additional classrooms
School Council discussed allocating our 2025-2026 funds raised by our Parents and Friends Committee and our community – we will finalise the allocation of these funds at our next meeting
School Council were informed that Mano will transition our swimming program from The Geelong College to the Geelong Aquatic Centre in 2026
Reviewed and updated our ‘Complaints’ policy
Mano’s 100th Year Celebration was discussed – we look forward to sharing the date and details in the coming month
The changes to the student digital device use in primary schools was discussed

Each of our School Councillors are deeply committed and invested in our school. Please contact them if you have any feedback or concerns (details available from our school website).

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

Christian Smith