Dear School Community Members,

It’s great to be back: Congratulations to everyone for a wonderful start to the 2025 school year! Thank you to our families for your support in having all students at school rested and prepared for the year ahead. Whilst our school year has just started, I continue to be incredibly proud of so many aspects of our school – the community spirit, the focus on student wellbeing, the high levels of respect displayed by students, the support from our families, the expertise of staff, the pride of our school demonstrated by students, just to name a few. Mano is a great place to be!

Welcome to our new staff: We have a wonderful staff that is committed to working together as a team. We welcome a number of new staff to Mano:

Mrs April Hughes: Gr 3 Teacher (returning from Family Leave)
Mrs Kristie Ilett: Art Teacher (returning from Family Leave)
Mrs Christy King: Art Teacher
Mr Harry Fleming: Integration Aide
Mrs Noeline Burney: Office Administration

We will provide a profile on each new staff member over the coming weeks in the newsletter.

We look forward to making our new staff welcome to our community and to their contribution to Mano.

Starting Right Program: All classes will continue engaging in our ‘Starting Right’ program for the next seven days. The program aims to establish shared values, behaviours, expectations and routines. This all falls under the School Wide Positive Behaviour Support framework that is embedded at Mano. The program allows students to play a major role in setting classroom agreements, routines and expectations. The program also teaches students about what keeps them switched on as learners, and what sort of things interfere with learning. It is a great program which also works hard at building relationships between students and teachers and the cohesion within each class. I encourage you to take the time to discuss the activities your child has engaged in at school over the coming week.

Meet and Greet Parent-Teacher Discussions: 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 that our first Parent Teacher Conference (interviews) will take place on:

Date: Wednesday, 19th February

Time: 2:00pm – 7:40pm

These discussions are an opportunity for you to personally meet your child’s classroom teacher and provide any information that will support the learning of your child. The focus will be on parents/guardians providing teachers with information, the transition into their new class and any concerns.

Further details, including times and how to schedule a Meet and Greet Parent Teacher Conference will be available next week.

Staff Professional Learning – Student Transition Discussions: Each week our staff engage in forums that target building capacity and knowledge centred on our School Improvement Plan. Yesterday, our teachers participated in our annual ‘Student Transition Discussions’. The purpose of these discussions are:

To provide all students with a seamless transition from 1 year level to the next.
To allow teachers the opportunity to gain valuable information from previous teachers regarding a students’ academic, emotional and social progress, along with other essential information.

These discussions, combined with our upcoming Meet and Greet Parent/Teacher Conferences, provides our teachers with a comprehensive and intimate knowledge of each individual student.

Communication: Compass is our main communication platform for all community members. As the majority of our communication is via Compass, we ask all families to ensure Compass is set up on a suitable device so that you can keep abreast of all that is happening at Mano. Please contact our office if you require assistance with Compass. Please note that communication between home and your child’s teacher is via SeeSaw.

Sunsmart: In line with our Sunsmart and Student Dress Code policies, students are required to wear their Mano broad brimmed Sunsmart hat throughout term 1 (and term 4) at recess, lunchtime and any other outdoor activity. This requirement stands irrespective of the weather. NO HAT = NO PLAY!

School Council Vacancies: School Councils play a vital role in our school’s overall direction, vision and policy development. Next week we will be advertising our annual School Council elections process. I encourage parents/carers to begin considering this opportunity. More information will be available next week.

Event Calendar: Although we have been back to school only one day, our school calendar is filling fast. On the first page of our newsletter each week is our ‘Event Calendar’. This outlines the upcoming events, so please keep a close eye on what is happening at our school.

Key Dates in February

Friday, 31st January - Mano Swimming Carnival
Monday, 3rd February - No Assembly
Wednesday, 19th February - Meet and Greet Parent-Teacher Discussions

Once again, welcome to the 2025 school year!

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

Christian Smith

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