News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

Swimming Program: I am thrilled to inform our families that the P-2 Swimming Program has been an overwhelming success. After minimal swimming programs available over the last four years, our students have made wonderful progress. In their daily lessons students have been focusing on developing their understanding of water safety, building their confidence around the water and practicing vital early swimming skills. The students have represented Mano exceptionally - demonstrating our 3 school values of respect, responsibility and safety during the lessons. We thank our families for your continued support towards the swimming program. I also acknowledge Mr Davis and our staff for their dedication in coordinating a highly effective program.

Planning for 2024: Our Leadership Team continue to work on planning for 2024. This includes planning our class structures, staffing and learning spaces for 2024. We have almost completed a review of our ‘Class Structure’ – the class structure is the composition of the classes eg. Composite or Straight or a combination of both. We look forward to sharing the outcome of this next week.

To support our process of allocating all students to a class for 2024, each student will be provided with an opportunity to complete a ‘Friendship Card’. This ‘Friendship Card’ will allow students to indicate some students they would like to be in a class with in 2024. Students will be guaranteed to be placed in a class with at least 1 of these students from their ‘Friendship Card’. I will continue to share aspects of our 2024 planning as it becomes formalised.

2024 Student Leadership Team: Throughout this week, some of our Grade 5 students have presented a speech as a nomination for our various student leadership positions for 2024. Our students presented to their peers as well as staff in their quest to gain one of the student leadership positions. This includes school captain, school vice-captain and house captain. Our other student leadership positions will be available early next year. Whilst not all students will be awarded a formal leadership position, I am confident each student will play a pivotal role as the Senior students in leading their younger peers in 2024. I wish all Grade 5 students well for the remainder of the process!

Professional Learning – Mano Teaching and Learning Model: Over the last two weeks our staff have engaged in professional learning sessions on our Teaching and Learning Model. Led by Mrs Geary, teachers explored the ‘Reflect’ phase of our Teaching and Learning Model and developed a suite of strategies and resources to assist students to reflect on their learning within each lesson. Our teachers will continue to have access to professional learning on each phase of our Teaching and Learning model so that each student has access to high quality instruction with minimal variation across the school.

Mano Colour Run – Friday 10th November: Once again, thank you to the families who have registered their children for the Mano Colour Run. We encourage all families to register their children ASAP to support our Parents and Friends Committee with their planning of the event. Information regarding our Mano Colour Run has been sent home over the last few weeks. If you require another fundraising booklet please contact the School Office.

Referendum Polling Booth: A huge thank you to all the families who supported our BBQ and Cake Stall last Saturday. The support, both with volunteers at the BBQ and the donations of cakes and slices, is much appreciated and symbolic of the community spirt embedded at Mano. Once again, I extend our gratitude for the dedication, passion and commitment from our Parents and Friends Committee for coordinating another wonderful fundraiser for our school. The coordinator from the Australian Electoral Commission expressed his admiration at the number of families volunteering for the BBQ, the amount of baked goods donated by our families and the incredible coordination and sense of community from our Parents and Friends Committee.

Safety – Staff Carpark: As a school, our highest priority is the safety of all community members. Recently we have had some near misses or “close shaves” in the staff carpark due to families utilising the staff carpark as a drop off and pick up zone. To maximise the safety of our students and all community members, I remind our families of the following:

The staff carpark is strictly for staff only, as well as any community member who has the appropriate permit to park in the ‘All Accessible’ parking bays that are located in the staff carpark (permit must be on display)
Students often use the staff carpark as an entry and exit from school – for this reason no moving vehicles are permitted in the staff carpark during these times

Thank you in anticipation for your support of this matter.

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

Christian Smith

Principal