Dear School Community Members,

Welcome to Term 3!

It has been a wonderful start to term 3 with students eagerly catching up with friends and beginning new curriculum topics. Like the first half of the year, Term 3 will see students engage in an exciting and challenging curriculum and extra curricula activities. We are committed to our mission of every student having access to high quality instruction and wellbeing supports with minimal variation between classrooms. Extra-curricula activities will include excursions and incursions, our Yr 6 Camp, the State School Spectacular for selected students and our much anticipated Art Show to support the formal learning in classrooms.

Please keep an ‘eye’ on the calendar of events in our newsletter to keep abreast of all that is happening.

Welcome Mrs Barnes:

We extend a warm welcome to Mrs Kate Barnes as our new Grade 3T teacher. Mrs Barnes replaces Mrs Tickner who has begun family leave. Mrs Barnes joins Mrs Hughes as the teachers of Grade 3T. Mrs Barnes has been super impressed with the manner in which our students and staff have welcomed her back to Mano.

We look forward to Mrs Barnes’ contribution to Mano and we congratulate Mrs Tickner on the birth of her baby.

NAIDOC Week: The next generation – Strength, Vision and Legacy:

Due to our holidays, we are celebrating NAIDOC Week this week, and this includes students engaging in activities that builds their understanding and knowledge of our First Nations people. NAIDOC Week is a time where we celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We will also have some of our senior students share their perspective of NAIDOC Week at assembly on Monday.

It’s not Okay to be away!:

Manifold Heights Primary School has prioritised the promotion of school attendance over the last three years due to our higher than expected levels of absences. As a result of this prioritisation, we achieved some improvements in 2023. Our ‘absence’ data for 2024 suggests that we need to continue working as a school community on the importance of regular school attendance. We have promoted and focussed on:

the State (Victoria) and Mano’s commitment to promoting regular school attendance
the correlation between attendance at school and academic and wellbeing outcomes
Mano’s data on student attendance (well below when compared to State)
students not attending school when unwell
offering support to families

As we can see from the graphic below, we achieved some significant improvement in 2023, with some decline last year. We had 27% of students have fewer than 10 days absence in 2024, down from 42% in 2023. The amount of students who were absent 20+ days in 2024 was 30%, almost doubling from 2023. We will continue to promote regular school attendance to provide our students with the opportunity to thrive in their academic, social and emotional development.

Student Voice - Attitudes to School Survey:

Student voice is a key priority for our school. Student voice refers to the values, opinions, beliefs, perspectives and ideas of individuals and groups of students. Research indicates that when schools have high levels of student voice and agency, academic and wellbeing outcomes are higher. Alongside the work led by our Student Voice and Agency Leader, Mr Gibson, we recently engaged our Grade 4, 5 and 6 students in the annual Attitudes to School Survey. The Attitudes to School Survey is a Department of Education survey that seeks the ideas, opinions and views of our students. We recently received the results of our 2025 survey. According to our students, the following aspects of our school are well above the State:

Effective classroom behaviour
Sense of Inclusion
Stimulated learning
Advocacy at school
High expectations for success
Managing Bullying
Community connections
Emotional awareness
Life satisfaction
Resilience

According to our students, the following aspects are areas for improvement:

Respect for diversity

Our Leadership Team will utilise this year’s Attitudes to School survey data to reflect on areas for celebration and opportunities for improvement.

Reporting to Parents/Carers:

Thank you to families who took the opportunity to participate in the Parent-Teacher Conferences late last term. This is an important aspect of our reporting to parents and carers program, as well as maintaining the ever important home – school partnership. These discussions are designed to complement the Semester 1 Student Report. I encourage families to provide any feedback regarding the Parent-Teacher Conferences and the Semester 1 Report Cards, or any other aspect of the Reporting to Parents program, to me through the school’s email address:

Att: Feedback Reporting to Parents Program

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

Mano Trivia Night – Saturday, 2nd August:

The excitement is building as we edge closer to our annual Trivia night. Thank you to our families and staff members who have purchased a ticket – a great night is ahead. As communicated throughout the year, the funds raised from our Trivia night will be allocated to our ‘School Grounds Improvement’ program. Again, a huge shout out to our Parents and Friends Committee for their dedication, passion and organisation of our Trivia night. We wish all participants well on Saturday night!

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

Christian Smith

VillageOSHC