Dear School Community Members,

Like many schools, this week we are celebrating Harmony Week – a time where we celebrate the diversity of our school community and an opportunity to build on our culture of: ‘everyone belongs at Mano!’ At our Harmony Week launch at our assembly on Monday, our student leaders shared a wonderful message about Harmony week and some of the activities students will engage in throughout the week. Students have engaged in activities focussed on diversity and respect throughout the week, and all classes are working together to create a Harmony Week mural across the school. I encourage families to have a family discussion about Harmony Week and the purpose behind it. Thank you to Mrs Hardman and Ms Morris for their coordination of Harmony Week.

Student Leadership – Junior School Council (JSC):

Our Student Leadership Team are making a real difference for our school! Our Student Leader Team includes our School Captains, School Vice Captains, House Captains, Junior School Council Members (Class Ambassadors) and our Positive Behaviour and Wellbeing Ambassadors.

Recently, our Junior School Council planned our Term 1 Social Service event and are well advanced in planning and implementing their Term 1 project. Although Ms Chapman is present and supporting the discussion, the meeting is chaired and minuted by our JSC representatives with the utmost respect shown by all members. This group of leaders have many plans for the remainder of the year. The Term 1 JSC project is to upgrade the ‘bubble taps’ around the school. We look forward to sharing with our community the outcome of this in the coming weeks.

Congratulations to our JSC and we look forward to their continued leadership throughout 2024.

Gr 4 Camp to Anglesea:

Our Grade 4 Learning Community will head off to Camp on Tuesday where they will partake in some fantastic activities. Activities at the Coastal Forest Lodge include body boarding, taking care of the animals who reside at the camp, yabbying and multiple team building activities. Thank you to our Grade 4 teachers for planning this experience and opportunity for our students.

Every Day Counts:

As many of you will be aware, our student ‘absence’ rates have been a concern.

As a result, we have been promoting the importance of student attendance underpinned by the motto of, ‘Every Day Counts’. While we achieved an improvement in our attendance rates in 2023, we will continue to invest in maximising attendance for all students.

Regular attendance at school plays a vital role for students to achieve their academic potential, as well as setting up a wonderful foundation for their social and emotional development. We hope the table below highlights the importance of regular attendance to school.

How many days will your child miss this year?

0-6 This is within the normal range. The child can take advantage of the teaching and learning opportunities available to them, as well develop healthy relationships with peers.

7 – 10 This attendance rate is below average. A child with this attendance rate could miss over one year of schooling between Prep and Year 10.

11- 20 This is a poor attendance rate. A child with this attendance rate could miss up to two years of schooling between Prep and Year 10.

To miss two years of school between Prep and Year 10 places significant risk on any student. It goes without saying that regular absenteeism from school won’t do your child any favours. Allowing your child to skip days simply because they “don’t feel like going to school” should not be an option.

Our school provides support and strategies for families to assist regular school attendance. We encourage any family to contact Mrs Geary or myself to discuss their child’s attendance at school.

More information will be provided in the coming weeks on how we plan to support our students with higher than normal absent rates.

Term 1 Social Service Activity:

Following Mano tradition, our Junior School Council (JSC) invite our community to partake in a Social Service activity each term.

A Social Service activity is where our JSC identify a charity they would like the Mano community to support.

We are pleased to inform you that our Term 1 Social Service activity has been finalised by our JSC:

Date: Thursday, 28th March

Charity: McGrath Foundation

Theme: Dress in Pink

Donation: Gold coin

Students and staff are invited to come to school wearing Pink. Further information has been provided via SeeSaw.

School Council:

We held our first School Council meeting of the new School Council on Monday night. I congratulate the following Councillors on accepting the Office Bearer positions:

President: Jonathon Connor

Vice President: Emma Byers

Treasurer: Paul Wigglesworth

Other School Councillors are: Jaclyn Richardson, Sarah Francis, Ragini Flower, Naomi Doody, Matthew Cowdell, Amy James, Narelle Geary, Christian Smith, Aimee Forsyth, John Hambrook and Jess Chapman.
School Council are in the process of finalising our Community Co-Opted positions for 2024.

On behalf of the Mano community, I thank our retiring School Councillors: Madhu Subramaniam, Bryanna Connell and Tom Fleming. Madhu, Bryanna and Tom have been wonderful contributors of School Council and their commitment, passion and enthusiasm for Mano is acknowledged and appreciated.

Below is a list of the key agenda items from Monday night:

Co-opting a community member: we are pleased to welcome Elly Hanlon and Terry Gillard to our 2024 School Council as our Community Co-Opted members
2023 Annual Report: School Council finalised and endorsed our 2023 Annual Report (this will be available to our community following the Department of Educations’ quality assurance process has been completed)
Discussed and endorsed the schools Volunteer Policy (available from Mano website)
Begun reviewing our communication practices with the aim to develop a communication plan
School Council was update on our process for going to tender for our Cleaning contract

Each of our School Councillors are deeply committed and invested in our school. Please contact them if you have any feedback or concerns (please visit our school website and select tab, ‘Parent Info’, ‘School Council’, ‘School Council Members Profiles’).

Prep attendance:

Our Prep students have had a fantastic start to their school life throughout term 1. Each Prep class has developed wonderful routines and have begun engaging in the formal curriculum such as phonics, correct letter and number formation and number sense up to 20. From the beginning of term 2, all Prep students are required to attend school ‘full time’ (5 days per week). We thank and congratulate our Prep learning community for a successful and productive first term at school.

End of Term Arrangements:

Next Thursday is the last day of term 1. Please note, students will be dismissed from school at 2:30pm next Thursday.

After School Care will begin at 2:30pm.

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

Christian Smith

Team Kids!