Dear School Community Members,

All students should be into the habit of reading regularly as part of their Home-Reading program. As parents and role models, we have the opportunity to project and model the importance of reading onto our children. Professor Anne Bayetto from Flinders University in South Australia highlighted students who read:

Less than 1 minute per day will read 8000 words a year

4.6 minutes per day will read 282 000 words a year

20 minutes per day will read 1.8 million words a year

How can they ever catch up? Our role, as teachers, is to explicitly teach students how to decode the text and comprehension strategies that children require to be successful readers. As parents and role models, your job is to give the opportunity for them to practise these skills. We expect all students are engaged in a regular home-reading program. For our Prep, Year 1 and Year 2 students, this will include a prescribed program where they bring home a ‘take-home book’ co-selected by the student and their teacher. Our older students should be engaging in a more independent home-reading program where books have been borrowed from the school library, local libraries or a home library.

Please contact your child’s classroom teacher if you require further support with your child’s Home Reading program.

Literacy, Numeracy and Book Week:

Wow – the costumes and characters presented at our parade last Thursday were very impressive. Thank you to our families for supporting this event – including preparing the costumes and attending the parade. Literacy and Numeracy Week enables us to model to students the fun and learning books provide. Research indicates children are engaging with ‘books’ much less and accessing information online more frequently. Whilst ‘books’ in their traditional form are in competition to the masses of information available online, the experiences and enjoyment of reading a book can never be replaced. We, as role models (parents and teachers), have the opportunity to model the fun, excitement, learning and fulfilment reading a ‘Book’ offers.

School Values – Safe Sally:

As we continue to promote our school values at Mano within classrooms and at assembly, I encourage families to continue the promotion of our values at home. Safety is anything that people do to protect themselves or others from harmful accidents. A safe person prevents accidents or harmful events by following safety measures. Our students will continue to learn, through explicit lessons and role playing, about ‘safety’ and how being safe will enhance and enrich their life. We look forward to the support of our community in promoting our values.

Mano Art Show – Wednesday, 10th September:

The excitement is building as we inch closer to our much anticipated Art Show. All students and our Art Teachers are working tirelessly to ensure a fabulous show. Information regarding the Mano Art Show is included in this newsletter. We look forward to our School Community coming together to see our students showcase their Visual Arts talents.

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

Christian Smith