Dear School Community Members,

As a dad, I regularly reflect on my parenting and how I can be the best parent I can be. This reflection includes engaging in advice and ideas from experts in the field of ‘Parenting’ and ‘Relationships’. Cathy Quinn is an expert in ‘Parenting’ and ‘Parent Engagement’. Cathy has many practical ideas on ‘Parenting’ and below is some of her advice on how we, as parents, can develop the love of learning in your child. She suggests that:

Parents need to show that they value learning and model the behaviours of successful learners to children.
Help your child develop a good attitude towards learning, especially to be motivated and engaged in learning.
Help them to develop strong work habits and the skills of persistence, planning, and organisation to become autonomous learners.
Encourage them to ask for help.
Establish routines that promote health and wellbeing, such as regular bedtimes, regular exercise, early dinner times (5.30-6.30pm), regular reading times and regular attendance at school.

Education Support Week:

Throughout this week we are celebrating, acknowledging and thanking our Education Support (ES) staff for everything they do for our school. We have twenty-five ES staff at Mano – this includes our office and administration staff, our integration staff, our Librarian, our grounds and maintenance staff and our Chaplain. Each and everyone of these staff members are integral in maximising outcomes for our 478 students. Today our students and staff have made this a special time for each of our ES staff members through a special morning tea and a card. I encourage families to thank and acknowledge all that our ES staff do for our community.

School Improvement Plan:

The next aspect of our School Improvement Plan that we would like to share with our community is:

Key Improvement Strategy 2 - Maths:

Implement and embed the Mano Maths approach to improve Numeracy outcomes for all students.

Leader/s:

Mrs McLeod

Achievements:

Inducting new and returning staff on the Mano Maths Model
All students introduced to the Mano Problem Solving toolkit
Embedding the Launch, Explore, Summarise model across all classrooms
Consolidate the new Maths Curriculum across the school
Explored a variety of engaging warm up games and tasks that can be used in the ‘connect’ phase of our Teaching and Learning Model
Collaborated with staff to analyse current assessment data and how this data can be used for planning and teaching

Current Work:

Designing professional learning for teachers on the Launch, Explore, Summarise model
Peer observations on the Launch, Explore, Summarise model
Supporting all teachers in the transition from three progression points to one progression point for Student Reports

Student Reports and Parent/Teacher Conferences:

As many of you will be aware, our Student Reports and our Parent/Teacher Conferences are fast approaching.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Our Parent/Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, 3rd July from 2:00pm until 7:40pm. Families are able to secure a booking for their Parent/Teacher Conference via Compass.

A reminder that students will be dismissed at 1:30pm on this day.

Student Reports

Our Student Reports will be available via Compass on Friday, 27th June at 4:00pm.

Families can request a ‘paper copy’ from the Office if required – please contact our office team if you would like a ‘paper copy’.

Pupil Free Day – Friday, 13th June: A reminder that our next Pupil Free Day is on Friday, 13th June. This day is dedicated to our staff formalising their assessments of all students and compiling their student Reports. Care is available on this day through VillageOSHC. Please visit their website to ‘book’ care for this day.

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

Christian Smith

Grade 3 & 4 News