News From Mr Smith

Dear School Community Members,

We have enjoyed a wonderful start to Term 3, with students enthusiastically reconnecting with friends and settling into exciting new learning opportunities. It has been fantastic to see such a positive and energetic beginning to the term.

Like the first half of the year, Term 3 promises a rich and engaging program of learning, with students participating in a range of challenging curriculum experiences alongside a variety of extra-curricular activities. We remain committed to our mission of ensuring every student has access to high-quality teaching and wellbeing support, with consistent learning experiences across all classrooms.

This term's extra-curricular opportunities include excursions and incursions, the Year 6 Camp, participation in the State Schools Spectacular for selected students, and our much-anticipated Colour Run. These experiences are designed to enrich and complement the learning taking place in our classrooms.

Please keep an eye on the Calendar of Events in our newsletter to stay up to date with the many exciting activities and important dates throughout the term.

Welcome back Mrs Hughes:

We extend a warm welcome to Mrs April Hughes as she returns from Family Leave. Mrs Hughes will teach in a variety of classes across the school for the remainder of the year.

Welcome back, Mrs Hughes!

Planned Industrial Action

The Australian Education Union has called on its members to take strike action on Thursday, 23 July 2026.

I will provide you with further information once staff members who are taking strike action are confirmed.

Please note staff are not required to confirm whether they are taking action until 5pm, Monday 20th July. Please continue to check messages from the school on Compass.

NAIDOC Week - 50 Years of Deadly:

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.

Annual Implementation Plan – 2026:

Our Annual Implementation Plan outlines the key areas we will focus on to maximise student learning and wellbeing outcomes. As a Leadership Team, we recently reflected on the progress of our Annual Implementation Plan. This included leaders highlighting aspects of our plan that we ‘have achieved’, ‘are working on’ or ‘need further focus’. Our key improvement strategies for this year are:

Wellbeing & Inclusion: Sustain a positive school culture by promoting wellbeing, inclusive practices and student agency to improve the wellbeing outcomes for all students.
English: Implement Spelling Mastery and embed the agreed Mano English Model to improve literacy outcomes for all students.
Numeracy: Develop and implement a daily review and number fluency routine to strengthen retention and confidence to improve mathematical outcomes for all students.
Curriculum, Assessment & Reporting: Review, develop and implement a curriculum-aligned reporting system that delivers timely feedback to improve outcomes for all students.

As a staff team, we are committed to achieving the targets against our improvement plan and are highly engaged in each of these areas. In the upcoming newsletters, I will provide our families with regular updates on our progress and achievements.

Welcome to TheirCare at Manifold Heights Primary School!

We’re absolutely thrilled to introduce families to TheirCare our new OSHC program, where every day is packed with fun, learning, and safe adventures.

TheirCare provide Before & After School Care, Holiday Program and Pupil Free Day Care.

Visit www.theircare.com.au and click “Book Now” (top right corner) to register. The friendly Support Team are here to help! Call 1300 072 410 during office hours.

It’s not Okay to be away!:

Promoting regular school attendance has been a key priority over the past three years, following higher-than-expected student absences in 2023. We are pleased to share that this sustained focus has resulted in significant improvements in student attendance.

Our 2025 attendance data highlights continued progress since 2023, with our overall attendance now exceeding that of our Similar School - schools with comparable student populations and characteristics.

Throughout this initiative, we have focused on:

supporting the Victorian Government's and Manifold Heights Primary School’s commitment to regular school attendance
raising awareness of the strong connection between school attendance and positive academic, social and wellbeing outcomes
encouraging students to stay home when they are genuinely unwell
working closely with families to provide support and remove barriers to attendance wherever possible.

As shown in the graphic below, we achieved some excellent results in 2025, with 33% of students recording fewer than 10 days of absence across the school year. While 109 students had 20 or more days of absence, we know there is still work to do.

Regular attendance gives every child the best opportunity to learn, build friendships, develop confidence and reach their full potential. We will continue working in partnership with families to promote the importance of attending school every day, unless a child is unwell or there are exceptional circumstances.

Together, we can ensure every student has the best opportunity to thrive academically, socially and emotionally.

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 2026 survey. According to our students, the following aspects of our school are well above the State:

Differentiated Learning Challenge
Self Regulation and Goal Setting
Effective classroom behaviour
Sense of Inclusion
Stimulated learning
Advocacy at school
High expectations for success
Managing Bullying
Community connections
Teacher Concern

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 Discussions 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

Curriculum Day (Pupil Free Day) – Monday, 24th August:

School Council has approved our next Curriculum Day, which will be held on Monday, 24 August. On this pupil-free day, staff will participate in professional learning focused on strengthening our teaching approaches in reading and writing.

For families requiring care, TheirCare will be operating on the day.

Bookings can be made via the TheirCare website.

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

Christian Smith