FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK

Not long now!

2018 Classes: Classes for 2018 have been finalised and will be

communicated to families next week if they haven’t been already.

Families have had ample opportunity to submit class requests and

staff have strived to incorporate them.

Early Dismissal continuation submitted: Earlier in the year Mannum

Community College was granted a trial Early Dismissal on Wednesdays

with the proviso that it was reviewed in Term 4 2017.

This review has now taken place. Parents were provided with a link to

the e-survey in three fortnightly newsletters and via our school

Facebook page; they were also offered a paper version. Staff were

emailed the Early Dismissal link and were given one week to complete

the survey.

The results in brief:

82% of staff and 77% of parents thought the Early Dismissal

should continue into 2018 and beyond. More people responded to

the review than to the initial proposal in 2016.

People indicated that the transition to the Early Dismissal was

smooth and well communicated.

Benefits included more time for quality meeting with colleagues

and PD. Some parents enjoyed the additional time they could

spend with their children.

Concerns for staff included less time to fit curriculum content,

more meeting time for the sake of meeting. (The school still

maintains 1600 minute instruction weeks). Concerns for parents

included the lack of care for families in the town after school at

the best of times but particularly for the 45 minutes of the Early

Dismissal.

After further consultation with the leadership team, I have submitted

a proposal to the Chief Executive that Mannum Community College

continues with the Early Dismissal. We offer families the opportunity

to contact us regarding the After School Hours Care that we have

organised with the Mannum Hub for the 45 minutes before school

would normally finish.

Merry Christmas,

have an enjoyable and safe Holiday!

Kylie

ISSUE 19 - 4th December 2017 NEWSLETTER

TERM 4

Week 8: THURSDAY 7th December Year 1/2A Excursion

FRIDAY 8th December Piano Concert

Week 9: MONDAY 11th December Year 2/3A Excursion

FRIDAY 15th December Last day of School Year

Early Dismissal @ 2:20pm

2018

TERM 1

Week 0: WEDNESDAY 24th January Book Sales

Week 1: MONDAY 29th January Term 1 begins

SCHOOL CALENDAR

The Year 12 Class of

2017 being

celebrated at the

recent MCC

Presentation Day

Ceremony

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS SENIOR SCHOOL NEWS

Middle School Awards: Congratulations to all the Middle School students who received awards at the presentation ceremony on the 17th of November. You did yourself and the school very proud. Well done to the class presenters, you spoke confidently and demonstrated excellent oral skills. Most of Middle School students were a great audience and showed respect to the recipients and speakers. Thanks to the parents who attended and supported your child/children.

Eastern Zone Surfing: Year 8/9 Eastern Zone surfing happened last week and by all accounts the students were excellent and had a great time. I have also been informed that all students were sun safe and did not get sun burnt, which is a credit to the teachers but also the students. It is a long day but a great day, as it gives students opportunities they may not normally get.

Music Concert: Well done to the musical instrument students and the choir. The concert you held last Wednesday was a great showcase of your abilities and growth in the musical world. Excellent work to Charlie and Stephanie for being comperes and thanks to the parents who came and watched your child/children.

Welcoming New Students: This week we will welcome students from Mypolonga, Palmer and Gillies Street Primary School. They will be transitioning from Wednesday the 6th of December for three days. On Friday after lunch we will welcome the Year 5s into Middle School for a meet and great chat with Ms Love and Mr Lombardi.

Staff Training: Last Thursday all of the Middle School teachers went to a training about a program called ‘Play is the Way’. This program is about behaviour education and building responsibility and resilience in students. The core of the program is about the language used by teachers and students. Middle School students will be hearing the language and playing the games from now on. Please remember staff are learning this too so there may be occasions where things don’t run as smoothly as we would like. We will get there.

Only two weeks to go but students still need to apply themselves, engage with the class and tasks and continue to follow the school’s expectations.

Alyssa Quinn

Middle School Senior Leader

Students performing at our Instrument and Choir concert last Wednesday with Music Teacher Mr Peter Longden.

The new Semester has started really well. The students have had the opportunity to start their Year 11 and 12 four weeks early and getting a feel for the subject and the requirements they entail. There has been minimal changing of subjects which has made the transition easier. If your child has decided that they have selected the wrong subject, please contact me to arrange transfer to another subject.

A big thank you to Josh Drummond, Samantha Drummond, Claire Hartley, Nikayla Clark, Madison Muirhead and Sophie Stagg who went to the Mannum Golf Club and R.S.L. Club on Melbourne Cup Day to help with the catering. Helping in the community is reward-ing and show cases our students.

“The members of the Mannum R.S.L. would like to thank both Josh and Samantha for their help on the Melbourne Cup Day Luncheon. Their fantastic efforts helped make the day a huge success.” - Dennis Jericho, President Mannum R.S.L.

Thank you also to Josh Drummond, William Yarrow and Sarah Bullen who helped the Lutheran Church on Tuesday with their catering.

It is really lovely to see these students take the time to help in their community and see the hard work and value of volunteer and community groups. These students will be future committee members and helpers, getting involved at a young age embeds them into their community.

I can not believe that it is nearly the end of the 2017 school year and sadly my last year as the Senior School Leader as I am stepping down to concentrate on my other passions in the school. I would like to thank all students, families and teachers for all their support and it has been a fantastic and rewarding time for me. I wish all the stu-dents the best for their future and please remember even though I am changing roles, I am still here for you and your children.

I wish everyone a safe and happy Christmas and holiday period and I’m sure that I will see you around next year.

Charly Elliker

Senior School Senior Leader

Each year Mr Tony Pasin, Federal Member for Barker, pre-sents The Barker Shield. This year Jack Cox was awarded the Community Service & Spirit, Kellie Modra was awarded the Academic Achievement and Tyler Barker was awarded the Community Service & Sporting achievement. We would like to thank Mr Pasin for all his support.

Maligayang

Pasko

Philippines

Merry Christmas

Nragi nanggi Christ-indjeri

Ngarrindjeri

Merry Christmas

Chuk Sung Tan

Korea

Merry Christmas

JUNIOR SCHOOL NEWS

2017 has been an exciting and eventful year. We have had the

privilege to host many community and school events such as Book

Week, Concert, Swimming lessons, Grandfriends Day, school

excursions, Mt Everest Reading Challenge, Christmas Tree Festival,

the Pageant and many more! We have also had huge support and

involvement from the Mannum community with volunteers and

mentors and received lots of positive feedback on school events. It

has been a very busy end to another successful year!

2018 classes have been finalised. Students will be notified of their

classroom number and teacher in Week 9 with a transition visit to

meet their teacher and class mates for 2018. A note will go home

with the details. We are very excited to start a new year and wel-

come new families.

Following the transition visit on Wednesday week 9 students in the

Junior School will be having a huge Christmas picnic lunch where we

will be mingling with other students from different classes. Students

will eat their own lunch. This is to get into the Christmas spirit and

end the term with some festive fun and games!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many parents,

students, teachers and SSOs who have supported me in this role. I am

thoroughly enjoying my time as Assistant Principal of the Junior

School and look forward to the next five years as R-12 Deputy Princi-

pal.

Going into classrooms and being able to share so many great

experiences and laughs with the students while being greeted by so

many smiling faces who are so eager to share their learning journey

with me are the highlight of my days.

The Mannum community should be extremely proud of our school

and the amazing students, teachers, SSOs, mentors and volunteers

that make it fabulous.

Last Thursday Tony Pasin, Federal Member for Barker, visited

Mannum Community College to present Year 5 student, Anna

Whitaker with a beautiful box of Derwent coloured pencils as the

winner of his Christmas card competition. Many students from MCC

and schools in his electorate had entered this competition where

they had to draw a Christmas card that would be printed and used by

Tony Pasin this year. He will even send one to Malcolm Turnbull

Prime Minister of Australia. Well done Anna.

Wishing you all a safe and indulgent Christmas!

Michelle Grieger

Assistant Principal R-5

Wellbeing is always on our minds As our year comes to a close I’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all staff, students, family and community members who’ve contributed to the school’s wellbeing initiatives throughout the year. We’ve had a fantastic year of significant events including:

Harmony Day

National Families Week

National Volunteer Week

Sorry Day

Reconciliation Day

NAIDOC Week

Wear It Purple Day

National Child Protection Week

RU OK? Day

Grand-friend’s Day

World Kindness Day

White ribbon Day

Each event has highlighted our need to continually work to-gether as a community when tackling challenges in relation-ships, mental health, poverty, drug use and discrimination. “The Mannum Way” - Exciting times ahead! 2018 has some thrilling work in store for our school’s wellbe-ing focus. “The Mannum Way” wellbeing program will kick into second gear with a range of programs and activities. In particular, staff are eager to commence a united program for Play is the Way that has now been adopted across the whole school. Mentoring training by the program’s founder in Feb-ruary will consolidate what we already know and provide guidance for the journey ahead. Attendance - Every day counts Leadership staff are working hard to introduce some initia-tives in the area of attendance. As a school, we are still well below the DECD target. We can do better. We need to find smarter ways to engage families and stu-dents with their learning. Please help us with this by encour-age and supporting your child/ren to come to school EVERY day. Their academic success is heavily tied-in with regular attendance. Get them here and we’ll do the rest! Finally, thanks for everyone for making my first year at MCC such a rewarding done. My daughter and I feel very settled here. We love the river lifestyle and look forward to at least two more years as part of the MCC community. Best regards, Bobbie Wellbeing Leader

At MCC, we are all AWESOME!

Merii KurisumasuK

Japan

Merry Christmas

WELLBEING COORDINATOR

Happy Retirement Ms Bennett After many years working in DECD in a variety of roles and schools, Ms Chris Bennett has made the decision to retire at the end of 2017. We wish Chris all the best for the future and thank her for her services as a teacher at MCC and hope that she has enjoyed her time with us. Our School Leaders, Nikayla and Claire had the opportunity to interview Ms Bennett on her teaching career and life as a teacher. Nikayla and Claire: What made you decide to become a teacher?

Ms Bennett: Parents gave me three choices, a nurse, a hairdresser, or a teacher.

The teacher seemed to be the best choice!

Nikayla and Claire: What is the craziest question you’ve ever been asked?

Ms Bennett: So many!

Nikayla and Claire: What are the best and worst things about being a teacher?

Ms Bennett: Best - making difference in kids lives. Worst – the workload.

Nikayla and Claire: If you could take your students anywhere in the world for an excursion, where would it be? Ms Bennett: Anywhere and everywhere, to see real life things. Learning is about real life.

Nikayla and Claire: What was school like for you?

Ms Bennett: I enjoyed the learning, and it opened up new doors.

Nikayla and Claire: Do you have a quote that you live your life by?

Ms Bennett: Do it once, do it well.

Chris entered university after winning a teaching scholarship in Year 12. She began teaching English at Walford Girls School, followed by time at Alberton JP and Marryatville PS in Special Education. Then followed a number of years in Port Pirie as a Kindy director, before going to Tonga in the South Pacific as an English and Geography teacher under the Australian Volunteers Abroad scheme. When she returned, accompanied by husband and baby daughter, she gained her qualification in librarianship and ran the Public Library in Port Pirie for three years. However, teaching again beck-oned, and Chris spent the next ten years in schools and Community Libraries in Ceduna, Kimba and Port Augusta. Dur-ing this time, she gained a further qualification in School Counselling, and also worked as an Aboriginal Education teacher and in leadership roles. In 2001, Chris moved to the Murraylands to be closer to family, and held several lead-ership positions before returning to classroom teaching and arriving at Mannum Community College in 2016.

‘I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Mannum. It’s a lovely school with a friendly staff and students, people are help-ful and there’s a sense of positivity and goodwill in the community. Thank you to everyone at Mannum for making my time here so enjoyable’.

Despite the wet weather on Saturday we had a great turn out of students and staff representing our school. We are so proud to represent our school to the wider community.

Mannum School

Community Library

Christmas hours

Mon 18th Dec 2017 CLOSED

School holiday hours

resume on Tuesday 2nd

January 2018 until Monday

29th January when school

term time hours commence.

Open 10am – 2pm

Open 10am – 2pm 4pm – 8pm

Open 10am – 2pm

Open 10am – 2pm

Tues 19th Dec 2017

Wed 20th Dec 2017

Thurs 21st Dec 2017

Fri 22nd Dec 2017

Sat 23rd Dec 2017

Mon 25th Dec 2017

Tues 26th Dec 2017

Wed 27th Dec 2017

Thurs 28th Dec 2017

Fri 29th Dec 2017

Sat 30th Dec 2017

Mon 1st Jan 2018

Tues 2nd Jan 2018

Wed 3rd Jan 2018

Thurs 4th Jan 2018

Fri 5th Jan 2018

Sat 6th Jan 2018

INFORMATION FOR YOU

Marau na Kerisimasi

Fiji

Shub Naya Baras

India

Sheng Tan Kuai Loh

China

2017 Christmas Pageant

NATIONAL DOMESTIC FAMILY

VIOLENCE COUNSELLING

National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family

Violence Counselling Service

1800RESPECT.org.au

1800 737 732

INFORMATION FOR YOU

YOUTH BEYOND BLUE Here's a helpful site for young people with anxiety from youth beyond blue called the Brave Program that may be helpful.

https://brave4you.psy.uq.edu.au/

The program was developed by the BRAVE team from Griffith University, The University of Southern Queensland and The University of Queensland, in consultation with UniQuest Pty Limited, and USQ Researcher Dr Sonja March said the program is easy to use. “The program is fun, interactive and can be completed at your own pace. All that young people with anxiety need to access the treatment program is a computer and the internet,” she said. “Trials and evaluation of the BRAVE program have shown young people who use it notice a significant improvement in their anxiety, and many are able to overcome their worries.”

INFORMATION FOR YOU

When: Thursday mornings during school term

Time: 9.30am - 10.00am

Where: Mannum Community Library

Preschool Story time aims to introduce children to the world of books and reading with fun, interactive experiences in a safe environment. These sessions are aimed at 0-5 year olds, cost is free and bookings are not necessary. Sessions may include stories, rhymes, songs, finger plays and a simple craft activity. Younger siblings and friends are invited to attend.

THE LEARNING EXPRESS DECEMBER

MANNUM MANNUM KINDERGARTEN* Friday 15th December 9.30am – 11am

CAMBRAI Cambrai Primary School* Wednesday 6th December 10am -11.30am

SWAN REACH Swan Reach Area School* Wednesday 20th December 10am -11.30am

* Locations marked with an asterix include PLAYTIME SESSIONS for you and your child with

Kippy Koala & Petunia Possum Playtime FUN GAMES CRAFT

Library items can be returned to your local library at any time. Bor-rowing of items is only available via The Learning Express Mobile Toy Library.

The Learning Express (TLE) is a mobile toy library filled with fun educational

resources for your child to learn, develop and explore through reading and

play. Future visits will be advertised on our Facebook page or please check

with your Kindergarten, Library and the HUB notice boards for dates of

delivery in your area.

For further information please contact: Mannum Community HUB:

08 8569 1832

thelearningexpress@mmss.com.au

LIBRARY NEWS

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

4th

M Hogben

5th

L McLeod

6th

C Cox

7th

M Eades

8th

F Weber

11th

L Scott

12th

J Weber

13th

J Schellen

14th

N Elix

15th

J Bormann

2018

CANTEEN NEWS

As this is the final newsletter for this year I would like to say a very big thank you to all of the canteen volunteers. Your time is invaluable and very much appreciated. THANK YOU!!

Also please note that the direct phone number to the canteen is currently out of order. Please call the ‘girls’ in the Front Office (85691503) and they will put you through.

Merry Christmas to you all and enjoy the holidays.

Regards

Vicki - Canteen Manager (85692971)

VOLUNTEER ROSTER

*Kids Club – Term 1 2018 registrations now open— must be received before the end of Term 4 2017

*Parent/child Mother Goose (formally known as Bub Club) – Wednesday

Mornings (0 - 2yrs) 9:15 - 10:00am (2 - 4 yrs) 11:00 - 11:45am

Guitar Lessons - Monday and Thursday 3:30-5:45pm (Term time only)

*School Holiday Program - Monday 18th - Thursday 21st December still some vacancies

The Learning Express - Mobile Toy Library - Mannum Kindy Friday 8th December 10am-11am

(* This activity is proudly provided by Communities for Children Murraylands facilitated by ac.care and funded by the Australian Government Department of DSS)

Contact details: website: www.mmss.com.au

Address: 58 Walker Ave Mannum 5238.

Phone: 85691832 for any enquiries

Watch the school Front Office window for posters of upcoming events.

**PLEASE NOTE THAT DUE TO NBN WE CAN NO LONGER RECEIVE ANY FAXES TO

THE MANNUM COMMUNITY HUB

MANNUM COMMUNITY HUB STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS WOULD LIKE TO

TAKE THIS OPPORTUNITY TO WISH ALL FAMILIES WITHIN COMMUNITY

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR.

WE THANK YOU ALL FOR YOU PATRONAGE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

AND LOOK FORWARD TO OFFERING MORE PROGRAMS IN 2018

WHAT’S ON AT THE HUB

JOY’S CORNER

Approaching the end of the year is a good time to

reflect on the year that has just past and how we have

used our time and opportunities. Some of us will look

back knowing we gave our best, others won't. I'm

reminded of a saying I've heard..

'You'll never build a reputation, a business, or a relation-

ship on what you intend to do. Your intentions may be

honourable and sincere, but unless you put them into

action, nothing is changed.'

LIBRARY BORROWING - Term 4

Monday: Yr 8 McClaren, Yr 6/7 Love Tuesday: 3/4 Wagenknecht, Rec Paech/Clark, Rec Garrett/Clark, 2/3 Zrim Wednesday: 1/2 Waters, 5/6 Hatcher, Thursday: Yr 10 Odera, 2/3 O’Hara, 1/2 Bennett Friday: Yr 9 Groves, 6/7 Lombardi, 4/5 Rowley

Rec - Yr 5: 3 books Year 6 -10: 5 books Year 11 - 12: 10 books Students in Rec-Year 2 must use a library bag

Jo Dunn

Teacher Librarian