I’ve been using Manila both personally and with my classes for three years, but somehow the Site Access Restrictions feature just slipped by me. I’m not sure it’s the most, shall we say “elegant” solution to the some parts public, some parts private issue, but it is a solution nonetheless. This way, students can limit access to certain pages in the site to say, just the teacher, putting only finished work out there for everyone to see. The idea is crucial, I think, though an easier solution would be to include those access choices where you create the content. This doesn’t seem to work with News Items, but it does work with Stories.
Don’t worry, you aren’t slipping in any way. That’s a brand new feature that was just added last month.