Dempsey's Digest

And just like that, the cold weather has hit! It’s a great time of year isn’t it? Warm fires, cosy cuppas, slow cookers, crunchy leaves (and then soggy ones as well) and winter sports. I just love seeing the Autumn colours through the hills and our MECS property. What joy the seasons bring! 

Life at MECS is never dull and this newsletter is another testament to the challenges, learning, fun and creativity that MECS offers to our curious and growing learners. Here’s some updates of what has been happening…

Visit from Montrose CFA

MECS sits on the boundary line between Montrose and Mount Evelyn, so this means that we fall under the direction of the Montrose Fire Brigade. Last week, Rob, Daniel, Loey and I met with Liz Peters, the Community Safety Officer for the Montrose Brigade. This meeting allowed us the opportunity to talk through our Emergency Management Plan, discuss some of the recent fires and take a walk around our property to identify some areas that will need some back burning later in the year (during a holiday break). We also hope to run some further education programs at MECS and even a community information event in spring.  How wonderful to have the support of our local CFA! I encourage you to keep an eye on the news from your local CFA through their Facebook page. 

Kinder Mother’s Day Fun

I can confidently confirm that the Kinder Mums had a lovely time with their little ones at the Kinder Mother’s Day sessions in the lead up to Mother’s Day. Some Mum’s even had their kinder kids pamper them with a hand massage with real hand cream! It was so lovely to see the children play, sing, and spend time with their precious Mums and special persons. 

School at Work Tours

We have continued this term to offer School at Work tours for interested parents to come and check out MECS whilst it’s in action. These opportunities are proving to be popular and helpful to parents to see “real school”. Please encourage your friends and family to come and join us for a visit. Registrations can be done via the MECS website. 

Year 9 Horticulture students                

Last week the Year 9 Horticulture students joined me for morning tea as a thank you for their work on a project near the art and music rooms. The students completely restored a memorial garden we have in that space for a staff member at MECS, Kaye Vandersluys who had passed away in 2005. Kaye was the Deputy Principal at the school and was passionate about student wellbeing (Kaye had also been my grade 5 teacher at Maranatha Christian School in 1980!). The memorial garden had become overgrown and our students did a beautiful job of cleaning it up and making it a reflective space to enjoy. Thanks students!  

Congratulations! 

A huge congratulations to our Cultural Liaison Officer, Jenifer (Jenny) Thlaceu on her recent engagement to her fiancé, Bik! We are very happy for Jenny and pray God’s richest blessing over them as a couple. 

Other Staff News

As the term continues other changes begin to emerge. Bonnie Evans has served in our community as our Secondary Wellbeing Coordinator for the past 4 years. Up until last year, she also served as our on-site Psychologist as part of the learning support team across the school. Bonnie has always ensured that the wellbeing, and welfare of our students is her and her team’s top priority and for this we are so grateful. Bonnie has recently been given the opportunity to expand her skills as a psychologist and has decided to pursue that opportunity, which means she will be finishing with us at the end of term. Thank you Bonnie for your faithful service to so many. 

Micah Challenge

Recently I met with two very passionate Mums in our primary school, Carly Mawson and Jo Sutton. Carly and Jo have been promoting the work of Micah Australia, a not-for-profit organisation that in a nutshell “…empowers Australian Christians to advocate on the most urgent global justice issues facing our world today – extreme poverty, rising conflict and climate change”. One of their current campaigns, is to address poverty and in particular address Australia’s contribution to world aid. 

If this is something that you are interested in and would like to take some action around, please fill in a card at the office which can then be handed to our local Federal member, Mr Aaron Violi. You can follow this link for more information.

Whilst MECS doesn’t partner with individual agencies or not for profits, at times our engagement with them might mean that we encourage you to be aware or take action on something that just makes sense. It’s great to see Mums in the school being motivated to live out being “justice seekers”.