Dempsey's Digest

And suddenly, we are heading towards the end of term! Where and how did that happen? 

I trust that people were able to bask in the gorgeous weather over the long weekend and spend quality time with friends and family.

This edition of the newsletter is again jam packed with so much to celebrate and rejoice about. We are a blessed community that seeks to bring glory to Jesus in all that we do. From our policies to our basketball wins!

Here’s a bit of a recap on what has been happening over the past 2 weeks…

Schools Legal Conference

Our Business Manager, Rob Lichtendonk and I attended a Schools Legal Agenda Conference, hosted by Moores Legal. Moores are the legal firm that we lean towards when we need some legal assistance as they specialise in laws that impact schools. This is everything from child safety to HR issues. They are a great firm to work with. The conference was very comprehensive and gave us both encouragement to note the things that we are doing well as well as areas of improvement. We are so grateful for the relationship that we have with businesses like Moores.

New staff!

We are delighted to announce two new staff members who will be joining the MECS team.

Phil Diprose will be joining our Property team. Phil comes to us with lots of experience at Mountain District CS and more recently at Hillcrest in Clyde. He will undertake a variety of tasks including maintenance work and bus driving to name a few.

Laura Beams has been appointed to the Events and Catering role. Yes, there are two Laura Beams’ in our school community, and this Laura is married to Hayden and is Mum to Riley and Boe. Most recently, Laura has been managing a café in Healesville, so she is very well placed for her role.

We look forward to welcoming both Phil and Laura in a couple of weeks’ time.

Combined CEN and CSA Principals Gatherings

From time to time I get to meet with Principals from the two main Christian School organisations in Australia. These meetings are always very fruitful and helpful. Most recently we had a meeting at Donvale Christian College, where we got to meet with local state politicians, Nicole Werner and Anne – Maree Hermans. Both ladies are Christians, so it was interesting to hear of how they manage their perspectives in relation to the political landscape.

I was back at Donvale a week later, for the commissioning service of the new Principal at Donvale, Mrs Rebecca Hall. This was a combined event with their Founders Day which was lovely to see many of the MECS connections at that event. People that have dedicated their lives to the cause of Christian Education. I find that so inspiring!

Working Bee

Thanks to everyone who turned up for our first working bee for the year! It was clearly a very productive morning as the school looked fantastic on the Monday morning. There are many schools that don’t do working bees anymore, which is a pity as it is a great opportunity to join in community together.

Visitor from Illawarra Christian School

We were blessed last week to have Simon Lainson, the Principal of Illawarra Christian School visit us. Having visitors from other schools gives us a chance to learn from them, have a critical friend onsite and share those great things that we are doing as well. It was great to have Simon also share with our leadership team in our meeting.

Ranges TEC

I continue to enjoy being at Ranges TEC for a day, fortnightly to see first hand the great work that our students there achieve. It’s a great community and wonderful opportunity for students who are created to have trade skills.

Association Sub Committee

Our board has a number of sub committees that work behind the scenes. This includes a Risk and Finance Committee, Infrastructure Planning Committee and an Association Committee. We deeply appreciate the volunteers from our Association that put up their hand to serve on these committees.

Last week, our robust Association sub–committee met, to discuss the ways that we connect with our community and potential association members. We have just developed a new brochure on what it means to join the association. If you are keen to be a part of the association, please chat to a board member, or one of the Executive team, or one of the sub committee members. 

They include:

· Tim Van der Veen

· Cathy Cook

· Clarissa Betts

· Anita King

· Katrina Ford

· Nicole Nyhouse

Enrolment Demands

As I continue to report, we seem to have a strong demand on enrolments at the moment. This is a wonderful challenge for us, and we ask for your prayers as we continue to discern and apply wisdom to the decisions around enrolment. There are times when we are unable to offer an enrolment to a family and this is a hard thing to do.

Founders Morning Tea - coming soon

Next term, we are excited to be initiating a Founders Morning Tea, to celebrate our founders of MECS and their families. If you feel that your family has lost touch with MECS as a founder or person involved in the early days, please contact the school. Nicole Nyhouse would love to hear from you!

Secondary Carnival

There is something awesome about seeing hundreds of young people having fun together and this was my experience last Friday at our awesome Secondary Carnival. I was so impressed with the expressions of teamwork, encouragement and joy that were on display in abundance. The relationships that our students get to experience with our incredibly dedicated staff is also so special. I was delighted to see this in action in such tangible ways on Friday.

Trace Christopher Noy

It was a great joy to announce the safe arrival of Trace Christopher Noy recently. Trace is the new son to Chris and Dani Noy and brother to his big sister, Mackenzie. Blessings to you as a family!

So there we go, weeks packed of good things in the life of our lovely community!

Cheers, 

Michelle