Sketcher's Scoop

Kinder News

Over the last two weeks, our 4-year-old Kindergarten parents have had the opportunity to meet with Tash and Cherie, our fabulous early educators, to discuss the progress of their children. It also gave me a chance to meet some of our youngest families as I provided some ‘baby-sitting’ out in the piazza. This enabled parents to focus on the conversation knowing that their little ones were being well looked after just outside the door. We are thrilled that our Kindergarten continues to flourish, always looking for new ways to introduce the routines and attitudes for good learning.

Workbreak 10 - 14 July

As you would know, the concept of a staff workbreak is very important to us at MECS. It provides a concentrated opportunity for teaching staff to meet, plan and review what they do so that each term we are offering a rigorous and challenging curriculum program that has been authentically shaped by the biblical story. This year we start the workbreak, with all teaching staff at the ‘Confident Hope’ Conference, which is a gathering of teachers from all CEN schools in Victoria. This will be held at Crossway Baptist with over 800 Christian school educators in the room!

Thanks for your support of these professional development days.

Payroll Tax on Independent Schools

Some of you may have been following this issue in the media and wondering whether this will impact MECS. Due to the ‘threshold’ amount being muted, we are confident that we will not need to pay this tax. However, we do agree with those opposed to this legislation. Many independent, low fee-paying schools are running lean budgets as not-for-profit organisations. We are committed to affordability and making sure we can run the best programs with what we receive in fees and government funding. This tax has been rightly referred to as a ‘learning tax’ because undoubtedly most schools will need to pass this tax onto parents as a levy on learning. We are grateful that we are not in the position of having to make that difficult decision, at least for the short-term, but we are supporting efforts to have this tax repealed if it indeed gets passed through the Parliament. If you feel strongly about this issue, please feel free to make your local member aware of your concerns.

Holidays

Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to wish you all a safe and relaxing break. It’s been a busy and increasingly cold term, and I’m sure you are all looking forward to having some ‘down time’ with your children without the relentless routine of getting them to school each day! We thank you for your partnership with us as we work together in the task of nurturing and growing your precious children. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Monday 17 July.