Junior Journeys

Junior School journey

By Kellie Osborn Email this article

I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of our Junior School students and their families to our new school year – those returning and those joining us in 2022. A special welcome to all our new students and their families this year, we are delighted you've joined the Mercedes College community.

Harnessing the enthusiasm and optimism of the new school year cannot be underestimated. In the Junior School we begin the year by opening the dialogue between home and school through our Junior School Parent Information meetings this week. These meetings are living example of the commitment we have to each family and student – we are a community of families working together.

This year we welcome several new teachers to the Junior School. We welcome Karen Lintern (Year 3), Kane Hetherington (Year 4) and Melissa Belton (Year 5). We are excited to also welcome Belinda Zieleniecki as our Junior School Visual Art teacher in 2022. We also warmly welcome Nicole Borowicki (Learning Enrichment Director) and Britta Jureckson (Learning Enrichment Assistant Director) who will be leading the Learning Enrichment Team across the College at all levels of school.

In our Junior School Office, we warmly welcome Elle Marschall who’ll be working with Anne Watson this year, in support of students, families and staff.

At the end of last week, we farewelled Sharon Rigoni. Sharon has worked in various roles in the Junior School in her 15 years at the College, most notably as Executive Assistant to Julie Hann (our former Head of Junior School) and myself. Sharon's been a much loved member of our team and community and will be greatly missed by all. We wish Sharon and her husband, Paul well as they fly to the United States to spend time with their son, Jacob, a Mercedes College old scholar who has been playing College basketball there for the past four years. We thank Sharon for her amazing contribution to Junior School life.

Our Junior School team for 2022

• Reception LC, Libby Coughlin
• Reception BP, Tori Beers and Teresa Pepicelli
• Year 1DB, Dani Braddy
• Year 1DG, Jessica De Luca and Emma Grant
• Year 2NM, Nicole Manley
• Year 2FI, Franca Iskra
• Year 3PL, Sarah Pfitzner and Karen Lintern
• Year 3NB, Natasha Berri
• Year 4KH, Kane Hetherington
• Year 4HM, Irena Hollis and Simon Munn
• Year 5MB, Melissa Belton
• Year 5AK, Andrew Khabbaz
• JS Primary Years Programme Coordinator, Simon Munn
• Learning Excellence Coordinator and JS Digital Learning Coordinator, Melissa Buske
• JS Religious Education Coordinator, Teresa Pepicelli
• JS Visual Art Teacher, Belinda Zieleniecki
• JS French Teacher, Belinda Roberts
• JS Music, Rebecca Pfitzner and Loretta Bowshall-Freeman
• JS Physical Education, Tracey Cramond, Simon Munn, Jeff Wray, David Carosi
• JS Teacher Librarian, Melissa Buske and Anne-Marie Flaherty
• College Psychologists, Anne Way and Andrea Fairlie
• Learning Enrichment Director, Nicole Borowicki
• Learning Enrichment Assistant Director, Britta Jureckson
• Learning Enrichment co-educators, Kirsty Esvelt-Allen, Julie Moretti, Jodie Hamilton-Melhuish

Working together
This year we maintain our focus on individuals to achieve a sense of belonging and purpose and connecting with others to build and strengthen meaningful relationships. We believe strongly that the quality of teacher-student relationships builds confidence and can strongly impact and influence a student’s engagement within the classroom and with their peers

In the Junior School we make every effort to ‘know and see’ the whole child and be sensitive to their individual needs. The partnership between us, you and your child, encourages each student to grow intellectually, spiritually, morally, socially, emotionally, physically and creatively.

Recognising that in daily life there will inevitable be bumps along the way, and sometimes these are unpleasant, they do help students to develop the essential life quality of resilience. The strength and resilience demonstrated across our community continues to be inspirational, and we have great hope for our young students as we foster their love of learning, build growth mindsets, have fun and develop positive and respectful relationships.

It is our intention to have a strong partnership between home and school, underpinned by open, honest communication that supports student education. I am confident the year ahead will be full of exciting and enriching experiences for our students. Within our learning spaces we are establishing the culture of a ‘learning community’ and our ‘essential agreements’. As an International Baccalaureate world school offering the Primary Years Programme, and as a Mercy school, we connect the IB Learner Profile with our Mercy Keys.

Kellie Osborn
Head of Junior School