Principal, Mrs Barbara Stone; P & F President, Mrs Sally Jerapetritis, Prof Roslyn Arnold and Head of Middle School, Ms Di Cottrell-Dormer Centre at the Re-forming Schools Lecure Series

• Visiting Insightful Educators
• Parent Workshops
• Beyond MLC Advice

MLC School is a community of learners and as such is committed to offering MLC families and the wider community opportunities to access excellent community programs using the extensive facilities of the School and the expertise of our highly trained staff. We also know that through doing this we are offering a Community Learning Centre which provides positive and growing experiences in a safe environment.

Transforming Learning for all at MLC is a living tenet. As a learning community promoting the philosophy of 'life long learning' we regularly invite guest speakers into parent forums, staff meetings and school assemblies. We carefully research our guests and their credentials. We are keen that their presentations be challenging; that they represent the voice of the expert, or the voice of first hand experience. Generally they are speakers who can provide their audience with new ideas, perspectives and questions or inspire some positive change. We do not hesitate to explore issues that my be controversial.

Visiting insightful educators

At MLC regular parent information sessions are held for our parents:

Recent speakers include:

• Susan McLean, Cybersafety Advisor National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) Internet Crimes Against ChildrenTaskforce (ICAC-USA) - The session for parents and educators covered : Popular sites. What are they? What do kids do online? Where do they go?; the difference between an online ‘friend’ and a ‘stranger’; misuse of phones and computers, legal consequences and the possible criminal charges. (When is it cyber bullying and harassment?); potential dangers – assisting children to stay safe online and be able to converse in the language of cyberspace.
• Professor Roslyn Arnold, Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Tasmania, who spoke about her work in 'empathic intelligence - specifically her research findings that "thinking is enhanced when feeling informs it."
• Dr Andrew Martin offered practical advice on student motivation.
• Dr Karen Rogers spoke about the provisions that schools can make for Gifted and Talented students.

Parent Workshops

• Headed in the Right Direction?
  A workshop to help parents point their daughter in the right direction for senior school success; and
• Ready! Set! Learn!
  A workshop to help parents prepare their children for the starting school and learning to read.

Many parents found these workshops to be very informative and helpful in their decision making process.

Beyond MLC Advice

Regularly, our Careers Advisor arranges for guests speakers from tertiary institutions (locally, regionally and overseas), private colleges and employer groups to address interested people about options after completing their education at MLC. Motivational speaker, Peter Sheahan is a regular visitor to the school helping parents to understand their 'generation Y' children and inspiring the students to achieve.

When talking to our families at MLC about what they hope their school can offer, more and more families tell us they are seeking a school that also offers a community; where they and their children feel they belong. Community doesn't just happen. It is built by offering a reason for people to come together.

Through accessing quality services, programs and events people connect to their own community as well as the wider community. They meet others with similar interests, their children become friends, they enjoy exchange of ideas and people know them.

Finding time in our busy lives to attend the MLC community programs can be difficult but for those who have, it has been rewarding and refreshing to share in the Transforming Learning environment that is available to all in our community.