What is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer?

she took on four Year 8 classes – three English classes and a one for history.

After her initial four year stint at Mount Gambier High School, Mary Anne taught in Adelaide before returning to the region to Millicent High School and then back to where it all began.

When she returned to the Brownes Road school she had enjoyed extensive professional development and a taste of leadership roles and her perspective on teaching and what works best had significantly shifted.

“I have kept all my old marks books and you realise all those numbers are absolutely useless and tell you nothing about how the students learned,” she said. “It doesn’t tell you what was their talent, what enthused them.”

And knowing the student was one of the biggest lessons she learned from her two key mentors – Nick Olijnik at Millicent High School, and former Mount Gambier High School principal Garry Costello.

“Nick was small and so gentle and people thought he was weak but he was the strongest man I knew while still being so compassionate and empathetic,” Mary Anne said. “He taught me about social justice and that being a teacher was all about the kids.”

An advocate of training and development and one to always take up those opportunities, life under Garry Costello’s leadership provided plenty of those opportunities.

“We had access to the very best professionals, leaders and educators, Mary Anne said. “We learnt to create classrooms where kids had more voice. Garry knew what he wanted and every decision was about the child.”

Garry Costello’s tenure, where he was known for recruiting the best graduate teachers available, also gave Mary Anne those opportunities to nurture and mentor emerging talent in the education sphere.

“It was always great to work alongside the new teachers and their enthusiasm and new ideas and often they would eventually leave the school but we didn’t lose them, they’ve just gone to another school and taken their knowledge and enthusiasm with them,” she said. “And then a different group of kids get the value of that.”

Mary Anne was struck with breast cancer halfway through Term 3 in 2019, forcing her to step away and while she is officially retired, she is listening to reading at St Martins Lutheran College and runs a weekly book club at the school for a group of Year 8 students and her passion for learning has not diminished and sees her still undertaking professional development online.

MARY ANNE FENWICK AT A GLANCE

Mary Anne spent more than 25 years at MGHS commencing as an English teacher for four years in the early 1970s, before returning to complete her teaching career, working in roles such as Junior School Assistant Principal, Acting Principal and finishing as Deputy Principal prior to retiring in 2019. Mary Anne was a key supporter and champion of our New Arrivals (IELP) Program, which has been a very successful program for many Congolese and Karenni students over the years. These students were well supported by Mary Anne when integrating into mainstream schooling through curriculum and activity offerings. In the early years of this program, Mary Anne would also attend cultural activities outside of hours, further developing the connection between these families and Mount Gambier High School. Mary Anne was one for equality, often being the advocate for our students when they didn’t have the opportunity to speak up. Over many years at MGHS, Mary Anne was involved in numerous committees, including Governing Council and overseeing the long standing Glossop Exchange. Involvement in many of these committees was brought on by her roles within the school, however, her will to do her best for MGHS was the reason she joined many others.

PICTURED: (Below left) Mary Anne Fenwick

It is a time honoured childhood anecdote that announced Toni’s early intentions of being a school teacher. Her father came home one day to see a row of his prized tomatoes destroyed. He suspected a stray dog or a jealous neighbour and then it happened again. Eventually, Toni’s father stumbled upon the crime scene with the culprit front and centre. It was Toni and her students (the defenceless tomatoes) were being hit with a stick for getting the alphabet wrong.

Now, for all those parents out there whose children had the pleasure of Ms Vorenas as a teacher, never fear, she abandoned the “spare the rod, spoil the child” philosophy well before entering a classroom. What the story does show is a little girl who knew what she wanted and never veered from that dream.

“My brother Frank got roped into playing school all the time and I was always the teacher,” Toni said. “I was really bossy – I know that.”

Bossy maybe - influential definitely, given the honour of having a building named after her is on the back of 13 years at the school, a relatively short tenure compared to her contemporaries that have also been honoured.

She joined the staff in 1997 and taught through to 2009, before embarking on a new chapter – setting up and running Metro Bakery & Café.

“I don’t remember a time when I didn’t want to be a teacher – it was never a job for me it was always my why,” she said.

And it was always going to be English teaching – that was also never in doubt.

“It was always about literature – I loved to read,” Toni said. “I thought imagine a job where you get to read all the time and get to inspire other people to love literature as much as you love it. Even more importantly, literature is about the human condition and living life. Like all young teachers I was idealistic, like all young teachers I was going to change the world.”

When you hear Toni talk about her time in teaching it is almost incongruous that she left the profession that she saw as her destiny.

“I left reluctantly, kicking and screaming, telling myself there would a point where I could go back and teach,” she said. “I can’t imagine finishing my work life off and not being in a classroom.”

What she has realised is Metro has become her classroom as she nurtures and develops young people, many of whom could not find a place to call home until Toni brought them into the fold. In a way it is an extension of the work she did at the school setting up the Flexible Learning Options (FLO) – finding a way for individual students to learn when traditional classroom options aren’t an option.

“It was about working with kids who mainstream school had failed,” she said. “It was about helping them find their voice and believe their voice can make a difference.”

And the literature tragic, who grew into leadership, knows how fortunate she was to land at Mount Gambier High School when she did. It allowed her to continue her working relationship with Mary Anne Fenwick – a relationship that continues to this day – and the mentorship of two of the school’s most revered leaders, who also have their names on school buildings.

“I was so fortunate to move to Mount Gambier High School when I did because I had two of the best mentors you could ever ask for,” Toni said. “Garry Costello, who was really visionary, and Ian Gould, who taught me the pragmatics of it – the attention to detail.”

Toni hates reverting to cliches but the news a building would be named in her honour was overwhelming.

“Every teacher has a bag full of stories of the ways they have impacted kids or the ones they didn’t know they had impacted so it is emotional to find out you were able to do what you set out to be – be a positive influence in kids’ lives,” she said.

It was a couple of years ago Toni had one such experience when a former student contacted her from Canada with the simple message – I just re-read The Great Gatsby and I get it, I get why you cried every time you read chapter eight.

“Sometimes you don’t know the impact you’ve had or what you have achieved until years later.”

TONI VORENAS AT A GLANCE

Toni was nominated for her extensive work as an educational and business leader in the local community. Toni played a pivotal role as Leader of the Senior School during the principal-ship of Garry Costello. Indeed she, along with the other leaders and teachers, supported the school to achieve “results too startling to ignore” through a culture of care, high expectations and understanding of how our brains work. Moreover, Toni is an outstanding classroom teacher. Her mentoring in pedagogy and leadership has had a profound impact on the whole school community. Additionally, in collaboration with John Pocock, Toni developed and taught in the “Link” after school program. This program supported students that had disengaged from schooling with the opportunity to reconnect with their education and achieve incredible personal success. Furthermore, Link was one of the prototypes that was later used to create what we now know as Flexible Learning Options (FLO). Following a successful career as a leader and educator, Toni went on to create the iconic Metro Bakery and Cafe. In her time at the Metro, Toni has not only created a significant meeting and social space for the Mount Gambier community but she has continued to provide pathways for a range of people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Toni’s work at Metro now cements her as a leader within the community who has supported an untold number of Mount Gambier community members as a leader, collaborator and mentor.

PICTURED: (Below right) Toni Vorenas