Where would you find the Sea

Mount Gambier

High School BUILDING OPENING

A $6 million upgrade of Mount Gambier High School was officially unveiled earlier this month, with newly installed Minister for Education, Training and Skills Blair Boyer attending the opening event.

A cafe-style canteen, flexible learning spaces and modern science labs are among the additions to the school which has about 800 enrolled students.

The legacy of three former teachers at Mount Gambier High School have been immortalised in the $6million dollar project with the naming of two new school buildings and one upgraded facility after the iconic educators.

The refurbished science block will take the name of the late Bill Downs, while the new building adjacent the southern oval, set to house the Year 7 and 8 students, will be named after Mary Anne Fenwick, and the newly constructed flexible learning building at the front of the school will be unveiled as the Toni Vorenas building.

The three selected teachers were colleagues, working side by side at the Brownes Road school and clearly all made their mark.

The Mary Anne Fenwick Building includes five classrooms, two breakaway spaces, and staff offices, with four of the classrooms with movable walls to allow for even larger spaces.

The Toni Vorenas Building houses three purpose built classrooms and a large break out space, with three case manager offices and a space for the FLO coordinator.

The Bill Downs Science Block includes refurbished science labs.

The construction was completed by Mount Gambier’s Kennett Builders using local trades where possible and was designed by architect Grieve Gillett Andersen.

Minister for Education, Training and Skills Blair Boyer said it was a wonderful investment in the future of learning and education in Mount Gambier, bringing modern design to the forefront to ensure great outcomes for these students.

“The students at this school are benefiting from this investment not just in terms of the usable space, but by creating an environment they feel proud of,” Mr Boyer said. “I’m really proud that I can be here today with the school community and be part of opening this incredible new space as we’ve been able to see come to fruition this wonderful vision from the past Labor Government.”

Mount Gambier High School principal Annette Ryan said the design supports the school’s value of ‘belonging’ and reinforces the concept that greater levels of social skills and self-regulation by students occurs in open, purposeful and welcoming environments.

“There has been a deliberate design emphasis on enabling students to work more effectively in small groups in the science labs, while the canteen area has been redesigned to build a more welcoming cafestyle area that encourages students to sit and meet during break times,” Ms Ryan said.

OFFICIAL OPENING:

(Back from left) Minister for Education, Training and Skills Blair Boyer, Mount Gambier High School captains Sarah Ritter and Keenan Dwyer & Mary Anne Fenwick with (front from left) Governing Council chairperson, Hanna Persello, Mount Gambier High School principal Annette Ryan, Toni Vorenas and Jayne Downs.

BILL DOWNS SCIENCE BLOCK

It all felt very familiar for Jayne Downs and Tegan Anderson when they pulled up outside Mount Gambier High School last year to take a walk through the newly named Bill Downs Science Block.

Bill’s proud wife Jayne and daughter Tegan know the honour would have brought a smile to the face of the popular science teacher that spent more than four decades at the school as both a student and teacher.

A former student herself, Tegan fondly remembers the amount of time she spent with her dad.

“I always went to and from school with dad,” Tegan said. “I used to sit in on classes sometimes when I was really young and in the end I was a student in his class

And she knows she was fortunate her father was one of the popular teachers.

“He got along with everyone, even the ones that used to get into a bit of trouble, in fact he was on really good terms with kids like that and really got through to them.” Tegan said.

Making a difference was what Bill was all about and Jayne remembers often being stopped in the street, not just in Mount Gambier, but further afield, when they were out together, with students stopping to say hi and say thanks to Mr. Downs. And the reams of messages the family received after Bill’s passing last year were a further mark of the man and the impact he had over his tenure at Mount Gambier High School.

“He loved science and imparting his knowledge – he was just so passionate about it,” Jayne said. “And he loved just walking around the school and seeing what the students were up to. He actually enjoyed yard duty. He wanted to make a difference in kids’ lives and was always following up with the kids he taught. He really did care and they knew it.”

BILL DOWNS AT A GLANCE

Bill was a student at MGHS in the 1960s. During his time as student at the school, Bill was captain of his sporting house as well as some of the MGHS sporting teams. Upon graduation Bill went to Adelaide to earn his science and teaching degrees and returned to teach at MGHS in 1972. During his time here he taught geology, maths, science and biology. He was also the coach of several successful State teams for cricket and football and mentored many new teachers over the years. In 2007 Bill retired from teaching after having been both a student and teacher at MGHS for more than 40 years. Unfortunately in 2020 after battling a long term serious illness, Bill passed away and is missed by many of his past students and colleagues across the local community.

MARY ANNE FENWICK BUILDING

Another long serving staff member, Mary Anne Fenwick spent almost three decades of her teaching career in the halls and classrooms of Mount Gambier High School. It was her first job as a fresh faced graduate and she then returned, carving a career not just as a leading classroom teacher but making her mark in leadership roles.

“I had no clear idea of what I wanted to be,” Mary Anne said. “I was the first one in my family to go through to Year 12 as my father didn’t let me leave school to take a job in the bank when I was 15 so in the end it was probably teaching or nursing.”

She chose teaching but it almost ended before it began.

“I bombed the first year of university and was basically sent home,” Mary Anne said. “I was about 19 and my dad pleaded with the Adelaide Teachers College for me to be able to continue and they gave me a place in the three year diploma course.”

That saw her take on a history major with some library studies and English thrown in for good measure and while heading down the teaching path might not have been the realisation of a long held passion, that love of teaching grew exponentially as she herself went on a journey of what was required to be a good teacher.

Even her first appointment was chaotic at best, initially posted to Kangaroo Inn Area School, only to be relocated to Bordertown and then to Mount Gambier High School all within a few days, as