Mansfield Primary School farewelled a beloved teacher earlier this year when Annette Morgan retired after over 40 years of service.
Annette graduated from Toorak Teachers College in 1972, her first teaching position was here at Mansfield in 1974.

The move to Mansfield with her husband Peter in 1973 was to be a temporary one, although they soon found themselves part of the
community. While Annette was making her mark at MPS, Peter was working in real estate and contributing to the community via his
involvement with the Mansfield Football Club, the Mansfield Kindergarten and the Golf Club. The couple had three children Cindy,
Tate and Janelle who all attended MPS. Annette and Peter are still here, a valued part of our community, although the winters are
tough for the sun loving Annette!

In her time at Mansfield Primary Annette has seen a lot of change, not only staff members and students as they came and went, but
technology moving into the classroom and in the education system, curriculum and teaching styles. The school itself has also
changed considerably in that time growing in size to accommodate the increasing student population, from well under 200 in 1974 to
over 400 today.

Annette’s passion for educating our children was always evident, she taught Prep to Grade 4 but she was happiest when she was
able to help our Preps learn to be at school and take their first “steps” in literacy, numeracy and being a good friend.
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Mansfield Primary School Council, along with staff, presented Annette with a beautiful photo album, documenting her time at the
school in pictures. The pictures were from Annette’s own collection which she has carefully kept all these years. A special school
assembly was held in Annette’s honour, her past students and colleagues attending to wish her well and thank her for all she has
done.

Last term, Mansfield Primary School students across all year levels were encouraged to submit a short story or poem to a recent Write4Fun
competition.
Several students in years 3, 4 & 5 were notified that their submissions had made it through the 1st round of judging with grade 4 student Elsie Leatham later hearing that her poem “Growlers Gully Road” was selected as a finalist.
With over 10,000 submissions Australia wide from students in years Prep to 12 entering her achievement was remarkable.
“We are proud of all the students that wrote and submitted their poems and short stories and encourage all young or aspiring writers
artists and poets to write and create, you never know what could happen if you put yourself out there and give things a go!”
teacher Sally Kelly commented.
Write4Fun encourages young student writers and artists with fantastic competitions, publishing children’s work in their quality books
and conducting interactive, fun workshops across Australia.