March 24, 2013

Melbourne Tour Day 2: MLC Junior School and Korowa Anglican School

Tuesday morning began with a breakfast catch up at our hotel with the irrepressible Felice Arena, author of the Specky McGee and Andy Roid series of books, among others.  Fleech lives just around the corner and so it was great to be able to meet up.  He was heading off on Wednesday morning to Sydney for the Newington Festival with lots of other authors including Michael Pryor, Susanne Gervay and Deb Abela.

Zoe and I then headed to Kew.  I had been looking forward to visiting MLC in Melbourne for ages.  It’s a school with a big reputation and I wasn’t disappointed.  The architecture is stunning and the girls, more so.  I spoke with the children from Year 3-5 in their library and had lots of fun.  They were such an enthusiastic audience and I would love to visit again and stay longer!  Their librarian, Mrs Ricchini was so welcoming and clearly loves her job.

Henk from Dymocks Camberwell had the book sales in order and it was great to be able to sign books for the girls and meet them individually too.

After MLC we drove around the corner to find a cafe for some lunch and also came across a Readings Bookshop.  The staff greeted us warmly and I signed a pile of books before we headed off to another school I knew a little bit about – Korowa Anglican Girls’ School at Glen Iris.  When I was the Director of Development at Abbotsleigh, we had worked on a new prospectus and in doing so, it’s usual to peruse those of other schools.  The Korowa prospectus is beautiful and I really love their ‘I can. I will.’ motto – it’s very clever and beautifully executed.

We were shown to the Junior School library and greeted by an enthusiastic group of primary girls, literally brimming with excitement.  They asked lots of wonderful questions and I was treated to some gorgeous gifts that the girls had made of posters about Alice-Miranda and Clementine Rose. Mrs Dean had certainly prepped the girls well and they were so excited – which of course made the afternoon very exciting for me and Zoe too!