Miss Melissa has joined the teaching staff at St. Therese’s, where she is teaching Kurrika class. Melissa has come to Wilcannia from Sydney, where she had been teaching at Mother Therese’s’ School at Westmead.

Miss Melissa has come to teaching via a Bachelor of Chemistry degree, and while working in what she described as science’s sterile environment she undertook a 6 year online bachelor of Primary Teaching through the University of New England. Teaching has given Melissa what she described as her real passion, connecting with people, rather than observing protons.

Before coming to Wilcannia, Melissa has been very involved in tennis coaching and to a lesser degree, junior soccer, where she filled the soccer mum’s dream role of team coach.

Since coming out here Melissa has also indulged in one of her passions, photography, sharing her new images with friends back in Sydney. She said they could not believe the colour and beauty of the local natural environment, especially the river. Melissa has also found herself up close and personal to many green frogs and was overjoyed to see so many emus on her trip to Broken Hill.Other than photography Melissa reads a fair bit, she has just finished Sarah Donnelly’s autobiography “Big Things Grow” and is now part way through Ash Barty’s “My Dreamtime: A memoir of Tennis and Teamwork”.

Another, very recently acquired, interest is in the local plant known as emu bush after being told about it by her students who Melissa described as one of the happiest group of kids she has taught, willing to take in knowledge and also share their own local knowledge and stories. Melissa also commented on their sporting prowess, which is giving her ideas to work on during her time here.

This article appeared in the Wilcannia News, February 2023.