The MCEA board held another meeting on Tuesday. The most urgent item we
discussed was that we are likely to be around £1700 short for paying
teachers’ salaries this month. Please pray for the Lord’s provision,
and if you feel called to be part of that provision, please get in touch
with Marc Surtees.

At the meeting, Marc presented some figures he’d prepared looking into
how our finances might be affected by changing pupil numbers. At
present, we have two full-time-equivalent (FTE) staff. We have 22
pupils and around two-thirds of pupils receive some bursary support. If
all the families were able to pay full fees, or all the bursaries were
fully funded, we’d need 24 pupils to support the school at 2 FTE. We
very deliberately don’t require funding to be in place before we offer
bursaries, and as a result we are under-funded by around 50%.

We are looking at ideas for fund-raising and outreach, including a
sponsored walk, probably in May, a summer fair and a ceilidh. We’re also
working on plans to send information about Christ-centred education and
about Mannafields to each family with pre-school children in churches
around the city, intending to invite them to an open day, probably
around Easter-time.

Alongside the outreach and fund-raising, we also plan, in association
with St. Margaret’s and Friends of Mannafields, to re-decorate the
school over the coming months. The first stage is likely to involve
re-painting the stairwell, and we also have a generous offer of new
curtains for the downstairs classroom.

Mr. Ackerman has plans for several visits from Dutch colleges and, as he
explained in an email earlier in the week, there may be another student
undertaking a placement in the school this spring. Please let Mr.
Ackerman know if you could offer accommodation.

We also noted that, for various reasons, it is exceedingly common for
assembly to be interrupted by children arriving late to school in the
morning. The disruption has become so bad recently that assembly has
been postponed or cancelled, effectively knocking 15 minutes off the
school day. We’re all late sometimes, but please try to be on-time as
often as possible as at the moment, we’re effectively losing around a
week and a half of school time each year — children arriving late
affect the whole school.

Please remember that school term dates are on the website. A new date
for your diaries is Tuesday 5th June, which is the Queen’s Jubilee and
will be a school holiday. Andy will be sending out dates for school
prayer meetings shortly: please try to come along if you can.

The next board meeting is Tuesday 6th March. If you have any questions
about anything the board is doing, or any suggestions or concerns that
you think the board should discuss, please let me know, or speak to any
of the other board members.

- Andrew Aylett

They are starting to poke green shoots through the compost, promising a lovely show in the coming weeks.

At the AGM in November, Inge, Lizzie and I were elected to join Andy and
Marc on the Mannafields Christian Education Association Board. We are
all pleased to be able to serve the school in this way, and as a board,
we’d also like to thank everyone else who puts so much effort into the
life of the school.

We’ve had one board meeting since the AGM, at which the board appointed
me to be MCEA secretary. Accordingly, I will be trying to keep people
more informed about what the board is up to.

At our 5th December meeting, we discussed, amongst other things, the
current financial state of the school and efforts currently under-way to
raise funds and reduce expenditure. Inge has been in touch with some
Dutch organisations and, since the meeting, has helped re-establish
contact with Friends of Mannafields, a Dutch group who have raised funds
for us in the past. We also discussed some options for how we might
improve communication, both between the board and parents and with our
wider supporters, as well as the ongoing efforts to improve the décor in
school.

As a board, we are also trying to put together applications to some
trust funds and looking at options for events we might put on to raise
the profile of Christ-centred education in general and the school in
particular.

Last Friday, we met with some of the people involved with Friends of
Mannafields, as they were in Edinburgh for a conference. We had a very
encouraging time with them, and they are very enthusiastic about what
they can do to raise the profile of Christ-centred education in the
Netherlands, while also raising funds for the school here.

The next board meeting is Tuesday 24th January. If you have any
questions about anything the board is doing, or any suggestions or
concerns that you think the board should discuss, please let me know, or
speak to any of the other board members.

- Andrew Aylett

This term we are looking at God as a Faithful Person. We see how God has enabled us to work out these characteristics in family and community relationships. Since God is a triune God He has community within His very nature and has made us to reflect this. We need to see the importance of our community and our friendships and be faithful. God has given us laws and structure within our culture which we must honour as His means of enabling community.

For pupils, the first places that they work out community is in the family and the school, so understanding the rules and the reasons we have them is important. As we focus on developing this in school we appreciate you working alongside us at home.

The infants spend some time looking at who they are as a person and then how they relate to their families. They look at the story of Ruth and her faithfulness and also the early life of Jesus and His family. While looking at their community and people who help us they will also be studying the Post Office.

The juniors take the idea of community wider with looking at Scottish culture and also cultures of the past in looking at the ‘Stone Age’ and the Celts. They will be studying the book, ‘The Boy with the Bronze Axe’ and Skara Brae in Orkney which inspired the story.

Our Senior pupil will be looking at the political and legal structures of community around the world, in the EU and in Britain. In Science when looking at family relationships she will look at marriage, genetics and reproduction. In History she will be looking at the union of parliaments .

Gordon Ackerman, Headteacher

All Photos Copyright Andrew Aylett

The children sang their hearts out, danced with a passion, and really communicated the gospel message of Christmas.

Well done to all the children and the adults involved in organising this great night out.

Highlights and photos to come soon!

Tickets can be purchased here.