When Megan Andrews finished her final HSC exam yesterday, 32 years of consecutive enrolment came to an end for the Andrews family. With their first child Karina beginning at Shire Christian School in 1990 and four children in between, Jim and Julie Andrews have been a large part of the Shire Christian School community.
“When I first took Karina for enrolment in 1989, there was a dirt track out there,” Mrs Andrews said.
“They hadn’t even sealed the road!”
“But if it works and it’s going well and your kids are relatively happy you stick with it.”
Mrs Andrews said that it was the reformed Christian teaching and the ongoing friendships that were so valuable over the past 32 years.
“We were thankful to have Christian education as a choice for us, within distance and affordable,” she said.
“When our eldest was ready to begin school, we really hadn’t thought about a Christian education. We came into contact with others who were involved with Sutherland Shire Christian School and we thought we’d never be able to afford it but we started looking into it and we decided that we wanted to send our children to a school where what we believed was being upheld and taught as part of the education,” Mrs Andrews said.
“We’ve made some really good Christian friends through those years of different classes and I still maintain those relationships. The fact that you have those connections with people and every now and then you come across them again or you’ll come across their kids, it’s just lovely to have that sense of community.”
Despite their youngest child Megan graduating next week, Jim and Julie Andrews will still remain connected to Shire Christian School through their grandchildren, with Rosie, Lily and Zac all enrolled in infant’s school.
“I’m happy that our daughter [Stephanie] has our grandchildren at Shire Christian. So it will still be kind of nice to go in and still be involved in some of the primary school activities that happen,” Mrs Andews said.
As past association members, parent volunteers, parents and now grandparents, Jim and Julie Andrews have made a large contribution to Shire Christian School, to the family feel for which the school has become well-known.
Photo supplied. Back row: Megan, Nicole, Matthew holding Lily Derley (Year 1), Stephanie and her husband Jordan, Stacey (Jono’s wife) Middle row: Karina, Julie and Jim, Jono Front row: Seth Andrews, Rosie Derley (Year 2) Bree and Mackenzie Andrews, Zac Derley (Prep)
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