150 Year Celebration

What an amazing day we had on Sunday! I don’t think I have ever seen so many people at the school. The day started with a lovely, child friendly Welcome to Country by one of the Wurundjeri Elders, Aunty Annette. She was followed by our local State MP Nathan Lambert. We also had the Darebin Mayor, Kristine Olaris, and the North Western Regional Director of Education, Tip Kennedy, in attendance, however they didn’t make speeches. The intention of the day was for people to find old friends and enjoy their time catching up and remembering the time they spent together, hence the brief number of speeches.

The formal proceedings were followed by performances from our school band and choirs, the Thornbury High School band, and the Darebin Brass Band. They were all very entertaining.

It was so great to see so many former students, staff, and parents from various generations. It was a chance for everyone to catch up and find out what many of them have been doing since they left Preston. It was also an ideal opportunity to reflect on the various memories of their time at Preston. Of course, their memories were all so different. There were those who hadn’t been back to Preston for many years and couldn’t believe how different it was. However, there was one constant that they could all remember: the original building. When many of them went on a tour, they could remember which rooms they were in and had stories to share. For many of them it seemed the same, but it was different as the platforms, blackboards, desks, and fireplaces were gone.

Many of you might not know that the building across the road on Tyler St was once a shop and the students would cross the road at lunchtime to buy their lunch. It was a memory that numerous people shared.

We had one former student who told me how it was his job to ring the school bell eight times a day. Back in his day, there were three breaks: morning play, lunch time, and afternoon play. He was thrilled to see we still have the bell. It is now located in the foyer at the Senior School. Alan was a student in the 50s, and was proud to tell me he never got the strap when he was at school. That would have been unusual for a boy at that time, as getting the strap was a regular occurrence. I remember boys getting the strap when I was at school for what I thought were very minor incidents!

Those who started at Preston after 1953 had fond memories of the “little school” as it was known, however the site now looks very different to what many of them remembered. One former staff member who parked in Bowden St said when he got out of the car, he couldn’t believe how different it looked.

The photo display in the PAC was a great success. Many people found photos of themselves and other brought along photos which we can add to our photo archives. Paula Sanford has a passion for history and did a marvellous job of displaying the photos and documents. The video which was playing in the PAC was made by two of our current teachers, Claudia Caputo and Jeremy Murphy. They interviewed several past and present students to capture their memories of the school. We will be putting the video on the school website in the next few weeks, so look out for it.

There were lots of people who enjoyed the opportunity to sit with some of their friends and catch up over a cup of tea and a scone in the Milking Shed. Liz McLindon did a remarkable job coordinating the large number of volunteers and ensuring everyone was enjoying a delicious treat with their cup of tea. Not only did Liz have a group of adults helping her, she also had a group of hard working students including Zoe C, Eva O, Leilani K, Leo McL, Frankie M, Fred M and Yazaan A from Grade 5 and Sara S from Grade 6 who worked tirelessly throughout the day.

One of the highlights for me was to meet and chat with Isla Jean Usher, who was our oldest former student to visit. Jean turned 100 on August 30 this year! She was amazing, her recall of her time at school and her childhood was so vivid. She lived in 3 Shakespeare Avenue and remembered walking to school each day and playing in the school grounds. Jean was here with her son Andrew and he has since emailed me to let me know that his mother had thoroughly enjoyed her time chatting to people and reminiscing about her time at Preston. He also sent me a condensed version of Jean’s bio, which I have included in this newsletter.

Days like Sunday don’t happen without the support of so many people. I would like to express an enormous thank you to everyone who helped out. I am reluctant to name people as I don’t want to leave anyone out, so if you made scones, supervised the games or craft, made endless cups of tea, washed dishes - the list goes on - thank you, thank you, thank you.

The organising committee which included Nadia Mecoli, Allison Harvey, Rebecca Gray, Keri Spence, Liz McLindon, Fabian Harcus and Andrea Lavis worked tirelessly to ensure the day was one that everyone would enjoy. We started planning at the beginning of the year and had the support of a number of parents who had attended some of the meetings along the journey. Our aim was to make it a day where our past and present school community could join together and celebrate the 150 years of state education that has taken place at the school. From the overwhelmingly positive feedback I have had, we definitely achieved our goal!

Hopefully some of our current students might be still involved with the school when it is time to celebrate our 200th Year.

Regards,

Janet Paterson,

Principal.

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