Three Generations, One School

The Francis-Wright Family and the Fight to Save Girton

Some families are part of a school’s story. Others are the story. For Girton Grammar School, the Francis-Wright family belongs firmly in the latter.

Beth Francis-Wright’s journey with Girton began with a mother’s quiet determination to give her daughter stability. By the time Beth’s daughter Lynden reached primary school, the family had lived across three states, and Lynden’s education had been shaped by constant curriculum change. Returning to Bendigo and enrolling Lynden at Girton College proved transformative. From a student behind in Maths, new to Japanese and with little musical experience (except for basic recorder), Lynden flourished. It felt, Beth recalls, like the right decision - until one devastating night in 1992 changed everything.

Collecting Lynden from rehearsal at the Capital Theatre, Beth was confronted by a scene she would never forget: students gathered on the steps, distraught, crying, newly informed that Girton was to close at the end of the year. For Beth, the image of those students, her daughter among them, was the catalyst. Girton had already given Lynden so much that the thought of the school disappearing from Bendigo was unthinkable. Within days, the Friends of Girton formed, and Beth was all in.

What followed were years defined by grit, long hours and unwavering belief. Drawing on a career that spanned social welfare, law, education supply, property, research and publishing, Beth became instrumental in the rebirth of Girton Grammar School. From manning reception desks and preparing legal documentation, to establishing enrolment processes, shaping governance, designing the now-iconic burgundy and navy uniform, recording Board minutes, and later serving as Head’s Assistant and Registrar, Beth’s fingerprints are everywhere in the school’s foundation years. She remembers Day One vividly: nearly 300 students gathered beneath the peppercorn tree, the first Foundation Service in the Cathedral, and the MacKenzie Street campus scrubbed back to life.

Challenges were constant - securing funding, preserving Girton’s history, finding a campus, opening a school in mere months - but so too was community resolve. Meetings at Strath Hall, support from Sandhurst Trustees, Greater Bendigo, SCEGGS Redlands, and the vision of leaders like John Higgs and Jan Thomas kept momentum alive. Beth is proudest of the parents, staff and students who took a leap of faith, and of the culture of determination that still defines Girton today.

For Lynden, those years are etched into memory. She remembers the assembly announcing Girton College’s closure: the shock, the tears, the instruction never to sing the school’s song again. And then, defiantly, a single voice rising - followed by many more - as the school song was sung anyway. That was the day the “Fight to Win” line gained its now familiar stomp.

As a student who bridged Girton College and Girton Grammar, Lynden lived the rebirth from the inside. She watched her parents deliver soup late into the night to exhausted Friends of Girton volunteers. She attended meetings, working bees and painting days, clearing abandoned basements and meeting the founding Headmaster, Mr Clayton Jones, for the first time. Girton, for her, was never just a school. It was a family held together by belief.

Graduating in 1996, Lynden went on to forge a path shaped by curiosity and determination: a Science degree paired with Japanese, a Diploma of Education, and later extensive study in wellbeing and pastoral care. Though she once imagined spreading her wings far from Bendigo, teaching eventually led her home. Girton was the only place that felt right.

Over the years, Lynden has held many roles: Assistant Head of Jenkin House, Boarding House Resident and later Head of Boarding, Head of Riley House, and leader within co-curricular programs including the Girton Racing Team. Her influence has extended across classrooms, Houses and generations of students, some now sending their own children to Girton. As MiC of the Girton Preservation Club, she now helps students safeguard the very history her family helped create.

Today, the story comes full circle with Lynden’s sons, Julian and Lucas, both thriving in Junior School. For them, Girton is a place of kindness, tinkering time, reading corners, friendships and safety. It is also a place layered with meaning. Julian learns in the very classroom where his mother once studied Japanese. Lucas proudly tells others he attends “the school mum and Uncle Linc went to, and grandma built.”

Beth, now living on the Mornington Peninsula, watches this unfolding legacy with deep emotion. Seeing her grandchildren fitted for the uniform she helped design, attending Junior School Speech Night for the first time, and hearing her eldest grandchild sing on stage are moments she once never imagined possible. “It brings me to tears,” she says simply. “So thankful.”

Three generations on, the Francis-Wright family’s story is one of courage, continuity and care. It is a reminder that Girton’s survival was never inevitable, it was fought for, built by many hands, and carried forward by families who believed it mattered. And it still does.