30th Anniversary of Greensborough
College Opening!
30 years ago Greensborough College, originally called Greensborough Secondary College, was formed through the amalgamation of Watsonia High School and Watsonia Technical School with around 900 students.
The Watsonia High site became the Senior Campus (located at Nepean Street) catering for students in Years 11 - 12 with the Watsonia Tech site located on Nell Street which catered for students from Years 7-10 making up the Junior Campus. The Junior Campus is where Greensborough College currently sits.
Different school cultures were initially challenging for both students and staff and teachers would travel between both campuses to teach their Junior or Senior classes.
Teachers had to get to know and work closely with a lot of new colleagues in a very short time as well as rewrite new curriculum for all subjects across all year levels at 7 – 10 because what was taught at the two schools was different. At that time schools had much more independence about what was taught because the current prescribed curriculum and standards had not been introduced at that time. Therefore the teachers had to find common ground and revise everything.
The staff were quite forward thinking educationally in that they wanted to create a culture at the Senior Campus that was distinct from the Junior Campus, one that students “graduated” into where they would be treated as young adults. They had no uniform just a dress code, and it was an ‘Open Campus’. They were allowed to leave during the day to go home to “study” during spare periods, or have lunch in the park and even go to Diamond Village
Camps and activities at this time included:
- Year 7 Camp to Camp Coolamatong
- Snow Camp
- Ski Camp
- Trip to Central Australia
- Debutante Ball (held at Melrose Receptions)
- Sports: Swimming (held at the old Greensborough Swimming Pool and Athletics (held at Willinda Park)
- ‘Once Upon a Mattress’ was the school production
- Rock Eisteddfod (held at Broadmeadows Town Hall)
The College Principal was Dick Thomson who, at the end of 1990 said “The initial year of Greensborough College has been an exciting and challenging year for all of us. I will always remember the first day when almost every student on the Nell Campus remained in the quadrangle – too nervous to venture into the wider surrounds. These worries were quickly overcome, the environment explored and extra friends found”.
The College operated this way until the Senior Campus closed at the end of 1992. It was then that all students were located on our current site. Why this site and not the Senior Campus site? It was because the closed campus was to be turned into housing and this couldn’t be done on the Junior Campus as the vast open grass space had previously been used for landfill and couldn’t be built on at that time.
Looking at our College now – 30 Years later – we now have new buildings and facilities, an innovative curriculum, and future changes to look forward to making it such an exciting time to be at Greensborough College for students and staff.
Congratulations Greensborough College!
The above information is based on a collection of memories from past and current staff.
Paul Rycroft, Jane Alexander and Sharyn Campbell (current staff at the College)
