Both Coonamble Primary and High School opened their gates on Saturday 21 October to showcase the local facilities and programs in the public education system in the modern day and invite past students and staff to take a trip down memory lane.
The occasion was to mark 150 Years of Public Education in the town.
Only a small group took advantage of the Open Day but there was lots of laughter and reminiscing as they discussed where past classrooms had been, talked about terrorising teachers (and vice versa) and pored over historical documents.
A fragile Admissions and Progression book containing entries from 1920 to the late 1930s revealed many familiar names and as it recorded the date that students commenced, their age, parents’ name, address and occupation and the occupation the student pursued on leaving.
The most popular were the Punishment Books which detailed student misdemeanours and the punishments handed out with smoking, persistent disobedience and rudeness to teachers the most common offences while others were more specific and occasionally creative. For example one entry showed that S Smith, S Day, N Sheather, D Cleary, R Jordan, B Mitchell, P Craig and A Archer, all 14 years old, each received 2 servings of the cane from teacher D Limbach for “hitching a ride during cross country”.
Notably there were no records of the cane being administered to female students, although Mrs Norma Green (nee Casey) who attended the Open Day with her sister Shirley Cant, recalled receiving a punishment for calling out in the corridor in her earlier years at school in the 1930s.
Also on hand were class photos and albums, scrapbooks full of news clippings and copies of past school magazines outlining the achievements and adventures of generations of local students.
The contents brought back many personal memories and reminders of newsworthy events like student and teacher strikes, sporting conquests, outstanding academic results, cultural performances, and even an enterprise where the Principal purchased, fed and fattened then sold 1000 hens in the 1970s which succeeded in raising funds for the school.
At CPS, the STEM room (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) had on display a range of robotics and other technology tools for creative problem-solving and learning.
The organising committee, comprised of Judy Proctor, Annette Thomson (CPS Principal), Tanya Farrell, Stacey Hughes, Gloria Fernando, Georgia James, Raymond Happ, Susan Walker, Sue Webb and Emily Sirilo also staged a formal dinner on Saturday night.
The proceedings were opened by Gloria Fernando’s Acknowledgement of Country followed by a masterful didjeridoo item by Allan McKenzie. The CPS Band, whose members range from Year 1 to Year 4, displayed their musical talent over three numbers.
Speakers included past CPS Principal Mike Freeman, former CHS teacher Mark Newman and Andrew Patterson, past student and current teacher Raymond Happ, and past CPS teacher Katie Sullivan.
The cake prepared by Jodi Prentice was cut by Mr John Whitney who taught at Coonamble High School for 34 years, and Mrs Annette Rich who attended CHS from 1944 to 1947.
