100 not out: Chris Genova, Tom Brodie, Ruth Higginson, Monique Skurrie, Cassie Micallef and Jennifer Colquhoun at Geelong High School. Picture: Tommy Ritchie 52685
Erin Pearson
GEELONG’S oldest co-educational state secondary school will celebrate its 100th anniversary next month.
Geelong High School opened in 1910 with 79 students before moving to its existing location five years later.
Centenary organising committee member Jennifer Colquhoun said the school had been through many “big changes”.
“There’s no more chalk in schools any more and blackboards have become interactive whiteboards,” she laughed.
“Gone are the paper roll-calls in the morning and when I started at the school 20 years ago there was just one computer but now each student has access to one.
“In 1954 the school even had bell boys.”
Ms Colquhoun said that, after the school fire of 1965, enrolments peaked at 1045 in 1968 with classes of 30 to 35 students.
Acting principal Ruth Higginson said the school now has a stable enrolment of around 900 students as it prepared for the centenary celebrations.
“Part of the attraction of the school is that it’s a known quantity. It’s been here for such a long time and everyone knows Geelong high school,” she said.
“A lot of history and traditional is instilled here and people like that idea – the school even still has the core of the original wing from 1915.”
The centenary celebrations will run from October 10 to 17.
