Very big birthday for Warrenheip Primary

WARRENHEIP Primary School celebrates its longevity this Sunday with a big 150th birthday event.

Sunday’s celebration happens from 10am to 2pm at the long-standing red brick school that’s seen generations of local children educated on site since 1875 to the present day.

“We’ve got Federal Member for Ballarat Catherine King and state MP for Eureka Michaela Settle attending,” current principal Johanne Reyntjes said.

“Catherine King is going to present her annual community award to a recipient who will be attending, and we will have some speeches at 11am and an Acknowledgement of Country.

“We’ve got a tree to plant and will call on the eldest past pupil and youngest pupil attending on the day to plant the tree.

“Our current students have been learning about games from the past and are going to be playing those types of games, like hoops and marbles, in the yard and we’ll be inviting past students to join them.

“We will also have a display of memorabilia from the past and a movie that the school has made featuring interviews with both past and present students.”

The memorabilia display features hundreds of photos dating back at least as far as 1915, vintage teacher books from the day, yesteryear students’ desks and even historic mothers’ club records.

A display of artwork by current students, Devonshire teas, food trucks, merchandise and the cutting of an especially baked anniversary cake are also on the program.

“It’s a very important event for the community,” Ms Reyntjes said.

“There’s not that many historic buildings left in Warrenheip and the community is really excited about this event.

“At the school’s 125th there was a great turnout and there’s still people who have fond memories of that event, so I’m hoping that people will also walk away from this having enjoyed it as much.

“People can bring picnics, but we will have a sausage sizzle run by the local CFA as a fundraiser for the school.

“The old part of the school building is one hundred percent the original. It doesn’t have the original roof of course, but the actual building is what was here 150 years ago. There have been renovations internally of course.”

Ms Reyntjes said there are currently 35 students enrolled at the school across prep to grade 6 with 11 staff, three of them full-time, and if current trends continue the school may just be educating youngsters for another 150 years ahead.

“We’re remaining quite stable for next year and I’m hoping that with some of the new developments around this area our attendance will increase.”