Reunion to mark 150 years

A YEAR of celebration is underway at Strathfieldsaye Primary as the school community marks its one-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary.

As part of the festivities, events are being held each term to provide opportunities for past and current students to share stories and reflect on the history of their school.

This term the celebration will involve a reunion at the school with past and current students invited to on their history.

Planned activities include the unveiling of a mural painted by students and local artists, as well as performances by pupils throughout the day, and a high tea in the afternoon.

School principal Cindi Bruechert said acknowledging the contribution that students, staff, and community members had made to the school was important.

“Our strong values that we promote now with our students are caring, optimism, respect, and excellence, we think that’s really demonstrated right through our history,” she said.

“It’s so important to get together and renew friendships from the past but also to celebrate achievements, and to celebrate change and growth.”

Last term 500 guests gathered to witness the unveiling of a time-capsule that had been buried 25 years earlier.

Ms Bruechert said it had been a lot of fun seeing the student’s reactions to the unearthed items, which included a tape recording of the grade 3/4 class.

“Our current students were really excited to see what was in there but what I loved was that we had students here on the day that were at school twenty-five years ago,” Ms Bruechert said.

“All the past students were really excited to hear their voices and to listen to what they’d taped and their predictions for the future.”

Next term current students at the primary school will bury a new time-capsule on the 150th school day of the 150th school year.

“On that day we’re going to have a dress up day in olden day clothes, and we’re going to re-bury a time-capsule and that will be dug up in another 25 years,” Ms Bruechert said.

“There definitely have already been conversations about the must-haves, like putting a mask and COVID test in there about the impact that COVID has had on us over the last little while.”

The reunion will be held on Saturday 9 September from 7am to 3pm with the official opening to take place at 11.30am.

People interested in attending can register on the Strathfieldsaye Primary School website.