Geelong High to welcome back students

GEELONG High School will celebrate both the old and the new with a reunion of past students and staff tomorrow (Saturday, October 7.)

The Silver Gulls Association, the school’s alumni group, will host the event, which will be opened by former Committee for Geelong chief executive officer and former GHS student Jennifer Cromarty.

The reunion will include guided tours of the new school, a lunchtime barbecue and catered afternoon tea.

Founded in 1910, Geelong High School is the city’s oldest government secondary school and has a long history of providing high quality education to students from the Geelong and Bellarine region.

The school’s expansive $25 million rebuild took four years to complete but officially opened during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic so has been largely unseen by the Geelong community, who have not yet taken a look at the new state-of-the-art facilities.

Featuring design excellence with a significant nod to the school’s long history, a tour of the school has been a huge hit for the lucky few outside present students, family and staff.

“It’s the second-oldest high school in Victoria, but it’s probably the newest high school in many ways,” Silver Gulls president Doug Mann said.

The two-storey atrium is a highlight of the new design and is located in the same place as the outdoor quadrangle familiar to students from the 1940s to 1960s.

“All the oldies who come back remember the quadrangle; they remember it very well,” Mr Mann said.

He said some of the oldest parts of the school remained and were still in use, including three church buildings, which was “possibly unique” in Victoria.

Mr Mann, who taught at GHS for more than 20 years, said the Silver Gulls were the first alumni association at a government school in Geelong, and seven other government schools locally had since established similar groups.

“We’re opening the school to the general public for the second time.

“We did this last year and we had a surprisingly good turnout, given we were competing with a Geelong home game in the footy.

“But it was such a good turnout that we thought we’d probably turn it into an annual event and provide a focus for all the old ‘exies’ out there and the not so old, who want to come back and celebrate a time when the world was young and so were they!”

The Geelong High School reunion will be held at the school campus at 385 Ryrie Street, East Geelong, tomorrow from noon onwards.

Register at the Ryrie Street entrance, and plenty of street car parking is available.