On Friday 19th and Saturday 20th of October, the Gumeracha Primary School celebrated its 150th Anniversary with an exciting weekend of activities. On Friday the school leaders unearthed the Gumeracha Primary School Time Capsule that was buried in 1999.

The items in the capsule, including many samples of student work and photos, were displayed in the library to view. Later on Friday, many visitors were welcomed to the school for the Open Day with tours being conducted by year 6/7 class tour guides. The whole school was involved in a special assembly for the visitors, where student’s activities were presented about learning at the Gumeracha Primary School in 2007 and throughout this year, as well as historical moments in time.

Other events included Mrs Mardle’s class singing a few songs, Mr Whitehead’s class presenting a funny play about the naming of Gumeracha and The Cool Kids unit singing some Australian songs.

Also, the 5/6 class presented information about all the wonderful environmental programs that currently occur at the Gumeracha Primary throughout the year and the 6/7 class presented short recounts about the 150th events the school had been involved in throughout 2007.

Saturday began early with the school coming alive with old scholars, past teachers and many other visitors reuniting to chat about school times and life since. It was wonderful to hear the tales of school life in the 40’s and 50’s and how much the school grounds and facilities have changed since then.

The History Centre set up a terrific display of photographs (pictured far right) showing the school over its history and the redevelopment of the buildings and grounds in the 1980’s. Mr. Bob Brooksby led student volunteers from the 5/6/7 year levels in a historic representation of the school’s past and the influence of significant world events.

A barbeque lunch was held in the old school room (OHSC building) with many more tales being told as people enjoyed the meal. The weekend celebrations ended with a great dinner dance on Saturday night down at the Town Hall with about 90 guests enjoying the beautiful meal provided by the Hospital Auxiliary catering group.
The Freeloaders band played until late and some parents really let their hair down dancing until the end! As usual there was a lot of people who gave of their time and energy over the past term to make sure that these events ran smoothly.

Sincere thanks to all those people who helped to make this weekend such a great success!!