By Bonny Burrows
Berwick College’s 40th birthday bash was full of fun, friendship and laughs.
The school community, past and presented, united on 19 October at the Berwick Montuna Golf Club to celebrate the past 40 years.
Guest speakers from the school community took attendees for a trip down memory lane, recounting humorous tales about their time at the college.
In particular, the retelling of an incident where Miss Lipscombe’s red Statesman backed into a school building drew roaring laughter from the crowd, which included founding students Trevor Barnes, Natalie Hill, Sarah Miller and Jane Foster.
Rob Hansen spoke of his privilege to be a foundation teacher during a time where the volleyball court was graded for the price of one dozen bottles of beer and stampeding cows were spooked by fun run students.
“Some of the portables from that era still remain,” he said.
School captain of 2002 Darren Irvine returned to recount his time at school and the investigation of the missing graduation gowns, which he swore he had no part in.
“I seem to remember you saying you had something to do with it,” Principal Kerri Bolch said, with a grin.
“Oh yeah, it’s all coming back to me now,” Darren responded, which was also met with laughter.
A musical compilation across the decades of the school’s operation was lots of fun and saw the Stage Band belt out hits from the ’70s through to now, with Peter Allen’s I Go to Rio, a Les Miserables medley, Mambo No. 5, Green Day and Adele numbers making an appearance.
Gazette news clippings featured in a history book and along display boards and many people took the opportunity to browse through the news to reflect on the school’s changes over the past 40 years.
Ms Bolch said it was an honour to lead a school with such a tight-knit community.
In fact, she said, many of the school’s staff were former students, “unable to stay away”.
“There’s a trend in Berwick I’m really happy about. I love our past students coming back as teachers,” Ms Bolch said.
The proud principal said she couldn’t be happier with what the school had achieved over the past four decades.
“Our numbers are skyrocketing and I’m looking forward to the next 10 years,” she said.
“Forty years on, the founding vision ‘Crescam’ – Latin for ‘I shall grow, I shall increase, I shall prosper’ remains a touchstone for our learning community.”
