The year was 1997: Newcastle Knights secured a last-grasp grand final win, Geoffrey Rush won an Academy Award for best actor for Shine and the One Nation Party formed with Pauline Hanson as leader.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But for the year 10 class at Mt Carmel High School, they were focused on graduating and finishing the year with a bang.
On Saturday August 19, the class will gather to for its 20-year reunion at the Soldiers Club.
Back in 1997, the principal was Paul Collins and assistant principal was Gaye MccManus, who is currently the principal of Mt Carmel School after the high school closed in 2014.
I now have primary students at Mt Carmel whose parents I taught. There is a beautiful circle of life.
- Gaye McManus, principal of Mt Carmel School
School captains were Luke Myers and Lucy Corkhill.
Ms McManus, who was also the mathematics and science teacher at the time, said her fondest memory of 1997 was the students.
“The year 10 students described themselves as ‘heaps and heaps of individuals who came together as one’,” she said.
“I now have primary students at Mt Carmel whose parents I taught. There is a beautiful circle of life.”
In recounting that year, Ms McManus said there was also a sad memory of Lisa-Jane Allan, dux of the school and athletic champion of that year.
“Lisa-Jane’s spirit lives on in the lives of her nieces and nephew – Oscar, Bella, Charlotte and Molly – who now attend Mt Carmel School. We never forget our own,” Ms McManus said.
Asked about school culture then and now, she said it “has been the advent of technology and social media”.
“Back in 1997, it was an overhead projector and chalkboard. Today it is interactive whiteboards, television screens, iPads and coding,” she said.
“The internet has moved us to the information age with teachers now being facilitators rather than instructors of knowledge transmission.”
“I think as teachers we are now far more aware about student well-being and its impact on learning,” Ms McManus said.
Former student recalls fond times
Sarah Streatfeild, a former student who now works at the National Museum of Australia, said “some of my greatest memories are from those days”.
“It was when we were young and carefree. We did get caught down the street eating pizza one lunch time when we weren't supposed to leave the school premises – what rebels we were,” she said.
Ms Streatfeild said her career path was inspired by her history teacher – Mrs Helen Flannery.
“Even though art with Mr Rick Dodd was my favourite subject, so working in a museum is a cross between the two,” she said.
The year 10 class at the time had about 25 students in which Ms Streatfeild said contributed to the close-knit atmosphere.
“We obviously didn’t have Internet so it was books and old school things. We were all really great friends and hung out and lived around town,” she said.
Asked about how she felt about the high school closing, Ms Streatfeild said it was “a shock to hear that our legacy wouldn’t live on”.
“But it makes our time more special; it had that small-community feel that kids are not able to have now,” she said.
Ms Streatfeild said she looked forward to seeing friends whom “I haven’t seen in so many years”.
“They’ve moved far away, so we’ll have people from Queensland, South Australia, Newcastle and Wollongong coming,” she said.
If you are part of the year 10 in 1997 and have not been contacted for the reunion, you may contact Ms Streatfeild: s_streatfeild@yahoo.com.au.
