My siblings and I caught a bus in Barkley Street (walking from home in Carlisle Street) that took us to Elwood High. The first thing I did was to take off my hat and sit on it. I didn't like hats!

I remember school as being very structured-students listened to teachers and didn't argue - it seemed natural then. I also enjoyed the freedom to go out of the school grounds to buy lunch at the local shops! Students were of various nationalities. Being of Chinese descent; albeit, Aussie born, I alw...

School was a routine we were subjected to for so many of our formative years.

Was it a fair system? Was it fun? How I can on answer that? The rules were set and applied by the paid employees of the education department. Such individuals came from all walks of life. They had many different personal standards and values. Like with all things in life, luck played a part in deciding who the controllers of our days were. However one thing was certain, the power was with the teachers.

I attended the...

I attended Elwood Central School in 1961-62, then went on to Elwood High School (EHS) from 1963 to 1966. I have many happy memories of my time at EHS, and kept in contact with some of my fellow students from those days, including Lynette, Tina, Jacki, Irene, Sandra,and Nanette. In Elwood I lived in Shelley Street, and often left home just as the school bell started to ring!

I had many fine teachers there over the years. Some I remember were Mrs Lewulis. Mr Clift (Science), Miss Wedd (sh...

Mr.Pittock was a lovely man who had the respect of all the sensible ones among his students. Even though he copped a bit of ridicule because of his size, slight limp and his slightly plum-in-the-mouth way of talking, he was self confident enough to shrug it off. He often invited students to his flat near the school, where the atmosphere was friendly, personal, relaxed and very much out-of-school. This would be severely frowned on now but I am certain there was nothing suspicious going on. I h...

‘……you see we are busy, and I am afraid that writing memoirs for the school website has well and truly taken a back seatfor the time being. Just keeping up with emails, and other normal household chores, takes up a lot of our time, and we also enjoy watching TV In the eveings, especially "old movies" on DVD when there is "nothing much else on". You never know, one day I may get to writing a few lines, if I feel like it....'

Thank you
Your comment above shows a view point which puts all...

I attended ECS and EHS a very long time ago. I was not a good student, however I enjoyed my time there anyway. There were a lot of great people there and we had some interesting teachers .One in particular was a real character .His name was Dr Wolff, and he taught mathematics. Maths was a subject I had difficulty with !!

I remember Dr Wolff telling me and the class, in his strong German accent, (4C I think it was)  "Woody, if you pass the algebra exam, I will stand on my head in front of t...

I made some lifelong friends at EHS and still keep in touch with four of them: Kay, Michael, Brigitta and Kathleen. Hockey was the game for me – I even captained the school team once when the ‘real’ captain was away. Art was my favourite subject and I still like to draw and paint. All my children like to draw and one of my sons turned out to be a pretty good artist. They in turn are helping their kids! Recently we were camping in the Grampians and I was able to sp...

In the 1960s, Elwood High School was a new school of boring, grey, rendered, single-level buildings. The main two were built in 1957 at right angles to each other, in the north-west corner of the site. There was also a cluster of  three smaller buildings of the same style in the south-east corner some distance from the main ones. Its overwhelming feature was the flat concrete space near the buildings and the grassy softball and hockey fields a little further away from the buildings and wind...