The first class to tackle the Higher School Certificate (HSC) at Gunnedah High School recently gathered for a reunion.
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It has been 50 years since they completed the ground-breaking examinations. The Year 12 Class of 1967 paved the way for others into a new pathway to higher education as the Wyndham Report system replaced the old Leaving Certificate.
The former students have spread their wings far and wide since those memorable school days, with many becoming nurses or teachers, while others followed the science field or music, and another gained her pilot’s wings.
The friends gathered at Gunnedah Band Hall for a dinner and a trip down memory lane, with their former English teacher Tony Neate one of the very welcome guests.
Mr Neate had high praise for his former students and was very interested to hear where their life paths had taken them.
“The square arrangement of tables at the reunion dinner was so good in allowing everyone to see each other, especially when each was relating his/her life in the last 50 years,” Mr Neate said.
“The visit to the school on Sunday morning was a bit of a shock seeing the expansion of buildings - it was little harder to reconcile the world of l967 with that of the present day in terms of the school layout.”
Mr Neate felt that the town had retained the sense of well-being and the same civic pride he had experienced during his years at Gunnedah High.
After catching up on the past 50 years at dinner, the students met the following day for a tour of the school, where they were joined by their former art teacher Annette Percy.
The tour with grounds man Rod Byrnes was a chance to see where they had enjoyed their school days and pioneered a significant milestone in education.
Today candidates for the HSC can be as young as 12 with 70,000 students undertaking the education credential, which is about to undergo sweeping changes.
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