Anniversary marked with top bush dance Gwyneth Panit, Year 5, Holy Cross School
IT’S an exciting time at Holy Cross School. Guess what? It’s the 30th year anniversary of Holy Cross School.
Our school began in 1987 and there were just 28 students. Today there are over 500 students.
The anniversary was celebrated by a family bush dance held at the multipurpose area at our school.
It is two weeks of celebration that began with our entry Pearl of the Northern Beaches in the float parade of the Cairns Festival.
The bush dance was September 9 and it was a blast. Everyone wore classic Australian bush wear.
Of course, there’s no family bush dance if there’s no dancing, so we had to remember to bring our dancing shoes. And dance we did.
We danced the heel and toe polka and many more. We had competitions and lots of fun.
We also had a great pork roast meal with salads. Nearly 500 people came to enjoy the food and music.
More celebrations continued with Holy Cross Day. Special guests were invited, we got extra play, received an ice block and in the afternoon we did the colour run.
We got to meet Val Driscoll, who had taught at the school two years after the school opening. Mrs Driscoll taught Grade 1 for 15 years.
She remembers Holy Cross as a special school.
Mrs Driscoll told us how in the early years there were taipan snakes in our grounds and the only person brave enough to remove them was Coral Cigrovski, the school secretary.
Mrs Driscoll told us many stories from the old days.
She told us about how hard the school principal Bob Scileroni worked on the grounds to make the oval into what it is now.
He spent most of his weekends working on the school grounds.
Sister Theresa Murray was an original staff member who Mrs Driscoll admired and who all the children loved.
She recalled the many students that came through her classes.
She remembers a little boy Brenton Thwaites, who was quiet and shy and who is now a Hollywood actor.
Mrs Driscoll said what she loved most about Holy Cross was the teachers, parents and students working together.
She talked fondly about Anna Boucaut, the music teacher who organised whole school musicals. One she remembers was when principal Paul Daglish was Elvis in a musical. The musicals were held in the now outside school hours care facility.
Another teacher Mrs Driscoll talked about was Miss Dallas Turner, who introduced our students to Tournament of the Minds.
This is an Australia-wide creative thinking program.
The first time Holy Cross entered the competition the team won the regional competition, went on to win the state competition and tied first at the national competition in Perth.
Mrs Driscoll even taught the teachers that are now teaching at Holy Cross.
Christie Vinter said that “Mrs Driscoll was one of the teachers that inspired her to be a teacher today”.
Mrs Vinter also said that they sometimes turned their classroom into a circus and kids were having lots of fun.
Mrs Vinter recalled Mrs Driscoll also giving them a book that she made for all of them and inside it had the sentences that they have written during the year. It must have taken her many hours to make.
Ms Driscoll did this because she loved her students and that they will remember being in Year 1 and cherish the book forever.
When Mrs Driscoll first arrived at Holy Cross there was only Block A. She told us how the staffroom today was the library at one stage.
The school is now large with over 60 staff and more than 500 students. The grounds are still large but gone is the bush the kids used to run through on cross country day.
That land was sold and now is filled with new houses at the back of the school. Today there is playground equipment for all ages, a basketball court and a large multipurpose court and stage area.
Celebrating the 30th year anniversary at Holy Cross School has been a blast.
We have loved learning about the history of our school and especially meeting Mrs Driscoll.
She shared so many memories.