I came across my Year 12 class photo on Facebook recently.
This was quite exciting as I hadn’t seen it in the over 30 years since I left Aspley High behind!
And the memories came flooding back …
- In those days I was Janet Moore from Aspley High.
- I hated my Year 12 school photo, which is why I didn’t buy it. I had a bit of acne which made my face red, and that was all I could see. Looking at it now however, I don’t know why I felt that way. I actually think I looked pretty! Maybe that’s because I am just about the only one who is actually smiling.
- I won an award in Year 8 for “General Proficiency”, a very proud moment in my young life. I think you had to achieve at least 75% in each subject to be eligible for the award.
- I had my first “boyfriend” in Year 8 – not that it meant terribly much. We hung out at the school fete, and he walked me home a couple of times and kissed me on the cheek once. So innocent!
- I found Economics in Years 11 and 12 to be the hardest subject by far, and had to work really hard just to pass.
- The most useful subject out of all my high school days? Typewriting! Manual typewriters with bells pinging on the carriage return, typing in time to music, tippex paper to correct mistakes, and only one brave boy in the whole class, LOL.
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Aspley State High School in the late 1970s - In Year 8 I became something of a minor celebrity when I did some modelling and appeared in the newspaper.
- Although I occasionally got a lift to school, most of the time, I walked. My bag would sometimes be so heavy with all those text books it’s a wonder I didn’t do my back permanent damage. Kids these days don’t know what it’s like!
- In Year 12 my best friend convinced me to fill a space in the debating team. Although I was nervous beforehand, it was probably the first time I actually enjoyed putting together a presentation, and public speaking. I can’t remember if we won, which leads me to believe, we probably didn’t.
- In Year 8 I joined the school choir, while in Years 8 and 9 I was in the school musicals – as a flower girl in White Horse Inn, and a hooker in Guys and Dolls!
- In Year 8 and 9 I was in my house cheer squad at the sports and swimming carnivals.
- I think I made it my mission to join everything in Year 8 because I also joined Interact, a junior division of the Rotary Clubs. We held fundraisers for various causes, including a sponsored child in Bangladesh.
- The Senior Mistress (do they still have them anymore? Like a deputy principal that looked after the girls) was a bit of a tartar and despite the school having an enrolment of over 1000 students, knew just about every girl by name. Except for me. She kept mixing me up with another girl called Lisa!
- She would conduct random uniform checks. We would have to kneel on a bench, and she would take a ruler and measure the distance between our skirt and the ground – which was to be no more than 20cm. And, we had to wear bloomers under our sports uniforms. How we hated them! And didn’t I feel like a rebel when I ditched them in the last couple of weeks of Year 12!
- On school sports day, I would slather my legs and arms with baby oil to get a bit of a tan. Shame about the sock mark though!
- I really wanted to be a prefect in Year 12 (goodness knows why), and was devastated when I missed out.
- Nicknames – in Year 8 it was “Flatjack” because as one of the youngest I had no boobs yet; by Year 11 it was “Pigeon Legs” because I was quite thin with knobby knees.
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My Year 8 class photo - A lot of kids left at the end of Year 10, after receiving the Junior Certificate, to begin their working life.
- There was an uneven number of girls in my class in Year 8, and none of my friends were in my class – which meant I spent most of the year sitting by myself, which I hated.
- Along with a couple of friends, in Year 9 we started the Yobboish-Moron club. Yes, we were very strange.
- In Years 11 and 12 I did English, Maths, Ancient History, Economics, Theatre and French.
- I longed to join my French class on a trip to Noumea in Year 11, but alas we just couldn’t afford it.
- My uncle was a teacher at the school.
- In Year 9 I was was an assistant in the school library.
- The tuckshop made THE most awesome hamburgers.
- Every year I secretly hoped my picture would make it into the school yearbook. I only managed it twice – once in Year 8, and once in Year 12.
- The only time I actually got on a school sports team was in Year 9. I got a place on the Basketball B team – only to find that no other school was fielding a B team that year. So much for my school sporting career!
- I did one week of Work Experience in Year 10 with a publishing firm, where I tried my hand at tasks such as typesetting, proof reading, switchboard and reception. A sign of thing to come perhaps?!
- I wore the same school uniform skirt all the way through Year 8 to Year 12 – and it was secondhand when I first got it …
- And, exactly 30 years later, at a different school across town, my daughter had the exact same style of blouse as part of HER school uniform!
Now it’s your turn – tell me a couple of fun facts about your high school days!
Personally I’m very glad my high school days are just a memory …