WHEN Natalie Daymond and Narelle Wardman were at Bathurst High School in the 1970s, it was not unusual for students in their year to run to class.
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Not because they were ultra keen to start the lesson, according to Ms Daymond, but because the classes were bursting at the seams.
“When we started, there were roughly 270 students in our year group,” she remembered.
“There were upwards of 40 pupils in each of our overcrowded classes.
“We had to run from class to class when the bell rang so as not to have to stand up or sit on a milk crate that we'd found somewhere to use as a makeshift chair with a shared desk. That would be unheard of these days.
“We were one of the last years to know Bathurst High School as the only state high school in Bathurst before Kelso High started.”
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The school song would be sung at every assembly – and the gatherings in summer could be particularly hazardous, Ms Daymond said.
“There’d be over 1200 pupils in the quad for assemblies and you’d see many students fainting,” she said.
But it didn’t do them any harm, according to Ms Daymond.
“We survived it all and look forward to catching up and continuing the friendships we've forged over the years,” she said.
The memories are coming flooding back because Ms Daymond and Ms Wardman are organising, with the help of others who are spreading the word, a school reunion in October.
”The reunion is for anyone with ties to Bathurst High School class beginning their secondary school life in 1973 in year seven (formerly first form) and finishing year 12 in 1978 and anyone who attended in between,” Ms Daymond said.
Ms Daymond said she and Ms Wardman, who lives in Sydney, “have spent many an hour on the phone and emailing back and forth” as they organise the fourth reunion for the year group of 73-78.
The reunion will be held upstairs at the Oxford Hotel function room on Saturday, October 13 at 6pm.
The following day, Sunday, October 14, there will be a tour of the school at 10am.
The reunion has a Facebook page, Bathurst High School Class of 73-78 (year 7-12) reunion, which has all the details for payment.
Alternatively, visit https://www.trybooking.com/XNYM to book.