Everyday is a celebration at the ‘’incredibly rich and diverse’’ West Wollongong Public School.
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But a special celebration was held on Wednesday to mark 90 years of excellence in education.
A celebratory assembly was followed by the unveiling of a new mural to celebrate the history of the school.
Students, staff and parents then enjoyed a community picnic on the school grounds.
‘’Our school is an incredibly rich and diverse school,’’ principal Michelle Barnes said.
‘’We have children from over 30 nationalities attending our school, with 20 per cent of our student population being refugee students.
‘’Everyday is a celebration of these rich cultures that comprise our school. But today we are turning 90 years of age and we are celebrating excellence in education for the past 90 years.’’
Everyday is a celebration of these rich cultures that comprise our school.
- West Wollongong Public School principal Michelle Barnes
Jo-anne Morrissey has seen ‘’plenty of changes’’ during her 28 years teaching at West Wollongong Public School.
‘’At the moment I think we’ve got about 47 per cent of ESL [English as Second Language] children and a lot of those are refugees. So there has been a big change in the community,’’ she said.
Mrs Morrissey was also involved during the school’s 75th anniversary celebrations when a ‘’great big beautiful mural’’ was unveiled.
‘’We have done a new mural which we are unveiling today, which is fantastic,’’ she said.
West Wollongong Public School started as a split-site school. Primary school students were taught at its current Crown St premises, with its K1 and K2 infants taught further east on Crown St.
‘’There was a lot of toing and froing but eventually they amalgamated and used the premises down the road as an educational resource centre. That happened in the 90’s. We’ve been here ever since,’’ Mrs Morrissey said.
Another highlight happened in the 1960’s when the P&C of the time built a swimming pool at the school.
‘’That was wonderful and now the children, including refugees and from emergency housing, who are here now are reaping and enjoying the benefit of the work done in the 60’s.’’
Mrs Barnes added teachers also needed to be congratulated for meeting the incredibly diverse needs of its student population.