• We were a family with strong connections to 'the schools on the hill' —my father, grandfather, brother, sister and I became teachers, my brother married a teacher and my wife became a teacher aide. Consequently school and its memories were, and still are, very cherished.

    I attended the Kelvin Grove schools—I still remember sitting in my first class, listening to the Melbourne Olympics opening ceremony from the Grey Ghost, the speaker box which broadcast the radio, in the corner of every classroom.

    The playground was clay, shale and dust. Grass was in two places only—the front lawns and an area between the netball courts and the back fence. These areas were used only for athletics practice; we played on the bare ground. This was good for playing marbles because we gouged 'tracks’ in the dirt but the rocky surface played havoc on hockey sticks and rugby league players sure had to be tough.

    Various crazes for playground games came and went. For girls, skipping ropes and hula hoops were in profusion, as were ‘knuckles’ made from the bones in the leg of Sunday’s roast mutton. Hopscotch was popular for both sexes, as were yoyos. Tuckshop was held several days a week but Ernie’s pie cart at the back gate was always popular. Some lucky kids were even permitted to go to the nearby fish and chips shop to purchase lunch.

    Sports days to determine the champion house were held in August at Ballymore. In those days it was a suburban park used by all and sundry—a far cry from the rugby ground of today. Parents helped to prepare the track for competition and manned the various food tents, selling apple tarts and cream buns. The children marched in houses, four abreast, from the school to the park lead by captains carrying the house flag.

    Classes with up to 50 children were common. The Queensland Reader was the main reading resource for the year. This was supplemented with the School Paper—one edition was issued each term. The cane was used liberally for punishment, failure to learn and as a deterrent. Only the headmaster or those staff designated by him could administer it and then only to boys.

    Despite all the trials of being a student at Kelvin Grove from Infant School through to Teachers College, I enjoyed my school days and often recollect stories and pore over the photographs from old albums. May 'the schools on the hill’ live forever more and each student work ‘with all thy might’.