STORIES of the past came alive for students at Guardian Angels’ School, Wynnum, when grandparents joined them for Catholic Education Week celebrations.
After a community liturgy on July 25, the grandparents sat with the students, either in classrooms or outside on blankets donated by a local business, to tell their stories.
Every 10 minutes the groups changed so the students heard different stories, from riding to school on horseback and having to hitch the horse to a post until home time, to lessons on blackboards with the nuns using chalk to write with and the heavy, itchy school uniforms the students of the past had to wear.
There were many interjections as questions came thick and fast about whether they had mobile phones or iPads back then or did they ride a BMX to school, to great laughter from staff and the grandparents.
Assistant principal Dawn Morrissey said the school’s Grandparents Day celebration was a great opportunity for many of the grandparents to reconnect with old friends and meet some new ones over a delicious morning tea.
She said many of the visitors had attended Guardian Angels’ themselves while others had attended Catholic schools in the archdiocese.
She said it also tied in well with the theme for the schools’ centenary celebrations this year, “The Story”.
“Grandparents were the keepers of the stories,” she said.
“They pass these stories on from generation to generation and they create a link between the past, the present and the future.”
More than 350 grandparents turned up to tell their stories.
They included grandfather John Walmsley, whose mother also attended the school when it first opened.
Mr Walmsley said he had great memories from his time at Guardian Angels’ and was delighted that his grandchildren were now at the school.
Ms Morrissey said at the end of the celebrations grandparents were presented with a blanket as a thank-you and a memento of the occasion.
