Laurel Bigg (née Lane)

I taught in one of a set of transportable rooms facing onto the Croydon Boys Tech oval in the days when teaching was not so engulfed by bureaucracy and everything in duplicate! School inspectors were the only snare. Miss Ruth Gibson fretted over my well-used and dog-eared marks book. The grimy record of my students’ progress could not have been the mark of a dedicated teacher.

The main ‘old’ school was a good ten minutes’ walk away from the oval which kept the two staffs apart except for staff meetings held in the old school. Miss Zena Williams was headmistress during my time, a very religious lady who viewed the school through rosy glasses. Her office was in one of the transportables and it was quite common for her to lock herself in the office and, for instance, mend the altar cloth for the church.

There was no room for extension in the old school grounds hence the transportables which housed such faculties as art, home economics, dressmaking, science and a couple of general class rooms.

I taught Saturday morning junior art classes and evening art and craft for adults. My extra-curricular activity was to coach the A and B basketball teams and I directed a musical production of Cinderella which was played at the Woodville Town Hall where end of year ‘break ups’ also took place, as we had no assembly hall at Croydon Girls Tech.

Wet weather was a hazard with girls often arriving wet through from the journey from the old school and staff kept odd clothing for students who arrived in need of dry clothes. Wet clothes were hung on anything ‘hangable’ with wet shoes and socks hugging the heater.

The school held ‘Open Days’ which were presented with pride and hard work. Displays of students’ work from all subjects could be viewed by parents and friends during an afternoon and evening. An annual sports day was held on the oval plus the combined Tech School Sports Day, held I think, at the Adelaide Oval where seating was plentiful.

The technical schools had all female staffing for girls and all male for boys and never the twain should meet. I did however do a little part-time teaching at Croydon Boys around the time of the birth of my first child in 1957 and continued there with Saturday morning junior art classes.

Teaching was fun in those days. The system changed dramatically when co-education was introduced. A system of rivalry seemed to emerge within certain subjects and large classes were apparent, especially in the art faculties.

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