The walls of the current Footscray Primary School hold a lot of memories for Walter ‘Wally’ Hopkins.
The Order of Australia medal recipient started school at the former Geelong Road Primary School (Footscray Primary School) in 1929.
Wally still tells tales of thinking he would get the strap for drawing on the back of his exercise book or enjoying art classes and continues to share tales of school life with his neighbour Vern, who is also a past Footscray Primary School student.
Wally will be joining the entire Footscray Primary School community to celebrate the school’s past, present and future as part of a community day on Saturday, March 18 from 10am to 2pm.
Principal Jen Briggs said everyone is welcome to come along and celebrate the school’s 160th anniversary of the school opening its doors to pupils in 1860.
“Personally, it is a very special day for me as the current principal of Footscray Primary School as my own grandmother, Alma Arthur, who passed away last year at the age of 95, was a former student at Geelong Road State School, along with her siblings in the 1930s,” she said.
“We are thrilled to be in a position to invite so many members of our past back to reunite in the grounds again.
“There will be a wide array of historical artefacts such as school photos, archived newspaper articles and memorabilia on display.”
The event will also showcase the pupils’ ‘Way Back When’ project, which combines oral histories of a number of past students and staff and a new mosaic from community member Meredith Jones, with tiles including names and dates of certain former students.
Matthew Sims
