BMG 2020 Grammarian Issue 3

10 I REMEMBER WHEN... Back when I attended BMG, there were 20 students, three teachers (one of whom was also doubling as the Principal), six classrooms, one downball court drawn with chalk, one gravel tennis court and one basketball ring attached to the end of the outside wall of the building. There were three classes – Prep to Year 3, Year 4 to 6, Year 7 and 8. Our entire school population was smaller than a current Tutor Group. By the end of that year, we were up to 40 students, from Prep to Year 8. We also even had a small fort and playground and owned a total of 9 desktop computers by then. To look around the school as it is today – the school we all know, it is almost impossible to believe its humble beginnings. It was not unusual for us to spend our weekends at the school with our families in those early days. We didn’t have the wonderful maintenance team that we have now – our parents were the maintenance team. They did the gardening, painting, building, repair work and anything else that needed doing. In the past, as I have watched our Year 9s head off on several buses to their year level camp, I was reminded of my own Year 9 camp, with my entire class driven to our campsite by our tutor teacher in the back of a Toyota Landcruiser. As the school grew, we started a canteen. And by canteen, I mean we each had to take a turn on a roster system, dragging a table out of a classroom and selling chips and lollies from it. We generally made around $20 on a good day. Our end of year Christmas concerts were held outside… we performed on the verandah and our parents sat on our classroom chairs on the scoria in front of the school. I remember quite clearly one day being split up into four groups and being told we were forming a House system. In those groups, we discussed and voted on names for those Houses. We chose names that were significant in the local area; Bacchus, Pentland, Braeside and Hilton. I was in Bacchus and, initially, was one of only two girls in my age group. No need for tryouts or trials, the only requirement for qualifying for events in House Carnivals or sports teams was that you had arms and legs. This meant I (along with pretty much every other student in the school) represented our Bacchus Marsh Grammar in swimming, athletics, cross country, football, netball, korfball and many other sports. Mr Richardson asked me the other day if I ever felt that I had been disadvantaged in any way by being part of the school in its very early days due to its small size. Certainly, we didn’t have even a minute fraction of the facilities or opportunities that exist for BMG students now. So, in that respect, we lacked advantage. However, when all of you have graduated from here and you look back on your time at BMG, it won’t be the facilities you remember, or even, necessarily, the vast opportunities you had, it will be the people you met, the friends you made or the teachers that had an impact on you. And from that perspective, despite its amazing growth in size and prosperity, the BMG I knew as a student is the same BMG you know as students today and the same BMG you will remember in another 30 years’ time. At its core, then and now, is the same set of values. Teachers and staff working tirelessly for their students and each other, and hard-working parents who send their children here because they want the best for their children (and as a parent myself here now, I would like to thank the brilliant maintenance team for the fact we no longer have to do the gardening). So no, I don’t feel disadvantaged. I actually feel lucky and very proud to have played just a small part in the history of this great school. – Mrs Kelly Dilges, Graduating class of 1996, current parent and Assistant Principal KELLY DILGES REFLECTION Principal, Mr Blyth, also class teacher for Years 4, 5 & 6