Sacred Heart Oakleigh Scholarship Class 1963 My time at Sacred Heart began in 1957 and went through to 1963 when I was in grade 7. Obviously we were Catholic and attending a state school was a big no-no which was a pity as my best friend from kinder went to the state school. Sacred Heart had about 900 students at the time. In my grade 2 class we had 90, which meant three to a desk. The playing area for the entire student group would have measured about 50 metres by 25 metres and was asphalt. Anyway, we made do with the hot milk, cold pies on Monday (there was no bread baked on a Sunday), school marching competitions and, for the older students, an end of year picnic at Mordialloc Beach. We learnt despite the circumstances - or some of us did anyway. One way of gaining a scholarship to attend a Catholic secondary college was to sit for a Diocesan Scholarship in Grade 7. I dont know how it worked at other parish schools, but at Sacred Heart as special scholarship group was culled from the full grade 7 (we also had grade 8) and this special group had the pleasure of staring school 30 minutes before the rest at 8.30 and staying behaving at the end of the day to 4.30pm (I think it was). During this time we did special work - work aimed at the passing the examination. It boiled down to extra Maths, extra English and Intelligence tests (we used a book called Queensway Intelligence Tests. Our teacher was Mother Alexius - the Principal of the school and chief strapper of the naughty. In those days, you didn’t have to do much to be deemed naughty and worthy of being sent to the corridor for the strapping line up. For instance, when the bell rang to signal the end of playtime, we were required to stand still like statures until our grade was called to line up. Rather officious prefects would hover to notice the slightest movement and if it happened you would be sent to the corridor. Mother Alexius would then attend to those who were lined and ask they were there. Few excuses avoided the punishment. Of course, within classes, the strap was liberally handed out by grade teachers for such heinous crimes as talking, making mistakes or looking out the window. Anyway, the Scholarship class was further culled throughout the year for no other reason that Mother Alexius thought the person would not pass the exam. School success rates were very important. Many left the class in tears, indeed I was thrown out once for not doing all my homework and had to beg to get back, which was accepted after having my head banged against the blackboard. The photo shows the successful scholarship winners for 1963 which entitles us to free tuition at one of a number of secondary schools for one year (I went to De La Salle). I was never confident following any exam that I sat, although I only ever failed one – Biblical Studies in form four – a portent of things to come perhaps. Im the little boy on the far right – not a portent of things to come.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 09:19:17 +0000
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