THIS year, Manangatang is celebrating 100 years of education.
Those who were residents, teachers, students and staff during the school’s long history will come together on August 15 to take a look back.
Held at Manangatang P-12 College, the day’s celebration will include the unveiling of a memorial, burying of a time capsule and tree planting. Past students have been writing memoirs of their time at the school, which will be compiled into a book and launched on the day.
Principal Dave Griffin said the occasion would mark the introduction of the town’s first school, which was known as Manangatang State School.
This was about three years after the town’s foundation with the arrival of the railway line from southern Victoria.
“Soon after that a lot of other little schools popped up around the district away from the railway line,” Mr Griffin said.
Manangatang’s population swelled after the First World War when it became a soldier settlement community and much of the surrounding Mallee scrub was converted into farmland.
In 1946, the smaller surrounding schools that had grown in the last 20 years were amalgamated into Manangatang Consolidated School and buses were introduced to transport students around the district.
In the 1950s, Manangatang became a higher elementary school, allowing students to continue their education past Year 8.
Today, there are 134 students enrolled at Manangatang P-12 College, across 13 year levels. Mr Griffin said throughout its history it had been a “very successful school”.
“A lot of students that have been educated at Manangatang have gone on to great things and are still doing great things,” he said.
Mr Griffin, who has been principal there for 10 years, said community involvement in the school was strong.
“It’s seen as an important part of the community as a whole and people are prepared to put in work and energy towards it,” he said.
He named the parents involved in school committees and the Parents and Friends Group as examples of strong community involvement.
Manangatang P-12 College is also unique in that it provides correspondence learning to students in remote areas.
“People here haven’t been afraid to take on new ideas, such as introducing computer technology in the 1980s,” Mr Griffin said. “Even today the teacher have been involved in teaching other kids via correspondence. Right now there’s a general maths class where the teacher is teaching students at Werrimull. That’s not common practice.”
It’s a chapter of milestones for the region’s schools, with Nyah District Primary School also celebrating 100 years in 2015.
Manangatang P-12 College will celebrate 100 years of education on August 15 from 12.30pm to 5pm.
