Toongabbie Christian College

REBECCA LAUKKA (continued…)

The constant reminders of God’s grace through Family Group, Chapel and Ministry Choir were exactly what I needed to draw strength from at that time. There were always teachers that I felt comfortable to approach during times of need and I knew that they truly cared. Together we pushed ahead with learning despite some major challenges and I got into the University of New South Wales thanks to my wonderful teachers and mentors. As I tear up sharing these heartfelt memories, I am delighted to hear that 35 years since I first walked into that Kindy room, Toongabbie Christian College is growing stronger and brighter than ever and now celebrating 40 years of God’s faithfulness!

LIZ GANNELL

My recollections of Toonie are both as a parent and as a part-time staff member. As a parent I used to dread Book Week because I always struggled to think of outfits for our kids to wear for the parade. That said, I did enjoy watching the parade each year, being amazed by some parents’ creativity and ingenuity. Italian Day and Grandparents’ Day were special events, and Circus Day was fun to attend. Our daughter loved reading and would devour books, but our son needed his interest stirred. His teacher brought in some of her son’s joke books for him to read, and our son was absorbed. As a staff member I taught computing and girls PE in the Secondary Department. By the time I taught computing, the devices, Commodore 64s, had been moved from the small former storage room downstairs to a full size classroom upstairs. The Commodore 64 computers used 5¼” floppy disks to run programs and store a student’s work. Before the students arrived for each lesson, I had to load the required program on each computer, because it took a while for the programs to upload from the disks. Some programs required multiple disks to be inserted into the drive, a box about 18cm deep x 15cm wide x 5cm high. On numerous occasions I sent a student to the IT guy, our Deputy Principal, to ask for help when a computer or keyboard would not respond as was needed, only to have him approach the offending unit and not even touch the keyboard or even worse, just appear at the doorway, and the problem would self-rectify! Year 12 farewell assemblies were fun. On one occasion the students had set up a track on the High School basketball court, using orange witch’s hats, and then proceeded to have races on little scooters (this was before scooters were made for teens and adults). Another assembly involved a local farmer who each day walked his cow down to the river at the back of the school. He was invited to bring his cow to the assembly. The farmer asked the assembly what was the difference between a milking cow or one to be eaten. Mr Warren said, ‘Depends on whether it is alive or dead!’ I have fond memories of Toonie.

Parent 1986-1996 Teacher 1988-1996

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