For most students, education covers two successive periods – primary school and secondary school. My schooling covered 2 non-successive periods: 1937-1944 primary school and 1946-1949 secondary school.
What happened to 1945?? Let’s just say, A GAP YEAR.
My primary schooling was with the nuns at Villa Maria in Ballarat where, at the end of Grade 8, I obtained my Merit Certificate.
In those days boys from farming families generally, with a Merit Certificate, obtained outside employment or worked the farm. However, my guardians deemed that I was too small to join the workforce. I don’t know my size at 12 years of age, but 2 years later at age 14 I weighed 5 stone. I was a tiny kid and was nicknamed ‘Titch’ or ‘Midge’).
The alternate to work was secondary school. The nearest High School was 20 miles away and there were no school buses. Secondary boarding school was out of the question as I didn’t have a family and there was, simply, no money.
Ned and Mary Caine, farmers of Swanwater North were my guardians, Mary being Dad’s sister.
Ned had a brother Mick, 2 miles away, who had 6 children, all of whom went to the Swanwater North State School. The elder three had obtained state government scholarships at the local boarding school and had then proceeded, at no or little cost, to secondary boarding schools at Ballarat.
Any chance that I could obtain a scholarship?
Research revealed that I could, by attending State School for 12 months then sitting for the examination. And so, I did, and I passed and was eligible.
Mick still had three children attending the Swanwater North State School and he lived just on 2 miles away. I could go to the school with them. It was 5 or 6 miles away. The three children were Patricia, aged 11, Angela 9, and John 7.
I would ride my pony, Denny (Dennis Boy), to their place, then the four of us would proceed, in an Irish Jaunting Car, with another pony, Lady Mortimer, in the shafts.
There were seven students in the school, we four, and three other girls whose surnames were Bath, Gilmore and Pilgrim. Their Christian names elude me. I was the oldest student and John Caine the youngest, with the five girls in between.
We had a young female teacher, Carmel O’Connell, just out of Teacher’s College. It was a very leisurely year. Carmel would occasionally go to a mid-week Ball, (dance) and arrive at school at 10 o’clock or after the next morning.
As a small mixed age and mixed sex group of children we played well together, mainly ball games.
On one occasion, though, Patricia Caine got in a snitch, attacked me, and gave me a hiding: the only physical fight I’ve had in my 92 years. The air was a bit thick on the trip home, but all forgotten, the next morning.
On the home front I became familiar with farming operations, learning to drive the tractor.d
Consequently, I learned to pull a plough, the harrows, the combine, the binder and the harvester. I was well apprenticed.
During the year 1945, World War II terminated; Europe in May and the war in the Pacific in August. I remember the processions of jubilation in the streets of St Arnaud on those occasions.
‘Welcome Home’ dances were held in the Gooroc Hall to celebrate the home coming of local soldiers. My brother Pat had served in the Middle East for 4 years but was not acknowledged. Could it have been because his father, Jack O’Shannessy, was a ‘nobody’ in the district?
Having earned my scholarship in 1945, I then went on to complete my secondary education at St. Patrick’s College in Ballarat.
And so ended MY GAP YEAR.
Ray O'Shannessy,
July 2024
What happened to 1945?? Let’s just say, A GAP YEAR.
My primary schooling was with the nuns at Villa Maria in Ballarat where, at the end of Grade 8, I obtained my Merit Certificate.
In those days boys from farming families generally, with a Merit Certificate, obtained outside employment or worked the farm. However, my guardians deemed that I was too small to join the workforce. I don’t know my size at 12 years of age, but 2 years later at age 14 I weighed 5 stone. I was a tiny kid and was nicknamed ‘Titch’ or ‘Midge’).
The alternate to work was secondary school. The nearest High School was 20 miles away and there were no school buses. Secondary boarding school was out of the question as I didn’t have a family and there was, simply, no money.
Ned and Mary Caine, farmers of Swanwater North were my guardians, Mary being Dad’s sister.
Ned had a brother Mick, 2 miles away, who had 6 children, all of whom went to the Swanwater North State School. The elder three had obtained state government scholarships at the local boarding school and had then proceeded, at no or little cost, to secondary boarding schools at Ballarat.
Any chance that I could obtain a scholarship?
Research revealed that I could, by attending State School for 12 months then sitting for the examination. And so, I did, and I passed and was eligible.
Mick still had three children attending the Swanwater North State School and he lived just on 2 miles away. I could go to the school with them. It was 5 or 6 miles away. The three children were Patricia, aged 11, Angela 9, and John 7.
I would ride my pony, Denny (Dennis Boy), to their place, then the four of us would proceed, in an Irish Jaunting Car, with another pony, Lady Mortimer, in the shafts.
There were seven students in the school, we four, and three other girls whose surnames were Bath, Gilmore and Pilgrim. Their Christian names elude me. I was the oldest student and John Caine the youngest, with the five girls in between.
We had a young female teacher, Carmel O’Connell, just out of Teacher’s College. It was a very leisurely year. Carmel would occasionally go to a mid-week Ball, (dance) and arrive at school at 10 o’clock or after the next morning.
As a small mixed age and mixed sex group of children we played well together, mainly ball games.
On one occasion, though, Patricia Caine got in a snitch, attacked me, and gave me a hiding: the only physical fight I’ve had in my 92 years. The air was a bit thick on the trip home, but all forgotten, the next morning.
On the home front I became familiar with farming operations, learning to drive the tractor.d
Consequently, I learned to pull a plough, the harrows, the combine, the binder and the harvester. I was well apprenticed.
During the year 1945, World War II terminated; Europe in May and the war in the Pacific in August. I remember the processions of jubilation in the streets of St Arnaud on those occasions.
‘Welcome Home’ dances were held in the Gooroc Hall to celebrate the home coming of local soldiers. My brother Pat had served in the Middle East for 4 years but was not acknowledged. Could it have been because his father, Jack O’Shannessy, was a ‘nobody’ in the district?
Having earned my scholarship in 1945, I then went on to complete my secondary education at St. Patrick’s College in Ballarat.
And so ended MY GAP YEAR.
Ray O'Shannessy,
July 2024
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