Objects of Substance - Dinner Sixth Forms

The intended formality of the occasion was perhaps at odds with the informality of the rather modest menu. The food was catered by the mothers, although this was not acknowledged in the program. I know this because my mother was involved in this 1967 dinner and my sister’s four years later. I even helped set up, serve, and clean up, at that event in 1971. I am sure that, in 1967, meat balls, salad, and trifle were considered options, knowing the paucity of kitchen facilities in the auditorium. There are aspects of this event, however, that have not changed from the inaugural one in 1963. Significantly, the dinner was sponsored and hosted by the generosity of the Parents and Friends’ Association – and it is to this day. This Association has always contributed so much, and so liberally, to the school experience of their daughters.

2021: Parents and Friends gift and the Old Girls complimentary membership badge

Official 1967 attendees included senior staff, representatives of the Old Girls, the Parents and Friends, the Trustees, and a guest speaker. The tradition that the guest speaker should be a past student was obviously established at the outset and, despite a period when outside speakers were invited, the guest speaker has always been a past student since 1990. How fortunate was my year to have Grammar’s illustrious alumnus, Professor Dorothy Hill, address us? A second 1967 program from our archive reveals the names of some of the staff in attendance. Sue Jordan [1967] collected a full page of autographs and included were those of staff members Marjorie Neil, Anne Walton, Heather Tuckett, Susanne Heindorff, and Elizabeth Hatton.

The back page of Sue Jordan’s program with teachers’ signatures