Objects of Substance - Dinner Sixth Forms

2023 Valedictory Dinner 56 years later: a much more gala event.

Clothing is metaphorical. The dress code for these end of year 12 dinners seemed to signal that point in a girls’ life when the next year offered a totally new experience: for my year, university, teachers’ college, nursing quarters, the workforce? A plethora of possibilities seemed ahead of us. Accepted attire changed over thirty years later. The decision that Grammar girls should wear their uniforms occurred in 1999, under the principalship of Judith Hancock. I remember, as a staff member, that part of the rationale for this change was that the girls were still students of the School and the Valedictory Dinner and the End of Year Assembly and Prizegiving were the final two significant events of their school lives and should be celebrated as such. The second aspect of note gleaned from this 1967 program is that it was held at School, in the “Main Hall” and the “Gymnasium” – what are now known as the Annie Mackay Room in the Main Building, and the auditorium building that was demolished in 2006. The program, entitled “MENU”, “ORDER OF TOASTS” and “SPEECHES” reveals an obvious effort to create a memorable occasion – with the pale blue paper, details of the events of the evening, and the hand-drawn badge. Its formality of tone is obvious. As the School population grew, an on-site dinner became problematic and, in 1972, the first off-site venue, the Endeavour Room at David Jones in The Valley, was used.