HAWKESBURY High – the district’s youngest school – celebrated its 25th anniversary last Friday. From an early morning bike ride, to African drum workshops and a talent quest later in the day, there was not a dull moment as students and staff welcomed the milestone.

When the Gazette arrived, the school’s captains and vice-captains were busy sorting through newspapers, photographs and memorabilia that will go into a time capsule, due to be buried later this month.

Visitors took a stroll down memory lane in the library, where class photos, as well as video footage of various Year 10 and 12 formals were on display.

Ex-students Hazel Royal (nee Slade) and Merilyn Fowler (nee Earle) from the class of 1983 were some of the first students to go through. Mrs Royal and Mrs Fowler, along with Kerry Lane from the class of 1984 and Merilyn's mother Jan Earle, who was on the Parents and Teachers' Association for

many years, were delighted to look through the photographs.

Hawkesbury High School was first established in demountable buildings at Wilberforce in 1983, and the school moved to its current site at Freemans Reach in 1989.

In 1983 the school began with a population of 127 in Year 7 and added another group each year until the first HSC in 1988.

None of the ex-students ever attended the school at its Freemans Reach location, but they do remember being promised it.

Mrs Royal said the teacher used to run a hose on top of the classroom to keep it cool in Summer, and Mrs Fowler remembers when she nearly fainted during her HSC economics exam because of the extreme heat.

The school’s canteen was also a demountable, opened up on one side. The women said their Year 10 formal was a memorable experience – it was held in the canteen.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary a group of gifted and talented students have been working on an oil painting that incorporates various Hawkesbury icons, such as St Matthew’s Anglican Church in Windsor and Tebbutt's Observatory.

Elsewhere around the school on Friday, there was a touch football competition between ex-students and teachers, talks by representatives from the NSW/ACT Guide Dogs Association, art displays, film presentations, a sausage sizzle and displays by East Kurrajong Rural Fire Service and Freemans Reach RFS.