48ers reminisce over time at Napier Girls' High School

Joan Cockburn and Dawn Ackroyd with the old girls of Napier Girls High School. Photo / Duncan Brown

A lot has changed in education since 1948, but for the girls who started third form at Napier Girls High that year, the sense of comraderie they found remains today.

The 48ers, as they call themselves, are celebrating their 70th anniversary of starting high school this weekend, with the first stop a trip to visit their old school on Friday.

Organiser of the event Joan Cockburn said it was great to be back at the school.

"It's always a wonderful feeling because we're always made so welcome," Cockburn said.

She said the school had changed a lot since her day.

"In our day there was just this main building, and what is now the gymnasium, which was the main hall."

The school has since grown, with extra blocks added. There are about double the number of students now, with a roll close to 1000 compared to the old girls' days, where they remember there being about 400-500.

Current principal Dawn Ackroyd said while there had been many changes, the school still treasured it's history.

"I believe in this day and age, when it's really hard to be a teenager, it's very different to what it was when I grew up and you grew up, and I think it's even more important that teenagers today have a connection to their school."

"It gives them a sense of belonging, a sense of tradition, a sense of history."

She said the school still completed whole school singing, whole school assemblies and a gift service, when the old girls all remembered from there time.

"We still call them the girls of the white and blue."

Over afternoon tea, the women reminisced over their time at school, from frantically doing homework on the bus to school, to teachers who had a particular impact on them, including several students remembering being told by the music teacher to just mouth the words to the national anthem.

Joking aside, Cockburn said they had benefitted from high quality teachers and a school which had high expectations of them.

"It had a very high standard when we were there and it still has a very high standard today."

The women presented the school with a book of stories they had written together, about what they had each done after they finished their education, as well a some memories from their time at school.

To wrap up their celebrations the women would be going to lunch together on Saturday, and planting a tree together at Friend's Bush on Sunday.