Some happenings from 1994 were:

• our Centenary year. The original Hope Valley Primary School opened in November, 1894.

• we celebrated our Centenary with a fete. Quite a few ex-students attended, including the first Principal of the current school, Chris Valle and an ex-student, Tom Smirk, who attended the school in 1917.

• the P&C raised enough money to provide a covered area which will be erected before the start of the next school year.

• we purchased our first office computer.

• the athletics inters were at Coogee with Oakford, Karragullen, Coogee and Hope Valley competing.

• some Year Seven children presented a great radio show on FM 101, with help from Penny McBurney.

• Year 4-7 children went on a camp in Albany.

• we supported the MS Readathon again.

• gold missed out on winning the athletics carnival, a real surprise!

• purchased some secondhand computers, so we have fifteen classroom computers operating.

• enrolment rose to 102.

• Kenneth Howells nominated for Kwinana Young Sports Award by P&C.

• phone system upgraded. At last, we have more than one line into the school and facilities for a fax.

• Kwinana Freeway got to Kwinana at last and put Hope Valley on the map.

• Year 3/4 attended Life Be in It day at Calista.
• Year 4-7 children took part in Children’s Rights Rally in the city.
• lunch and recess breaks changed to miss most dangerous U.V. times.
• we recycled thousands and thousands of plastic bags
• visit by North Albany Senior High School band
• visit by Brass Quintet
• whole school took part in Music Festival at Hamilton Senior High School
• we won another debate
• we took part in the interschool cross country carnival
• all Year Seven children took part in three science lessons at Kwinana Senior High School
• we participated in the interschool swimming carnival
• all Year 5,6 and 7 children visited W.A. Newspapers and the Gould League headquarters
• all Year 6 and 7 children travelled to Joondalup by private car, bus and the train
• a Wildcats player visited for a coaching session
• we had a visitor talk about spinal injuries and their prevention
• a footy coaching clinic was conducted by a South Fremantle player.
• we celebrated Pioneers Day during W.A. Week and danced with a bush band
• two Perth Heat players ran a baseball coaching session
• Wayne Andrews taught us lots about cricket
• we held several Book Fairs and raised hundreds of dollars for library books
• we all made Mother’s day gifts at Andrew Van De Ven’s workshop, then visited White’s and Treeby’s farms

The number of children in the extended families of the Postans, Armstrong, Mortimers and de san Miguels made a school in Hope Valley a necessity in the 1890’s.

The generation before them had received their education at East Rockingham School on Mandurah Road and some, like John Mortimer, had been tutored at home.

Eventually, with the population moving towards Rockingham Beach, a school was begun there in January 1895. Hope Valley State School had opened just two months earlier in November 1894, some ten years after John Mortimer and Emma Postans took up land on Long Swamp. Headmaster E. Kershaw recorded that he started teaching in a new building, however, he didn’t stay long enough to make his mark as a few weeks later, in December, his position was temporarily filled by Headmaster S.J. Grace.

The 1895 school year welcomed Headmaster J. Thompson and nine boys and nine girls, In 1896, because of a drop in the daily attendance, Hope Valley State School was rostered with Rockingham State School on a half-time basis.

The most common half-time schedule was as follows:

Wednesday and Saturday mornings were half school days so the teacher would leave one school Wednesday afternoon and travel across to open the other school Thursday morning. We would remain on location till the following Wednesday and return to start a new school week at school number one, opening Thursday morning. In this way he taught in alternate weeks without disturbing weekends.

1902 — the half-time schools were not in progress at all during that year for lack of sufficient pupils.

1903 — both half-time schools were put back on schedule, but Rockingham closed down soon after and Hope Valley went on full-time up to March, 1927.

Hope Valley State School was re-opened on February 1, 1934. On that same day the Rockingham Road State School, in existence since 1921, was renamed South Coogee State School.

The Hope Valley State School then closed in 1941 and for some twenty years the local children travelled to a nearby school by school bus.

In 1954 the Naval Base Branch of the Country Women’s Association called on the Education Department to establish a primary school to serve the growing population in the area. It also took several representations to this effect by the Naval Base Progress Association before the Naval Base Primary School became a reality.

In 1960 the locality of Hope Valley was officially established between Navel Base and Mandogalup. The school was moved to the McLaren Avenue Site that year, but was not renamed Hope Valley Primary School until 1986.

In recent times enrolment numbers for the pre-primary to year seven classes have varied from 80 to the current 1994 number of 102. A Rural Integrated Program operates which means that the pre-primary children work with another class group, not as a separate class. Pre-primary R.I.P. class numbers are limited to ten children and for the last two years the class has been full.

The staff consists of four full-time teachers, including the principal, three part-time teachers, a part-time registrar, library officer, pre-primary aide, gardener, cleaner and bus warden.

The school consists of three permanent classrooms, a temporary classroom and a library resource centre. Play areas are extensive for a small school and they provide the main recreational facilities in Hope Valley. Monthly P&C meetings are attended by an average of a dozen parents who work together to run a weekly canteen and other fundraising ventures.

To celebrate the Centenary of the school a covered area is being built, using funds raised by the P&C, half the proceeds of the Centenary Fete.

John Rikkers and Rob Briggs

• I would like to go to high school because I will meet new friends and play new sports.

• I think high school will be an exciting, new experience. I think it will be fun, but scary at the same time.

• I think high school is going to be fun and there will be a lot of excitement in the future. I can’t wait to meet new people, but is going to be a lot different being the younger group again. I am also curious about the subjects and the differences to primary school.

…. Beau-Sharree Estimoff

During West Australia Week we celebrated Pioneer Day.

Penny Mc Burney planned ten activities and the children rotated through them all.

The quadrangle looks very different without the covered area and stage.

As you can see having a photo taken in the old days was a very serious business but not quite as serious as Alex Cameron who is in the convict outfit.

Great Southern Camp Nov 7 - 11

The kids typed up their camp reports on the good old Master Compact computers using Edword and a dot matrix printer, very cutting edge.

Danielle was in dorm 14. The first ting we did was, Mr Briggs told us which room to go to and unpack and get our bathers on. After a while we went for a run on the beach. Then we went back to the camp and had a nice warm shower. We went into our dorms and we were about 10 steps away from the boys.

One night we ran over to the boy's dorm and we got caught by Mr Briggs and he told all the girls not to go over there.

That night we ate a delicious hamburger. After a while we went for a beach walk. We were tired so we returned to out dorms, cleaned our teeth and went to bed.

I turned my torch on and it got confiscated but Danielle got her torch constipated. Then we flashed our torch at the boys and got told off by the teachers. Bob had to go to Mr Briggs and Mr Cameron. Then we moved around because we saw a cockroach, just before we went to sleep we swapped beds again.

The next morning we had dorm inspection. We got 9 out of 10 the best score so we got a chocolate.

That was the best day but not for the whole camp. I think the whaling station was the best but all of it was fun even getting in trouble.

On Tuesday we went to Albany to se the HMS Amity, Residency Museum, sea and Touch Museum, Mt clarence, Emu Point and Oyster Harbour.

We saw things about the Vietnam War, we touched dead animals and reptiles and looked over a sailing ship.

At Oyster Harbour Lewi ate some cockels and we walked out to a little island.

That night we had a quiz night, we had to answer questions about what we did that day. Then we had hot chocolate and then we went to bed after a lovely day.

On Wednesday after a delicious breakfast of bacon and eggs we put on our bathers and drove to Green's Pool. As soon as we got there everybody rushed over to the beach. After an exciting swim and beach games we went shopping in Denmark and bought lollies and souvenirs. We came back to a very tasty lunch next to the Denmark River.

Then we went to the Ag School and saw a sow and her piglets. Some lucky kids got to hod the piglets. We learnt lots of intereting facts about farms and farming.

That night we had a camp fire and talked about the day.

On Thursday we woke up early and walked on the beach, most of us went for a swim.

We travelled to Whale world and learnt that in the last years of whaling they used planes to spot whales.

Then we were off to see the Gap and the Natural Bridge. Unfortunately it wasn't windy enough to see king waves. we finished a great day shopping in Albany.

On Friday morning we got up at 6.30 to go for a swim to freshen up for the long journey home. Back at camp we packed our bags and put them next to the bus before going into the dining room for our breakfast which was delicious.

After breakfast we finished cleaning our rooms, swept the floor and put the mattresses upside down on the beds. After the teachers inspected our rooms we went to the bus. After a while of traveling the kids were either sleeping, playing cards or reading the magazines they had bought with their pocket money.

We stopped at Williams for lunch and a refreshing drink. We got to school at three and were met by our parents.

SCHOOL PHOTOGRAPHS

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