Society & Culture Rivalries between schools

[Papa G]

+1 for that. As a shy, left wing, gay student who didn't particularly buy into the collegiate ethos, I hated my (expensive Adelaide private school) years. My 20th reunion was a year or so ago, it was the first and last event related to my schooling that I will ever attend. I was astounded by the way people still felt that their school years somehow defined them, high school, for mine, was a brief unpleasant diversion in my hopefully long life.

Jeebus Gough, your reunion wasn't held at the Old Lion by any chance?

 

[Gough]

No mate, but it was an equally dreary Adelaide pub.

 

[Miqar_Baqfhied]

My school experience at a public school was great. However we certainly didnt have an institionalised connection with the school itself and its values. The school was a dump. I think this was positive. Our social interactions with each other formed who we are, as the school didnt attempt to push on any values and culture because it didnt have the resources to do it. To be succesful at my school you had to work. Nothing was given. This ethos I'll carry with me till I die.

I finished school in 2000, but my circle of very best mates (about 14 of us) all went to the same high school and some of them Ive klnown since pre-primary school. Its a fantastic bond we share, and although many of us live in different places across the world we are all best mates. And we are all succesful. A few of my mates are even quite well known in their chosen fields, including medicine, science, art, music and sport.

As for the reunion, none of us went cos the people we would want to see at a reunion we already do.

Looking back I would of never traded my public school experience.

 

[xXJawsaXx]

OP how did you arrive at barracking for west coast?

They won the premiership the year I was born. It made sense back then and it stuck haha.

 

[Tex_21]

A lot of private schools also put great emphasis on school rivalries. At our school, all students were required to attend the 1st and 2nd XV rugby matches on Saturday. Naturally, the student population gets quite invested in the success of the team.

****ing what??!!! On a Saturday? I'd have been telling them exactly where to jam that idea.

Our school was just a place to roll up to during the day (most of the time, not always true in later years when we could go shooting etc). There was a few future AFL players that came through, only ever played footy with the school team (in the 2 games a year that it might have played, if it was lucky enough to win the first one) very reluctantly, when most blokes only played for a day off school.

Will say one thing for the school though, it had a great trade wing - better than anywhere within a 100km radius.

 

[Caesar]

****ing what??!!! On a Saturday? I'd have been telling them exactly where to jam that idea.

We were boarders, we didn't have much choice. Also had to attend mass on Sunday evenings.

A lot of private schools have compulsory sport on Saturday mornings, at least in NSW. It means that you end up not playing for a club side, which makes your allegiance to your school even higher.

 

[Miqar_Baqfhied]

We were boarders, we didn't have much choice. Also had to attend mass on Sunday evenings.

A lot of private schools have compulsory sport on Saturday mornings, at least in NSW. It means that you end up not playing for a club side, which makes your allegiance to your school even higher.

So ghey.

 

[Tex_21]

So ghey.

This x 1000

 

[DrVanNostrand]

The biggest mass brawl I've ever witnessed was when our school (shitty state high school) played our first ever game of Aussie rules against another school. We played against a very new state school was that about 20 mins away and was even more povo than ours. The game was on the oval at our school, and being two schools populated by disgusting angry bogans, it didn't take long for two kids to have a go at each other. Within 5 seconds, the lunchtime crowd that had build op on the terraces next to the oval had invaded the field and proceeded to beat the shit out of the other school's players Lasted a good few minutes and it was a long time before we hosted another footy game.

That was when I was in grade 10 I think, 6 years ago, and that hatred among the bogan populations of both schools has only grown. The two schools don't play each other any more, after a similar incident the second time we played. It's since escalated to crazy levels of vandalism on weekends against each school with idiots on the internet claiming responsibility. In my last year there was also a few times a car load of bogans from the other school would rock up during lunch time and seek out their specific targets.

 

[Kyptastic]

I used to go to Bacchus Marsh Grammar and our rivals used to be the Melton campus of Mowbray College.

Guess we won that.

 

[xXJawsaXx]

I used to go to Bacchus Marsh Grammar and our rivals used to be the Melton campus of Mowbray College.

Guess we won that.

Funny you should say that, because I go to Bacchus Marsh College, most would assume that we wouldn't like the grammar, but that is not the case at all. Haha I am also pretty sure every school in Melton/Bacchus Marsh has a thing against Mowbray College .

 

[Caesar]

So ghey.

I came to boarding from the Catholic systemic school system, via a small regional private school. It's definitely a very different world. The school is your home, and your schoolmates are your family during the key formative years of your life.

There's good and bad bits. On the whole I quite liked it, but there were a lot of fellows who hated it.

Ten years after we left, most of the guys who spent their entire high school years there are still very invested - they attend rugby matches, are involved in alumni activities, play for Old Boys sports teams, etc. They still have strong feelings about our rivals and one of the first questions they ask people is where they went to school. If you say Cranbrook, they will still jokingly ask you if you take it up the arse.

Top private schools are almost like cadet schools; they're designed to turn out a particular type of person and if you don't fit that type it can be pretty unpleasant. Despite the fact I enjoyed my time there I am not sure that I would send my own children to one.

 

[Kyptastic]

Funny you should say that, because I go to Bacchus Marsh College, most would assume that we wouldn't like the grammar, but that is not the case at all. Haha I am also pretty sure every school in Melton/Bacchus Marsh has a thing against Mowbray College .

Maybe it was because I bussed in from out of town, but I never noticed any real rivalry between the Grammar or the College. The only time anything ever happened was on our year 12 muck up night, but even that was pretty tame.

 

[bunsen burner]

This x 1000

This x 1000 then times by 1500 = 1.5 trillion.

 

[mojito]

Saint Michaels and Henley High. Some good ol' fashioned Public/private school handbags is always certain.

Saint Michaels and Sacred Heart...but that's mainly a sporting rivalry borne out of First XVIII School Footy

 

[half_back_flank]

People who hold onto school rivalries after graduating have little to look forward to in their lives.

*cough* Rohan *cough*

 

[dales.girl38]

I used to go to Bacchus Marsh Grammar and our rivals used to be the Melton campus of Mowbray College.

Guess we won that.

This, feel bad for them now though. I always hated Aitken more than Mowbray, personally.

I think our main rival would have been with the College, but since we never competed against them in sport or anything, it wasn't too bad. Half the guys from there dated the girls in my year level..one in particular went through at least 5 or so.

 

[Copernicus]

Did any ex-Glenferners go to St Joseph's after the shutdown?

I loved the basketball courts at St Joey's, very user-friendly rings.

Not that I am aware of - it merged with Ferntree Gully Secondary on Dorset Rd, so most of them probably went there. St Joey's was a small school so we would have noticed newcomers and where they came from. Did you go to St Joey's, or just played in whatever comp used the courts?