There was a buzz around Guildford last weekend as word spread like wildfire that the old school in Franklin Street was getting a new lease of life.
That’s right, Guildford Primary School will reopen next year thanks to some concerted lobbying by a group of determined locals.
Bendigo West MP Maree Edwards visited the town last Monday to make the official announcement.
“The Guildford community has been vocal in their desire for the return of a primary school in their town and we have listened. By working together, we have been able to achieve a fantastic outcome for the children of the region,” Ms Edwards said.
The school will operate as a campus of the Campbells Creek Primary School, rekindling a previous arrangement between the two sites.
Ms Edwards said there is an opportunity for Guildford to become a stand-alone school in the future.
“The future of Guildford Primary School is in the hands of the Guildford community and it’s really important that parents get behind this.”
The Guildford campus is expected to cater for about 20 school-aged children next year, with enrolments forecast to grow in coming years.
Students will be located at the Campbells Creek Primary School site at the start of next year while upgrades are rolled out at the Guildford campus.
Works will include a new toilet block, upgrades to staff amenities, improved accessibility, and works to ensure the site is bushfire compliant.
Guildford Primary School is heritage listed, dating back to 1868, and locals well remember the sad day when the School Council made the decision to close it a year shy of its 150th birthday.
It was Christmas time 2017 and when the door was shut for the last time, it effectively boarded up a piece of the community’s heart.
In many ways, the local school is the heart of a community, especially in a small country town. It’s where parents meet for a chat, kids form lifelong friendships and the likes of the school fete, book club and dress-up days raise funds for the school and lift community spirit in the town.
Bob Forde was one of the locals who pitched in to get Guildford Primary School re-opened.
“It’s fantastic,” Bob said. “We’ve got a great little Post Office, the General Store, the family hotel, a very well kept cemetery and now we’ve got our school back.
According to the last census, Guildford’s population was 313 people in 2016 and Bob would like to see more folks move to the town.
“We need more people to come to the town to get things going.
“Hopefully with the school reopening it will attract young people and their kids to Guildford.
“They can buy or build a house here a lot cheaper than they can in Melbourne; we’ve got good internet connection here so they can work from home if they want to or there’s a very good train service to Melbourne.”
Another local resident Victor Rodda says when the school reopens it will ‘complete what we have’.
“We built the cricket ground in 1956, the hall was opened in 1958, now the school is going to reopen and we fought tooth and nail for that to happen,” Victor said.
Jim Franzi is thrilled with the news.
“It means a lot – I’m a third generation Italian in the town; my great great grandfather came out here when he was 18 years old,” Jim said.
Perhaps the school’s most famous pupil of Italian heritage is former champion footballer and coach, Ron Barassi.
Ron was unavailable when the TT called him earlier this week but a spokeswoman for the 84-year-old legend said, “He will be rapt to hear his old school is reopening.”