[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_custom_heading text="Half a century of excellence" font_container="tag:h2|font_size:40|text_align:left" google_fonts="font_family:Abril%20Fatface%3Aregular|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal"][vc_column_text]

October 2015 | David Claridge

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_separator color="black" align="align_center" style="dotted" border_width="2"][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]

IN SEPTEMBER, Prospect High School celebrated 50 years of moving forward.

Around 450 past and present students, teachers and staff attended the twoday anniversary event, reflecting on how Prospect made them who they are.

“We felt very special, having a brand new school,” Janette Scott nee Knox said of her being one of its first students in 1966. “I am proud to have gone through Prospect, we had some great teachers. I made some lasting friendships.”

She also recalled loving sitting on its heated floor in winter, doing cross country runs through its surrounding bush land, and going down to Launceston High for Home Economic classes.

About 10,000 students have attended the school in 50 years.

Its Library Technician, Sonya Lanham, has spent ten years researching its history in preparation for this 50th anniversary.

She discovered former students who have become well known in the community including Penny Gray, who represented the Australian hockey team in the 1984 Olympics; Adam Gibson, who plays for the Adelaide 36ers in the NBL; and Will Robinson, one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

Sonya found ex-Principals’ journals full of notes and newspaper clippings about goings on in the school.

She learnt that its original site was meant to be Mount Pleasant but in 1963 Prospect became the final site. Construction began in 1965 and took 12 months.

Reading those journals made Sonya realise it was the last high school built in Launceston.

Little wonder it adopted an eagle emblem and the Latin term ‘prospice’; it meant ‘moving forward’.