Wendy Clarke, a student at Lae Primary A School (perhaps better known as Coronation Street) from 1955-62, has assembled a website including a brief history and nostalgic glimpses of the school as seen through the eyes of former pupils and, in one case, teacher Judy (Peters) Duggan. The site also contains a list of students from 1951-75 and many reminiscences and photos from the same era, Lae Primary commenced classes in 1951. It successor Coronation College continues to this day, although the original buildings were demolished in 1992 due to white ant damage.

Ross McDougall: “The school rugby league days will remain with me forever. Teams were determined by weight, as their age was unknown by many of our opposition. We had 5 and 6 stone teams and most matches we played at Bugandi High, losing somewhere in the vicinity of 30-nil...not good considering matches consisted of only 5 or 10 minute halves.”

Judy Duggan: “I was a teacher at the school for 6 months, from June to December in 1962. It was my first year of teaching and I was not quite 19 years old. I taught Grade 2 in the class-room second from the end of the right side of the U shaped buildings, and I remember that the school dentist was visiting for a period during July and individual children were being called out for checks and treatment.”

Photo: the original Lae Primary A school building circa 1955