Compiled by Peter Finnemore. Written by Alan Stapleton
Grey High School will open a new chapter in the annals of the school’s 169-year history when the Music and Arts Centre is opened. A chapter, which will embody and personify the school’s motto of Tria Juncta in Uno – Three Joined in One…Body, Mind and Spirit.
But, and sadly, one door opening, leads to another door closing. The Music Centre is being built in the area where 1000s of boys have sweated and toiled, honing and training their bodies, in what was one of the favourite lessons of the week. PT…Phys Ed
The Murray Gymnasium together with the new cloak rooms, four music practice rooms, music auditorium and a hobbies room, were commissioned by The Rector, Mr Stan Edkins and The School Committee in 1969. The Gymnasium was opened by Mrs Murray, wife of Mr DG Murray, on Founders’ Day in 1970.
The large, well-equipped gymnasium provided a number of activities that included basketball, badminton, volleyball and, especially, a thriving gymnastics club. For many, it was the best classroom in the school! During normal school hours, it was used for physical education lessons. Every learner from Grade 8 (Standard 6) to Grade 11 (Standard 9) participated in these lessons twice a week during the winter months. The Phys Ed teachers were the envy of the school, track-suited and cool while their colleagues billowed in their academic gowns, and fit and strong, many schoolboys dreamed of living their life. Nevertheless, the Murray Gymnasium fell under the vigilance of some very well-known teachers, whose sense of pride, discipline, and privilege to be part of The Grey provided many a pupil with another opening, an opportunity to grow in the confidence and the freedom of movement. During the summer months, one of those lessons took place at the swimming pool. Who will ever forget that shrieking voice of Tom Connell, urging his pupils to further records?
But the Gym was not only used for PT classes. It also became the home of the Gymnastics Club. A club which thrived, and soon established the school as a centre of gymnastic excellence, winning the Freestanding Trophy at the National Championships in 1972, 1973 and 1974. The Club also gave gymnastics demonstrations across the country, and of note, one at the Royal Bathurst Show.
Former pupil, Chris Lange, sums up what the Murray Gymnasium meant to many past pupils, ” It was more than just a training facility. It was the foundation of my development as an athlete, leader and person…. a place where discipline, resilience and character were forged. The lessons I learnt in those years were balancing individual responsibility with teamwork, pushing through challenges and striving for my personal best. These lessons have stayed with me throughout my life.” And Brian Adams remembers, “It was striking that the gym club was run very much by some senior members who helped develop the younger ones. Compared to other sports, this inter-age-group camaraderie made the gymnasium a great place to be and learn. The gymnasium provided lessons for life, beyond the classroom.”
Sadly, the new syllabus introduced after 1994 saw the demise of physical education lessons in schools and the gymnasium, lost its identity to become a multi-purpose exam writing hall, basketball court and weights room.
And so a new dawn breaks, where this R30 million Music and Arts Centre will stand physical testimony to the tradition of Music and Art at Grey. And it will offer opportunity to a whole new generation to realise new potential, an opportunity to allow the creativity of arts and music to provide that same discipline, resilience and character, those same values and principles, that have been forged in the Murray Gymnasium for over twenty years.
How wonderful it will be when we see a Grey musician, with the masterful beauty of a Graeme Pollock, or the powerful drive of a Siya Kolisi, rising from The Grey Music and Arts Centre?