The Roar - Issue 26 Term 3 2026

From the All Saints’ College and Marsden School Archives – Family Schools

These two schools were both governed by the Bathurst Church of England Diocese, so many country families enrolled their boys at Saints’ and girls at Marsden. Over the years, there were many occasions when both schools would attend events at the same time or visits for family members would take place.

In the 1950s, 60s and early 70s, there were dances between the schools held twice a year when the boys would go over to Marsden on Saturday evening or girls over to Saints’. Both groups would have had practices back at their respective schools, so there would be some who had to reprogram their brains to remember who would lead, etc. The dances practised were ballroom classics such as the Barn Dance, Pride of Erin and other progressive dances, so there was little chance of couples dancing together too often. Also, the school staff would be sitting up on the stage noting couples who had more than two dances with the same partner! Must have been so boring for staff! Every girl had to have a white dress for these occasions, and style was modest with a petticoat to match. (Shoes could not be patent leather in case of reflections!) At the end of the dance at Marsden, the buses were lined up, and girls were told to return to their dormitories and not be seen near the buses, with the teachers making sure all boys were accounted for. The following week after the dances, secret letters would arrive at either school via day students, or other secretive means to confirm or break off relationships. When Marsden introduced the Debutante Ball in the late 1960s for the senior girls, their partners were senior boys from All Saints’. Inviting a partner was sometimes tricky because the one most sought after had to decide who he would choose to go with without causing problems between friends.

Other occasions were the ABC Celebrity Concerts held in the Masonic Hall (now Keystone) where both schools would attend-Saints’ boys sitting at one side and girls on the other, and there would be a lottery as to who would sit next to the person of the opposite sex in the middle. Other events attended by both schools were plays presented by the Young Elizabethan Players and Theatre companies held in different venues in Bathurst.

Attendance at the All Saints’ Cathedral evensong services was a time when both schools would be there but were strictly separated into different sections of the old Cathedral before the renovations, but occasionally notes were placed together with the one shilling on the offertory plates carried by the senior students; it is not known if the notes ever reached the intended recipients.

Once a term there were visits by brothers of Marsden girls on a Sunday afternoon- not known for any entertainment apart from the fact that these were supervised by the Saints’ and Marsden prefects who had more interest in each other than the younger ones! Occasionally sisters could go over to Saints’ to watch their brothers play rugby or for the athletics carnivals but always had to wear their school uniform.

As both schools had small numbers, particularly in the senior years, there were times when they shared teachers and combined classes, particularly in science and mathematics. In the late 1950s and early 60s, senior Marsden girls would travel over to Saints’ for classes in science or mathematics or a Saints’ teacher would go over to Marsden to teach Mathematics lower classes. There was little opportunity for any socialisation in class, and there was certainly some resentment felt by the boys if the girls outperformed them in class!

With the introduction of the Wyndham Scheme, co-education was seen as necessary as both schools had to introduce more subjects and fully qualified teachers if they were to survive. As student numbers were still small and subject teachers were scarce, there were several combined classes with teachers from both schools travelling back and forth across the river. From 9:00 am to 3:30 pm each school day, the boys and girls were taught in mixed classes by the staff of both schools. First and second year classes at Marsden and Primary, Third, Fourth and Fifth classes at Saints’. By the end of 1963 this was found to be uneconomical, and the decision was made to return to the previous separate system except for some specialist subjects.

In school drama productions gave the opportunity for the two schools to perform together on stage, but rehearsals were limited by transport problems. During Evans’ era, all the Shakespeare plays were boys only, but later girls were invited to take part in combined drama productions such as The Boy with the Cart, Vision 70, Salad Days, The Stony Desert, and many others. Several productions were written and produced by various All Saints’ staff such as Messrs. Evans, Clarke, Weisfelt, Partis, Hewitt, Baines, Gebhardt, Crook and others. Theatre had continued to be very important in the extracurricular life of both schools, and productions involved many members of the schools’ families together with the students. Staff, parents, alumni and community members were often seen acting, directing, set designing, stage managing, costume designing or being involved in some way in major drama productions.

From Marsden’s beginning in 1925, All Saints’ and Marsden became family schools for the next 50 years as brothers and sisters from the same country families enrolled at each school with family discounts. Changes in the Australian economy, educational philosophy, attitudes to co-education and competition between private schools led to inevitable integration of these two schools and by 1977 the two became one family school.

Mrs Memory Sanders
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