Kate Gibson
Class of 1995

Kate Gibson was born in Orange, New South Wales in 1977 and grew up in a farm near Cargo with her parents, Janice and Phillip Middleton, and her four siblings. She attended St Edward’s Catholic School in Canowindra and was sent to St Vincent’s College, Potts Point from Year 9, having heard all about it from her sister who graduated from the College in 1985:

I was actually really excited because I’d heard from my sister, she’d loved it. I thought it would be a really good opportunity. The class that I was in in Canowindra was very very small, like literally about 10 people. So I thought it would be great to go away and meet new friends and be in the city, I was really looking forward to it. I was a bit nervous obviously, but I was excited more than anything. I remember her telling me stories of how much fun they used to have and probably the mischief that they used to get up to, some of the boarders. And I loved it just as much as she did.

Life at St Vincent’s

Kate vividly recalls the trip to Sydney for her first day at the College. It was the first year that the new boarding accommodation opened and she remembers meeting some of the new boarders and day students, finding them ‘welcoming and friendly’. She also remembers particular areas of the school grounds well, including the swimming pool, grotto, refectory and ‘beautiful, old’ Bethania, where the boarders once had a sleepover. Musing on the school’s history, Kate was reminded of one interesting student pastime:

This brings back another memory of us in year 9, being stupid and doing seances and that kind of stuff. So down the bottom of the new boarding area, and it was before they, they actually ended up turning it into single rooms for the year 12s but there were, there was this section where you used to walk down and there were individual rooms but they weren’t being used, to get to a laundry. And apparently it’s where, this is what the story was, where the old nuns used to sleep (laughs). So of course people used to tell ghost stories about some nun that used to walk the corridors (laughs). If you went down there particularly if it was a bit later and you wanted to do some hand washing or something, you’d always go in two’s and you’d race back up the corridor, because it would be quite creepy and dark.

The boarders’ routine involved mass at the Chapel, classes, study, use of the school’s coin operated telephones and recreation, when students would race to the common room to watch the popular television shows, Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place. Morning tea, which often consisted of fairy bread, lunch and afternoon tea were collected from the refectory, and Kate remembers the dinners well:

It wasn’t great (laughs). We used to have a lot of roasts, and I remember the tray used to come out…So we went through the stage where they were trying to get the different age groups to mix. So they’d actually have set tables for the term. So there’d be some from year 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, they were trying to get the different year groups to talk and mix, which we did anyway but they wanted you to…So but I just remember the roasts in particular, so they’d come out on this tray or whatever, the meat, and you could just see the oil dripping off it and then these little hard potatoes, the food was not amazing when I was there. Every Friday night, fish and chips, without fail. And Friday nights you were able to have the little square packets of ice cream, that was every Friday night, you were allowed to have that. I think other nights there were different desserts so you’d give or take depending on what it was. But Friday nights were the ice cream nights so everyone used to love that.

The teachers were ‘really encouraging’ and ‘always there to help’. Kate remembers Mrs Harding, who taught her Legal Studies and Commerce and Mr Allport or ‘Mr A’ as he became known in her Modern History class. She has fond memories of the lessons where they would watch videos like the 1970 film, Tora! Tora! Tora!

Like every other generation before her, Kate recalls the many ways students would break the rules:

Kate: There was a bit of rule breaking. Funnily enough it wasn’t me because I was like the shy, nice, quiet one, but there was girls in our year most definitely (laughs).

Nicole Cama: So what sort of rule breaking went on?

Kate: Well I remember in year 11 and 12 there was some people that had that very very corner room…So I don’t know if you, you go through the ‘ref’ [refectory] and there's a laundry there, you go up those stairs, so when you’re up in that building there, when you walk along this corridor and then turn left, right up the end, you know how it comes to kind of a dead end or whatever, anyway there’s a corner room and that’s where any girl who used to smoke, used to go to that room, because you could get out through the window and onto the roof there, I think (laughs). So I was not a smoker because I’m a very very bad asthmatic, but that’s what some of the girls used to do. I remember in year 9 too, it wasn’t long after I started like the first week, and…because my roommate was a really popular boarder that had been there for years 7 and 8 and so her and a few of the others, and because I got dragged into it because I was her roommate (laughs), but it was fun. We had like a massive prank, we had like a powder fight. So we’d basically get powder and run into the room and just go like this all over the (laughs)….But we got, you can imagine, we got caught and got into so much trouble and we all had to sit in the corridor for about two hours. I think a few other girls I did hear stories of sneaking boys in, and not being caught. I don’t know how they didn’t.

The students found many other ways to spend their spare time and meet up with members of the opposite sex, like going shopping or to the movies in the city. The school dances were another amusing outlet for the students:

Kate: They were fun. They were really fun. I missed out on the year 9 dance, which is the dance that everybody was talking about, because I went overseas with my parents for a few…and I missed a few weeks of school. But everyone was talking about the year 9 dance all year, because I think in years 7 and 8 then they didn’t have dances so this was their very first dance and getting to mix with the boys. And of course when I got back I heard all the stories (laughs).

Nicole: What sort of stories?

Kate: About everybody hooking…like you know who hooked up in the first five minutes and all this kind of stuff (laughs). So yeah we did, and we use to go to dances with Riverview [Saint Ignatius' College], Joey’s [St Joseph’s College, Hunters Hill], we used to go to St Greg’s [St Gregory's College] at Campbelltown so that used to be a bit of a bus trip. And then we had some dances actually at the school, although I don’t remember as many that we hosted, I just remember attending.

Nicole: So, what were those dances actually like in terms of, it wasn’t sort of ballroom dancing or anything like that was it?

Kate: Oh no.

Nicole: They’d moved on from that hadn't they?

Kate: Oh no definitely not, it was just them playing whatever music from the day and everyone dancing and having fun. The Riverview dances I remember they had this dark room, they always used to have like a smoke machine and…I know, it was kind of dingy and then it’d get really hot obviously in this room and then they’d hand out like ice blocks.

Vinnie’s girls ‘look out for each other’

Kate graduated from St Vincent’s in 1995 and decided to study a Bachelor of Arts in Tourism Management. When asked to reflect generally on her time at St Vincent’s, she says:

Kate: I don’t think I’ve got any negative memories at all, I really don’t. You know there were times when you were homesick or whatever else, but, and I got sick I think it was year 11, so I’m a really bad asthmatic and ended up in hospital at St Vincent’s. Fondest memories…oh look just how much fun we used to have. And waiting for those phone calls, so year 11 and 12 when we were going to more of the dances and meeting some of the boys and everyone crowding around when someone rang, you know what I mean? Crowding around the phone (laughs).

Nicole: When a boy rang?

Kate: Yeah.

Nicole: That’s a bit embarrassing, isn’t it?

Kate: I know (laughs)

Nicole: Share it with the world.

Kate: But just the, how much fun we used to have, getting together in the common room and that kind of stuff.

Kate believes ‘Vinnie’s girls look out for each other’ and that the College’s inclusive atmosphere taught her to empathise with others and maintain a ‘down to earth’ approach to life beyond school. Her advice to students today is to ‘enjoy your time while you’re there’.