BRENDA MAZZUCCHELLI
Recollections from Mrs Brenda Mazzucchelli
First female Fellow of Council and long-term School supporter
On the evening of Wednesday 27 May, Mrs Brenda Mazzucchelli was the guest speaker at the Friends of Senior School (FOSS)
Twilight Mothers’ Dinner. Brenda’s recollections of her time as a parent at the School, and the first female Fellow of Council,
make an entertaining and fascinating read.
night before and arriving at the crack of
dawn the next day. At one of the lunches
following the film A Passage to India, we
served curry and I remember we had slow
cookers and hot pots plugged in on every
power point. This is probably an appropriate
time to mention that the most important
person to know on the staff was Ric Palmer.
If you blew a fuse or equivalent disaster, you
would contact Ric and all would be well!
Considering my long association with
Guildford Grammar School, would you
believe our sons were booked in as boarders
at Hale School? Fortunately fate was on our
side when we moved from Kalgoorlie to
Perth late in 1975. We had always wanted
to live in the hills so we bought a house
in Kalamunda, intending to move when it
was time for the boys to start secondary
school. When the time came, we didn’t
want to move and even though Richard had
attended Hale we looked into sending the
boys to Guildford.
So in 1978, our eldest son started in Year
8. David Lawe Davies was the Headmaster
and the David Lawe Davies Centre had just
been built. It only took a few weeks before
we appreciated the traditions of this all boys’
school. These traditions were based on the
Christian values and principles on which the
School was founded.
I could tell you of the highs and lows
and the changes to infrastructure of the
School over the past 37 years, but I think
you would be more interested to hear
of my times as a parent in the good old
days, or the dark ages, depending on how
you look at it. And it was the dark ages
technologically. No computers, no mobile
phones. Communication was a challenge.
However, incredible changes have occurred
since then and Guildford has progressed
to be the modern centre of education it is
today. We now have a grandson boarding in
Year 7 and I am amazed by the opportunities
available for contact between staff, parents
and students.
Back in 1978 there was no summer uniform
and the boys wore long grey melange pants
all year, with the short sleeved blue shirt
and plain navy tie. When the temperature
was excessive, the Captain of School could
choose to take off his tie and only then could
staff and other students remove their ties.
Number one uniform was the grey suit with
long sleeved white shirt and of course there
was the same blazer and jumper as today.
The exception to this was that the boys in
Year 8 had to wear short grey pants until
they reached a certain height. The summer
navy shorts and House ties came in during
John Moody’s time and I believe the suit
jacket went out when Kim Walton arrived.
14
Brenda and Michel Feutrill (Past School
Captain) AHISA Headmaster’s Conference at
Guildford Grammar School, 1991.
The parent groups at the time were the P
& F, Ladies’ Auxiliary and FOPS. Back then
there were no support groups for individual
activities such as rowing and music. I was
involved in the P & F, but the Ladies’ Auxiliary
was where I was most involved. Women play
an important role in a boys’ school. Mothers
in particular need to feel comfortable.
The Ladies Auxiliary provided the support
network required by mothers, bringing
them together in an informal gathering
and in which there was the opportunity to
make friends and develop the family link for
which Guildford Grammar School is so well
known. And what a comfort it was for the
mothers of boarders when House Mothers
were introduced into the Boarding Houses.
Mothers of new students were personally
invited by phone to attend a welcome
morning tea held in the Headmaster’s garden
and they were encouraged to attend the
monthly meetings, which were addressed by
the Headmaster and members of staff.
The Auxiliary organised a number of fund
raising social events. Each year we held a film
morning in the DLD. One year it would be
followed by lunch and the next it would be
preceded by a superb continental breakfast.
The breakfast involved setting up card tables
in both the upper and lower galleries the
Melbourne Cup lunches were organised on
alternate years with Perth College. To cater
for the numbers and to set up the sweep,
these were held in the old gym. There was
a lot of fun as we decorated with bales of
hay and two or three of the ladies dressed in
jockey colours. Everything we organised we
catered for ourselves. The problem with the
gym was that there was no kitchen, so we
had to heat water in urns, wash up in basins
and buckets and transport all the crockery
and cutlery back to the DLD kitchen.
I cannot stress enough what wonderful ladies
were involved. Janet Moody would kick off
her shoes with the rest of us. It may have
been hard work and we were dead tired
by the end, but the friendships that grew
between us as we were working together for
th H