Jenny Meddings

Jenny says her first impression of Ardoch was that it was ‘incredibly beautiful’ and she was ‘very lucky to attend this school’.

“When I attended, we only had 2 year levels, 7 and 8. I attended from year 7 to year 11, so I grew up with the school. I loved calling our teachers by their first names. We had animals on the school grounds, which we looked after. I loved the whole place – loved attending. We had our own home rooms and we were able to design the room with our own belongings.

“Like all kids, I did experience some bullying, which really didn’t impact me in my future life. I think it made me a bit more resilient. I still have my lifelong best friend from this school, which is a blessing after 44 years of friendship.”

“I particularly remember one of our school camps to Ace High horse-riding. I loved it! It was very expensive for the times, however, I was very lucky to go.”

Jenny remembers some well-known people who went to Ardoch: “Val Lehman (Bea Smith in the Prisoner TV series) and Ernie Bourne (prison chief Mervin Pringle in Prisoner) – their children went to Ardoch.”