BOLWARRA Primary School is taking a deep dive into its long history and discovering some interesting items from the past to help celebrate its 150th birthday later this year.

A planning committee consisting of past principals, staff and community members has been formed, and they have decided on Friday October 25 and Saturday October 26 to host the school’s 150th birthday festivities.

Their first order of business is to collect memorabilia for display. This includes asking the community to share memorabilia with the school.

Acting principal Julie-Ann Kelly said some interesting items from the past had already emerged, including a 1940s maths book, enrolment book, and inspector’s report.

“We're going through memorabilia, we've just pulled some out, and we're certainly putting a call out for that,” she said.

“That's one thing we're looking for is anyone who's got any memorabilia they'd like to share with us, it'd be great if they could contact us.”

Ideas so far are to have an open day on the Friday with a display of photos, old uniforms, and other items from the past for people to see and reflect upon.

Then on the Saturday the committee is planning stalls, a raffle and other fun activities.

“But one of the ideas we've been talking about is whilst the celebrations will occur in October, we want to kick off the festivities now, so we're planning on doing some events on a monthly basis leading up until the celebrations, just to keep it active,” Ms Kelly said.

After the planning committee had its first meeting, Ms Kelly said she learnt facts about the school she hadn’t known before.

“I'm only new this year. I've come in as someone who knows very little about this area, and it was an entertaining meeting to say the least because everyone was telling stories,” she said.

“We just put a call out and said, if anyone would like to be a part of the committee, they're more than welcome to, and we ended up with quite a few people.

“I did learn last Wednesday night that (the school was) moved three times.

“Also, this (school) building we're in now wasn't actually meant to be here. It was meant to be further back on the grounds, but Sue, who was a former teacher here, said it got stuck and so they just left it.

“There was another lady who was a teacher here for a long time and a former school chaplain, and other members who had families go through the school.”