School excursions are undoubtedly a prime time for students to get into trouble.
Normally it's the students stirring up the trouble. But in a case at Glenrock Lagoon back in the day, the teachers were the culprits.
While teaching geography at Gateshead and Kotara high schools, Tony Davis was among teachers who took students on excursions to Glenrock to show them a coastal lagoon.
"Our professional organisation, the Hunter Valley Social Science Teachers' Association, produced several pamphlets for teachers who planned to use this area.
"With the help of people like Brian Gilligan [who died last year], as well as teacher and author Ed Tonks, the area was well resourced and documented."
Tony recounted taking a group of year 11 geography students from Gateshead High in a chartered coach to the Leggy Point area.
"One of our really good students had a previous appointment and was going to have difficulty catching the coach, but was very keen to go," he said.
"We made an arrangement with the student, Robert, that one of us would meet him at our staff room and - as one of the teachers was driving his car down - he would bring him, even if he were late."
Somehow, though, Robert was forgotten.
In a Home Alone moment at the lagoon, staff looked at each other and realised what had happened.
Tony drove back to school to search for Robert, who he dubbed "our lost student".
"While driving down Bulls Garden Road, I saw Robert running up the hill. He was quite a good athlete."
Tony apologised to Robert about being forgotten.
"Don't worry. I figured I had been forgotten. I worked out I could run it," he said.
Robert looked like he would have had no trouble running the rest of the way, but he jumped in the car.
"When we arrived at the lagoon, his mates gave him a great reception," Tony said.
"The memory of this stayed with him. When I met him many years later, he reminded me of the incident with a great laugh."
Running out of Time
On another excursion to Glenrock, a bus at Merewether Baths was due to pick up students and staff after a walk in the area.
As the Gateshead High students were boarding the bus, Tony noticed someone he knew named Alice Ferguson talking to one of the students.
"Alice was the person who taught me to swim, tap dance and do ballroom dancing," he said.
"She ran Alice's Dance at Merewether for many years and taught many of us many things to do with our socialisation.
"I stopped and we began a great yarn. The teacher with me, Bob, said he would supervise the loading of the bus while I finished my chat."
Soon after, a student appeared saying: "Our teacher said we are ready to go and it may be a good idea to come now, or you may have to run back to Gateshead High".
School Excursion Stabbing
We recall going on a primary school excursion to the snow. It was a mission of a trip from the Central Coast to Jindabyne.
We vaguely remember doing some tobogganing at one of the ski fields, probably Perisher. Anyhow, there was an incident on one of the buses on the way home. A female student actually stabbed a male student with a pen knife because he was teasing her.
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