School Union

The School Union was formed in 1913 to coordinate all extra-curricular activities which had previously been run independently. Membership was 10 shillings ($1) per year and entitled pupils to participate in any sport or activity within the school.

The need for better organisation, especially in the field of sport, arose following the introduction of a sports afternoon on Wednesdays. It was noted that many of the school’s clubs had been severely hampered by lack of funds and others were in need of members.

Affiliated activities in the first year included the Camera Club, Cricket Club, Swimming Club, Glee Club, Tennis Club, Rifle Club, Library, Baseball Club, Tuck Shop, and Literary and Debating Society.

The positions of president, vice-presidents, treasurers and secretary were all filled by teachers, while students could be the assistant secretary and could be members of the Union’s committee (on which the boys were outnumbered 11 to 9).

The committee’s roles were:

• general control over all school sports and activities (although each club would have its own committee of management to look after its own interests)
• receiving and providing feedback on monthly progress reports from the various activities
• allocating available funds.

By the 1970s, the constitution of the committee (involving representatives of all affiliated activities, as well as year representatives) had made it a suitable forum for discussing a wide range of matters affecting students. This started to become the primary role of the Union as sporting organisation moved to other areas of school governance. 

The constitution was re-drafted in 1979 with a new article referring to the purposes of the Union Committee which included: “To provide a general forum for school opinion and to participate in the making of decisions regarding school management.” These became the Committee’s key functions.

In 1994, the “almost defunct” School Union was reconstituted, under the guidance of teacher, Mr Michael Selway, to carry on its affairs in a manner similar to the student representative councils of other schools.