School reunions are usually about catching up with former schoolmates from your own year level.

But Gippsland Grammar’s recent Winter Reunion at South Melbourne’s Bell’s Hotel invited all former students from across every cohort at the Gippsland independent school, and the result was a gathering of more than 100 old scholars who attended the school from the late 1960s to last year.

Many said that while it was lovely to reconnect with familiar faces, it was the new connections formed between fellow old scholars whose only common ground was that they had attended the same school – often decades apart – that provided some of the richest conversations.

One of the most notable examples occurred only by chance, when old scholars Dr Sue Block (class of 1968) and Simon Tyler (class of 1998) introduced themselves and discovered that despite attending the school 30 years apart, they had a remarkable connection.

Simon mentioned he stuttered while at school but overcame the speech impediment not long after leaving school when he read a “lifechanging” book called ‘The Stutterer’s Survival Guide’. While that particular book was written by Nick Tunbridge, Sue revealed she had actually contributed a chapter in the second edition of the same book.

“It was really heartening to get such amazing feedback from someone who has managed and grown out of his stuttering,” Dr Block said when recalling the incident in the weeks following the reunion.

Like Simon, Sue also hails from Traralgon and was also a boarding student.

Simon agreed it was an amazing turn of events.

“I was actually a bit starstruck when I met Sue,” Simon said.

“I mean, that book completely changed the way I spoke and actually changed the course of my whole life.

“I really struggled with stuttering all the way through school and I was always scared to do debating or read out in class.

“The only thing I was able to embrace was drama because weirdly when I was on stage I didn’t stutter. But my mum gave me a little square book called ‘The Stutterer’s Survival Guide’ when I was about 19 and in a very small amount of time my speech improved immensely. So it was amazing to meet someone at a reunion who had obviously attended the school well before my time, but had impacted my life so much down the track,” he said.

“I still have the book and I never thought I’d meet that person, let alone discover that we had gone to the same school.”

What made their meeting even more of a chance encounter is that Simon revealed he was hesitant in attending the reunion in the first place.

“A friend convinced me to go along,” he said.

“And I was really just keen to have a chat to people who were in my year, but actually I really enjoyed chatting to the people beyond that.

“Obviously I had a great chat with Sue, who was older than me, but I also met some students who graduated in 2020 and I really enjoyed that too.”

Sue, who is an Adjunct Associate Professor in speech pathology at Latrobe University, agreed it was the mingling between cohorts that was unexpected, but also the most rewarding part of the event.

“I really loved school,” Sue said.

“So I always enjoy going to the reunions, but of course you really only want to go if you know someone else who is also going. But this reunion was such a nice, casual environment it really felt like you could just go up to anyone and have a chat, which is exactly what Simon did with us oldies. And what I really enjoyed was seeing how flexible the younger generation are in terms of their work; a number of them have had several careers already. I also enjoyed hearing from (acting principal) Michele Wakeham, who spoke to us all about what the school is like now,” she said.

Gippsland Grammar’s development co-ordinator and reunion organiser Sarah Guinness said “it was heart-warming to feel the joy and hear conversations between old classmates and the connections made and renewed between old scholars across the decades”.

“Some old scholars met the children of classmates from their own cohorts,” Mrs Guinness said. “And there were also younger old scholars making new professional connections with some of the older old scholars who happened to work in similar fields.”

Gippsland Grammar has a strong history of celebrating reunions, and each year the School organises 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50-year reunions.

During the pandemic the reunions were virtual, but this year they will return to an in-person event this Saturday (October 8) at the school’s Garnsey Campus in Sale.

This year the combined-decades reunion will celebrate the cohorts of 2012, 2002, 1992, 1982 and 1972.

Mrs Guinness said the success of the Winter Reunion proved that while year-level catch-ups are expected at reunions, the events don’t have to exclusively celebrate a single year level.

“We are really looking forward to this year’s first combined decades reunion,” Mrs Guinness said.

“We will include a sit-down lunch and memorabilia related to each year level.”

Any old scholars wanting to ensure they receive information about the upcoming decades reunion on Saturday can email Sarah Guinness via sarah.guinness@gippslandgs.vic.edu.au.