Bonython Primary School recently celebrated its 30th Birthday with a Back to the 90s Birthday Party. The event was a result of collaboration between the P&C and the school and the help of many volunteers.

“The back to the 90s theme ran through the whole event which made it cohesive and fun. It was planned primarily as a celebration, but we still raised $4,500 from the afternoon” said Tash Ward, P&C President at Bonython.

The event started with the formal proceedings of a school assembly and speeches, before moving to open classrooms and then the party started at 3pm.

P&C President Tash Ward came up with the idea of the 90s theme. “We made a conscious decision to scale back from a full fete. Coincidentally my last school fete when I was at primary school was in 1992, the year that Bonython was opened. I had the idea that we could run a similar type of event and from there the 90s theme was born.”

The students were already inquiring into the school’s history and the P&C suggested that it would be great if the school could link in with the theme. Each year group inquired into a different aspect of life in the 90s and their work was displayed for parents as part of the open classrooms. Some classes looked at toys and games that children were playing in the 90s, others looked at snack foods from the 90s and the year 3 and 4 students worked in groups to choreograph dance routines to 90s songs, which was filmed and played for parents to watch. One of the year 4 students also undertook a personal inquiry into designing the cake for the celebration.

“Once the party started, we had DJ Cliff running a disco pumping out 90s tunes, 90s themed loot bags (containing retro candy, mood rings, troll dolls and stickers), badge making, face painting, a photo booth and the Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake cookbook cake competition, complete with a Duck Cake entry and the amazing train from the front cover!” said Tash.

“We had a few stalls that required a small cost outlay, such as the petting zoo and photo booth, and we were able to get sponsorship for these to cover the cost, so we weren’t starting in deficit. People could buy tokens ahead of time which could be used at all stalls and cash was also accepted on the day.”

The P&C organised for special birthday T-shirts to be printed which can continue to be worn to school on Fridays. “Students were encouraged to wear the birthday T-shirt or dress up in 90s themed clothing. Some students really got into the spirit of the theme, going all out with dress ups and hairstyles including crimping hair and wearing fluorescent socks and scrunchies!”

“After a couple of years of COVID-19 restrictions it was great to be able to have the whole school community together. We couldn’t have done it without the help of a whole host of volunteers manning the stalls. We tried to break it down into manageable timeslots so everyone could still get time to enjoy the party. The party went for 3 hours, and we asked people to volunteer for just one of those hours.”

“It was a really great celebration and showed what a wonderful community we have here at Bonython. We hope to run a similar type of event in the future.”

This article is part of a series "At Our P&C..." sharing great things that ACT P&Cs are doing.

Published September 2023