A competition was held early on to devise the badge and motto. On the badge the three red triangles symbolise the mountains rising near the school (presumably Mts Majura and Ainslie and the bump in between? – or Black Mountain perhaps), forming a “W” shape. They also represent the goals of scholarship, sportsmanship and service to the community. (You may recall that at Speech Night each year a trophy for the best performance in each of these areas was presented to the highest achieving house, and then the house with the highest aggregate was presented with the Errol Sweaney Shield for that year.) The apex of the triangle for the badge as a whole represented citizenship in the broadest sense.

The school motto “Metas sequemur” roughly means “we strive to achieve our goals.” In later years the Latin words were left off the badge but the English words were retained.

The school colours were navy, aqua, red and white. The uniform included a lot of grey which was standard for government high schools at that time (Catholic schools wore maroon).

In winter girls in 1st to 4th form wore a grey box-pleated tunic, white shirt, blue tie, grey V-necked jumper with stripes in the school colours, thick grey (often baggy!) tights and black shoes. There was a three-pointed hat which had to be worn on school excursions (and school photos), but not everyone owned one. A frenzy of borrowing would take place before any excursion and the annual Ku-ring-gai visit. The blazer for boys and girls was navy blue with the school badge on the pocket. Boys wore grey trousers, white shirt, blue tie, grey V-necked jumper with stripes in the school colours, grey(?) socks and black shoes. (see photo below – thank you to our models.)

There was no question of girls wearing long pants – it was at that time quite unacceptable for women to wear pants to work or socially, and no ACT schools allowed girls (or female teachers) to wear pants in winter. Thankfully in the seventies these bans were lifted.

The girls’ summer uniform was an aqua and white striped frock with a rather full skirt. You either loved it or hated it. See photo below. In later years it was amended to a more standard shift design but with the same striped material. Girls wore white socks with their black shoes in summer and there was a major fuss at one stage (3rd form?) about how far up the calf the socks were allowed to stretch – ankle or mid-calf. This led to interminable discussions and numerous acts of rebellion when it was dictated that ankle height was the official height. In the end common sense prevailed and mid-calf length socks were allowed (a victory for democracy!) There was also a white boater hat for girls in summer, though it was not often sighted.

Of course as the sixties unfolded and the mini skirt made its appearance on the fashion scene, the girls’ box-pleated grey tunics and summer uniforms were hitched up higher and higher at the waist, while still officially meeting the length requirements of “four inches above the knee when kneeling”. There were quite frequent line-ups where a ruler was produced and the girls’ uniform length tested (the uniforms were of course lowered for the occasion and hitched up again shortly afterwards. This was an ongoing battle till the end of sixth form.) Sports tunics were allowed to be eight inches above the knee when kneeling, but seldom were.

Boys were allowed to wear grey shorts in summer. The sports uniform started off as blue shorts with a red and white stripe down the side for both girls and boys, girls wearing an aqua shirt and boys an aqua T-shirt. However by 3rd form the girls’ sport uniform had been changed to a more forgiving aqua tunic with bloomers and a white shirt. Often we wore track pants over our bloomers, as it got bitterly cold at Southwell Park in the middle of winter!

In 5th and 6th form, “seniors” were distinguished by a slight change of uniform (the girls, at least), wearing a grey box-pleated skirt instead of a tunic (wow!) and for a while at least, navy blue shoes, till it all got too hard and black shoes became the norm again. They were also allowed to dispense with the tie and instead had a ribbon bow at the neck. And, joy of joys! the grey stockings were replaced by flesh-coloured stockings. This outfit was often worn with “witches’ britches” – remember those?- to hide the tops of the stockings under the short hitched-up skirts.

The girls’ senior summer senior uniform was a short-sleeved aqua shift dress. The uniform committee spent so much time agonising over it, and had not made a decision by the start of 1968, so in the end Salli found a pattern, sewed herself a tunic and we all decided we liked it. This became accepted as the standard pattern, and girls wore it in various shades of aqua until the uniform committee finally regained control of the situation and decided on a standard fabric.

By the later seventies many public schools, including Watson High School, were no longer able to enforce such strict uniform codes. Many schools chose instead to have a “colour code” with a school sweatshirt instead of the jumper and blazer, and a choice of colours for pants or skirts. Since 1976 senior Year 11 and 12 college students in the ACT have not had a prescribed uniform – imagine the headache of having to decide each day what to wear!!