The Remarkable Life and Archives of Joan Forster
For many Old Collegians, particularly those who were fortunate enough to attend the MLC Junior School in the 1940s-1970s, the name Joan Forster will induce waves of fond memories.
Joan, herself an MLC student, attended from 1930-1934. These were happy times for Joan and she held several student leadership positions – an Associate Prefect, House Sports Captain and Running Team Captain. After leaving MLC as a student, Joan completed several educational training programs and in 1943 was recruited as a staff member by Principal Rev Dr Harold Wood. This was the start of a 34-year career at MLC.
Joan was known for her innovative, child-centred approach to teaching and developed close relationships to both students and parents. She instilled a great and lasting love of art and nature in her students by ensuring they were taken on numerous excursions to the country, to farms, art galleries, museums and gardens. These excursions were so frequent that Dr Wood once commented that children could “join the Junior School and see Victoria.”
In addition to her legacy as a teacher, Miss Forster made a significant contribution to MLC’s history by photographing all junior school classes and students. She was a highly-skilled photographer and personally prepared a photo album for each student in the Junior School, printing thousands of photos and adding them to everyone’s albums year on year. Her images perfectly capture the joy, playfulness and enthusiasm of her young students.
In February this year, the MLC Archives was contacted by relatives of Joan about a donation of her MLC memorabilia. This treasure trove includes thousands of photos, organised with in a meticulous system that ensured every year, every student was listed and captured in multiple photographs. The donation also includes Joan’s personal records – her speech notes for talks to parents, speech notes for presentations on teaching methods, correspondence with Dr Wood, correspondence with parents as well as a wealth of historical records she had collected about the history of MLC.
These historical records also include a rare gem – MLCs first school “badge”. The original badge was a blue ribbon depicting MLCs first symbol in silver thread, a dove carrying an olive branch. This icon and badge was only worn by our very first students on Speech Night (now Celebration Evening) from 1882-mid-1890s, when it was replaced by the Star badge (c.1897).