b'4ForewordT he story of Coogee Prep, in the fifty years from 1914 to1964,isthestoryofBillNimmo.Indeed,thestoryofCoogee Prep in the following thiry years may also well bethe story of Bill Nimmo, for his spirit still pervades the philosophyoftheschool,hismethodsareperpetuatedbythecurrentPrincipal, who himself was taught by Mr. Nimmo, and his two por-traits still look down upon the room where he performed most ofhis educational miracles.One of his miracles was that, for the majority of those fiftyyears, Mr. Nimmo taught three classes in the one roomat levels5, 6 and First Year High Schoolwith numbers being close totwenty in each of the three classes.He was tough but fair and, with fifty or so boys aged betweenten and thirteen years, he had to teach in a highly structured man-ner. The cane was the main form of punishment and was adminis-tered in The Passage, on the hand, in doses from one cut up tosix cuts. There was no malice, no thought of cruelty, but simply aclinical dispensing of justice when well known rules or regulationswere breached.The use of the cane even extended into academic fields whereone cut of the cane was the punishment for each spelling mistakein the regular spelling texts. Most of us were good spellers!I was privileged to have had a long and close association withOld Bill as he was affectionately called by the current and ex-pupils though never to his face of course. My uncle and father attendedthe school in the 1920s. I attended the school in the 1940s and 50s7'