Full description
Tenterden Half-Time School [I] in the County of Hardinge was established in December 1884, sharing a teacher with Wandsworth Half-Time School. (1) Half-Time Schools were elementary schools for children in areas of scattered population. The attendance of at least sixteen children was required, in two groups of ten or more who assembled at teaching stations and were taught by an itinerant teacher. (2)
The School was upgraded to a Provisional School in May 1887 for only two months. (3) Provisional Schools were opened in areas of smaller populations where insufficient children attended to justify the opening of a full public school. By 1887 twelve students were required to maintain a provisional school. Usually the Department of Public Instruction supplied the teacher, books and other teaching materials and the parents provided the premises for the School. (4)
In July 1887 Tenterden became a Public School. (5) Originally the attendance of 30 children was required for the establishment of a Public School, but this was reduced to 25 in 1867 and 20 in 1880. Until 1875 parents had to pay one-third of the cost of buildings but the Council of Education and then the Department have since met the total costs. (6)
In 1893 the School was reduced to Half-Time status. From 1893 to February 1915 it shared a teacher with a number of different Half-Time Schools; New Valley, Ollera, Briar Brook and finally Barn Gully. (7)
In February 1915 it was restored to Provisional Status until its closure in March 1931. (8)
A school subsequently operated at Tenterden from 1946 to 1975. (9)
Endnotes
1. NSW Department of Education and Training. Government Schools of New South Wales 1848-2003. Sydney, the Department, 2003, p.126.
2. ibid., p.16.
3. ibid., p.126.
4. ibid., p.17.
5. ibid., p.126.
6. ibid., p.18.
7. ibid., pp.27, 36, 104, 107, 126.
8. ibid., p.126.
9. ibid., p.126; Agency 6256.
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