AGY-6606 | Grahams Valley Half-Time School (1880-1884) Grahams Valley Provisional School (1884-1895) Grahams Valley Public School [l] (1895-1910)

Full description

Grahams Valley Half-Time School in the County of Gough was established in November 1880, sharing a teacher with Glencoe Half-Time School. (1) Half-Time Schools were elementary schools for children in areas of scattered population. The attendance of at least twenty children was required, in two groups of ten or more who assembled at teaching stations and were taught by an itinerant teacher. (2)

In October 1884 it was upgraded to a Provisional School. (3) Provisional Schools were opened in areas of smaller populations where insufficient children attended to justify the opening of a full public school. By 1874 fifteen 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 April 1895 Grahams Valley was upgraded again and 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)

The school closed in August 1910. (7)

A later public school existed at Grahams Valley from 1912 to 1932. (8)

Endnotes
1. Government Schools of New South Wales 1848-2003. Sydney, NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003, p.70.
2. ibid, p.16.
3. ibid, p.70.
4. ibid, p.17.
5. ibid, p.70.
6. ibid, p.18.
7. ibid, p.70.
8. ibid., p.70. See Agency 6608.