Coburg East Primary School (School No. 4260)

Full description

Coburg East Primary School (School No. 4260) (VA 5377) was a co-educational primary school established in 1926 on Nicholson Street in Coburg, in Melbourne’s North-West.

The establishment of a new school in the area was recommended by the District Inspector to ease overcrowding at nearby Moreland Primary School (School No. 2837), which was struggling with a net enrolment of 2,400 students. Coburg East Primary School’s building and caretakers’ cottage were completed by June 1926, and classes commenced in September of the same year. By October, the school had elected its first School Committee. 

During its years of operation, Coburg East Primary School supported several different activities. From 1926 to 1932, and again from 1960 to the schools closure in 1997, it functioned as a Rural Training School (also known as Coburg East Rural Practising School B) for trainee teachers. Increased attendance of children at the primary school closed the Rural Training School for a period, as the facilities were required for the children. 

Separate from its function as a Rural Training/Practicing School, Coburg East Primary School was also classed as a Training School in 1926 for both junior teachers and students of the Melbourne Teachers’ College. From 1959, it was run exclusively for students of the newly erected Coburg Teacher’s College (VA 5211) and its subsequent iterations of teacher education until 1997, when this function moved to the Bundoora West Campus of RMIT University (VA 1046). 

Coburg East Experimental School was also established on the site in 1941. This is subject to further research.

In 1948 a converted army hut was added to the primary school site and provided space for additional classrooms. Coburg East Primary School attendance steadily decreased from the 1950s, and by 1997 this decline in enrolments led to Coburg East Primary School and Coburg-Preston Secondary College (School No. 6244; formerly Preston Technical School) merging to become Moreland City P-12 College, retaining the school number 6244. 

The school’s original Mediterranean style red-brick building was sold and reopened as the Antonine Sisters Maronite Primary School in 1998 (as at 2024, the Junior Campus of the Catholic, co-educational Antonine College). The site is protected by a Merri-bek City Council (formerly Moreland City; VA 3709) heritage overlay.