NRS-16948 | Visitors' Books [Markwell Public School]

Full description

The Public Instruction Act, 1866 authorised special religious instruction by visiting clergymen and their delegates (Public Schools Act, 1866, s. 19), and regulations under the Act authorised members of the public to visit schools during ‘the hours of secular instruction’ to observe teaching methods, teaching material and equipment (Regulations adopted by the Council of Education on 27 February 1867, s. 84-85). The regulations required every teacher to keep a visitors’ book ‘in which visitors may enter their names and if they think proper any remarks. Such remarks the Teachers are by no means to erase or alter.’ (Regulations … s. 86).

The purpose of the visitors’ book was to create a record of the persons other than pupils or teachers who attended the school during business hours. Visitors’ books were divided into three columns – date, name and remarks. The remarks usually recorded the purpose of the visit which included religious instruction (by far the most usual purpose for visiting a school), school inspection, medical inspection, departmental officers visiting on business e.g. to inspect the buildings or equipment, and guest speakers. Occasionally visitors (particularly Inspectors) remarked briefly on the conduct or the ambience of the school.

The series from Markwell Public School is currently represented by a single volume, the last in the series, which covers the period from September, 1936 until the closure of the school in 1962. The overwhelming majority of entries in this volume are made by clergy visiting the school in order to provide religious instruction. The book has been signed by those who attended the school’s Centenary Function, on the 23rd April, 1948 (which would seem to indicate the onetime existence of a school in the area before the recorded foundation of Markwell Public School in 1869).