NRS-17142 | Visitors' Books [New Lambton South 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 New Lambton South Public School is currently represented by a single volume, probably the second in the series, in which are recorded visitors to the school from mid-1963 until late 1969. It is noticeable that there are no clergy signatures in this volume, which suggests that, by this time, the school was maintaining a separate Visiting Clergy Book.

The most prominent element in this volume is the signatures of visiting parents and members of the public, entered on the occasion of Open Days and Parent-Teacher Days. These signatures account for the overwhelming majority of entries in this volume. In addition to the regular Education Week activities, held every August (except in 1967), the school normally held Parents’ Days in July, and appears to have done so also in December of 1964. However, this element does not occur in the record of visitors for 1969, which takes up little more than the final page of the volume.

Other regular visitors to the school included the Inspectors of Schools, on their periodic visits of inspection, Police Lecturers and School Counsellors.