NRS-17267 | Visitors' Books [Topi Topi 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 Topi Topi Public School is currently represented by its final volume, which records visitors to the school from 1920 until May, 1962, the month of the school’s closure. The great majority of signatures in this volume are those of clergy who visited the school in order to provide religious instruction to the pupils. Other regular signatories in this volume are the Inspectors of Schools on their normal visits of inspection, Inspectors from the S.C.R. Department (until 1923), Medical Officers, officers of the Child Welfare Department and (from 1955) P.E. Instructors. Two Police Lecturers also appear in 1952. From 1929 until 1939, and again from 1958 to 1961, the Inspectors of Schools have commonly (though not invariably) added to their signatures a note of the number of pupils in attendance and the total number enrolled on the day of inspection, and in 1922 and 1929 the Medical Officers have done likewise.