NRS-23319 | School Roll [Fairbridge Farm School]

Full description

Fairbridge Farm Schools of New South Wales established the Fairbridge Farm School, Molong in 1938. It was the third Fairbridge Farm School to be established in Australia.

The primary aim of the School was to provide a home for child migrants, aged four to 18, who travelled from the United Kingdom under the Fairbridge Society. In later years, Australian-born children from disadvantaged families were also sent to the School.

Over a 35-year period, 929 immigrant children from the UK and several hundred Australian-born children were housed at Fairbridge Farm School, Molong. The latter were sent to the School by their parents or welfare agencies. Some of the children stayed at the School for up to 12 years. Children who were accompanied by parents usually stayed several months. The school was to accommodate about 220 children.

Molong, near Orange, was the primary destination for children arriving in New South Wales under the Fairbridge Scheme. It was based on the ideas of Kingsley Fairbridge that underprivileged children from the United Kingdom could be brought to Australia and placed in the country, where the boys could become farmers and the girls farmers' wives.

The school provided limited education and focused on training boys to be farmers' labourers and the girls to be domestic servants. Children received little in the way of education.

The Fairbridge Farm School closed in 1973. This was due to a change in the United Kingdom policy which restricted the immigration of children.

Former residents of the Farm School, as well as former staff and spouses of children, have formed an Old Fairbridgians Association, based in Molong.

The Fairbridge Farm School Roll contains information dated 30/01/1962 to 10/05/1962. The school roll for the First Term of Public School at Fairbridge Farm focuses on students in Kindergarten, First grade, Second grade, and Third grade. It lists information such as: Students first and last names, age, date of birth, religious denomination, register number, weekly attendance, and number of absent days. Additional information within this school roll includes reasons for absences such as ‘holidays’ or ‘left to Pyrmont’.