NRS-17313 | Visitors' Book [Woolooma 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 consists of a single volume. Prior to the end of 1962 this volume included clergy visitors, but from the beginning of 1963 the school maintained a separate Visiting Clergy Book.

From 1957 to 1963, the most frequent signatures in this volume are those of the clergy of the Anglican and Presbyterian Churches, attending at the school to provide religious instruction to the pupils. Other regular signatories are the Inspectors of Schools, on their periodic visits of inspection, Physical Education instructors and, from 1966, Police School Lecturers. Less regular visits by School Counsellors, Child Welfare Officers, Health Inspectors, Medical and Dental Officers and representatives of the Commonwealth Bank are also recorded. In addition to his normal visits, the Inspector accompanied a visit in October, 1959, by the Area Director of Education, Mr W.A. Gelfius.

The names of guests at the school’s Prize-Giving Nights are recorded in 1960, and the signatures of visitors to these events appear annually from 1963 until 1967. Those who attended the school’s Education Week Open Days have signed the book in 1962 and every year from 1965 until the school’s closure, with the exceptions of 1968 and 1973. A similar list of visitors, including the Scone Shire Clerk, appears on the occasion of the Bookweek Essay Prizes Presentation held in 1970.

A student teacher has signed the book in 1960, as has a relieving teacher, taking the school “due to flooding of Stewart’s Brook,” in June, 1967.