User:Jamessugrono/Fort Street High School History

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History

Establishing the School

The history of public education in Australia began when the Governor of New South Wales, Charles Augustus FitzRoy, established a Board of National Education on 8 January 1848 to implement a national system of education throughout the colony. One of the first actions of the Board was to apply to the Governor for a building in Sydney suitable for a Model School, and serve as a school for training teachers at the same time. The school was to serve as a model for other schools in New South Wales. Sites siggested for the school were the Hyde Park Barracks, Carter's Barracks, or the grounds occupied by the Military Hospital.

The plans were furnished by the Colonial Architect, Mortimer W. Lewis, to comply with the Commissioners' guidelines to render the Hospital suitable for educational purposes, and were approved on the day of its presentation, 20 November 1848.

In The School on The Hill, it is said that naming the school after a street was a second thought. Original copies of early maps are stated to have the words National School printed across the diagrams of the two main buildings.

In 1849, the Elementary School opened with Hugh Farrel as headmaster, and a local staff of teachers.

The Early Years

In May 1850, the Model School was opened with a Mr O'Driscoll as temporary headmaster. The first name of the headmaster is disputed, as either Daniel or David. However, the Board realised then that they could not declare Fort Street a Model school until a permanent Headmaster had been appointed.

William Wilkins arrived in January 1851, and served as headmaster until 1855. The British Colonial Office sent Wilkins out as a teacher trained under the National Board of Education in Ireland, was in fact trained in England at the Battersea Training College. Wilkins declared the school, when he assumed charge of it, defective in organisation, discipine, and methods of teaching. Within a year of his leadership, however, the school was considered to justify its title of Model School.

The teaching methods employed by staff were unsuitable and ineffective. The reading style was without regard to expression or intonation of the voice. Half the students at the school were able to read words with one syllable only. Less than fifty were able to read a short poem with suitable taste or expression. Less than one hundred could write numbers like 8,060,000 in dictation. Four thousand of the entire school were unable to read at all.

Wilkins introduced the Pestalozzian ideas of mental arithmetic, the direct study of nature and the phonics system of teaching reading. The numbers of students grew and grew, to be interrupted only by the gold rush. Wilkins' work and ability impressed the Board to the extent that he was appointed headmaster of William Street School in addition to Fort Street.

In 1852, Wilkins proposed that education should include the liberal arts, and not be limited to the three Rs. History, geography, and music were introduced, as well as classical languages. Addtionally, a library for the students was to be introduced.

By 1853, Wilkins considered the Model School to have attained sufficient development to be considered seperately from the Elementary School.

As early as 1950, Henry Roberston was assigned by the Board to enclose the southern verandahs of the school to make more classrooms. In the Board of National Education's report for 1956, it notes the fluctuations in attendance, and recognises that as a lack of space, discipline and development of students suffered. That year, Robertson was commissioned to design a new single-storey building, to be on the west side of the renovated Hospital. This building was completed the following year. When the new rooms were opended, the upper floors of the Macquarie building which had been occupied by the Girls and Infants were used for the purpose of the Training Department. "Pupil-teachers", appointed in country schools would come to Fort Street when their apprenticeship expired, to finish their course of training.

The Seperation

In 1911, the Director for Education, Peter Board, proposed that the Fort Street High School's (Boys and Girls) become distinct from the Primary School, as it had not been in the past. The High Schools would continue to occupy the current premises, but only as a temporary measure to last until suitable buildings for these high schools were found. In September of 1912, he announced that a suitable site at Petersham had been found for the Boys High School.

In 1916, the Boys School would move to the present site on Taverners Hill, adjacent to the railway station. Board declared that it would be the most modern of the Department's secondary schools. The school at Observatory Hill would remain to be occupied by the Girls school, while the Petersham Municipal Council unanimously agreed to altering the name of Norwood Street leading to the new school to "Fort Street". The Boys began school at Petersham on Monday, 12 June 1916. The school was officially opened by the Premier W.A. Holman.

The school originally consisted of the William Wilkins building, named after the Headmaster who had accomplished so much, and who had gone on to improve the public schooling system as an inspector.

In 1924, the Minister for Education promised that the next Speech Day would be held in an assembly hall befitting the school. The school had already raised £1000, to which the Department would contribute the rest. In 1925, the Memorial Hall was completed, and opened by the Director for Education S.H. Smith on the 8th of September.

The Amalgamation

The Girls school came to the site at Petersham in two waves, in 1974 and 1975.

The Kilgour Builing was erected.