Foundation stone 22 Aug 1890, architect C E Owen Smyth, Superintendent of Public Buildings, opened Feb 1891 as public school, official opening 16 Mar 1891. Became Observation School for teacher training 1908. Reverted to ordinary primary school when Kintore Ave teachers college built 1925. Became branch of Adelaide Boys High when facilities at Grote St were overcrowded due to students remaining at school during the Depression. From 1952 home of Correspondence School (see below), in turn teachers college annexe, migrant education centre and in 1978 College of External Studies, now Adelaide Remand Centre.
“The foundation-stone of the new city school. . . The stone will be a block of Kapunda marble, suitably inscribed, and it will be laid on the southern pier of the front entrance to the building. The public school, Currie-street. . . is being constructed of Hindmarsh brick, laid in Flemish bond, which already presents a very neat and sharp appearance. The foundation is in concrete, on the top of which may be noticed huge flags the full width of the trenches. These flags come from Tarlee. . . The red brick will be relieved by cut stone from Murray Bridge around the windows and on the gables. . . will accommodate about 1,000 children.” [Register 21 Aug 1890]
“At noon to-day a large crowd of persons assembled on the site of the new public school in Currie-street, and witnessed the ceremony of laying the foundation-stone which was performed by His Excellency the Earl of Kintore. Among those present were the Countess of Kintore, the Governor of Victoria (Earl of Hopetoun) and the Countess of Hopetoun.” [Evening Journal 22 Aug 1890]
“A month ago on Monday the new State school in Currie-street was used for the first time. If the original arrangements had been carried out the formal opening of the institution would have been performed shortly afterwards, but owing to the death of the late Minister of Education [David Bews] the date had to be altered, and a week ago it was decided that the Minister of Education (Hon. J. G. Jenkins) should be asked to declare the school open. . . . The school is unusually large, and the rooms are lofty and well ventilated. It is somewhat similar in its arrangements to the two-storied school buildings in Flinders-street and Grote-street, but with some material differences which it is considered make the school the best of its kind ever erected in South Australia. The building and grounds occupy exactly an acre of land, and the site was purchased by the Government some years ago from Mr. Gray, of the Reedbeds.” [Register 17 Mar 1891]
“The whole of the ground will be surrounded on three sides with a nine-feet galvanized-iron fence, the top of the iron being serrated and capped over with two rows of barbed wire. This is to prevent, if possible, the nightly incursions which the city schools suffer from larrikins and other ill-disposed persons.” [Evening Journal 17 Mar 1891]
“the Minister is anxious to establish in Adelaide a school as nearly perfect as a primary school can be made, where student teachers may observe work proceeding under experienced and skilled teachers, and, in addition, obtain practice under wise guidance. Currie-street is the most modern building in the city, and has been chosen for this purpose.” [Express & Telegraph 9 Jan 1908]
“The alterations and renovations which are being made at the Currie Street School, which will be regarded as the Observation and Practising School, are on rather a bigger scale than was at first expected, and the building will not be ready for occupation on Monday, so that the children who before Christmas were attending the Grote and Currie Street Schools will have a week’s extension of their holidays. The provisional teachers from distant parts of the country who have been attending special classes in Adelaide this week will be granted an extra week’s rest, and will not resume their duties until January 27.” [Register 16 Jan 1908]
“The Currie-street school, which has recently been undergoing renovation, will be opened on Tuesday next for observation and practising work by budding teachers and for kindergarten studies. The school will be used in connection with the scheme of training work, and teachers under training will visit it at regular intervals to gain practical experience of up-to-date educational methods. They will be under the supervision of a staff of competent teachers who have been carefully selected. . . Later on it is intended to fit up a room for the teaching of elementary science.” [Advertiser 25 Jan 1908]
“at the Observation School, Currie street, the Minister of Education (Hon. W. H. Harvey) will open the annual Summer School for Teachers. One hundred and eight class ix. teachers from all parts of the State will attend. The school, which will continue for a fortnight. . . members of the inspectorial staff will address the gathering, and instruction on the best methods of teaching arithmetic, Nature study, physical exercises, geography, history, singing, civics, poetry, and fingerwork will be given.” [Register 10 Jan 1920]
“Persons of inferior education are admitted to the Currie street Observation School after passing an examination of about the standard of the eighth grade in the primary schools. These receive six months’ tuition and training, and are then appointed to the charge of small country schools.” [Daily Herald 7 Sep 1920]
“It was only at the beginning of this year that the new system of training students desirous of becoming teachers was brought into existence. An innovation was the establishment of what are known as practising schools, the object being to enable the students to receive practical experience in the art of teaching as a corollary to the theoretical education imparted to them in the lecture hall and classroom. In a modified form a similar plan was in operation last year, but now the principle has been adopted on a solid foundation, and certain appointments of teachers and schools have been made in connection with the work. There are six practising schools, namely Flinders street primary, Gilles street primary and infants, Currie street primary and infants, and the ‘model country school’ at Currie street.” [Observer 12 Feb 1921]
“The Currie, Gilles, and Flinders Streets Schools have been used as practising schools attached to the Teachers’ College. Since their establishment in 1920 the attendance at these schools, especially at Currie-street, has steadily diminished, and that at the college has increased. From next week Currie Street School will revert to the position of an ordinary public school, as it is no longer suitable or economical for use as a practising school.” [Register News-Pictorial 22 May 1929]
“This year the Education Department will be faced with a problem in providing accommodation. There is a natural increase of students in the primary schools, and many pupils, who would normally have left and sought positions, will remain at school on account of the depression, and unemployment. Local halls and church halls have been rented in various suburbs. The position has been accentuated because the Government has not been able to secure loan money to carry on its normal school building programme. At the Adelaide High School there has been a largely increased enrolment, and the overflow will be sent to the old Currie-street School. . . There will be no shortage of teachers.” [Advertiser 24 Jan 1931]
“Adelaide High School was badly overcrowded, and that for the past 20 years the buildings had been inadequate to accommodate the 700 scholars. At present the overflow was housed in three extra schoolrooms, a converted church, and the old Currie street primary school, about a quarter of a mile away from the main block. Yet between 50 and 60 students applying for admission had been turned away during the past three days.”[Advertiser 12 Feb 1935]
“Adelaide High School. . . Perhaps only a few of the public know that about 400 boys are separated from the main school, and occupy the old primary school in Currie street. When a boy goes into a good school with good surroundings, he enters into the spirit of the school and is proud of the buildings which help to determine that spirit; but I am in my second year at Adelaide High School, Currie street, and the only spirit I have been conscious of in the environment is the smell of spirits in the brewery at the back of the building. The distance between the Currie street branch and Grote street is about half a mile, and when the whole school assembles, the Currie street boys walk to Grote street and back, thereby wasting about half an hour.” [Advertiser 20 Jun 1938]
“Slum environment, density of traffic, and-proximity to a .brewery and stables made the Adelaide High School in Currie street entirely unsuitable, said a witness before the Education Inquiry Commission this afternoon. Noise, smells, and bad lighting and ventilation combined to make it resemble an old-fashioned reformatory. . . Individual classes were too large, 40 or more students in a class being common. . . the enrolment average of Adelaide High School in recent years was 800 boys and 650 girls. Scattered unsuitable buildings had been rented as schoolrooms.” [News 29 Oct 1945]
“It was proposed to move the Gilles Street Correspondence School to the premises in Currie street now being used by the overflow from the Adelaide High School when the new Adelaide High School was ready for occupation.” [Advertiser 6 Jun 1950]
“The first group of 500 boys of Adelaide High School will move into their new building in the parklands on West terrace on Tuesday. They will be the older boys from the Grote street branch of the school, the principal (Mr. A. E. Dinning) said yesterday. A few weeks later 400 boys from Currie street would join them. Another group would remain at Currie street until the end of the year. ‘We will be working under difficulties’, Mr. Dinning added, ‘as we will have the use of only 22 classrooms, and the science and assembly blocks will be in the hands of workmen until the end the year.” [Advertiser 22 May 1951]
“a contract for altering the old wing of Adelaide High School in Currie street. It is intended to establish a correspondence school in this building.” [News 31 Mar 1952]
CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL
Begun 1920 by Miss Lydia Longmore (first woman appointed Inspector of schools in Australia) to educate children in country areas too far from schools. At first in the Education Office, it moved 1921 to rooms in the former Destitute Asylum in Kintore Ave. A “set” of lessons was sent each fortnight; as soon as the child completed a set, it was posted back and s/he continued with the next set. The first set was returned with teacher’s corrections, comments and encouragement together with the third set, and so on. Work was overseen by parents or, on some outback stations, a governess. There were regular spelling tests, dictation and, of course, exams. As student numbers increased, so too, the teachers, with the school transferring to Currie St, Gilles St, back to Currie St in 1952, until moving to Pennington Tce, North Adelaide in 1955. School of the Air was extended to SA in 1958 with students using the Royal Flying Doctor Service radio network. In 1991 Correspondence School & School of the Air amalgamated to form Open Access College.
“There are a considerable number of children in South Australia who are beyond the reach of existing educational agencies. For some time Miss Inspector Longmore, assisted by some teacher friends, has endeavoured to meet their needs by conducting correspondence classes. This work has been carried on as a labour of love. . . the question is of sufficient importance to warrant the appointment of at least one full-time correspondence teacher, with headquarters at the Education Office. It is estimated that the maximum number of children that can be dealt with by such a teacher is 35, and that in due course assistants would be required. Such schools have been established in at least two of the other States, and they have been found to meet a real need in the community. The primary aim of such a school is to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instruction is also given in grammar, geography, composition, &c.” [Daily Herald 28 Feb 1920]
“A correspondence school has been established for the benefit of children in back-country settlements where the number of children does not warrant the establishment of schools.” [Register 30 Jul 1920]
“Lessons by Correspondence. . . The subjects taught up to the present were reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling and composition, with some sewing. It was hoped to add history and geography and needlework to the curriculum.” [Advertiser 21 Jan 1921]
“The rapidly developing correspondence school branch of the Education Department will soon be housed in permanent quarters. These are in a part of what was the old Destitute Asylum. . . There will be two large rooms and two small ones . . . and they will provide a comfortable ‘schoolhouse’ for the staff of five teachers now engaged in this work. A new teacher was added last week, and it is understood that there is work enough for still one more. There are now 270 children enrolled in the school. . . Most of the pupils are living m the Murray. West Coast, and Far North districts.” [Advertiser 10 Feb 1921]
“To meet one of the greatest difficulties of outback settlement — the handicap imposed by isolation on children of school-going age — a band of voluntary workers, organized by Inspector Lydia Longmore, for some time taught the outback children ‘by post’ as a labour of love. In May, 1920, the present Director instituted instead the departmental Correspondence School. Miss. S. N. Twiss, the teacher appointed. . . is the first to point out that much of the success of the method lies with the parents who undertake to supervise the work done. The ‘lessons’ sent out contain carefully thought-out instructions to supervisers as well as to pupils.” [Register 21 Oct 1924
“the Minister of Education (Hon. M. McIntosh) and the Deputy-Director of Education (Mr. C. Charlton) visited the Correspondence School in Kintore avenue, Adelaide. . . A head teacher, ten assistants, and a junior staff of three are now located in old rooms, which have become inadequate.” [Observer 23 Jul 1927]
“Correspondence School. . . The home supervision was being carried out in a very creditable manner, sometimes under extreme difficulty. . . One mother had written — ‘Please excuse Jean’s papers being rather soiled this time as we are in a tent at —, and the temperature is 117 deg. in the shade.’” [Register 5 Apr 1928]
“None of the State’s youth is deprived of South Australia’s wonderful system of free education — the department’s correspondence school sees to that. Three typewriters, three typists, 13 teachers, a head mistress, and a duplicating machine, lodged in a lofty room about 40 x 20 ft. . . The splendid work being carried out by Miss S. N. Twiss and her assistants in their headquarters at the Currie Street Practising School can never be measured in terms of their remuneration, nor of their present achievements.” [Register 11 Jul 1928]
“Wherever children are more than four miles from a school they may receive the benefit of the correspondence classes. Lessons are sent out once a fortnight, and the answers carefully corrected. The work itself is done under the supervision of parents and many women of the outback labour heroically, in the midst of much heavy work, to do their best to make up to their children for educational handicaps. The teachers, too, give more than mere instruction. Each has her own ‘class’, the members of which may be scattered from Cape Borda to Oodnadatta. She knows the special needs of each of her many pupils.” [Observer 20 Apr 1929]
“In view of the drastic cut in education expenditure, it is inevitable that a number of small schools will soon have to be closed. This will give added importance to the work of the Correspondence School, which already offers a thorough primary education to outback children remote from schools. The system of teaching by post has given astonishingly good results. . . Their lessons are done in railway construction tents, on bush verandahs and in lean-to kitchens — wherever the young pioneers can find elbow room and a quiet corner. . . When the bush children are in town, they invariably visit the correspondence school in Currie street to see what their teachers are like. . . Thirty-nine invalid city children, including many patients at the Children’s Hospital, share the benefits of the school” [Observer 17 Jul 1930]
“The Correspondence School is situated in Gilles street. There were, at the beginning of the year, 737 on the roll. The staff consists of 17 teachers and three typists. One set of lessons is sent out each fortnight. These, when finished, are sent back to the school for correction. When corrected they are returned with a new set. In all we get 22 sets for each grade. When these are completed we have our examination for promotion to a higher grade. Our lessons are made very interesting, and the instructions are very easy to follow. . . Once a month Nature pages are sent us. We also have library books sent for us to read.” [Observer 5 Feb 1931]
“School of the Air for Outback Children. . . The aim of the school was to supplement correspondence lessons. . . Broadcasts to schoolchildren will be land-lined from the Alice Springs Higher Primary School to the Flying Doctor Base for transmission.” [Advertiser 2 May 1951]
“School of the air opened Alice Springs. . . The school is broadcast over the Flying Doctor network, which serves 163 cattle stations, mining settlements, and missions in Australia’s most inaccessible corners. . . Education experts believe this is the first school of the air in the world to provide two-way broadcasts. . . the children, whether in Queensland, SA, or the NT, will be able to talk to their teacher in Alice Springs. This is possible because each of the receiving stations on the Flying Doctor network also has transmitting set.” [News 8 Jun 1951]
“The Governor (Sir Robert George) and Lady George on Monday visited the Currie street Correspondence School. . . Headmistress (Miss N. J. Fitch) and the Deputy Headmistress (Miss J. B. Pomroy). The Governor had expressed a wish to see the school after observing outback children doing correspondence lessons. The school caters mainly for children in remote country areas, ranging from Grade I to Leaving standard.” [Chronicle 19 Aug 1954]
Posted by aquilareen on 2020-04-27 21:57:20
Tagged: , Adelaide , Currie Street , correspondence , school
