Schools & related records 1876-1979
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The records indexed include Administrative School Files and records from individual schools such as admission registers, punishment books and inspection books. There are 30,000+ entries in the index.
The school files were created by bringing together all of the correspondence about each school. The correspondence is from teachers, parents, the Education department and district offices, other government departments, local members and Education ministers. Some school files are up to 15 boxes of papers; some are only a few centimetres thick.
These files contain petitions for schools including details of possible pupils; teacher appointments, teacher’s leave and transfer requests and teacher’s examinations; occasional complaints about teachers by parents and inspectors and occasional complaints about children and/or parents by teachers; plans of school buildings and plans of school sites, including proposals that did not proceed; detail about how schools worked and detail about how schools interacted with the community.
Information in the NRS 3829 School Files, 1876-1939 includes:
Applications for the establishment of schools
Application forms contain details of prospective pupils, together with information relating to the proposed site and building. Letters from promoters of schools concern the site, building, teacher and a variety of other matters. Inspectors' reports deal with the prospects of the district and the viability of the proposed school, and contain recommendations relating to the site, the permanent building and if necessary the temporary building, teachers, etc.
The schools progress and its physical provision
Letters and memoranda deal with changes in the schools status, closures and re-openings, and the adequacy of the site and buildings (ranging from routine repairs to new buildings). Valuable information on the progress of the district and on conditions in the school is often included.
Miscellaneous
Relatively little correspondence deals with pupils or courses of study. Much can be gleaned, however, from letters dealing with a variety of aspects of the schools operations
Please note: School files may contain hand drawn sketches through to professionally drawn architects plans. Plans which have been extracted from these files are listed in the online Schools and related records index. You can also find a listing of the plans in the Maps and Plans Index which is available in the reading room. These plans are of schools, classrooms and teachers' residences showing buildings, improvements and additions.
Post-1939 records are strictly administrative.
Amongst the maters dealt with are appointments, transfers and promotions, examinations, leave, complaints by parents and inspection reports. There were no teachers' personal files as such prior to 1940, papers relating to individual teachers being filed amongst the records of the school at which the teacher was currently employed.
Related index
Admission registers
Some of the most useful details concerning pupils for this period are to be found in the admission registers. They usually record pupil's name, age, name of parents /guardian, address, occupation, date of admission, year and class grade and sometimes reason for leaving or next school to be attended.
Punishment books
These books give the name of the pupil who was punished, the date, the offence and punishment.
Punishment books are Closed to Public Access (CPA) for 50 years.
To request permission to view these records contact the Department of Education at EDConnect.recordsmanagement@det.nsw.edu.au or on 1300 32 32 32.
The punishment books are listed in the catalogue under the name of the school e.g. Punishment Book [Ardglen Public School].
Examination books
The contents of examination books vary. Some record pupils' examination results for each subject, total marks and place in grade. While others contain samples of examination questions.
Other records include
- stock books
- visitors books
- staff meeting records, and
- observation books.
They add to our significant collection of education records at the Western Sydney Records Centre, which includes photographs and records about schools, teachers and other aspects of education.
Please note: Only a small percentage of admission registers, punishment books and examination books have survived. In some instances the school may still hold the registers.
Most of the material in this series consists of unsuccessful applications for schools, as well as applications which were granted but did not come to fruition. There is also acquisitions and disposals of unused sites, and letters and reports relating to private schools subsidised by the department.
Most records which can be linked to schools which actually operated have been placed in the School Files. An example of this would be an unsuccessful application predating even by many years a successful application.
The Proposed Schools Files also contain application for schools in areas close to existing schools and declined for that reason, and these often throw light on schools which did operates.
Further reading
The history of NSW Government schools: NSW Education, History of New South Wales government schools.
The original records are available to view in the reading room at the Western Sydney Records Centre (WSRC).
If you find an entry for a school that you are interested in you can pre-order the record for viewing at the WSRC.
Are copies available from this index?
We do not offer a copy service from this index. Due to the physical size of the school files copies can only be ordered in the reading room after viewing the records.
See NRS-15051 for a list of school photographs. The History Unit of the Dept of School Education collected these photographs when preparing school histories, research for public relations, or giving presentations.
West Wyalong Public School NRS-15051-1-36-[2010]
Schools: what the files can tell you
School files very strongly reflect the growth or decline of towns and are an excellent source for your local history research