The New Education

Charles Thacker took charge of Carlingford in 1903, and was to remain there for nearly 20 years. One of his chief interests was agriculture, and he was soon giving lessons in the subject and also using the Agricultural Gazette for dictation and composition lessons. On the grounds that this publication would be of "inestimable value to the sons of the fruitgrowers in our District", Thacker successfully negotiated with the Departments of Education and Agriculture to obtain free copies for the school. There was no practical work in agriculture done at first, but within a few years Thacker had established gardens which were not only ornamental but useful for the new subject of nature study.

Tree Planting, Carlingford School 1908

The emphasis on practical subjects was very much part of the sweeping reforms in education in the new state of New South Wales, known as the 'New Education'. The changes began in 1904, although some of them had been foreshadowed in the early 1890's. The New Education stressed the need for pupils to take an active part in the learning process, to learn by doing, to understand what they learned and to discover information for themselves rather than merely commit to memory information from textbooks or teachers. The new syllabus introduced subjects like manual training and nature study, and emphasised new teaching methods in the traditional subjects to make them more realistic, interesting and practical. Such changes involved others, including the phasing out of the pupil teacher system, the adoption of the principle of one teacher per classroom and the abandonment of the long schoolrooms with their inflexible furniture. There was also a new emphasis on the physical welfare of the children, and this involved improved lighting and ventilation in schools. The system of secondary education was also reorganised, with most of the changes in this area taking place after 1910.

The new syllabus was apparently introduced at Carlingford without difficulties, and little was reported to indicate its effects on the school. From the beginning of 1908 the boys aged 12 and over went to Granville Technical College each Thursday afternoon for manual training, but in 1911 some manual training benches were placed in a weathershed at Carlingford. The school's last pupil teacher was Vera Thacker, the headmaster's daughter, who had started her career at the age of 17 in 1906, walking to Epping Public School. She was at Carlingford from 1908 to 1910, during which time the term pupil teacher faded out and she became known as an assistant teacher.

The alterations to the school building which the New Education involved were made in two stages. Early in 1906 Thacker spelt out the need to divide the original schoolroom by a sliding partition, to level the floors in all the rooms and to replace the long desks with modern dual desks. This was done in 1907 at a cost of about 130 pounds, which also included removing the wash basins from the school corridor into the weathersheds, and making some improvements to the toilets, which had been converted from cesspits to pans in 1905. In 1908 water mains were laid in the district, and the school's tanks were replaced by piped water the following year; a few years later gas mains were laid, and the residence was connected about 1916. Thacker had criticised the poor light and ventilation in the school in 1906, but nothing was done about this until 1912 when most of the windows were lowered and fanlights put in over them, the coloured glass was replaced by clear glass, and some windows were replaced altogether by much larger ones. Many repairs were carried out at the same time to the school, the residence and the fences, so the total cost was 246 pounds.

Enrolments at Carlingford remained relatively low until the 1914?1918 war . As Thacker described it in 1911, Carlingford was an isolated orchard district, in which many children walked a long way to school and late enrolment and irregular attendance were common problems. Sometimes the poor attendance was the result of the children being busy at work in orchards or beanfields. The decline in population was reflected in the fall in numbers at Carlingford and also in the closure of May Villa Public School in 1909.

The people of Carlingford threw themselves into patriotic and fund?raising activities during the 1914?1918 war, and Thacker was the secretary of at least one local patriotic committee. Since there was no local hall, the Department allowed the residents to use the school for fundraising activities. The pupils knitted socks, held fetes and devoted much of their time in school to lessons about the British Empire and the war. The response to the war in schools was not surprising, since Empire Day had been made the major event in the school calendar since 1905. The emotion sometimes generated by these activities had been revealed in 1911, when Carlingford Public School had joined in the Empire Day celebrations at Dundas Town Hall. One of the speakers, a Church of England clergyman, had attacked some of the Irish?born leaders of the Catholic church for attempting to establish 'Australia Day' in opposition to Empire Day, and an assistant teacher from Carlingford had walked out in protest at the slur on herself and the Catholic pupils.

At the end of the war the population of Carlingford began to increase, and the result was a sharp rise in the school's enrolment from 1920. The other factor was the establishment in the district of institutions for orphans and neglected children. Thus 1920 marked the beginning of a long relationship between the school and the Homes. In May 1920 the enrolment was 225, and Thacker reported that 14 boys from the Church of England Boys' Home were about to be enrolled. By August 1921 there were 278 pupils, including children from the Church of England Home and from the new government institution, Grand View Home. The Church of England Girls' Home and the Methodist Dalmar Home for Children (1922) were the other Homes to begin their relationship with the school in this period.

The staff was increased from four in 1920 to five in 1921, which meant that there were two teachers in the largest of the four classrooms and the infants were squeezed into the little classroom. To reduce the overcrowding, Thacker suggested the renting of St. Paul's Church Hall across the road, pointing out that it was a good brick building 12 metres by 7 metres which had been the Church of England school for many years. Inspector Kennedy, Carlingford's former headmaster, had already recommended the erection of additional classrooms, but since these would be delayed because of the perennial shortage of funds he endorsed Thacker's suggestion. The church hall was rented for 10 shillings a week, and was occupied by one large class from April 1921 to February 1923.

Plans were prepared during 1921 to add four classrooms accommodating 48 pupils each, plus a hatroom and a storeroom, and also to divide the old small classroom into a corridor and a badly needed teachers' room. This was relatively generous planning, in order to provide for future growth as well as present overcrowding. During 1921 the Carlingford District Progress Association, through its successive secretaries J. McCosker and Eric Mobbs, urged the Department to proceed with the work as soon as possible. Early in 1922 the new Carlingford Parents and Citizens Association did the same; the secretary was John Pope, the local station master. Tenders for the work, plus additions to the toilets and some other improvements, were finally called in May 1922. It was done by P. & L. Richardson for 2 297 pounds, and was completed on 22 January 1923, the first day of the school year. The official opening ceremony was performed by the new Director of Education, Stephen Smith, the following month. A year later another 240 pounds was spent on repairs and repainting the old part of the school and the residence.

In September 1924 the Minister, Albert Bruntnell, visited Carlingford at the request of the Parents and Citizens Association to see for himself the need to extend the 1 hectare school site. Bruntnell was closely associated with Carlingford, being the Member for Parramatta since 1916 until his death in 1929; he was Minister for Education from 1922 to 1925. The land alongside the narrow school site was unavailable, being occupied by Mobbs Hill Reservoir, but the remainder of Wooster's old property was vacant. The Minister agreed that the school was likely to grow considerably, and also reacted favourably to the parents' suggestion that Carlingford should become a District Rural School. The acquisition of 1.5 hectares at the rear of the original site was therefore approved. It had been divided into 11 lots with seven owners, and was resumed in April 1925.

1886 building, 1902 extensions at left and the school bell, c. 1915.

(From a collection, Freda Wright).