NRS-17174 | Visitors' Books [Sawyer's Gully Public School]

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 from Sawyer’s Gully Public School is currently represented by a single volume, probably the second of an original two, and certainly the last volume of the series. The majority of the visitors records in this book are clergy attending to provide religious instruction. No religious instruction is recorded during the years from 1950 to 1954. Other regular visitors to the school included the Inspectors of Schools on their periodic visits of inspection, officers of the Child Welfare Department and Physical Education Advisers. Occasional visits are also made by School Counsellors and officers of the Department of Public Health. From 1958 until 1965 the volume also contains the signatures of visitors to the school’s annual Education Week Open Days.