VPRS 640 Central Inward Primary Schools Correspondence

This series consists of correspondence received by VA 714 Education Department from primary schools throughout the state. The series provides an ongoing record of communication between an individual school and the Education Department. Correspondence, when received by the Education Department was initially registered in VPRS 898 Registers of Inward Correspondence, Annual Single Number System where each piece was allocated an annual single number. Then, correspondence was indexed by the school number in VPRS 915 Index to Inward Registered primary Schools Correspondence. In both series an indication was given of the subject of the letter. Subject matter in the correspondence mainly deals with: 1. Teachers applications for appointment to schools of permanent, temporary and emergency teachers, letters and copies of pro forma informing schools of appointments of permanent, temporary and emergency teachers, correspondence regarding teacher leave, reports on student teachers, copies of pro forma indicating teacher completion of special courses and matters regarding teacher salaries and applications for staff for special programs such as swimming instruction; 2. Matters with respect to school management which required reference to the Education Department by Head Teachers and Principals about such matters as school closures for holidays or due to infectious diseases; 3. Complaints from members of the community regarding teachers or the management of schools by the Local Committee; 4. Matters with respect to the physical state of school premises and its maintenance and the provision of teachers residences and 5. Applications for subsidies and grants for specific purposes and for the provision of Education Department publications such as standard readers and arithmetic books. Correspondence prior to c1900, upon receipt by the Department, had a face sheet attached to it which gave the name and number of the school, the date of registration of the piece of correspondence by the Education Department and a brief summary of its subject matter. This face sheet was then dated and initialled by officers to whom it was referred and recommendations made for the content of a reply to the correspondent by the officer responsible for a decision in the matter. Early in the twentieth century, the Education Department developed a standard form that was to be used for all correspondence with the Department until 1984. The writer was to complete the details of the school name, school number and a summary of the subject of the correspondence at the top of the form. The letter was then written in the right-hand column of the form with the lefthand column to be used for Departmental annotations and recommendations. It became the practice for a yellow carbon copy of any reply to be attached to the original piece of correspondence before filing. In some units Miscellaneous Correspondence may be found relating to other matters. These papers may be the result of mis-filing or the movement of records between storage locations at various times. These papers are listed fully in the Consignment Details. The P3 consignment consists of correspondence files which had been mistakenly included in VPRS 10381/P Soldier Settlement Advances Files. These were discovered during the relisting of that series in 2006.