NRS-16701 | Daily Report Books [Carrington Public School]

The Daily Report Books were required to be kept under Regulations in accordance with the Public Schools Acts of 1866, issued on 27 February 1867, s. 17, and are the daily record of attendance for each class of the school. Their pre-printed format provides for this record to be kept by day, class and gender. Figures for boys’ attendance are entered on the left-hand page of each opening, girls’ attendance figures on the right. Each page is divided into four vertical columns, and each column divided horizontally into five days. Within each day, one line is provided for each class from First to Fifth. For each class, the total enrolment on each day and the average number in attendance on that day are both recorded, and the total daily figures are then made up for the whole school. Average attendance figures for the school as a whole are also made up on a weekly basis, and provision is made to enter weekly totals of school fees received. The series of Report Books for Carrington Public School is now represented by the volumes for 1881-1884 and 1888-1900 (although only fragments are preserved of the volume for the period January, 1892 - August, 1894). During the period covered by these volumes, Carrington Public School only included classes from First to Fourth, although some of these were divided into Upper and Lower classes, attendance figures for which are kept distinct. It is noteworthy that the record for the First Class is omitted from this extant portion of the series from the 3rd March, 1890 until the 14th January, 1895, which suggests that a separate record of attendance might have been kept during this time for the school’s short-lived Infants’ Department, established in 1890 and re-absorbed into the main body of the school by 1897.On occasion the relevant page of a volume might be annotated to record events such as public holidays and the absence or replacement of a teacher, or, as is the case with the volumes for 1895-1896 and 1897-1900, the blank page at the front of the volume might be ruled to receive this information.