NRS-16832 | Visitors' Book [Glenbawn Dam 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 Glenbawn Dam Public School consists of a single volume, which covers the entire period of the school’s operation. Until March, 1961, the overwhelming majority of entries are by clergy or church-workers visiting the school in order to provide religious instruction. Thereafter only one such visit is recorded (in 1965), and it might be conjectured that a separate Visiting Clergy Book may have been maintained during the last years of the school’s operation. Other regular signatories to the book include the Inspector of Schools on his normal visits of inspection, the P.E. Instructor and, occasionally, officials from the Child Welfare department. From 1961 until 1964 the school also received annual visits from Medical and Dental Officers. The Spanish Consul-General visited the school in 1960, evidently on the occasion of an inspection of Glenbawn Dam itself. Parents attending the Education Week Open Days have signed in 1958, 1959 and 1964 – 1966, as have those who attended the school’s Christmas Party in 1959, and the ladies of the P&C Tuckshop have entered their names on the 4th August, 1966.