NRS-16927 | Visitors' Book [McCully's Gap 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 McCully’s Gap Public School consists of a single volume, which covers the entire period of the school’s operation, from its opening in 1916 until its closure in 1969. The overwhelming majority of signatures in this volume prior to 1964 are those of clergy and church-workers visiting the school in order to provide religious instruction; from 1964 to the closure of the school no such entries occur, and it is possible that a separate Visiting Clergy Book may have been in use during this period. Other regular signatories include the Inspectors of Schools, school medical officers, physical education instructors (from 1956) and police safety lecturers.