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This book is divided into four parts. Each considers one facet of the history and life of the Princes Hill Schools. The first traces the vicissitudes that accompanied the building and maintaining of Princes Hill Primary School and Princes Hill Secondary College, and their relations with the central educational administration. Few schools in Victoria have had such a crowded history. The second section looks at teaching - the dominant personalities at the schools, the regime that was imposed by the Education Department and the everyday relations within the classroom. The third part considers the reciprocating roles of the Princes Hill Schools, the parents and the community. The fourth part examines the life of students: their backgrounds, life in the classroom and the playground, educational activities outside the classroom, and their personal aspirations. I have many friends, old and new, to thank for the assistance and encouragement offered me during the writing of this history. They include the History Committee of Princes Hill Primary School and Secondary College for the honour of being asked to write the history of our school; Ruth Modulin, who has co-ordinated the Princes Hill Schools Centenary celebrations; the principals and staff of both schools; my brother, James Vlahogiannis, for his generous and skilful assistance with photographs; Lawrence Burchell for his exquisite plan drawings of the Arnold Street building; the Henry Sebire Family and Mrs Lister, great-niece of Lillian Horner, for access to their families’ archives. I am also grateful to the History Department, University of Melbourne, for the facilities it provided me, and to the History office staff, who doubled as message-takers; to Geoff Burrows, Kate Darian-Smith, Chris Wallace-Crabbe, Pat Grimshaw, Jenny Little and Marian Turnbull, who have read the manuscript and saved me from embarrassing mistakes; to Jenny Lee for her patient editing and for carrying most of the production; and to my long-suffering family. Finally, I wish to express my deep-felt gratitude for the many past and present students and teachers of the Princes Hill Schools who have willingly and generously shared their time and memories with me. I cannot name you all, but it is to you, and all who have created the schools of Princes Hill, that I should like to dedicate this history of Prinny Hill.
Nicholas Vlahogiannis, 1989.