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This is only one example of the difficulties confronting this school that had been newly cobbled together. Another problem for students who knew no other school was the sense of transience created by the many new faces briefly passing through the Central School, which for them was a stepping stone, with a finite end.10
Form 2C at Princes Hill Central School, 1945. Some of the girls are wearing the newly introduced tunic uniform.
Princes Hill Central School was established as the principal feeder school to University High School, and this now dominated its ‘academic’ life. The students who entered form 1 came with the intention of attaining adequate marks to gain one of the limited places at University High. In 1946, eighty-eight of the 131 students who left Princes Hill entered University High School. Another 23 entered other secondary schools.11
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Very quickly, Princes Hill Central School adopted recognised high school features, and rituals too. These were continued and strengthened when the school was promoted to high school. A school uniform and badge were introduced in 1946 as insignia of belonging, identification and pride in the school. The girls wore blue and white gingham dresses in summer, and navy—blue box—pleated tunics, white blouses and navy—blue blazers in winter. 14
Princes Hill School’s annual certificate, introduced in the 1920s by Ernest Mylrea.
The boys got the regulation grey flannels, white shirts and navy blue blazers. The school emblem, first introduced as a badge in the 1920s by Mylrea, was embroidered on the blazer pocket and cast as a badge. 15 It depicted a lit torch dividing the open pages of a book, across which was the motto, Labore et Fide. The school colours of green, gold, navy blue and white had also been introduced by Mylrea in the 1920s on the Princes Hill ‘Merit Certificate’. When the high school was constituted, grey replaced the females’ royal blue tunic and the green on the badge. The emblem and motto of the Central School were retained. Hat and tie—pin badges were added to the boys’ assemblage. While Princes Hill students in 1989, accustomed to wearing street clothes to school, show little concern with the issue of compulsory uniform, past students who endured the tyranny of blue, gold and grey, recall their dislike of uniforms. As new celluloid and music heroes and new dress styles emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, rebellious youth, accommodating the dictates of fashion and individuality, challenged the school’s dress regulations with thin ties and tight, pegged trousers, winkle-picker shoes, stiletto heels, the touch of make-up and jewellery, mini—skirts, and outlandish pompadour hairstyles. Despite protestations, warnings and punishments, and financial help for those who could not afford uniforms, students still broke the rules. At one Monday morning assembly, Headmaster Gibson sent all students not in full and correct uniform home with instructions not to return until properly attired. The Truth got wind of the story, dubbing Princes Hill the ‘go home school’.16
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The positions of male and female house captains, form captains and prefects were also instituted. The house and form captains were elected by their peers. They represented their form or house at assembly and school functions, helped teachers maintain order, and helped organise sport.
Princes Hill High School Prefects, 1959.
More solemnity and occasion surrounded the office of prefect. The first prefects were invested amidst pomp and ceremony on 19 March 1959 at Wilson Hall, University of Melbourne, by the Town Clerk of Melbourne, F. Rogan. Head Prefects that year were Marion Inglis and Chester Polglaze.18 Each prefect was selected by teachers on grounds of popularity, behaviour and scholastic attitude. Ideally, prefects were to bridge the gap between students and teachers, but more and more, they were allotted ‘policeman’ duties to help run the school and maintain discipline. Their broad authority, however, caused some conflict in the late 1960s. Prefects were accused of irresponsibility, abuse of authority, harshness, laziness and immaturity; they countered with protestations of goodwill and eagerness to help and suggested that those unwilling to accept prefects would be put into place within the school or outside it.19 In 1970, the prefect system was abolished and replaced by the Students’ Representative Council.
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