...
Most of those who replied to the advertisements were retired men and women who had attended Princes Hill between the 1910s and 1940s. The oldest respondent attended Princes Hill in 1902.2 As well, some of the information comes from my own time as a student at Princes Hill, and from the people I knew while I was there. It is hard to recall school experiences in detail. Most of the ex-students who responded to my requests for information were remembering their primary-school years. Much that happened to them as young students remained outside their immediate realisation. Though most people can recall bits of the time -spent learning their way around alien buildings among a host of strangers, many things that loom large to an adult are taken for granted by a child: questions of education quality, ethnic mix, classroom conditions - whether it be overcrowding or wall decorations. What mattered more to children were friends, peer-group acceptance, ‘good’ and ‘bad’ teachers, interesting subjects, homework, sport and the like.
...