The Head Teachers of Princes Hill
The administration of the Victorian Department of Education is strictly hierarchical. The Minister, answerable to Parliament, occupies the highest rung, and teachers are on the bottom. Until the administrative reforms of the 1970s, direct links with schools were maintained through the Board of Inspectors and, within the school, through the Head Teacher.
As the Department’s immediate representative within the school, the Head Teacher had a multi-faceted role as teacher, disciplinarian, administrator, moral guide, building inspector, equipment requisition officerofficer, time-keeper, timetable co-ordinator, curriculum developer, community relations officerofficer, fundraiser and politician. On arriving at a new school, the Head Teacher was presented with an inventory left by his predecessor, listing every piece of furniture, every item of equipment and every book that the school owned. Upon departure, the Head Teacher left a similar list. The Head Teacher kept all school records: the attendance rolls, pupils’ register and register of corporal punishment. The worst was the dreaded Time Book, in which each teacher’s arrival and departure time was meticulously recorded. Absentees were reported daily to the Department.’ 1 The task must have clogged up the 49 administration of the Department and exhausted the patience of many sensible Head Teachers.
Despite the range of responsibilities, the Head Teacher’s autonomy was tempered by the prescriptions of a bureaucracy with an insatiable appetite for paperwork, and by the half-yearly visits of Inspectors, who examined the building, grounds and equipment, tested students, and graded teachers and the school.
The Head Teacher’s long-term responsibilities were to foster a strong school spirit, build an academic and sporting tradition, develop an identity and a reputation for involvement in the community, and prepare every pupil for adulthood by instilling values, discipline and a sense of duty. These are the qualities that attract staff, involve parents and gain the interest of politicians. Unlike private schools, state schools did not have individually formulated educational, philosophical and cultural aims, and could not select personnel who represented their particular interests. State school principals were appointed according to seniority2 by a faceless bureaucratic machine that was not attuned to the attributes, problems and needs of the individual school. Appointments were a lottery. Some Head Teachers were excellent, conscientious individuals and energetic workers with vision and concern for the school and its population; others, near the end of their careers, were. tired, disinterested and waiting out the days before retirement; some were liberal, others autocratic. Only in the late 1980s has the process been altered to permit the local selection of principals. Teachers are still placed by the central administration.
Rumours in 1887 that a new school was being conte-mp1ated contemplated in the Princes Hill/East Brunswick district attracted a number of applicants for the position of Head Teacher. None got the job. The honour of officiating at the school’s inauguration fell upon Acting Head Teacher William Rowe. In February 1890, he was transferred to Northcote. He was followed by two more Acting Head Teachers, George Moore and Joseph McShane, both senior masters at the school. The first permanent Head Teacher appointed to Princes Hill State School was John W. Russell. He came in April 1890 from Beechworth and retired under a cloud in March 1892. George Robinson, who succeeded Russell, retired in November 1894. His successor, Louis McNab, came to Princes Hill in March 1895 and stayed until May 1898 before transferring to another school.
Richard Skewes (July 1898-April 1913), Henry Sebire (September 1913-May 1925) and Ernest Mylrea (May 1925-August 1936) ended the period of instability. Individually and collectively, their thirty-eight-year incumbency steadied the school’s fortunes and direction, and contributed profoundly to its fibre. They cemented the school’s reputation, building on the respected character and high academic standards imposed by their predecessors. Their long periods of service allowed them to become familiar with the school, the teachers, the pupils and the community. Conversely, their extended tenure allowed the school and its population to gain an understanding of their Head Teachers.
Of the school’s earliest Head Teachers we know little, apart from what can be gleaned from their letters to the Department, which are preoccupied with everyday problems. All were highly ranked and broadly experienced men with long and distinguished careers as teachers. Russell had begun teaching in 1858 at the age of fifteen. During his thirty-three years of service he was Head Teacher at five schools besides Princes Hill. He retired for reasons of health at the age of fifty. A formal man who addressed his Departmental masters with due and proper deference, he was preoccupied with his ailing health, which was caused by many years spent in draughty school rooms. Although he retired from teaching in an atmosphere of rancour, with the Department accusing him of laxness of duty, lack of punctuality and misrepresentation of the facts surrounding his case, the school and the Carlton community farewelled him with festivities and dancing.3
5 Robinson also left under duress. The Department rejected his earnest requests to remain at Princes Hill beyond the legal retiring age of sixty-fivefive."‘ 4 Esteemed as one of Victoria’s most able and experienced teachers, Robinson had begun teaching in 1865, and had served at twelve schools. He, too, had crossed Departmental patience by questioning the worth of having school cadet training, which, he argued, devoured valuable learning hours.5 McNab’s brief stay only grazed across the difficult problems of overcrowding that afflicted afflicted Princes Hill in the 1890s.
Richard Skewes, Head Teacher of Princes Hill School 1898-1913, seen here long after his retirement
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He did, however, adorn the school with shady trees and attractive shrubs, which he obtained from Macedon Nurseries.5 6 A short, stocky man with an Edward VII beard, frock coat and umbrella, Richard (‘Pimple Dick’) Skewes came to Arnold Street from SS 4980 Wanrup and stayed until he retired after forty-one years in the Department. While vague family rumour remembers a stern disciplinarian, Jim Bell, a student between 1907 and 1916, describes Skewes as a ‘lovable old fellow whom nobody feared’. A thorough and meticulous man - he recorded his arrival time at Princes Hill on 19 July 1898 as 9.47 a.m. precisely - Skewes remained unperturbed by the overcrowded school that greeted him. His efficiency, experience and dedication quickly became apparent. He assailed the Department about the school’s accommodation and staffing problems. Teachers and students benefited from his support and generosity. One such beneficiary was Clyde Scott. In 1901, Scott was one of eight boys who broke into and vandalised the school, damaged furniture, destroyed books, teaching aids and science implements, defiled classrooms with filth, and stole school materials, doing damage to the value of £8.11.4. Scott was -spared punishment because Skewes defended his good character. The other boys were prosecuted for truancy.7 When small items were needed for the school, Skewes willingly paid for them out of his own pocket, without seeking reimbursement.8 Obituaries in 1930 of Henry ‘Joey’ Torode Sebire describe a kind, gentle, thoughtful and cultured man of exemplary character, highly esteemed by friends and peers. While one ex-student remembers the odd cuff behind the ear for inattentiveness,5 9 others reminisce fondly of a man who would miss his 4 p.m. train to Clifton Hill and cycle to Ivanhoe so he could stay behind after school to tutor slower students."’ 10 A photograph taken on his retirement shows a white-haired, mustachioed man, surrounded by infants, seated in a leather armchair presented to him by the school. Considerate and caring, Sebire willingly defended his deserving staff. When two student teachers failed their examinations, he asked the Department to grant them special consideration. They are good teachers, he wrote, who failed because they lacked confidence and not because of laziness. He did, however, recognise the need for firm discipline. When severely pressed, he insisted that a troublesome student who had beaten the caretaker with a shovel be expelled.11 Born in May 1860, Sebire began as a pupil teacher in 1875 at Lilydale, where he had attended school.
Henry Sebire, Head Teacher of Princes Hill School I913-25, seen here on the eve of his retirement surrounded by children at Pigdon Street
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In 1881, he was appointed Paid Student in Training at SS Richmond, and in 1883 attended the Teacher Training College. A series of appointments as Head Teacher to country schools followed. In the meantime, he qualified as a licensed teacher of singing and drawing. The District Inspectors’ reports praise his skill, diligence and efficiency as a teacher, and his work in the community. As Head Teacher of SS Fairfield Park (1895-1913), he raised the standard of the school from the lowest grade to first-class rank.
On 31 August 1913, in line with his grade, Sebire was promoted to the larger Princes Hill. During his period there, Inspectors Park and Rowe commended his skilful staff management and the standards he maintained for visiting student-teachers from the Training College. At the time of his retirement, he was ranked as the fifth most senior teacher in the State. On that occasion, Director of Education Frank Tate expressed deep appreciation for Sebire’s ‘whole-souled interest’ in the state schools. Sir Alexander Peacock, Minister of Education, also praised the standards Princes Hill had achieved; as a result of Sebire’s efforts, it had emerged as a model school.12
The arrival on 1 June 1925 of the new Head Teacher, lately of SS Footscray, sent shock waves through Princes Hill School and jangled the nerves of the neighbourhood. Quite abruptly, the timbre of the school changed: kettle drums, bugles and whistles marked time and enlivened the school yard. 15 13 Stern procedures and discipline regimented each day. The habits and rigours of army life had descended upon Princes Hill, in the person of ‘the brilliant and charming’ 11 14 Captain Ernest ‘Eddie’ Mylrea.
Born in 1871, Mylrea joined the Department in 1893 as a student of Frank Tate. Retrenched during the depression of the late 1890s, he returned to complete his college degree in 1900.15 During the First World War he reached the rank of Captain in the Australian Imperial Forces. The military influence dominated the remainder of his life, and was certainly evident in his administration of the school. After each recess, students assembled in parallel military ranks across the schoolyard to march into class. Mylrea berated those who fell out of step, and harangued their teachers. Students drank from water fonts in time to whistle blasts. On Anzac, Armistice and Empire Days, the assembled students were addressed by military men such as Captain Albert Jacka VC and Francesco di Pinedo, the Italian flier. As President of the Returned Servicemen’s League of Victoria, Mylrea regularly visited RSL branches and worked with the Soldier Settlement Programme.15 16 The walls of the main hall were adorned by paintings depicting battle scenes familiar to him from his wartime service.17 His pride and joy was the School Band, impeccably attired in spotless uniforms, their bodies stiff as boards, their behaviour sober.18
In appearance, Mylrea was almost a caricature of the military man: tall and erect, with a waxed moustache, a florid florid complexion and parade-ground manner. He was sometimes cantankerous, sometimes thin-skinned. Proud, stem, with a no-nonsense manner, he did everything according to the book. Not that his ex-students seem to mind. Beneath the forbidding exterior was a ‘likeable, fatherly and understanding’ man, dedicated to his profession and deeply committed to the welfare of his charges. Retired fireman Ron Davies and art dealer Joseph Brown were among the many boys and girls who stayed on at the school during the 1930s in a newly created grade 9, established to help them focus on practical subjects rather than becoming involved in street larrikinism. Both men still feel deep gratitude for Mylrea’s help during the depression years.19
Mylrea demanded and received the highest standards of scholarship, at the same time placing great importance on community service and extra-curricular activities. And he led by example. The school band and choir often performed for charities.21’ Mylrea also tutored prospective officers of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade.21 He was often known to help students financially. Doubtless it was such actions that prompted Martin Hansen, Director of Education from 1928 to 1932, to write on the eve of Mylrea’s retirement on 21 August 1936, acknowledging Mylrea’s organising abilities, progressiveness, public-spiritedness, teaching skills and the fine influence on the student body and staff that he had displayed over his many years of service.22 The careers of the Head Teachers who followed Mylrea are shrouded in obscurity. None stayed longer than five years, and little can be discovered about them from their correspondence with the Department. On Mylrea’s retirement, Dower, First Xale Assistant, was appointed Acting Head Teacher until Albert Bryant arrived from Glenhuntly at the beginning of 1937. Bryant welcomed the first waves of refugee children in 1938-9. Frederick Hart, who arrived from Auburn in September 1940, 25 supervised the elevation of Princes Hill to Central School status in 1944. Isaac Bell, who succeeded Hart on 30 January 1945, could be described as a champion of hopeless causes. Forced by a transport stoppage to expend five gallons of petrol ferrying teachers to and from home and school, he applied for reimbursement from the Department, without success.2‘1 By the time he arrived at Princes Hill, he was an ‘old man’, ‘very distant’, and ‘at the end of his career’. His reputation among the students, however, remained ‘formidable’ and ‘awesome’.25 In August 1949, Bell left Princes Hill for Mentone. Ernest Satchell, described as a ‘little man’ who ran the school with fastidious authority, succeeded Bell and stayed for three years before retirement was forced upon him. Although Princes Hill was the last school before his retirement, the Inspectors who assessed the school were impressed by his enthusiasm, ‘dynamic personality’ and ‘insistence on high standards of work and of conduct’.25 The teachers, however, were less enthralled by his somewhat ‘autocratic’ attitudes: he allocated tasks without discussion; he insisted on strict discipline in the classroom; and he expected all the teachers to be capable, making few allowances for those who lacked experience.27 By the time he retired in August 1952, he had spent forty-three years in the service of education.25 Harold G. Smith arrived the next month from Sunshine. Of medium height, bald, with only tufts of hair above his ears, he had a round, friendly, bespectacled face, welcoming students and staff.29 He quickly endeared himself to the school by arranging a holiday on Melbourne Cup Day.5" Friendlier and more approachable than Satchel, Smith happily participated in the staff ’s weekly snooker competition on the school’s billiard table (kept in the staff room). Less concerned with formality and procedure, he happily delegated authority and encouraged teachers to show initiative. His filing cabinet was the nearest available Gladstone bag. During the Olympic Games in Melbourne, Smith rostered groups of teachers off each day so they could attend the games. Student-teachers were left to mind the classes.51 Smith, too, saw out his service with the Department at Princes Hill and retired in December 1957.52 The next principal was Richard Dunstan, who came to Princes Hill from Northcote and commenced on 4 February 1958.55 Not senior enough to gain the Head Teachership of the newly established high school, Dunstan stayed as head of the primary school until the end of 1960 when he transferred to SS 4713 Olympic Village.51 John Alexander replaced him in 1962, and stayed until 1964.55 Their brief stays at Princes Hill set the pattern of occupancy by principals at the Pigdon Street school for the next three decades. Between 1959 and 1989, twenty Principals or Acting Principals have been appointed to Pigdon Street school. Only six Dunstan, Alexander, Adrian Ford (1965-6), A. Bowden (1967-9), Ron Millet (1977-9) and Sue McCall (appointed 1986) have served for two years or more. Seven of the remainder were Acting Principals filling in gaps caused by promotions, transfers, retirements or illness. Where information exists, many of the principals are praised for working diligently and conscientiously for the school’s welfare. But the rapid change of senior personnel disrupted the school. 'The School Council held the Department to blame for the difficulties afflicting the school. There was some substance to their claims that the Department was being short-sighted and inconsiderate. In the early 1970s, the Department had undertaken to maintain stability of staffing at the senior level by appointing one principal and two vice-principals to every school, but Princes Hill Primary School had been left straining without adequate administration and personnel to replace senior teachers who were acting principals during the long illness of principal John Bright. Vice-Principals and Infant Mistresses appointed to the school were then transferred elsewhere, often in midterm, again forcing the school to second senior teaching staff to executive offices.55 In 1983, four principals were appointed to the school within twelve months. According to one teacher who arrived in the midst of the controversy, the school was split politically and educationally into warring camps. Nola Kennett, who was principal in 1983, believes the School Council was intent on appointing its own locally selected principal, and moved to ‘push out’ both herself and her then deputy principa1.57 Neil Watson outlined the School Council’s case for local selection of the principal to the Minister, Mr Fordham. ‘The incumbent principal’, the council argued, ‘appeared incapable of embracing the school’s policy and practices’. The ensuing disruptions, it continued, were proving very costly to the school: public confidence was waning, enrolments were dropping and there was growing concern among parents with deep involvement at the school. The Department’s principle of appointments according to seniority, he continued, was a lottery that exposed schools to a mismatching of personnel and school, phi1osophy.55 In 1986, the School Council’s advocacy of local selection of the principal found favour in the Department, and Sue McCall was appointed principa1.59 She was the first such appointment in Victoria. The picture at the High School was quite different. Bill Johnston, Archibald Gibson and Alleyne Sier all recognised the enormous effort that would be required to forge the new Princes Hill High School into an effective institution.
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