The Nursery and Kindergarten Centre

The Princes Hill schools have enjoyed a long, friendly and beneficial relationship with the Melbourne City Council. Individual incidents of co-operation include the Council’s donation of trees planted on Arbor Day 1924 at Pigdon Street, its closure or part-closure of several streets around the schools to reduce through traffic in the 1960s and 1980s, and its provision of access to Princes Park to help alleviate the shortage of schoolyard space at Princes Hill Secondary College.

Another lasting co-operative enterprise has been the Nursery and Kindergarten Centre. The Centre, probably the first instance of educational planning and responsibility by any municipal authority in Australia, was opened on 20 November 1929.¹ It evolved from a scheme proposed by the Melbourne City Council’s Health Department to found and support a system of kindergartens throughout its area.²

According to an agreement between the Melbourne City Council and the Education Department, the Council built a largish annexe to the Infant Department at Pigdon Street, while the Education Department supplied the teachers³. The Centre was open to children under the age of four and a half. Intent on representing a cross-section of the community, the kindergarten only accepted children recommended by the Health Department Medical Officers; the school staff had no say in the selection.

Kindergarten Classes at Pigdon Street, c. 1948-9.

Few enrolment records for the kindergarten have survived, but we do know that in 1940, twenty children were enrolled in the Nursery Class under the care of Miss Bennett, and another 34 attended kindergarten under the care of Miss Frier. By 1949, enrolments in the Nursery School had increased to fifty⁴. A nursing sister was also in attendance. Marjorie, who was a student in the late 1930s, remembers Sister Smith, ‘an older woman with white hair, rather tall and slim. She was kind and friendly and we were not in awe of her or scared of her.’ When Marjorie’s own children attended the Health Centre in the 1950s, Marjorie and other mothers assisted the staff with morning lunches.

The years between 1937 and 1944 were difficult for the centre. Closed through staff shortages for all of 1938 and much of 1939⁵, the centre was again closed temporarily during the polio epidemic of 1939.⁶ By 1940, the building had deteriorated to a disgraceful extent. Numerous leaks in the roof had stained and corroded the ceilings;⁷ the building was so dirty that it had to be disinfected.⁸ Staff shortages again closed the kindergarten class in 1942. Two years later, tired of the disruptions, 22 mothers petitioned the Education Department to appoint specialised teachers to the Centre. The constant staff changes, they argued, were harming their children emotionally.⁹

Despite the difficulties, innumerable visitors came to observe this unique centre in operation. Indeed, the number of visitors could sometimes get out of hand. During 1948, more than 300 groups visited Pigdon Street. These included the Mothercraft Nurses from the Kindergarten Training College at Kew, Social Service Students, Psychology Students, Departmental and non-Departmental training students, Kindergarten training students, Infant Mistresses, educationalists and social workers.¹⁰

The Class for the Partially Sighted

On 6 October 1941, the first class for partially sighted children in Victoria was opened at Pigdon Street.¹¹ Its antecedents lay in the Victorian Asylum and School for the Blind, which was founded in 1867 and registered as Primary Special School SS 3778 in 1906. Amendments to the Education Act in 1890 and 1912 provided for the care of physically handicapped, feeble-minded, deaf, dumb and blind children within the state school system.¹² The Class for Partially Sighted children at Pigdon Street was a special project of George Osborne, then Assistant Chief Inspector of Primary Schools. In 1943, he formed a special course to train teachers for Opportunity Grades and Special Schools. Students studied psychology, the education of the handicapped child, art and handwork, speech and reading aids, and did a case study of a handicapped child, as well as visiting various special schools for teaching experience.¹³

Children enrolled in the Partially Sighted Class were those whose sight had not deteriorated to the point of blindness, requiring training with braille, but whose sight was too severely impaired for normal classroom participation. The children were recommended by the Departmental Medical Officer, who visited and examined the children’s sight and hearing every term. A number of children-were also given psychological examinations by the Department’s Psychology and Guidance Branch. Students came from all parts of Metropolitan Melbourne (one boy lived in Brighton) and, when necessary, the Department paid the tram fares.¹⁴

The first class comprised five students under the temporary care of Mrs Ellen Webb. In 1941, she was replaced by Miss Lydia Checcucci who remained at Pigdon Street for eleven years and became the backbone of the Partially Sighted ‘Class programme. Miss Checcucci was not provided with adequate resources for her task. She had no specialised training, nor professional guidance, nor suitable reading material, nor specialised equipment. Her only relevant training was teaching in multi-age rural schools in the Mallee and Bairnsdale. Like the rural schools, the Class for Partially Sighted Children was made up of children of varying ages, from grades 1 to 8.¹⁵

In time, the Department took steps to provide equipment that would reduce the strain on children’s sight. Desks with sloping tops were provided so that children would not need to bend when writing. Green blackboards and yellow chalk were introduced for better visibility, and fluorescent lights were fitted along the top of the blackboards for better illumination. Books with large print were preferred and, whenever she could, Miss Checcucci would borrow a special typewriter with larger than normal print from the Institute for the Blind to prepare reading material for the children.¹⁶

The curriculum was the same as that taught in Victorian primary schools. It fitted the Department’s wish that partially blind children should, whenever possible, return to normal classrooms to continue their education¹⁷. Some of the readers used included Richard Jefferies’ Brook Folk, R. L. Stevenson’s A Night Among the Pines and Treasure Island, Jerome K. Jerome’s Packing and Coal-Bay, The Outlaw Horse and other animal stories, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe.¹⁸ Clay modelling, drawing, listening to music and spelling based on phonetic exercises were regular aspects of the day’s work. Particular attention was paid to elocution and speech, concentrating on proper ‘vowel-sounds, which Miss Checcucci believed would help to raise the children’s self-esteem.” The Physical Education Department devised special exercises for the children. ²⁰

By 1949, when the Department was considering setting up ‘a similar grade in the southern suburbs, enrolments in the Partially Sighted Class at Pigdon Street had reached thirteen, and by 1959, the class numbered 26.²¹ Overcrowding at Pigdon Street in 1950 and 1951 briefly placed the Class for the Partially Sighted under threat. Forced to turn away children, the school was finding it difficult to allocate a classroom to the Partially Sighted Class.²²

The Class for the Partially Sighted was located in the classroom on the left-hand side of the Pidgon Street entrance, before the hall. Despite staff efforts to integrate the children into the normal fabric of the school by including them in the morning assemblies and other activities, at playtime the children remained segregated from the rest of the students. Most of the partially sighted children were older and bigger than the other students, because in the 1940s the school only accommodated children up to grade 2. The size, age, careful actions and thick glasses of the partially sighted children set them apart; they were forced to keep to themselves, attracting nicknames such as ‘the blindies’ from the other students.²³ In 1961, the Class for Partially Sighted children was moved from Pigdon Street to Carronbank, Kew, which was registered as SS 4883. By then, the class had 34 pupils and four staff.²⁴

The Saturday School of Modern Languages The Saturday School of Modern Languages at Princes Hill High School has contributed significantly to language education in Victoria. It commenced at Princes Hill in May 1966, when classes at the neighbouring Errol Street Primary School and University High School had filled to capacity. Currently, similar language schools are also run at Oakleigh Primary School, Brunswick, Box Hill, Chadstone, Maribyrnong and University High Schools and Latvian House.

Since opening, the Saturday School of Modern Languages at Princes Hill has grown enormously, both in enrolments and in the number of languages taught. At its peak, between 1973 and 1975, more than 1200 students were enrolled at Princes Hill and every available classroom was being used. On occasions, students were refused a place because of unavailable space. To alleviate the pressure, the largest subject, Modern Greek, was transferred to Brunswick High School.²⁵

The School of Modern Languages was introduced by the Education Department in 1933 to provide language instruction not normally offered in schools. Having commenced with Italian and Japanese, the language schools now offer tuition in 25 languages. Many new languages were introduced in the 1970s. At Princes Hill, languages studied include Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, German, Hungarian, Italian, Latin, Lithuanian, Modern Greek (until moved to Brunswick), Polish and Turkish. In 1973, courses were broadened to permit language study from years 7 to 12.

Since its beginnings at Princes Hill, the Saturday School of Modern Languages has been supervised by B. Warren, Burnie Rhymer, Emile Hamer and Frank Merlino.

Princes Hill’s Saturday School of Modern Languages has attracted attention for its innovative and successful language teaching. The school has developed curricula that are now widely used in Victoria and interstate, and has achieved excellent academic results. In 1988, the Saturday School of Modern Languages was rewarded with a new name, the Victorian School of Languages, and was given the authority and responsibilities of a state school, complete A with its own School Council, financial responsibility and determination of curriculum policy.²⁶

Princes Hill School Park Centre

In 1973, Alleyne Sier and Frank Keenan, Director of Parks and Gardens of the Melbourne City Council, realised a unique project at Princes Hill. Following amendments to the Youth, Sport and Recreation Act in 1973, which permitted the use of schools for community purposes, they won the support of the Minister for Youth, Sport and Recreation, Brian Dixon, and opened the schools as an after—hours community centre, known as the Princes Hill School Park Centre.²⁷

The Princes Hill School Park Centre incorporates the Primary School, Secondary College and the Melbourne City Council. Its constitution sets out the aims of the Centre, the rights of use, and roles of the Director, the Management and Coordinating Committees representing the schools, the Melbourne City Council, the Department of Youth, Sport and Recreation, the Carlton Association and the Centre.

Aiming to enhance the sense of community, the Princes Hill Park Centre provides space and opportunities for neighbourhood residents of all age groups to participate in physical, cultural, social, educational and recreational activities. Although the constitution refers to participants being residents within the neighbourhood of the schools, ‘users come from Princes‘ Hill, Carlton, North‘ Carlton, Parkville, South Brunswick and sections of Fitzroy.²⁸ The school buildings, the arts and crafts centres, the theatre, the gymnasium and the park are available to participants. In‘ the past, these facilities have been used for film screenings, for theatrical, musical and dance performances, and to offer tuition in such varied courses as ceramics, microwave cookery, computers, French polishing, yoga, aerobics and evening language classes for adults.²⁹

Today, the Princes Hill Park Centre has a wide network of affiliated groups, including the North Carlton Station Community House, North Carlton Residents’ Association, Carlton Community Welfare Group, Carlton Youth Services Group, Princes Hill Primary School Parents’ Club, St Michael’s Anglican Church, Mirimbah Country Centre, Princes Hill Tennis Club, Princes Hill Junior Amateur Football Club, One-C-One and the Kay Gee’s gymnasium.