Difference between revisions of "Grace Plains School"

Revision as of 06:25, 16 March 2012

Grace Plains School is recorded to have originated in the Methodist church when it opened in 1868.

One source states that about 1872 a day school was opened with about 60 children attending, and the first teacher was Mr Adams who owned a block of land in the area, while another asserts that the first teacher was Elizabeth Morgan who commenced duties in 1894 with an average attendance of 56

An additional source has the list of teachers commencing with Samuel Myers to Ellen Cullinan and the list of teachers reflects the corrections.

From 1919 to 1928 the schoolteacher was Mr Frank W. Ray and about 25-30 students attended.

Subjects taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, drawing, sewing for the girls and woodwork for the boys. Children would walk to school or ride or drive ponies. For morning assembly a whistle was blown, the children lined up, and the teacher checked for clean hands and fingernails. The flag was raised and the children saluted the flag. The children were seated in long desks seating six to eight pupils, and any child who misbehaved had to stand out in front with his or her back to the class.

Children attended until they were 14, some repeating grade 7 to bring them to this age while others attended colleges in Adelaide. A few attended the newly established Balaklava High School, boarding in Balaklava during the week. Miss Nell Tiller was the first Grace Plains girl to attend the new high school.

In 1969 Grace Plains School closed down, the last teacher being Miss Patricia Beinke.

There were 10 students at the school who continued their education at the Mallala school.

Teachers at Grace Plains were:

• Samuel Archibald Myers
• Alexander Lawson   1866 to 1875
• Thomas Adams       1873 to 1883
• Margaret Manning    1886
• Miss Elizabeth M. Morgan from 1894 to 1899
• Miss Blanche Olave St Barbe Ayliffe (1900-1908)
• Jane Kennedy (1909)
• Miss Jessie I. Bowden (1910 -1913)
• Jack James (1914-1915)
• Victor J. Mazzarol (1916-1917
• Ellen Dorothy Cullinan  (1917)
• Thomas M.G. Cameron (1918)
• Frank W. Ray (1919-1928)
• May D. James (1929)
• Walter E.R. Tiller (1930-1932)
• Harold E. Schultz (1933-1944)
• Murray A. Penna. (part-time 1944 and 1945)
• Walter J. Dunlop (1945-1949)
• Clifford G. Jarvis (1950-1964)
• Christopher Keyes (1965-1968)

and in 1969 at time of closure the teacher was Miss Patricia Beinke

There is an acknowledgment of the school Grace Plains North and the following were teachers

• 1883 Henry Spondly
• 1884 Margaret Manning
• 1885 Margaret Manning

Sources

• Mallala Museum research notes
• Life around the Light: A history of the Mallala District Council area. compiled by Two Wells. Mallala and District History Book Committee. Community Development Board of the District Council of Mallala (Mallala. S. Aust.) 1985.

Grace Plains School, South Australia,

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Grace Plains School

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