Coburg Primary School - The beginnings

Our story begins during the Victorian gold rush in the 1850s when Coburg was a small, rural village called Pentridge. In those days, cattle and sheep grazed on land and farmers grew cereal crops in fields that later became housing.

Back then, the older children who normally attended classes at the school were kept home over the summer months to help their parents harvest the wheat, barley or oats or to pick fruit and gather crops of vegetables, particularly potatoes. Most of the produce was loaded onto horse drawn carts and driven south along Sydney Road to the Melbourne markets.

These were exciting times for a child growing up in Melbourne. There were lots of new inventions and the rural town was rapidly transforming into a thriving city.

Many of the first students of the school lived on small farms. Homes were usually a three or four roomed wooden house with no running water or proper sanitation. Candles were used for lighting, and fireplaces provided heating and a place to cook.

Children everywhere across Victoria, would have heard all about the latest discoveries of gold and many families thought about moving to the diggings at Ballarat or Bendigo.

Many of the people living in Pentridge were migrants and had come from England and Ireland. There were also some migrants from Scotland, Western Europe, America and China.

Many prisoners or convicts moved to Pentridge when the infamous Pentridge Stockade began in late 1850. A prison had been built in Pentridge! Many locals were very upset. They were terrified that the prisoners might escape and terrorise their homes. Some people tried to have the prison shut down, but it was too late! Prisoners from the over-crowded Melbourne Gaol were sent to Pentridge Stockade.

In 1853 it was decided that a National school would be opened in Pentridge. National Schools provided an education for all children regardless of their social or religious background.

 

Coburg State School c.1874
Copyright. Coburg Historical Society

A new school was founded on Monday 2^nd May 1853 on Bell Street – the Pentridge National School, which was to later be named Coburg Primary School!

Classes were originally taught in a large tent with bench seating, blackboards, maps and books. The first headmaster’s name was Mr William Bryant. He was the only teacher at the school at the time and he lived in a tent nearby.

After about three months in the tent, a wooden school house was built and opened in July 1853. It would have been very cold in the tent in winter! Back at that time there were separate schools for boys and girls. The boys section of the wooden schoolhouse was opened first. Mrs Elizabeth Morgan joined the school in August 1853 as the first headmistress of Pentridge National School and the girls’ school was opened!

School would begin at 9am with roll call, then an inspection of the children to check their cleanliness. The students would then recite prayers. As long as the weather was fine, this all happened outside.

By 9:15am all students would be seated and the teaching of subjects would begin – reading and explanation, tables, arithmetic, geometry, spelling and writing, grammar and geography. Girls would normally learn sewing, knitting, mending and needlework.

At 12noon the students may have gone home to have their lunch.

At the beginning of the afternoon session, students would again recite prayers and there would be another roll call. Students then used their slate and slate pencils or lined paper and quills for the older students. School would end at 4 o’clock.

In 1862 the school became Bell Street Common School and in 1872 it was changed again to Coburg State School. The school became Coburg Primary School in 1971 and there were over 700 students.



Students and teacher c.1902
Copyright. Coburg Historical Society

In 2013 there are over 200 students at Coburg Primary School from a variety of cultural backgrounds. It is a place with a very rich history…where learning, friendship and fun are at the centre of everything we do…where there is a strong community involvement…where individual differences are celebrated and where great friendships and memories are created.
Happy birthday Coburg Primary School!



Empire Day - 24 May 1907
Copyright. Coburg Historical Society