Open/Close Toolbox
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand License
Format: Image
Linked To
Organisation
Map
Copyright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand LicenseThis licence lets you remix, tweak, and build upon our work noncommercially and although your new works must also acknowledge us and be noncommercial, you do not have to license the derivative works on the same terms.
Menu
The (Upper) Selwyn School Committee - First 20 years
Description
TitleThe (Upper) Selwyn School Committee - First 20 years
DescriptionUntil the passing of the 1877 Act, when public schools became “free, compulsory and secular” one of the first jobs that a school committee had to do was to set the fees so that the school had the money to provide for one-sixth of the cost of repairs or new items. The Government paid the rest.
At Selwyn, the fees were set at sixpence weekly for pupils within the school district and for those outside 5 shillings quarterly, payable in advance.
Under the law, the Committee was to hold householders’ meetings annually to elect a committee for the year. The Committee elected the chairman who also looked after the finances. The number of meetings ranged around 6-12 per year.
The Committee selected the teachers but had to get approval from the Board of Education. The teachers they were able to appoint in the first 20 years were a mixed bag. Many only stayed for a short time. One was too fond of alcohol, another received a bad report from the inspectors.
During the period of higher pupil numbers, the school employed a master and a mistress. At times there was also a need for a part-time sewing teacher, sometimes the wife of the master.
The annual report of the inspectors was very important and the committee considered it seriously.
Many of the tasks the Committee organised involved cleaning the classroom and toilets, repairs and maintenance to the buildings and grounds.
Initially, they arranged for a well, built fences, planted trees and hedges, and trimmed them. Buying coal was an annual event.
The Committee was able to buy 2 extra acres to add to the school grounds and they spent some of their own money buying prizes for the children.
One of the tasks of the Committee was to set the holidays. Usually a winter holiday, a short Christmas holiday, and then when the crops were ready to harvest, a longer holiday so that the children could help with the harvest.
Sometimes there was a break after the inspectors had been and days off for race day.
At times the notice given to parents was very short, e.g. at a meeting on the 23 December 1885 it was decided that the Christmas break would run from December 24 to January 4th. Presumably, the Chairman sent an email to parents immediately after the meeting.
While only one teacher and one classroom was needed in 1871, Mackie in his book “South of the Selwyn” 1979, contends that by 1874, the number of pupils had increased and a second teacher and therefore second classroom was needed. The photograph accompanying this article shows the two classrooms built in the same way that the Brookside School was extended. Some mystery surrounds this second classroom as a search of the committee minutes for a resolution and the newspapers for advertisements for tenders for this addition, was not successful.
The school was built before Dunsandel started and was a distance west of the town. The town folk wanted a school in the town and pushed to have it established near the railway line. The Committee fearful that a town school would rob the Selwyn School of pupils, resisted the move and eventually got the Board of Education to place it a distance to the east of Dunsandel.
Mike Noonan,
Dunsandel Historic Society
Date4 March 2021SourceThe Ellesmere EchoLocationUpper Selwyn
DescriptionUntil the passing of the 1877 Act, when public schools became “free, compulsory and secular” one of the first jobs that a school committee had to do was to set the fees so that the school had the money to provide for one-sixth of the cost of repairs or new items. The Government paid the rest. At Selwyn, the fees were set at sixpence weekly for pupils within the school district and for those outside 5 shillings quarterly, payable in advance.
Under the law, the Committee was to hold householders’ meetings annually to elect a committee for the year. The Committee elected the chairman who also looked after the finances. The number of meetings ranged around 6-12 per year.
The Committee selected the teachers but had to get approval from the Board of Education. The teachers they were able to appoint in the first 20 years were a mixed bag. Many only stayed for a short time. One was too fond of alcohol, another received a bad report from the inspectors.
During the period of higher pupil numbers, the school employed a master and a mistress. At times there was also a need for a part-time sewing teacher, sometimes the wife of the master.
The annual report of the inspectors was very important and the committee considered it seriously.
Many of the tasks the Committee organised involved cleaning the classroom and toilets, repairs and maintenance to the buildings and grounds.
Initially, they arranged for a well, built fences, planted trees and hedges, and trimmed them. Buying coal was an annual event.
The Committee was able to buy 2 extra acres to add to the school grounds and they spent some of their own money buying prizes for the children.
One of the tasks of the Committee was to set the holidays. Usually a winter holiday, a short Christmas holiday, and then when the crops were ready to harvest, a longer holiday so that the children could help with the harvest.
Sometimes there was a break after the inspectors had been and days off for race day.
At times the notice given to parents was very short, e.g. at a meeting on the 23 December 1885 it was decided that the Christmas break would run from December 24 to January 4th. Presumably, the Chairman sent an email to parents immediately after the meeting.
While only one teacher and one classroom was needed in 1871, Mackie in his book “South of the Selwyn” 1979, contends that by 1874, the number of pupils had increased and a second teacher and therefore second classroom was needed. The photograph accompanying this article shows the two classrooms built in the same way that the Brookside School was extended. Some mystery surrounds this second classroom as a search of the committee minutes for a resolution and the newspapers for advertisements for tenders for this addition, was not successful.
The school was built before Dunsandel started and was a distance west of the town. The town folk wanted a school in the town and pushed to have it established near the railway line. The Committee fearful that a town school would rob the Selwyn School of pupils, resisted the move and eventually got the Board of Education to place it a distance to the east of Dunsandel.
Mike Noonan,
Dunsandel Historic Society
Date4 March 2021SourceThe Ellesmere EchoLocationUpper SelwynConnections
CollectionHistory of the (Upper) Selwyn SchoolOrganisationDunsandel Historic SocietyEvent150th Anniversary opening (Upper) Selwyn School
OrganisationDunsandel Historic SocietyEvent150th Anniversary opening (Upper) Selwyn SchoolAttribution
Researched ByMike NoonanWritten ByMike Noonan
Written ByMike NoonanClick on the image to add
a tag or press ESC to cancel
a tag or press ESC to cancel
loading google map....
The (Upper) Selwyn School Committee - First 20 years (4 March 2021). Selwyn Stories, accessed 26/07/2026, https://selwynstories.selwynlibraries.co.nz/nodes/view/5247