North Perth Primary School

Statement of Significance

North Perth Primary School and School of Instrumental Music, the former Woodville School, has continued to be the central educational facility for the area for over a century and its history has reflected that of the area, with its generational changes and varying levels of ethnicity. Goonderup, the adjacent open space, celebrates the Aboriginal background and pioneering Europeans of the state. Over the past decade the School for Instrumental Music, located in the former Infants’ School, has provided a specialised facility for music teachers.

Physical Description

The main building is red face brick with rendered bands at sill and head height. The windows are evenly spaced in groups along each of the long walls. The Infants' School was developed in 1921 in an Interwar Contemporary style of red brick dado, render above and tiled roofs, with paired double hung window sashes wider than Federation period sashes. The rest of the building comprises single storey buildings including a brick pavilion with small weatherboard building attached, and a timber framed pavilion. All the buildings have gable roofs. The walls are predominantly dado weatherboard with a asbestos above, with full weatherboard walls on the gable ends and lean to enclosures. The weatherboards are painted. The windows are evenly spaced along the sides of the building. All the windows are double hung sashes. The former Junior Primary School (originally the Infants' School) has now been adapted to function as the School of Instrumental Music. Goonderup forms an extension of the school grounds, which provides a centrally located open space for the local community. Setback from street space - grassed and planted in garden beds. Plantings screen views of the place. Paved and landscaped courtyards between the buildings. There has been considerable incremental adaptation to the original building, however the character of the original has been respected.

History

North Perth Primary School was opened on 30 January 1899 as Woodville School, with 131 students and 3 staff. The original building comprised two main classrooms, divided by an iron shutter. One room was 35ft x 22 ft and the other 26ft x 22 ft. The school was renamed North Perth School by 1904. The rapidly developing area meant that the school needed to be enlarged on a number of occasions in the early years of its existence, including in 1902, 1904, 1909, 1913 and 1924. The North Perth Town Lesser Hall was used for overflow classes. In 1921, there were 861 pupils and 18 staff. The following year, the Infants' School opened in a set of pavilion rooms, with an enrolment of 226 pupils and 4 staff. The Infants' School catered for Grades 1-3, and was later known as North Perth Junior Primary. The girl pupils at North Perth Primary walked to Leederville School for home science classes and the boys walked to Highgate School for manual arts lessons. Two blocks on Albert street were set aside as an extra school site and, in 1943, this ground was leveled and planted with grass to create a sports oval. The area was named Goonderup, an Aboriginal word for 'meeting place', and trees were planted around the perimeter, each dedicated to the memory of a pioneer of the State, including Stirling, Clifton, Lockyer, Fairbridge, Salvado, Weld, O'Connor, Dampier, Forrest, Roe, Monger and Grey. Children were chosen as guardians of a particular tree and a Goonderup Day ceremony was held each year until 1956. In 1971, there were 450-480 students in Grades 4-7. In 1975, because of its high ethnic enrolment, the school was classified as 'disadvantaged'. Two ESL (English as a second language) teachers were appointed and special programmes developed. The School was renovated in the second half of the 1970s, with a new administration area, library and staff room, and refurbishment of all classrooms. Goonderup was enlarged, requiring the removal of some houses, and Olive Street was closed to through traffic. Pre-primary classes opened in 1978, in a partitioned-off section of the Junior Primary library. A transportable building was later provided as a pre-primary centre. In 1990, as enrolment numbers declined, the Junior Primary school was incorporated into the main school, and the Junior Primary (former Infants) building was modified to house the School of Instrumental Music (SIM), the Education Department's section for music teachers. The Junior Primary library was taken over for the pre-primary centre.

Integrity/Authenticity

High degree

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This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.