Original School Building

Parent Place or Precinct

25834 East Claremont Primary School Heritage Area

Statement of Significance

Considerable Contribution: high degree of authenticity and integral to the function.

Physical Description

Single storey, face brick with a corrugated iron gable roof.

History

The former East Claremont Primary School was built in 1905 in the grounds of the 1897 Claremont Teachers' College as a practicing school for the students at the college. Other schools in the Perth, Fremantle, Claremont and Cottesloe areas were already used for practice, but Bill Rooney, College Principal, argued that '…no Training College can be regarded as properly equipped that has not an adjunct school for practice...' The Practicing (Prac) School was opened on 17 July 1905, located in the northeast corner of the College grounds. It comprised a double-gabled building with three classrooms, two short verandahs and a lean-to office. It opened with an enrolment of 100 local children.

An Infants' Classroom and a Rural School classroom were added by 1913. The Rural School classroom provided a training course for teachers for the growing rural population where a school of a dozen children could include ages 5 to 14. The Rural School had its own head teacher and it and the Main School to all intents operated as two separate schools. Training College students attended Prac for one week in their first year and six weeks in their second year. Demonstration lessons were held at the Prac School and children were taken to the College for criticism lessons once a week. In 1917, the Prac had a staff of seven. It was considered the top primary school in the State by the late 1920s, due to the work of Bill Rooney (principal of the College until 1927), T.J. Milligan (head-master until 1928) and Charles Greenlaw Hamilton, who succeeded Milligan.

The Depression resulted in a surplus of trained teachers and the College closed at the end of 1931. The Prac School became East Claremont Primary School. When the Teachers' College reopened in July 1934 the Prac resumed its original function. Because the Prac School trained new teachers, its own teaching staff was selected from among the best teachers in the State and the School was popular with both parents and children. As a result, overcrowding continued to be an issue. In 1940, there were 212 children in the five rooms of the Main School and 24 in the Rural School. Boundaries for intake were set by the Education Department to control enrolments. In the early 1950s, part of the playground was taken up with transportable classrooms to cater to the baby boom and the extra teachers needed throughout the state. By the end of 1953, Graylands Teachers' College had opened and the teacher-practicing load was spread over schools throughout the metropolitan area. Despite an initial announcement that the Prac School would become an ordinary Primary School, it continued in its original purpose. In 1975, the Rural School closed and the classroom became part of the Main School.

From the 1970s, other Teachers' Colleges became more competitive for students and the Prac School was in danger of being closed. Lobbying from the P & C gained a reprieve, and after drawing on the assistance of the Premier Sir Charles Court, who was a patron of the school, two classrooms were added. In 1985, the Prac celebrated its 80th birthday with the release of a history of the school, written by headmaster Michael Berson. Upgrading and enlarging of the school continued in the 1980s and early 1990s, when a new wing comprising three classrooms and a library was added, but the threat of closure continued to hang over the school.

At the end of the 2010 school year, the Practical School closed and students began 2011 at the refurbished Claremont Primary School, which was renamed Freshwater Bay Primary School as part of the amalgamation process.

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