History of Navigators school

given by
Pat Dobbyn from Back to Navigators.

Chapter – 1.

The Catholic School was in existence in July 1867 with an a.a. of 16 boys and 17 girls. This become Common School No 942 under the board of education on 1^st July 1868. HT Mathew Mitchell Bourke stayed until the 30^th April 1969. the a.a. of the common school, was 18 boys, 21 girls in 1868; the school received a government grant of 37 pounds for salary.

On 23^rd of October 1875 DI Philp recommended that a new school be erected ‘at Navigators to take the place of the present (Capitation) school 942’. The department bought from Martin Chair, for 140 pounds, 2 acres ‘situated at the N end of allotment 5, section 19, parish of Warrenheip, together with the buildings thereon’, in 1877. SS1971 Navigators opened on 1^st of November 1877 and school 942 closed. The a.a. in November was 12 children, from a NE of 16. Thomas Clancy was HT to the close of 1880. By 1878 a four-room residence was completed, and the HT took possession at a rental of 15 pounds p.a. This residence was removed in 1884 to SS713 Leigh Creek.

Chapter 2.

In a petition dated 6^th February 1926 for the reaction of a school at Navigators, local residents suggested that ‘St Augustine’s Catholic School could be leased….for a nominal rental”. On 5^th of June 1926 DI Gill recommended that Navigators School be re-established. The empty Catholic was leased at 10 pounds p.a., and the school reopened on the 4^th August 1926 with Grace Tompkins as HT. In September 1926 HT Elizabeth H. Dowling had 17 enrolled. Lease of the Catholic School ceased in October 1947. In October 1947 HT J.M. Horwood and his pupils moved from the leased building into a one-roomed iron roof, wooden classroom from Green Hill, that had been moved from Musk Vale before it served as Green Vale SS1170 (1927-45). By 1952 NE has risen to 29. Teachers after Horwood were: Noel I. McIntosh, Jack W. Eustace and Charlie Bolte. The enrolment fell to 5, and the school closed for a very short period as the parents of pupils and of the per-school children persuaded the department to reopen the school. Harriet Green commenced on 27^th of July 1964. The new classroom was opened by Pearson on 28^th of October 1964. Seventeen children now attended, but with only 8 in 1969 the school’s future again appeared uncertain. The old school building (moved to Musk Vale to Green Hill then to Navigators) had its roof removed in 1966 before it was transported back past Green Hill to the Mt Clear St Marks Church of England grounds to serve as a Hall for Methodist and Church of England denominations.