Back to school back then
If your kids are moaning about going back to school, perhaps show them what life was like back in the day.
Slate tablets, blotting paper, gym knickers... ah the good old days at school.
Who remembers being stood in the corner facing the wall if you talked? Or perhaps you can recall marching into the classroom or sharing a tin pannikin of water at the school tank?
Early days
In the early days, children sat in rows on wooden benches at long desks facing the teacher. Slates and slate pencils were the basic equipment for the younger students. The advantage of slates over paper was that they could be wiped clean and used again and again.
Children had to bring a cloth or sponge to school to clean the slate so they could begin again, but often some would use their own spit and their sleeve cuff.
As pupils became more proficient, school “copybooks” were provided for writing practice. They used nibbed pens and blotting paper which was used to absorb excess ink and dry the surface of the work to avoid smudges. Later, ball point pens took over from pen and ink style writing.
School sports
Break-up and sports days were attended by the whole community and a school picnic to the river or beach was met with excitement by the children of the district.
Teachers
Teachers were posted to small country bush schools in places they had never heard of and there was a high teacher turnover at remote schools as many found it quite challenging.
Hunchy School, which opened in 1924, had 19 head teachers in the 46 years it existed.
Teachers had to find lodgings in the area, perhaps at a farmhouse, which if they were city bred could be pretty daunting.
If staying some distance from the school, they might have to travel to and from by horse over rough bush tracks or even cross a river by boat. Falls from horses were not uncommon, but as roads improved, the journeys to school became less hazardous.
Getting to school
Getting to and from school was an adventure for the children and teachers alike. For many years schools allocated a portion of the grounds to be set aside for a horse or pony paddock.
When the younger children started school, mothers would walk them part way along the bush roads. Those reluctant to go would wait until mother had turned her back and then follow her home at a distance.
By comparison with their early predecessors, most of the Sunshine Coast’s children of today will travel to school in modern buses and over sealed roads.
Sunshine Coast Heritage
Discover many interesting and memorable stories about the history of the people and places of the Sunshine Coast on Council's Heritage website.
Picture Sunshine Coast is a database of more than 29,000 images that depict the history and development of the Sunshine Coast.
They are an excellent source for local history research, school assignments and for people wanting to see how the Coast looked in the "old days". The images can be viewed and printed from the Sunshine Coast Libraries catalogue.