Introduction
Fifty-five Australian school stories were published between 1875 and the 1960s. A number of factors influenced the small number of Australian school stories published in comparison to the British genre including the prevalence of British imported fiction in the Australian book-selling market and the slow development of Australian publishing. The first Australian school story appeared in 1875, with Robert Richardson’s The Boys’ of Springdale, or, The Strength of Patience. Though The Boys’ of Springdale was written after Tom Brown’s Schooldays, it and Richardson’s later stories bear only a slight resemblance to it. They are set in small private schools, not a large public school like Rugby. Richardson’s own schooling experience at Sydney Grammar School preceded the Australian implementation of public school ideas from the 1870s. Nonetheless in plot and character terms Richardson’s stories do borrow somewhat from Hughes’ novel in the moral reform of the characters.
In the late 1890s two girls’ school stories were published, but it was not until 1913 that another girls’ school story appeared and 1916 for a boys’ school story. Every year from 1916 to 1930 (except for 1922 and 1926) at least one Australian school story was published. The long gap and the subsequent rapid growth from the 1910s is explained by Martin Crotty as occurring for three main reasons: public schools were enjoying an increased public profile particularly through sporting competitions; there was an increasing demand for and rise in production of Australian nationalist literatures; and lastly the impact of the First World War and the Anzac experience with its notions of Australian heroism could be used by authors in their stories (104).
The existence of public schools, which provided the models and settings for the stories, had been steadily growing, so that by 1918 each church generally had at least one girls’ and one boys’ school in the state’s capital cities and major regional areas (Sherington 37). The 1910s and 1920s marked the golden era of Australian school stories with 25 stories in total. The Australian experience parallels a similar explosion in growth for the British genre. British publishers, through their Australian branches, were publishing more Australian school stories. In addition local publishing firms began to publish school stories, all offering increased opportunities for authors. Ward, Lock & Co., published 11 out of the 25 school stories published between 1913 and 1930. Key authors during this period included Lillian Pyke, who wrote 7 school stories in total, Constance Mackness, a Headmistress, and members of the Turner Circle: Ethel Turner, Lilian Turner and D Lindsay Thompson (Lilian’s son). Some authors merged school stories with mystery and adventure plots. From 1930 to 1944 only 4 school stories were published. The Depression and the impact of the Second World War with its paper restrictions are two factors which influenced this scarcity. Following the end of the Second World War, a revival occurred in Australia school stories. Some characteristics of the stories published during this period were that they are series based, evangelist and mostly girls’ stories. Three key authors were responsible for the majority of the output: Anne Bracken (Jancy series), co-writers Paul White and David Britten (Ranford series) and most significantly Dora Joan Potter who wrote 8 school stories, including the Winterton series.
Australian Boys’ School Stories: ‘Growing up with the public school spirit’
The majority of Australian boys’ school stories were set in either public schools or private venture schools, with only a few exceptions, including two stories set in Catholic schools. As stated earlier, the first Australian school stories, by Robert Richardson, were set in small private venture day and boarding schools. In Richardson’s stories the school is run and owned by the Headmaster who is assisted by several masters. In the majority of his stories the school extends only to the Fourth Form, with the eldest boys being about fourteen years of age. The exception is Our Junior Mathematical Master which does have a Sixth Form. The schools are small: Grange House in A Perilous Errand has 20 pupils, whilst there are 40 pupils including 12 boarders in The Boys of Springdale. These types of small private venture schools run by individuals which provided a basic further education were very common. In 1838 there were 67 private venture schools in New South Wales, by 1867 there were 67 boys’ and 96 girls’ secondary private venture schools (Barcan A Short History of Education in New South Wales 75 & 159).
The first Australian school story to be set in a public school was Lillian Pyke’s Max the Sport (1916), set at St. Virgil’s, a fictional public school, although Mary Grant Bruce’s novel, Dick (1918), which was set in a public school, had been published earlier in a serial format in The Leader. Though many Australian private schools faithfully emulated the English public school model their development and subsequent characteristics differed in a number of ways. The first corporate secondary school was the Australian College. established in Sydney in 1831. With the establishment of the University of Sydney in 1852 and the University of Melbourne in 1855, more advanced secondary schools were needed. The Victorian government led the way offering grants to establish grammar schools. The first of these, Scotch College, was established in 1851, followed by St. Patrick’s in 1854, Geelong Grammar in 1857, and Melbourne Church of England Grammar in 1858.
In the 1860s to 1880s new schools were established in other states by churches. Typically the pattern of development that emerged in each state was that each denomination established a boys’ school in each of the capital cities then in the major regional areas. Whereas in England trusts, charities and companies established schools, in Australia this rarely occurred, with the majority of schools established by the denominations including the Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches.
These new schools did not really resemble British public schools in their early years. Prior to 1872, no Australian boys’ school had implemented more than one or two elements of the Arnold public school system (Sherington 30). They had not adopted the whole machinery of the public school ethos. The adoption of the public school ethos began in earnest first in Melbourne, in an Anglican school, Melbourne Grammar, then in two other schools. Three Headmasters played a vital role in its initial execution. Edward Morris, Headmaster of Melbourne Grammar from April 1875, who had been a pupil at Rugby; Wesley’s Headmaster, Henry Arew, from 1876, and James Cuthbertson at Geelong Grammar in 1874 (Sherington 47). Morris established prefects, a school magazine, a school flag and an Old Boys’ Society at Melbourne Grammar School (Barcan 127). The system then spread to Sydney and other states, first appearing in Anglican schools, then other Protestant schools, then lastly Catholic schools, taking roughly forty years to be universally implemented (Sherington 41-47). In New South Wales, Sydney Grammar School, first under Headmaster Bean, then Weigall, started a cadet corps, magazine, sports, and prefects (Sherington 47, Barcan 127 187).
Organised games appeared at Anglican schools first because they came from English public school teachers who had been imported from Britain (Sherington 50). Gradually most boys’ schools instigated organised games, prefects, uniforms, houses, formed sporting competitions, and constructed school identity and school spirit, and implemented the public school honour code. One of the differences between Australian and British schools was that Australian schools were mostly day schools, not boarding schools, and local institutions rather than national schools drawing pupils from across the country (Sherington 40).
The adoption of public school ideals first occurred in Melbourne and the first school stories set in public schools were set in Melbourne also. Three of Pyke’s boys’ school stories were set at the fictional Melbourne public school, St. Virgil’s, and embody the public school spirit. Pyke attributed her sense of public school spirit to Wesley College Headmaster L. A. Adamson, dedicating her second boys’ school story, Jack of St. Virgil’s, to him: "to whose teaching I am indebted for whatever understanding of the "public school spirit" I may have acquired" (7). Pyke had been educated at University High School where L. A. Adamson taught before he was appointed Headmaster of Wesley. St. Virgil’s is a thinly disguised version of Wesley College. The Headmaster, Mr Thompson, ‘The Chief’, is based on Adamson. St. Virgil’s has royal blue and gold for its colours based on Wesley’s purple and gold, and uses Wesley’s ‘Leaving Song.’ In the last two books St. Virgil’s competes against six other public schools in sporting competitions: St Andrews (based on Scotch College), St Joseph’s (Xavier), Victorian Grammar (Melbourne Grammar), Western District Grammar (Geelong Grammar), and Mervale College (Geelong College) (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 157). In Jack of St. Virgil’s, Jack is surprised to find St. Virgil’s different from his expectations, which are based upon British school stories. Pyke explains this by stating that in a new country like Australia it was possible to "choose what is best in the Public School system, rejecting those traditions which perhaps tend to conventionality" (132). Pyke asserted that only the best aspects of the public school system were adopted and the boys received more freedom and developed a strong sense of self-government. While Lillian Pyke wrote four boys’ school stories, other female authors also wrote boys’ school stories, including Mary Grant Bruce, Mavis Thorpe Clark and Hilda Bridges.
The value of a public school education is echoed in M. R. Clark’s Hatherly’s First Fifteen by Bob who is looking forward to accompanying his brother to Hatherly for just one term, which in his opinion "will be worth a lifetime" (209). In R. G. Jennings’ The Human Pedagogue the hero’s father is determined to send his son to an Australian public school, despite losing his wealth, because he has a high regard for the education public schools provide:
The first Australian school story to be set in a public school was Lillian Pyke’s Max the Sport (1916), set at St. Virgil’s, a fictional public school, although Mary Grant Bruce’s novel, Dick (1918), which was set in a public school, had been published earlier in a serial format in The Leader. Though many Australian private schools faithfully emulated the English public school model their development and subsequent characteristics differed in a number of ways. The first corporate secondary school was the Australian College. established in Sydney in 1831. With the establishment of the University of Sydney in 1852 and the University of Melbourne in 1855, more advanced secondary schools were needed. The Victorian government led the way offering grants to establish grammar schools. The first of these, Scotch College, was established in 1851, followed by St. Patrick’s in 1854, Geelong Grammar in 1857, and Melbourne Church of England Grammar in 1858.
In the 1860s to 1880s new schools were established in other states by churches. Typically the pattern of development that emerged in each state was that each denomination established a boys’ school in each of the capital cities then in the major regional areas. Whereas in England trusts, charities and companies established schools, in Australia this rarely occurred, with the majority of schools established by the denominations including the Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist churches.
These new schools did not really resemble British public schools in their early years. Prior to 1872, no Australian boys’ school had implemented more than one or two elements of the Arnold public school system (Sherington 30). They had not adopted the whole machinery of the public school ethos. The adoption of the public school ethos began in earnest first in Melbourne, in an Anglican school, Melbourne Grammar, then in two other schools. Three Headmasters played a vital role in its initial execution. Edward Morris, Headmaster of Melbourne Grammar from April 1875, who had been a pupil at Rugby; Wesley’s Headmaster, Henry Arew, from 1876, and James Cuthbertson at Geelong Grammar in 1874 (Sherington 47). Morris established prefects, a school magazine, a school flag and an Old Boys’ Society at Melbourne Grammar School (Barcan 127). The system then spread to Sydney and other states, first appearing in Anglican schools, then other Protestant schools, then lastly Catholic schools, taking roughly forty years to be universally implemented (Sherington 41-47). In New South Wales, Sydney Grammar School, first under Headmaster Bean, then Weigall, started a cadet corps, magazine, sports, and prefects (Sherington 47, Barcan 127 187).
Organised games appeared at Anglican schools first because they came from English public school teachers who had been imported from Britain (Sherington 50). Gradually most boys’ schools instigated organised games, prefects, uniforms, houses, formed sporting competitions, and constructed school identity and school spirit, and implemented the public school honour code. One of the differences between Australian and British schools was that Australian schools were mostly day schools, not boarding schools, and local institutions rather than national schools drawing pupils from across the country (Sherington 40).
The adoption of public school ideals first occurred in Melbourne and the first school stories set in public schools were set in Melbourne also. Three of Pyke’s boys’ school stories were set at the fictional Melbourne public school, St. Virgil’s, and embody the public school spirit. Pyke attributed her sense of public school spirit to Wesley College Headmaster L. A. Adamson, dedicating her second boys’ school story, Jack of St. Virgil’s, to him: "to whose teaching I am indebted for whatever understanding of the "public school spirit" I may have acquired" (7). Pyke had been educated at University High School where L. A. Adamson taught before he was appointed Headmaster of Wesley. St. Virgil’s is a thinly disguised version of Wesley College. The Headmaster, Mr Thompson, ‘The Chief’, is based on Adamson. St. Virgil’s has royal blue and gold for its colours based on Wesley’s purple and gold, and uses Wesley’s ‘Leaving Song.’ In the last two books St. Virgil’s competes against six other public schools in sporting competitions: St Andrews (based on Scotch College), St Joseph’s (Xavier), Victorian Grammar (Melbourne Grammar), Western District Grammar (Geelong Grammar), and Mervale College (Geelong College) (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 157). In Jack of St. Virgil’s, Jack is surprised to find St. Virgil’s different from his expectations, which are based upon British school stories. Pyke explains this by stating that in a new country like Australia it was possible to "choose what is best in the Public School system, rejecting those traditions which perhaps tend to conventionality" (132). Pyke asserted that only the best aspects of the public school system were adopted and the boys received more freedom and developed a strong sense of self-government. While Lillian Pyke wrote four boys’ school stories, other female authors also wrote boys’ school stories, including Mary Grant Bruce, Mavis Thorpe Clark and Hilda Bridges.
The value of a public school education is echoed in M. R. Clark’s Hatherly’s First Fifteen by Bob who is looking forward to accompanying his brother to Hatherly for just one term, which in his opinion "will be worth a lifetime" (209). In R. G. Jennings’ The Human Pedagogue the hero’s father is determined to send his son to an Australian public school, despite losing his wealth, because he has a high regard for the education public schools provide:
The public schools of England are the moulds of what is best in our national
character, not merely training a man to play the game and play it cheerfully,
but cultivating in generations of clean-living Englishmen that sober, solid
public opinion which is the soul of a nation. (13)
Even though a school might be privately owned it could still claim to adopt public school ideals. Pyke’s sole boys’ school story not set at St. Virgil’s, A Prince at School, is set at a private boarding school, Whitefield College, run by a Mr Lester, which, though not a public school still has "its traditions and history, and was regarded as unequalled for character building and for the class of boys it turned out" (17). Catholic boys’ schools copied their Protestant counterparts in adopting public school values. In most states important Catholic schools competed in the GPS sports competitions. The two Australian boys’ school stories set in Catholic schools, Eustace Boylan’s The Heart of the School (1919), and Alice Guerin Crist’s "Go It! Brothers!!" (1929), reflect this trend. In The Heart of the School, Boylan explores the inclusion of Xavier College into the Melbourne Public Schools’ sporting competitions, the transition of Xavier from a Catholic school to a public school, and the importance of sporting successes in constructing school identity. Xavier’s official centenary historian, Greg Dening, argues that Boylan was one "who exploited the incorporation [into the sporting competitions] to construct a distinctive spirit for the school" (Dening, Xavier 3). Published ten years later, Alice Guerin Crist’s "Go It! Brothers!!" has overtones of the muscular Christianity doctrine. The Christian Brothers education is viewed as the ideal type of education for young men, and the school in the story is seen as the ideal Catholic school, even to the point of attracting the praise of an old Harrovian who had believed that all public schools were feeble imitations of Harrow. He is deeply impressed with the school and the values it espouses, with its moral, mental and physical training. The school captain, Healy, is "tall, manly and vigorous", the idol of the school (9). The Heart of the School is also significant because it is representative of the trend of Australian school stories of the period to set the story within a well known school (Saxby, Offered to Children 292). In Boylan’s preface he stated he wanted a story with the real happenings of real boys rather than the typical sensational school stories with mysteries, adventures, ghost, villains and burglars (5). Boylan was Prefect of Studies at Xavier College. His novel influenced a forumer colleague of Boylan’s at Riverview College to write a school story based on Riverview. Father Connell’s By the River remained unpublished. Connell’s story depicts Riverview life faithfully with only the two schoolboy heroes being fictitious and has been described as possessing some similarities with Horace Vachell’s famous British school story, The Hill (Lea-Scarlett 278). The use of real schools and people and events was quite common in Australian school stories. Other novels set in well known schools include R. G. Jennings’ The Human Pedagogue set at Geelong Grammar, and D. L. Thompson’s stories set at Grantham School which was based on his childhood school, Sydney Grammar School. Girls’ authors such as Constance Mackness, Margaret Paice and Louise Mack also followed this trend. Roughly twenty percent of Australian school stories were either set at, or loosely based, on real schools. This was not the case in Britain, where school stories using named or identifiable schools were typically limited to adult novels (Kirkpatrick, Encyclopaedia 379). There is one reason why such a high proportion of Australian school stories were set either explicitly or implicitly in real schools. Compared to Britain, there were fewer professional or career authors who wrote a large quantity of school stories; many Australian school stories were one-off novels by authors, who had different motivations in writing. Several teachers and former pupils wrote nostalgic school stories reminiscing or celebrating past school days, such as Boylan’s The Heart of the School, Jennings’ The Human Pedagogue and Paice’s The Secret of Greycliffs.
Australian boys’ school stories employed a number of plots with an emphasis on recreating authentic school life combined with mystery and at times sensational adventure plots.1 In this they were following the tradition of British school story plots and devices, but with an Australian setting. From Richardson’s first stories to the school stories of the 1920s and 1930s, the traditional character of the new boy and moral dilemmas they faced was often used. Roughly half of all Australian boys’ school stories portrayed the hero as a new boy. Crotty has summarised the narratives of Richardson’s early school stories:
Australian boys’ school stories employed a number of plots with an emphasis on recreating authentic school life combined with mystery and at times sensational adventure plots.1 In this they were following the tradition of British school story plots and devices, but with an Australian setting. From Richardson’s first stories to the school stories of the 1920s and 1930s, the traditional character of the new boy and moral dilemmas they faced was often used. Roughly half of all Australian boys’ school stories portrayed the hero as a new boy. Crotty has summarised the narratives of Richardson’s early school stories:
In all of his school stories one character is excluded from the favour of the
dominant group of boys within the school, this group generally comprising the
best sportsmen, the wealth, the wags, and often the school captain. However, in
acts which involve a blend of forgiveness, courage, self-sacrifice and humility,
the ostracised turn out to be the real heroes. The villainous boys, in the
manner of Tom Brown, reach moral enlightenment through the example set before
them. All ends in happy reconciliation and the morally superior character,
through various devices, usually receives some earthly reward for his goodness.
(Crotty 99)
Richardson’s school stories were written as first person narratives, usually by one of the popular boys at the school, who is in a position to witness the ostracism of the new boy.
Some school stories focussed less on descriptions of school activities, lessons, sports and amusements, introducing mysteries and adventures as the more explicit adventure plot merged with the school story in the 1920s. Niall attributes this occurrence to the failure of the public school story to flourish in Australia in its purest form (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 168). Pyke’s A Prince at School (1918), Walpole’s The Black Star (1925), Thompson’s Blue Brander (1927) and The Gang on Wheels (1930), and Abbott’s Dogsnose (1928) are examples of stories which combined school and adventure or mystery plots. What these stories have in common is a shift in setting outside the bounds of the school. In four, the stories are only set in the school briefly before the holidays and subsequent adventure starts. Mysteries including counterfeiting gangs, discoveries of lost treasure, tracking criminals, and war were used. Niall comments that The Black Star has a mystery plot which is "worked into the school story pattern with no more or less incongruity than the smugglers’ caves and secret passages with which many British writers varied the schoolboy formula" (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 168).
Whilst Australian boys’ school story series could not match their British counterparts in volume (e.g. Bunter and Jennings), some substantial series were created. Pyke’s aforementioned St. Virgil’s stories ran to three novels, D. Lindsay Thompson wrote two stories concerning the adventures of Blue and his school friends. Wilson’s Pip and Andrew Schoolmates was one of three stories about Pip, while Paul White and David Britten wrote four Ranford titles.
Paul White and David Britten’s Ranford titles and Britten’s The Making of Stephen Hall (1953) are examples of evangelistic school stories. Evangelist school stories developed in England with typical plots featuring a girl or boy rejecting Christianity and God, then repenting and converting, becoming a model of Christian virtue who attempts to convert his or her friends (Sims & Clare 385). The Making of Stephen Hall follows this classic storyline. Stephen is angry with God when he develops polio, but after becoming influenced by a schoolmate’s father he becomes a Christian, and with his friend, attempt to make their House, which has a terrible reputation, more Christian by actively attempting to convert boys. British publishing houses such as Pickering & Inglis, Lutterworth and Victory Press played a significant role in post Second World War school story publishing at a time when the genre was in a state of gradual decline. Sims & Clare calculate that the proportion of (girls’) evangelistic school stories was only 4% in the 1930s but had grown to 20% in the 1960s and 70s (388). The Ranford series - Ranford Mystery Miler (1960), Ructions at Ranford (1961), Ranford Goes Fishing (1962) and Ranford in Flames (1965) - feature the description of a schoolboy’s conversion in each story. The stories also feature details on school life including sport events, competitions and pranks. The series is unique in being the only major boys’ evangelistic school story series. While there were several British girls’ evangelistic school story series, such Helen S. Humphries’ St. Margaret’s series, P. Catherine Cole’s Glendorran series, and Mary Alice Faid’s Trudy series, there were no comparable boys’ series.
Go to The School Story World to find out more about the fictional school world.
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1 Refer to The Australian School Story Motif Guide which classifies the titles according to plot motifs, story types, school types and characters.
Australian Girls’ School Stories: ‘bonny specimens of Public Schoolgirlhood’
Some school stories focussed less on descriptions of school activities, lessons, sports and amusements, introducing mysteries and adventures as the more explicit adventure plot merged with the school story in the 1920s. Niall attributes this occurrence to the failure of the public school story to flourish in Australia in its purest form (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 168). Pyke’s A Prince at School (1918), Walpole’s The Black Star (1925), Thompson’s Blue Brander (1927) and The Gang on Wheels (1930), and Abbott’s Dogsnose (1928) are examples of stories which combined school and adventure or mystery plots. What these stories have in common is a shift in setting outside the bounds of the school. In four, the stories are only set in the school briefly before the holidays and subsequent adventure starts. Mysteries including counterfeiting gangs, discoveries of lost treasure, tracking criminals, and war were used. Niall comments that The Black Star has a mystery plot which is "worked into the school story pattern with no more or less incongruity than the smugglers’ caves and secret passages with which many British writers varied the schoolboy formula" (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 168).
Whilst Australian boys’ school story series could not match their British counterparts in volume (e.g. Bunter and Jennings), some substantial series were created. Pyke’s aforementioned St. Virgil’s stories ran to three novels, D. Lindsay Thompson wrote two stories concerning the adventures of Blue and his school friends. Wilson’s Pip and Andrew Schoolmates was one of three stories about Pip, while Paul White and David Britten wrote four Ranford titles.
Paul White and David Britten’s Ranford titles and Britten’s The Making of Stephen Hall (1953) are examples of evangelistic school stories. Evangelist school stories developed in England with typical plots featuring a girl or boy rejecting Christianity and God, then repenting and converting, becoming a model of Christian virtue who attempts to convert his or her friends (Sims & Clare 385). The Making of Stephen Hall follows this classic storyline. Stephen is angry with God when he develops polio, but after becoming influenced by a schoolmate’s father he becomes a Christian, and with his friend, attempt to make their House, which has a terrible reputation, more Christian by actively attempting to convert boys. British publishing houses such as Pickering & Inglis, Lutterworth and Victory Press played a significant role in post Second World War school story publishing at a time when the genre was in a state of gradual decline. Sims & Clare calculate that the proportion of (girls’) evangelistic school stories was only 4% in the 1930s but had grown to 20% in the 1960s and 70s (388). The Ranford series - Ranford Mystery Miler (1960), Ructions at Ranford (1961), Ranford Goes Fishing (1962) and Ranford in Flames (1965) - feature the description of a schoolboy’s conversion in each story. The stories also feature details on school life including sport events, competitions and pranks. The series is unique in being the only major boys’ evangelistic school story series. While there were several British girls’ evangelistic school story series, such Helen S. Humphries’ St. Margaret’s series, P. Catherine Cole’s Glendorran series, and Mary Alice Faid’s Trudy series, there were no comparable boys’ series.
Go to The School Story World to find out more about the fictional school world.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Refer to The Australian School Story Motif Guide which classifies the titles according to plot motifs, story types, school types and characters.
Australian Girls’ School Stories: ‘bonny specimens of Public Schoolgirlhood’
Australian girls’ school stories reflect the educational developments that occurred for women in Australia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Prior to the 1870s girls’ schools consisted mostly of private venture establishments and Catholic convents. Two major developments that occurred in girls’ secondary education were the admission of girls to the examinations held by the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne, and the admission of women to University from the 1880s. Secondary education offered girls the opportunity of university entrance education, and accordingly new types of schools were established. The first ‘academic college’ for girls was the Presbyterian Ladies’ College established in Melbourne, Victoria in 1875 (Sherington 43). This new style of academic education diverted from the traditional accomplishments-based education which emphasised feminine and ladylike qualities such as music, art, needlework, etc., and the cultivation of social graces. Churches established new secondary schools for girls in capital cities and major regional areas.
Despite the establishment of church schools, private venture schools still flourished, providing secondary education for the daughters of middle-class families. Important private venture schools included Ruyton (founded 1878), and Lauriston (1901) in Melbourne, and Redlands (1884), Abbotsleigh (1885), Wenona (1886) and Ascham (1886) in Sydney. In the 1920s many private venture schools were sold by their owners, often to churches. In this way the Church of England acquired Kambala, Redlands, Abbotsleigh and Tara in Sydney. Other private venture schools did not survive beyond the founding principal’s ownership. Two sisters, Marion Clarke and Ellen Clarke respectively established separate schools in Sydney, Abbotsleigh and Normanhurst, but whilst Abbotsleigh was sold to the Church of England in the 1920’s, Normanhurst closed in 1941 after its founder was unable to continue running it (Kyle 104-5). Compared to surviving institutions which maintain archives to collect and preserve historical material, these short-lived private venture schools left only fragmentary evidence, so they remain elusive subjects in educational history.
Many private venture schools were run by families or sisters. The Lone Guide at Merfield features a small private venture school run by the three Misses Maynard. Merfield is described as being:
Not perhaps the most modern of schools, but the Misses Maynard were fine, clever
women, who believed in educating girls to become good citizens, and though
perhaps not many Merfieldians figured in the public examination lists, there
were numbers of homes which had cause to bless the sound sense and high
principles of the mistresses. (15)
Ethel Turner set Judy and Punch at a small private venture boarding school in the country also run by three sisters. The use of three sisters in the fictional schools mirrored the reality. In Brisbane, the Moreton Bay Girls’ High School (1901) was founded by the Misses Greene, three sisters. Ethel’s sister, Lilian Turner, set Jill of the Fourth Form at a first-class modern boarding school of 100 pupils whose Headmistress prides herself on the school’s discipline and spirit.
The distinction between private venture and public schools was less marked for girls’ schools than it was for boys’ schools. Gradually girls’ schools began to adopt public school elements too. During the 1920s school uniforms, prefects, the house system, and school emblems such as badges and magazines were introduced (Sherington 72-74). The delay in girls’ schools adopting public school elements is evident in the early Australia girls’ school stories.
The adoption of the English house system is explained in detail in Constance Mackness’ The Clown of the School. The Head, Miss Maxwell, introduces a modified form of the house system, dividing the school into four ‘guilds’ and introducing competitions for work and sport. She believes that "any healthy, friendly rivalry that will make work and rule-keeping more palatable should be encouraged" (155). The importance for character building is outlined:
The distinction between private venture and public schools was less marked for girls’ schools than it was for boys’ schools. Gradually girls’ schools began to adopt public school elements too. During the 1920s school uniforms, prefects, the house system, and school emblems such as badges and magazines were introduced (Sherington 72-74). The delay in girls’ schools adopting public school elements is evident in the early Australia girls’ school stories.
The adoption of the English house system is explained in detail in Constance Mackness’ The Clown of the School. The Head, Miss Maxwell, introduces a modified form of the house system, dividing the school into four ‘guilds’ and introducing competitions for work and sport. She believes that "any healthy, friendly rivalry that will make work and rule-keeping more palatable should be encouraged" (155). The importance for character building is outlined:
More fully than in the past, you must learn the lesson of effort and
self-control for the sake of your fellows, of esprit-de-corps which in the later
school of life will transform itself naturally into good citizenship and true
patriotism. (158-59)
The introduction of the house system has the desired effect of instilling esprit-de-corps into its pupils. There is an increased ‘keenness’ at Fairview, and the clown of the school attempts to reform through feelings of loyalty to her guild, ending up winning the award for the girl who has most improved for the sake of her guild. Mackness also used prefects in her school stories. In The Glad School the school implements the prefect system and establishes a school council, with each party having very full disciplinary powers, as the Principal believed in self-government by the girls. Mackness’ school stories have been criticised. Niall states that there are "dozens of feeble and imitative Australian schoolgirl stories, like Constance Mackness’ Miss Pickle..." (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 188). However Lees and Macintyre assert that Mackness "provides insights into the more advanced educational theories of her time and creates school life with authenticity" (278). Lees and Macintyre’s two claims are quite valid. Because of Mackness’ career, first as a teacher at PLC Sydney, and then later as the Headmistress of PGC Warwick for thirty years, her books are full of incidents, events, traditions and activities based on actual events at her schools. It was not until the 1940s that a large British based girls’ public school appeared in an Australian girls’ school story, with Dora Joan Potter’s school stories. Potter’s fictional schools, especially Winterton, resemble English girls’ public boarding schools in minute detail. Winterton has a chapel, is divided into houses, has prefects and house captains, and even a school song which the girls sing in chapel:
There’s a School in Australia
Land of the free-
Where the young girls of Australia
All learn the decree:-
That God’s Love is the highest
Of gifts on this plane,
Much higher than any
Material Gain (With Wendy at Winterton School 125)
Catholic convent schools continued to provide secondary education for girls though many resisted the public school transformation. Sports took longer to be adopted, and Catholic girls’ schools did not compete in the predominantly Protestant sports networks unlike their brother schools, instead forming their own competitions between Catholic schools. Two Australian girls’ school stories were set in Catholic schools; M I Little’s Dunham Days (1913), and Miriam Agatha’s Nellie Doran (1914). They are different to the two Catholic boys’ school stories in that sport plays almost no role. Both depict Catholic religious ceremonies and traditions within the school environment. In Nellie Doran, the girls celebrate Shrove Tuesday, refrain from eating sweets during the seven weeks of Lent, celebrate May Day, participate in the Retreat, take turns in decorating statues of Mary with flowers, receive sodality ribbons and the more pious among them receive the honour of being Children of Mary at the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Both also have a strong moral message; each book features a girl who has her misdeeds discovered and who seeks forgiveness for her sins. Nellie’s good behaviour is a moral conduct model for readers. An Australian girls’ school story is set in a high school. Sydney Girls’ High School is fictionalised in former pupil, Louise Mack’s novel, Teens (1897) and its sequel Girls’ Together (1898). Heroine, Lennie Leighton, goes to school for the first time where she forms a strong friendship with another new girl, Mabel James, which is the centre of the novel. Mack based some of the events in Teens on her experiences. Lennie is Mack, and Mabel is based on her best friend Ethel Turner. In the novel, Lennie and Mabel run a school newspaper and another girl forms a rival paper. In real life Mack ran the school newspaper and Ethel Turner started the rival paper with her sister, Lilian. Teens has gained much critical acclaim for its realistic portrayal of schoolgirls, but despite this Mack denied that Teens was about the Sydney Girls’ High School and requested that her publisher, Angus & Robertson, cease advertising it as a "story of Sydney Girls’ High" (Lees and Macintyre 414).
Other authors who based some of their school stories on real schools included Constance Mackness and Margaret Paice. Mackness set The Glad School at her own school, The Presbyterian Girls’ College (PGC), Warwick. In the story’s preface she stated that she tried to "paint a faithful picture of the school, as regards its spirit, its traditions, and its activities". She only thinly disguises some of the girls. The Glad School’s Head Girl, Alison Leigh, is based on PGC pupil, Alison de Conlay, and a schoolgirl photograph of Alison clearly matches her description in the novel (Shaw 56). Margaret Paice, who had spent some time at Moreton Bay High School in Brisbane, uses events and details from her school life in The Secret of Greycliffs (1961). In the story the girls sleep in the Astronomers Dormitory and participate in the annual Indian Fete organised by the Head to support her brother’s charitable work in India, events which occurred at Moreton Bay High School (Quirke 22-25).
Many girls’ school stories contain mystery or thriller elements. The classic storyline of the heroine being falsely accused was used in the first Australian girls’ school story, Margaret Parker’s For the Sake of a Friend (1896), where the heroine is accused of stealing an essay prize entry and develops brain fever before the real culprit admits her guilt. Other stories featuring similar plots include Jancy Wins Through, Janey of Beechlands, and The Girl from the Back Blocks. Heroines are often rescuing people from fires, drowning, and even capsized ships. The first Australian girls’ school story to introduce adventure plots was Hilda Bridges’ Connie of the Fourth Form (1930). One of the most prolific authors of school stories involving mysteries was Dora Joan Potter. The Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories describes Potter as a "most fertile creator of plots: her books, though short are crowded with incidents" (Sims & Clare 277). Her stories usually number less than 180 pages, but are full of lost parents being found, children and parents being reunited, spies, brain diseases, and so forth.
Potter is also responsible for the longest Australian girls’ school story series. Her Winterton series ran to six titles between 1945 and 1950. Sims & Clare state that Potter created "the only real Australian girls’ school story series", for two reasons: Pyke’s Sheila series and Mack’s Teens sequence are mainly set away from school while the Winterton books focus on the school, not just on heroine Wendy. This is evident in that she plays only a background role in Althea’s Term at Winterton, and the last book A New Girl for Winterton occurs after Wendy has left school (Sims & Clare 276-77). Some contemporary British girls’ school story series included a description of the heroine’s university life, career or motherhood and family, such as Dorita Fairlie Bruce’s Dimsie series, and Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School series. Potter prefers to centre her series on the school.
Anne Bracken also wrote a school story series, featuring schoolgirl Jancy Mitford. The four titles were part adventure, part mystery stories. Pyke wrote three Sheila stories and Niall has claimed that they are the Australian equivalent and exact contemporary of Dorita Fairlie Bruce’s Dimsie series (Niall, Australia Through the Looking Glass 179). The Sheila series follows the Riverview girls after they finish school in Three Bachelor Girls, but it would be hasty to draw this conclusion. The Dimsie series ran to nine novels, with seven tracing the entire schooling of Dimsie Maitland at the Jane Willard Foundation and two following her adult life and marriage. The Dimsie series is very extensive in detail and length and the Sheila books are not really comparable to it. Both Pyke and Potter each created loosely connected series. Potter used characters from Margaret’s Decision and Those Summer Holidays in Winterton Holiday Cruise, while Pyke used Andi from A Prince at School, and his future wife Lala who appeared in the Sheila series in The Lone Guide of Merfield. There are no female equivalents of White and Britten’s evangelist stories. While Potter’s stories have Christian morals they are different in plot and values to evangelist school stories. Sims & Clare explain this difference, stating that because Potter came from the Anglican tradition ‘her girls do not undergo conversion experiences; they realise what prayer and forgiveness mean and begin practising as a rule of life’ (276).
Go to The School Story World to find out more about the fictional school world.
Conclusion
This historical study of the school story in Australia confirms that the genre existed in Australia and in a substantial form, despite scholarly assertions otherwise. The existence of the Australian genre owed much to the literary and education traditions of Britain where the school story originated. In Britain the school story became an institution in children’s publishing: over 2500 school stories were published between the 1750s and the 1960s. British public schools, with their concepts of athleticism, ‘playing the game’, prefects and houses influenced the content and style of school stories. Standard themes, plots, characters and motifs were used. Girls’ school stories developed as secondary education increased for women. The impact of the First World War and other factors led authors to look to other genres such as mystery and detective stories to provide fresh plots for school stories. A brief revival occurred in the 1950s, helped by the Christian publishing houses, before a decline occurred in the 1960s.
While Australian school stories never achieved the kind of saturation experienced in Britain, due to the smaller domestic market, limited Australian publishing industry and the presence of British exports in the Australian market, nonetheless a significant number were produced, fifty-five Australian school stories by twenty-eight authors. They form a substantial part of the history of early Australian children’s fiction.
The first Australian school story, Robert Richardson’s The Boys of Springdale, was published in 1875. The genre flourished in Australia with the First World War, which fostered a growth in public school ideology. The Australian branch of British publishers Ward, Lock & Co. helped through their publishing of authors such as Constance Mackness, Lillian Pyke and D. Lindsay Thompson. The portrayal of the fictional school world reflects the extent to which Australian schools emulated British public schools and the influence of British traditions and values. Boys’ school stories feature vivid descriptions of sporting matches, the dilemmas of school captains and prefects, and the desire to ‘play the game’ in school and in the larger world in the First World War. Girls’ school stories were slightly less vigorous than their masculine counterparts. Madcap schoolgirls, friendships, school incidents, mysteries and growing up feature more prominently than sport. Australian schoolgirls were still encouraged to ‘play the game’ and maintain a strict sense of schoolgirl honour, which was best realised in Dora Joan Potter’s eight school stories.
As a genre, Australian school stories drew on the established British traditions of plot, character and story types, and the ethical themes endorsed. However they were not mere imitations, but were adapted to suit local conditions, for example in terms of school settings. When examined as a whole, the Australian genre contains shared characteristics, some of which differ from the British genre. While for the most part Australian private schools were influenced by the British public school legacy, and therefore most Australian school stories were set in schools which emulated these ideals, there were some notable exceptions. Four school stories were set in Catholic schools, and one in a girls’ high school, representative of the development of secondary education in Australia which included Catholic schools and government single sex high schools, as well as the church public schools and private venture schools.
In Australia a significant proportion of school stories were set at or based on real schools, some 20 percent. Schools which were fictionalised in some way included Wesley College, Sydney Grammar School, Sydney Girls’ High School, Presbyterian Girls’ College Warwick, Geelong Grammar, and Xavier College. This is a much higher proportion than in Britain, where "named or identifiable" schools were largely limited to adult novels such as Alec Waugh’s The Loom of Youth (Kirkpatrick Encyclopaedia 379). In Britain there were more ‘professional’ authors, such as Harold Avery and Elinor M. Brent-Dyer who had significant writing careers which spanned decades. In Australia, amateur and ‘one-off’ authors played a larger role. A number of Australian school stories were written by former pupils or teachers who had different motivations for writing from professional authors and created school stories which drew on their own experiences.
The standard character of the new boy/girl, borrowed from British school stories, proved very popular amongst Australian school story authors. Roughly half of all Australian school stories portray the hero/heroine in this role. As no research exists which calculates the number of British school stories which employed this character type it is difficult to ascertain its popularity amongst British authors.
A substantial number of Australian school stories were part of a series, either a school series such as Dora Joan Potter’s Winterton series, or a general (non school) series such as Anne Bracken’s Jancy series, which consisted of two school stories and two adventure/mystery stories. Almost 40 percent of Australian school stories were part of a series. Again no figures exist for the relevant proportion of British school stories, but an examination of titles listed in The Encyclopaedia of Girls’ School Stories reveals that many of the most prolific authors (Angela Brazil, Nancy Breary, May Wynne, Winifred Darch, etc) favoured single unconnected titles, leading to an estimation that the figure may not be as high in British school stories. Paralleling the British experience, Australian authors increasingly expanded the school story by introducing adventure and mystery plots, particularly in the later stages of the genre’s development.
It has only been possible to draw these conclusions through the comprehensive study of the genre allowed by the compilation of the annotated bio-bibliography of Australian school stories.
In terms of its cultural significance, the genre emphasized the legacy of British educational and literary traditions in Australia. Out of all Commonwealth countries, it was in Australia that the genre developed most extensively. The place of school stories in Australian literary culture reveals the role British publishers played in the Australian market and the growth in domestic publishing because of the Second World War. Before 1945, only 13 of the 35 Australian school stories published were published by Australian publishers, though the majority of titles published in Britain were through publishers who had branches in Australia, namely Ward, Lock & Co and OUP. After 1945, 16 of the 20 school stories published were published in Australia. Australian school stories were part of the growth in domestic Australian children’s publishing that occurred after the Second World War, and as such contributed to the development of Australian publishing. Australian authors adopted a British genre with its traditions and values to create stories about Australian schools and Australian schoolboys and schoolgirls, emphasizing their achievements, ideals, characters and qualities.
The research presented in this thesis has several implications for future study. The model of an annotated bio-bibliography with an historical and thematic introduction could be used as a prototype for the study of the development of other genres in Australian children’s fiction (including genres which do not have the chronological limitations which were placed on this study). Whilst research has already been conducted on girls’ family or domestic stories because of the popularity and importance of Mary Grant Bruce and Ethel Turner2, other genres, such as the adventure story, girls’ romances and career stories could be studied to enhance knowledge of the history of the development of children’s literature in Australia. The findings of how Australian school stories developed can provide insights into the history of the British genre. Because of the large number of British school stories, this study has provided an examination of the genre’s development in Australia as a case study. Statistical analysis of British school stories would yield interesting details on the numbers published yearly, the most prolific publishers and the most popular motif and theme types. It also highlights opportunities for comparative studies of colonial school stories. Two recently completed Australian theses in the field indicate increasing scholarly interest in school stories in Australia. Susan Finlay completed a Bachelor of Arts honours thesis in the School of International Studies at the University of South Australia in 2005 about colonial schoolgirls: "She's only a Colonial, you see": The Australian Girl in the English Girls' School Story, 1909 - 1920. Pamela Macintyre, co-author of The Oxford Companion to Australian Children’s Literature and academic in the Department of Language, Literacy and Arts Education at the University of Melbourne completed a PhD thesis in 2004 on the life and work of author and educator Constance Mackness: Girls making good: Constance Mackness and her literary constructions of the Australian Girl.
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2 See Kerry White’s PhD thesis: Founded on Compromise: Australian girls’ family stories, 1894-1982, University of Wollongong, 1985
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