Virginia State School
Virginia State School is a heritage-listed state school at 1690 Sandgate Road, Virginia, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Queensland Department of Public Works and built from 1920 to 1933. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 28 August 2015.
History
Virginia State School opened in 1920 in the northern Brisbane suburb of Virginia to serve the growing population in the area. Due to suburban development during the interwar period and after World War II, extensions were made and buildings added to the site to serve the school's growing pupil numbers. Virginia State School has a highly intact three-wing sectional school building that was constructed in five stages between 1920 and 1933, and is set in landscaped grounds with mature shade trees, forestry plots and sporting facilities. The school has been in continuous operation since establishment and has been a focus for the local community as a place for important social and cultural activities.The provision of state-administered education was important to the colonial governments of Australia. National schools, established in 1848 in New South Wales were continued in Queensland following the colony's creation in 1859. After the introduction of the Education Act 1860, which established the Board of General Education and began standardising curriculum, training and facilities, Queensland's national and public schools grew from four in 1860 to 230 by 1875. The State Education Act 1875 provided for free, compulsory and secular primary education and established the Department of Public Instruction. This further standardised the provision of education, and despite difficulties, achieved the remarkable feat of bringing basic literacy to most Queensland children by 1900.
The establishment of schools was considered an essential step in the development of communities and integral to their success. Locals often donated land and labour for a school's construction and the school community contributed to maintenance and development. Schools became a community focus, a symbol of progress, and a source of pride, with enduring connections formed with past pupils, parents and teachers. The inclusion of war memorials and community halls reinforced these connections and provided a venue for a wide range of community events in schools across Queensland.
To help ensure consistency and economy, the Queensland Government developed standard plans for its school buildings. From the 1860s until the 1960s, Queensland school buildings were predominantly timber-framed, an easy and cost-effective approach that also enabled the government to provide facilities in remote areas. Standard designs were continually refined in response to changing needs and educational philosophy and Queensland school buildings were particularly innovative in climate control, lighting and ventilation. Standardisation produced distinctly similar schools across Queensland with complexes of typical components.
Originally the land of the Turrbul people, the land in the vicinity of the later Virginia State School was surveyed in 1864 and country portions sold by 1878. The area became known as "Virginia" after the opening of the Virginia railway station on the North Coast railway line in 1888. The railway made the area more accessible and stimulated growth. The Virginia Brick Company was established nearby about 1892. Between the 1890s and 1910s a small village formed around the railway station and by 1911 the area's population was 167.
The community petitioned the Department of Public Instruction in 1909–10 for the opening of a state school at Virginia and by 1915 a plan of the area showed a school reserve on the site of a former recreation reserve. In 1918 the Minister for Public Instruction advised that the new school at Virginia would proceed and that its estimated cost was £3000. The Queensland Government subsequently approved expenditure of £1,784 on establishing the school. In January 1920 The Queenslander reported that the new state school at Virginia was nearing completion. The previously gazetted school reserve was increased in size to 8 acres 31.5 perches through the inclusion of land to the south and west of the initial reserve, after closure of a road leading to the adjacent Virginia Brickworks.
The school was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction on 31 January 1920 and teaching commenced on 2 February. It consisted of a highset, three-classroom, sectional school building running approximately east–west, with a north-facing verandah and a teachers room centrally positioned off the verandah. Stairs to the east of the teachers room gave access to the verandah, and the base of the verandah wall had operable ventilation boards. The final cost according to the Department of Public Works was £2276 2 shillings 10 pence.
Attention to improving light and ventilation to achieve an optimum classroom culminated in 1920 with the Sectional School, a high-set timber structure. This fundamentally new design combined all the best features of previous types and implemented theories of an ideal education environment. It proved very successful and was used unaltered until 1950. This type was practical, economical, satisfied educational requirements and climatic needs and allowed for the orderly expansion of schools over time.
Before the sectional school, all school buildings were generally aligned with street and property boundaries, regardless of aspect. By late 1914, after acceptance of the principles and virtues of providing natural light into classrooms advocated by Eleanor Bourne,, buildings were being preferably orientated to receive maximum indirect southern light. The sectional school type was designed to have an unobstructed wall of windows on its southern elevation and verandahs, typically to the north but sometimes to the end elevations, allowing for linkages to other and future buildings. Its blank end walls were also detailed to be removable, so that as the school grew, the building could be easily extended in sections, hence the name. This led to the construction of long narrow buildings of many classrooms - a distinctive feature of Queensland schools.
At Virginia State School, rapid growth in student numbers over the next 12 years resulted in four additions, constructed to the west of the original sectional school building, and ultimately forming three connected wings. Pupil numbers in the first two years grew from 165 at opening to 252 by December 1921 resulting in the first enlargement of the school in 1922. Two classrooms were added to the western end of the sectional school building at a cost of £1,271 9s. However, by June 1923 a deputation from Virginia State School was requesting the Minister for Public Instruction to duplicate the existing accommodation, provide a retiring room for the female teachers, and to board-in parts of the school's understorey.
Before any action was taken, disaster struck in January 1924 when a severe storm blew the school building off its brick piers and almost split it in half. The Department of Public Works dismantled, re-erected and enlarged the building at a cost of £4110 12s 3p. The reconstructed and extended building was re-positioned away from the boundaries and did not address the street. Instead, its verandahs were oriented to the northeast. The additions consisted of a three-classroom wing attached via a verandah from the western side of the earlier wing, and linked to the northeastern verandah of the new wing. A second teachers room was also added to the 1922 classroom wing and a stairway added beside it. The verandah corners were enclosed to form hat rooms.
The student population at Virginia State School continued to grow and further additions were made to the school. In May 1926 the School Committee approached the Department of Public Instruction for increased accommodation, but additions to the school were not approved until August 1927. By then the school's enrolment figure was 530 and there was only accommodation for 320 pupils. In the meantime children were taught on the verandahs and under the school building. The then western wing was extended by three classrooms and an additional staircase in 1927–28. The new classrooms were separated by timber partitions.
The most westerly wing was added in 1933 at a cost of £1781 10s 8p, and opened on 1 July 1933 by Frank Cooper, the Minister for Public Instruction. This wing was connected by verandah to the northwestern end of the 1927–28 additions, making the building more symmetrical. Erected on high concrete piers, the area underneath was concreted. This wing comprised four classrooms, each ; two teachers rooms off its northern verandah, both ; and a staircase near the northwestern corner. The classrooms were lined with tongue and groove timber boarding, and were divided by fixed timber partitions with central connecting double doors. Their ceilings were coved, with metal tie rods and latticed ceiling vents. This wing provided additional accommodation for 160 pupils, which, together with the existing classrooms, accommodated a total of 560 pupils. Provision was made for an additional room for 40 pupils, which would have made the building symmetrical; but this was never built.
An important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Also, trees and gardens were planted to shade and beautify schools. In the 1870s, schools inspector William Boyd was critical of tropical schools and amongst his recommendations stressed the importance of the adding shade trees to playgrounds. Subsequently, Arbor Day celebrations began in Queensland in 1890. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline and developed aesthetic tastes.
From the 1920s, the Virginia State School community implemented plans to improve the school's grounds. Arbor Day plantings were undertaken in the 1920s and trees were planted on the Sandgate Road boundary at that time. In April 1925 a tennis court, located in the southwestern corner of the grounds was completed. In the following year, further work on the tennis court and grounds was undertaken by community members during a working bee. In 1926, the school committee supplied trees for Arbor Day planting and decided to approach the Department of Public Instruction for materials to construct seats under those shade trees large enough to warrant seats. In the next year, the school committee instituted a grounds improvement fund to finance improvements, while in May 1930, it decided to repair the tennis court and proceed with other improvements to the grounds. Subsequently, the committee held a balloon carnival in October 1930 to raise funds to improve and beautify the school grounds. Drainage work to the "cricket pitch area" was also undertaken in 1930.
After World War II, the Department of Public Instruction was largely unprepared for the enormous demand for state education that began in the late 1940s and continued well into the 1960s. This was a nationwide occurrence resulting from the unprecedented population growth now termed the "baby boom". Queensland schools were overcrowded and, to cope, many new buildings were constructed and existing buildings were extended.
At Virginia State School, increased student numbers resulted in a number of buildings being added to the site during the 1950s; some of which were connected to the sectional school building, resulting in modifications. Block A, containing three classrooms, was constructed as a northern extension to Block B in 1953. In July 1957, Block E was constructed as a highset, two-classroom building with an understorey play area. Its east-facing classrooms were accessed from a western verandah, which connected to Block D. Consequently, the eastern teachers room of Block D was altered, with its northeastern windows moved to the northwestern wall and new windows added to either side of the original window in the southeastern wall.
In 1958 alterations to Blocks B, C and D took place. After Block A burnt down in 1957, it was rebuilt in the following year as a highset building with a verandah to the west giving access to the three east facing classrooms of Block B. The eastern teachers room of Block B was rebuilt to the original dimensions with new hopper windows to the east and a double-hung sash to the west. The high-level windows in the verandah wall were removed from Blocks B and C and replaced with three double-hung sashes with fanlights. In the verandah wall of Block D, the number of windows was increased from one to three. To the three eastern classrooms of Block B, a flat suspended ceiling was installed. Glazed screens replaced a store room at the eastern end of the verandah of Block B and a storage space was added under the western teachers room.
After World War II, further improvements to the school grounds were undertaken. By 1958, a second tennis court had been added. Rows of pine trees to the north of the oval date from the 1950s. In 1959, the school grounds were enlarged to 12 acres 1 rood 13 perches with the addition of 3 acres 6.5 perches to the north and west of the school site; despite excision of land to the east to widen Sandgate Road. The school's swimming pool was built in the mid-1960s.
As at 2015, the school grounds retain three distinct forestry plots to the north and east of the tennis courts and along the northern edge of the sports oval. Forestry plots were the product of after-school agricultural clubs, introduced in 1923 at primary schools, under the "home project" scheme. Curriculum driven, these clubs had a secondary commercial value as well as disseminating information and helping to develop a range of skills. The Department of Primary Industry provided suitable plants and offered horticultural advice. School forestry plots were seen by the government as a way of educating the next generation about the economic and environmental importance of trees, as well as providing testing grounds for new species. Located throughout the state, the plots were a means of experimenting with a variety of tree species in different soil and climatic conditions. The sale of timber grown in school plots provided an additional source of income for the school and the plots themselves were an attractive feature of school grounds. The first school forestry plot was established at Marburg State Rural School in 1928, where 275 exotic and indigenous trees were planted. Encouraged by the Education and Forestry Departments, by 1953 about 380 Queensland schools were undertaking forestry projects. A forestry plot at Virginia State School was established by 1952, at which time it included pine and cypress trees planted.
As at 2015, the school continues to operate from its original site. It retains the Department of Public Works sectional school building set in landscaped grounds with tennis courts, sports oval, mature shade trees and forestry plots. The school is important to the area, having been a focus for the community, and generations of students have been taught there. Since establishment, Virginia State School has been a key social focus for its community with the grounds and buildings having been the location of many social events.