9. Glenleighdon School,
conducted by the Association for Childhood Language and Related
Disorders, is the site of the original State school, which was
opened on 4th September, 1871. Prior to this, Mary Jane Clarkson
had run a private school in her home. Following a Public Meeting
in 1870, Joseph Clarkson and James O'Brien were appointed to
appeal for funds for a public school. When sufficient funds had
been raised, local land-owner, Mr. W.H. Granville, donated a
two-acre site. Mr. Granville became the first Headmaster and he
was assisted by Miss Mary Jane Clarkson. Here the school served
its community for over a century until 1978, when new buildings
were opened just around the bend of Cubberla St.
The first Chairman of Committee was
Joseph Clarkson . While total enrolment for the first year was 32,
average daily attendance was 24. The school comprised members of
the following families: O'Brien, Dean, Burke, Garrigon, McMullen,
Seeney, Clarkson, Thiesfield, English, Menerey, McCullough,
Phillips, Patrick, Springer, Mills, Russell, Breddin 'and Doughty.
The sections of the survey plans reproduced earlier in this
booklet show some of these names.-It should be noted that the
names on the plans are names added after the plans were submitted
in 1866 and show the situation at 27-10-1886.
For many years the school was the
hub of activities in Fig Tree Pocket, acting as a "post
office" (actually as a "receiving office"), social
hall and refuge. The postman would ride up to the school, tie up
his horse at the old cork tree and deliver the letters to the
pupils, who would take them home to their parents. In the great
flood of 1893, when many of the farms of the district were
flooded, many families sought shelter in the school.
In the early years of the Twentieth
century, the school continued to serve as a community centre: the
first moving pictures were shown there by a travelling picture
show; dances were regularly arranged; and, after the opening of
the tennis court at the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, tennis
parties became part of the social life of the district. The
present school continues this tradition of being something of a
hub of social activities, as the Bicentennial Picnic at the school
in June illustrates.
One of the early headmasters, Mr.
Swan, was a keen collector of beetles, and he would send the
children out to collect them from under logs in Goldsborough's
paddock next door. The best ones he would then mount and send to
museums all over the world.
A significant event in the life of
another early Twentieth Century headmaster, Mr. Dooley, was the
adding of a bathroom to the school residence. However, this
desirable amenity was destined for a short life as the residence
burned down in 1932, although fortunately the school itself was
saved. The loss of the residence meant a considerable alteration
in the life of the then headmaster, Mr. Bow, who, with his family,
moved to Auchenflower. From then until Mr. Bow left the school in
1938 he travelled each day by train to Indooroopilly and from
there on foot to the school.
There were about 450 people at the
Diamond Jubilee celebration in September 1931 at which a
three-tiered birthday cake surmounted by a miniature Fig tree was
cut by one of the 1871 pupils, Mrs. J. M'Grath (nee Lucy O'Brien)
and one of the 1931 pupils, Miss Maisie Aitchison. In 1935 the old
school building was sold and removed and a new building was
erected. For some years after World War II attendances gradually
diminished until there were only 12 pupils and the school was in
danger of being closed down. However, enrolments began to increase
again so that by 1967 two temporary classrooms had to be erected.
At the same time the Education Department acquired over seven
acres of land upon which the new school has subsequently been
erected.
A pupil of 1910-11 described the
school as it was then:
In those days Fig Tree Pocket was
a scattered farming community. It boasted of a one roomed
school, run by one teacher ... Well, the one teacher taught
Grades from 1st to 6th. There were no bakers in those days, but
children mostly had damper sandwiches. A lot of children often
missed school as they had to help on the farm, so they came to
school when they could. Some attended school when they were
sixteen and seventeen years of age.
For the record, the present
population of the State School is 307 students. There are twelve
classroom teachers, one teacher-librarian, one local relieving
teacher based at the school and three part-time teacher aides.
(Much of the above information
comes from booklets prepared for the school's Diamond Jubilee in
1931 and Centenary in 1971.) .
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