From the Archives

We continue our series of looking back at some of our principals from the past. In this edition we’ll look at Morris’ and Horan’s research of Fort Street’s first Headmistress.

As early as 1854, at Fort Street Model School, upper classes were receiving an education which brought them close to University levels of matriculation. For many years the School had been preparing pupils for entrance to the University, but it was not until the new High School Syllabus was introduced in 1911 that this became official Council of Education policy. As a result, the boys and girls at Fort Street gained separate identities under two Principals, one for the boys, Alexander Kilgour, and one for the girls, Ada Partridge.
Alexander Kilgour was appointed Headmaster of Fort Street Model School in 1905. His management, direction and control extended over infants, primary and secondary education, though Ada Partridge was in charge of the girls. Ada Partridge herself was a Fortian, having first attended the School in 1876. Her appointment as first Headmistress of girls at the Model School in 1895 led to an association with the School extending over twenty-five years with a high standard of excellence.
By the time Ada Partridge arrived the School had an enrolment of 2,000. With 1,000 boys, 650 girls and 350 infants, it is not surprising that general renovations took place at increasingly shorter intervals. The degree of crowding in the Girls’ Department alone, must have given the teachers a constant headache. The Departmental Research Office reports: “In 1899 the Girls’ Department was composed of a main room, two classrooms and a room reserved solely for sewing.”
At the time of her retirement in 1920 the Sydney press was to say… “Ada Partridge is a shining example of the worth of the system of education in this State. Ada Partridge was temperamentally a model headmistress, for together with her genius for organisation, her indefatigable energy, her tact, she combined the strongest sense of British fair play — justice tempered with mercy. So widespread was her reputation for calm judgement that often families in the neighbourhood of the school would come to her to arbitrate in the matter of family differences. Recalcitrant daughters and obstinate parents have often thanked her for her kindly advice in the old days, when the district contiguous to the school supplied a greater percentage of the pupils.”
In Ada Partridge’s message shortly after her retirement she said… “I should like, girls, to remind you that your present education will be a preparation for the great school of life. If you wish to become honourable, worthy members of society, useful to others, happy in yourselves, and to leave the world a little better because you had lived in it, then you must develop not only mentally and physically, but morally. Education also means self-control, development of tact and kindliness, cultivation of good habits, humanity. You will soon enough be called upon to take your place in the world, and you must endeavour to take it bravely, successfully and happily. I need scarcely say that I should always be pleased to hear of the happiness and successes of my dear girls.”

Archivist – Iain Wallace