"Westleigh College, Northcote" by Trevor Batrouney - A History of the School

                                                                       

Some great new information from another “Westleigh Girl” – Harry Blutstein!

 

Many, many thanks, Harry! I am thrilled to receive any new information. Harry writes:

"I have put a post/comment on the blog. It is a comment to the last post as I haven’t worked out how to post an item of my own!

In any case, you can purchase the booklet, "Westleigh College, Northcote" for $10 from Trevor Batrouney. 

You can contact Mr Trevor Batrouney via email: trevorb[at]planet.net.au.

Find attached a report card for Raey Cope (I have others from between 1932-1937) and photos of what I think was one of the school buildings at 212 Clarke Street.

Trevor did give his permission for his contract details to be included.

[.....]

His book gave me the location of the school building in Clarke Street, and there are several others that I’ll investigate (and photograph).

What I think is remarkable about the report cards is the range of subjects offered.

At the time this would have been unusual for any school, let alone a private girl’s school.

It is a great pity that the school records were destroyed."

This is quite extraordinary!

In my time at Westleigh College  – 1954 - 1960 - the school was located in James Street so I don’t recall anything about Clarke Street.

Harry very kindly sent me the pictures which I have posted as well.

 

I especially like the report card, dated 1937, below.

It clearly shows Miss Clarice’s signature and the school emblem, or logo as we would now call it.

This was pasted into every book prize that was awarded on Speech Night

I mentioned that the Mayor of Northcote was Mr Batrouney while I attended Westleigh ColIege. I am assuming Trevor Batrouney is his son. 

Mr Batrouney always gave a speech at Speech night. And I mentioned this here. 

I also remember the school fees bill, as sent to my parents, looked very similar to the report card.

I don’t have any of these documents and any longer but I have no doubt they will look familiar to many ex-pupils.

Harry very kindly posted details in comments here.

Little by little more information will hopefully emerge.....stay tuned!

     

 Again, the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them directly.              

                                            

Memories of Northcote Town Hall

I don’t ever recall seeing the Northcote Townhall set with tables like this, but I most certainly remember the Bentwood Chairs!

I still think it looks impressive. No wonder Speech Night seemed such a grand occasion.

With thanks to Darebin Historical Encyclopedia

Speech Night

Speech Night at Westleigh College was the grand climax of the school year.

It occurred just before we broke up for the Christmas holidays and it was always held at the Northcote Town Hall.

We always wore our usual school uniform with white socks, not tan socks.

It was the one time all the teachers dressed up, maybe had their hair done, and wore some makeup.

It was also a time when all the parents, including fathers, generally made an appearance.

The main purpose of Speech Night was, I think, to reward outstanding pupils in all the fields taught: both academic and sport.

As well as that it gave Miss Clarice a chance to give a review of the school to all involved.

Yes, there were actually speeches!

I don't recall Miss Lillian Everard or Matron ever giving a speech, however.

The speeches and award presentations happened at the end.

Before speech time the parents were treated to seeing their daughters sing the songs Madame Northcote had taught them, and also the routines Miss Vera Hopton had prepared the girls to do.

After a lot of rehearsals the standard was very high.

This was done on a class by class basic.

It was not uncommon for solo performances also. Since so many of the girls were ballet and dance students there were always a few of these routines as well.

Many of the girls attended the May Downs' school which used to be in Burke Street back then. It's still going to this day.

I think I enjoyed these the most.

When all the performances were over the stage was set for the speeches and awards.

As well as a speech from Miss Clarice we usually also heard a speech by the then Mayor of Northcote, who, as far as I can recall, was a Mr Batrouney.

Books were usually rewarded to whoever reached the highest academic level for each grade and small silver trophies were awarded to the athletes and swimmers who had shone that year.

The books had a a presentation certificate pasted inside the cover, as shown above.

This was signed by Miss Lillian Everard and Miss Clarice. A book with a certificate is still in my possession.

A large trophy was awarded to the winning House: either Westgarth or Thornton.

I recall Westgarth almost always won.

Considering the size of the school there was quite a lot of talent there!

The Teachers I Remember - Part Two

As well as having teachers who taught us the basics we also had specialist teachers who taught us Singing, Art, Sport and Physical Education.

Each teacher came on a specific day and taught each class.

Miss Hazel Goddard taught art, or rather exhibited her talent by drawing a picture on the blackboard which we all had to copy.

Whoever got their picture as close to Miss Goddard's as possible was considered to be very good at art. It was extraordinary!

No room for individual creativity unless Miss Goddard decided, at her whim, that we could draw what we wanted.

Most of our work was done in a sketch pad with our Derwent pencils, or in a pastel book using Reeves Pastels.

The older girls also did painting with water colors.

She may have been a talented artist because she had exhibited in the Herald Outdoor Art Show,,,,or so we were told.

For singing we had Madame Freda Northcote.

Madame Northcote was a delightful woman. She was pretty, very stylish and could sing very well indeed. I have no idea how old she was back then: it's hard to guess.

She taught each class a song that would be featured at Speech Night as well as other ones which we sang during the year. We all learned a Christmas carol for Speech Night as well. We had a professional pianist to accompany us but I cannot remember her name.

I especially recall her teaching us "Getting To Know You" from the "King and I" musical which she performed with us that year.

On Speech Night Madam Northcote dressed up in her finest. She always looked beautiful and ageless.

Madame Northcote is referenced here. This document, page 8, is dated 1982. She is also referenced here.
It is a clipping from the Age dated February 16, 1940 - well and truly before I was born!

We also did Physical Education which I would now consider a mixture of calisthenics, dancing and even a bit of drama.

We were taught by one of the best, Miss Vera Hopton.
 

There are references to Miss Hopton here and here.

The latter suggests a trophy for calisthenics has been named after her.

Miss Hopton was a very pleasant woman who taught us all these things while she played the piano!

I don't recall her ever getting angry with anyone, but then again Madame Northcote didn't either.

We all had to change into our sports uniform for Miss Hopton's classes. This consisted of white shorts, white blouse and white runners. If you were very lucky you wore proper ballet shoes, preferably pink!

Since many of the girls went to ballet and dance classes outside school hours this is what was generally worn.

Miss Hopton also had to prepare a Speech Night item with each class, just like Madame Northcote did, but she never performed with us.

She did, however, play the piano for all the items she taught us.

I am certain we had a sports teacher as well who taught us basket ball, high jump, running etc etc but I cannot remember any names. 

The position changed a bit when I was there. The job of the sports teacher was to prepare us for the annual sports day at McDonnel Park.

We also learned swimming from Mr Fogg at the Northcote Baths. I am sure they have improved since I was there! We all tried very hard to get our Herald: Learn to Swim Certificate and I think we also had a swimming sports day as well.

See also The Colouring-in Book Craze Explained.

Matron

Matron had one thing in common with the memorable character created by Hattie Jacques in the "Carry On" films.

They wore almost the same uniform! That's where the comparison stops.

There was no innuendo of the kind the Hattie Jacques' character exhibited from the Everard sisters: quite the contrary. Most of their values, and indeed the values of the 1950's, were positively Victorian.

The whole set-up at Westleigh College could have come straight out of a Charles Dickens novel, plus a smattering of "Picnic At Hanging Rock".

Matron always wore a belted nurse's dress, the head-gear, the badge and a red nurse's cape: except on Speech Night.

On this occasion she wore a dress suitable for ladies of her age and era, (which seemed to me to be 80 something).
Without the head gear one could see her grey hair parted in the middle, braided and pinned around her head. Unsurprisingly she complemented this "formal" outfit with a fur cape. The first time I saw her like this she was unrecognizable!

Her tasks were varied. Looking after sick pupils was but one of them and that was usually limited to a dab of stinging iodine on a grazed knee or elbow.

Worst-case scenario: she would call the parents of the injured pupil to have them collected and taken to the doctor. This didn't happen very often because most people didn't have the telephone installed then, let alone a car to expedite the whole procedure.

Sadly there were many falls. This was largely due to Matron's obsession with pigeons which were revered by her at a somewhat higher level than her reverence for the pupils.

They were all over the playground and one had to dodge them almost all the time. We were permitted to feed them but they were simply nuisances to be avoided at all costs.
I still dislike pigeons to this day, even though I can appreciate their incredible homing abilities.


                                                                        

If we had known the term "flying rats" back then it would have been used on an hourly basis!
On one occasion one of the girls stepped on one as she was frantically running to get to class on time. The rest of us were relieved that we were not the one who was guilty of fatally injuring the pigeon.

Matron was livid! It was her favourite pigeon, "Cuckoo"!

The poor girl's feelings be damned, but the rest of us empathized with her.
In no time at all Matron found another use for the dreaded, stinging, yellow iodine: she put the dying pigeon out of its misery by feeding it bread dipped in iodine. It worked.

Another of her tasks was making cups of tea for the teachers to be served at morning tea-time, lunchtime and afternoon tea-time. Matron chose girls who she liked, or were conveniently nearby, to deliver the cups of tea which came with one very ordinary biscuit. I did this a few times and always managed to spill the tea onto the biscuit which made it even more inedible.

She was also the housekeeper for the sisters and looked after the garden. She had some exquisite pink camellias and if you had been very,very good, she would deign to give you a bloom.
I was so impressed with these camellias that when I saw the same plant in a nursery many years later I naturally had to have it and I still do.

The house was dark and dingy. There was always a musty odor and no one particularly liked to go into it unless we were allowed to read in the library room. This didn't happen very often.

Her main task in education was teaching useful things like sewing and knitting.

Compared to Miss Clarice and Miss Lillian Everard she was by far the most crotchety and erratic. Going to see Matron if you were unwell was not something you really wanted to do.

She had no empathy for anyone or anything, other than her pigeons!

Miss Clarice

We always knew Clarice Everard as "Miss Clarice". It was pronounced "Clarris".

She was the youngest of the sisters, yet the principal of the school. She was in charge of practically everything from excursions, special and sporting events, public relations and the day-to-day running of the school.

She seemed to me to be tall and slim. Her hair was long and white, parted in the middle, and in some kind of braided arrangement which I have never seen before or since and am unable to describe. Unfortunately there are no pictures of her or her sisters available to me.

She was extremely capable, and had little patience for slow learners, or people who didn't try to do their best: the latter being a good quality for being a teacher, the former - not so much!

It was not really a good idea to get "into her bad books"!

Discipline was not really a huge issue in the 1950's, especially at Westleigh College, as good manners and socially acceptable behaviour was de rigueur.

If ever someone were expelled it could have been for something as trivial as saying "shut up"!

I don't recall anyone being expelled, but that is about all it would have taken for Miss Clarice to expel someone. Anything worse than that and expulsion would have been inevitable and swift, with no hope of a pardon.

I know she had her favourites, but she frequently changed her mind so one never really knew where one stood with her. It varied from day to day.

Generally Miss Clarice taught the more senior girls, from grades 4, 5, and 6 and up to the secondary levels that existed back then.

When I started there the notice board outside Westleigh College stated that the curriculum offered was from "Kindergarten to Matriculation".

I don't recall if all the higher grades/levels were operating when I was there, but I think it went to Form 3 at least, as it was known back then.

I remember her mainly for teaching me geography. She loved doing this! She was passionate about it.

I think she also read us some rather interesting adventure books, and possibly taught me history as well.

In fact, she could teach almost anything if necessary!

I especially recall her getting us to make lists of countries showing their capital cities and the rivers on which they were situated. I still remember a lot of them, notwithstanding the fact that political maps have changed enormously since then. We also had to memorise the continents, the oceans, the largest islands and so on.

Back then we all had plastic template maps of various countries which we would trace into our mapping books, then outline them with our mapping pens from ink stored in an inkwell on our desks.

When that was completed we were allowed to colour them in with our Derwent Pencils.

These pencils were quite a status symbol back then, especially if you had a box of 72!

Of course, back then, the box wasn't quite as fancy as the one pictured.

Miss Clarice also taught French, albeit with an English accent. Teaching any language in a primary school was virtually unheard of back then.

This may well have been due to the fact that Australia was just starting its intake of European migrants, of which my family was one, so there was little need for other languages back then.

It was a good basis for me when I learned it later in high school and university.

(It is possible that some of the other private schools back then taught Latin, but I cannot say for sure.)

Miss Clarice's biggest event of the year was the annual Speech Night which was held in the Northcote Town Hall.

She always dressed up for that - a fur stole, a new dress, and even lipstick which she rarely indulged in during the year.

Miss Clarice certainly commanded respect from everyone: teachers, parents and pupils alike.

I guess she made quite an impression on me because I remember her very well, not to mention the geographical facts!