Page 104 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

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CESSNOCK HIGH SCHOOL

attend Maitland High Schools. During 1920, Cessnock Superior School
became an Unclassified Intermediate High School. In this year, it
had seventy (70) secondary pupils housed in three (3) classrooms.

During 1923, the status of the Cessnock School was again
re-graded. From an Unclassified Intermediate High School, it was raised
to that of a Second-Class Intermediate High School. Cessnock was raised
to the level of a First-Class Intermediate High School in 1926, when
the Secondary school pupil enrolments reached two hundred and seventy
three (273) pupils. The following year, 192i and. subsequent years, at
least two classrooms were occupied in the Trades School in South Cessnock
to accommodate the pupils of the Junior Technical classes. To attend
these particular classes, the students had to walk from the Cessnock-
Aberdare Primary School to the Trades School.

1927 was also an impo~tant year, because this was the year
the first annual prize-giving night was held for the pupils of the
secondary section of the school.

Candidates for the 'Leaving Certificate Exam' from the school,
were first presented in 1929. The Sydney newspapers made very favourable
comments on the results achieved by these candidates. Several students,
including Jack Gordon and Jean Dyce, as a result of the high standard
of their ·passes, proceeded to Sydney University the following year.

The year 1929 was also significant because this was the year
the school badge was designed by Ron Hewitt.

In 1934, the Secondary Section was separated from the Primary
School. Although still housed within the Cessnock Primary School grounds,
the new First Class Cessnock Hig~ School was formed with an enrolment
of over nine hundred (900) pupils. It was entirely separate in
administration and control from the Primary School. The first Cessnock
High School Headmaster was John E. Murray.