Page 118 - J Delaney - City of Cessnock Education and Schools

125.

CESSNOCK WEST SCHOOL

A school fair or fete held on 11th March 1921 raised £65.0.0
($130.00). With these funds, a local School Committee purchased for
the school, a secondhand 'Grand Berlin' piano.

Continuing increases in enrolments created pressures from
both the school staff and the local Progress Association, for additional
school accommodation. The Education Department records show that on
4th September 1922, enrolments had reached two hundred (200) pupils.
Inspector William James, on 19th July 1923, reported to his Department
that Cessnock West School had two hundred a~9 thirty eight (238) pupils
being taught in three (3) rooms. Plans were drawn up for the additions
of two (2) extra classrooms plus two (2) other rooms, one for the headmistress
and the other a staff room.

A visit by the then Minister for Education, Mr. A. Bruntell,
to Cessnock on 16th Nove~ber 1923, changed this scheme. The Minister
could see the growing needs of the area. He saw firsthand the urgency
of accommodation requirements at the Cessnock West School. He decided
that a new primary school should be built and that with this extension,
more land for the playground area should be acquired.

On the Minister's decision and at the direction of the Gover!'l.~ent
Architect's office, Mr. Charles E. Bridekirk prepared the new plans.
These plans are now at the Government Archives, Globe Street, Sydney,
stacked and stowed away, hidden in old record boxes. They are a wonde~ful
set of coloured drawings, a credit and tribute to the designers of that
period. These plans should be on display under glass either in the City
of Greater Cessnock's new Library or at the Cessnock West School.

These plans provided, on the ground floor, for four (4) class~ooms
- each twenty-three (23) feet by twenty-one (21) feet six (6) inches,
a headmaster's room sixteen (16) feet by ten (10) feet, a headmistress'
room twelve (12) feet by t en (10) feet, a hat room twenty (20) feet by
eight (8) feet, a store room and a wide corridor. On the first floor,
two (2) more classrooms were planned, each to be twenty-three (23) feet