Teacher Hamish Walton with Ivy May holding Arlo a male ‘Schnoodle’ with Principal Toni Daly.
With the break out of World War One in 1914 Wallendbeen Public School had more than 100 enrolments. It’s a far cry from how many they have today and as a realist it would be very unlikely to ever reach those numbers again, but they don’t need to, they just need to increase numbers to around double figures from the one student currently attending.
100 to one chance is not impossible, times are different. The odds are stacked in the favour of people power in the area if they really want change.
With just one student left, the future of Wallendbeen Public School is now in peril. It may be forced to close sooner rather than later.
Numbers have gone down over the last few years with a student here or there heading to high school or leaving when a family departs the district as parents change employment.
It doesn’t have to be this way but it needs the help of the community and more importantly it needs the help of local parents and parents in neighbouring towns, who may want a different experience for their child. It’s a close-knit, warm and caring environment, but different to many other schools thanks to its rich history, which we will get to next.
It certainly hasn’t held back year 5 student Ivy May. She lost her fellow student recently meaning that she is now the sole student.
Are resources or teachers a problem? No. Last week she had the attention of teacher Hamish Walton and Principal Toni Daly. She was learning about ancient aquaculture on an interactive television that must have been 50 or 60 inches at a minimum. She participates in all sorts of extra curriculum activities alongside students from other small schools.
You can tell that Toni and Hamish are devoted to giving their best to Ivy and will continue to do so, they would just love more students to attend.
Maree, Ivy’s grandmother said, “Ivy started school extremely timid. She was a covid kid, so suffered through all that. Now she is as out there as you could possibly get. Her self worth, self esteem, she has just thrived at the school and she is above and beyond where she needs to be. She doesn’t miss all the other kids, even though it would be nice to have all the other kids there, but she has a lot of other extra curricular stuff going on anyway, as she does dance, horse riding, motocross, league tag when it’s time, and she has lots of cousins. She’s busy.”
Ivy even plays soccer at lunch with Ms Daly or Mr Walton or both. Something she enjoys. She could do with a mate or a few more mates and they don’t have to live in Wallendbeen to attend the school. Parents can decide where children go to school and the same can be said for preschool.
Numbers of around 10 will likely keep the school open as that is where it has sat until they decreased more rapidly over the last few years.
The exciting part is that the ten person P and C which includes Maree, is now pulling out all stops to find ways to keep the facilities open and not have them mothballed by the Department of Education. To be fair to the Department a resident told the Times that the Department could have closed the school a few years ago due to numbers, but they have been working with the school and P and C to try and find ways to keep it open.
A preschool option has been identified as a way to do this. It will also take commitment from parents to send their children there and that commitment can be made at this Thursday’s meeting if they can do so, or parents can just come and find out more, there’s no pressure.
Some may be asking why should people living in the township of Wallendbeen and the surrounding towns care what happens to a little school. Well, there’s plenty of positive reasons. If a preschool is successful, it could funnel more children in to the primary school and secure its future. With Bunyip Preschool severely damaged and now operating out of the Harden Racecourse Pavilion for an undisclosed period of time, some parents may be able to commit to a Wallendbeen Preschool on the school site. They would need between 10-15 preschoolers to make it work. If more children join the Primary School in the next few months, it may be enough to head back towards that magical number of 10.
Let’s look at how important Wallendbeen Public School has been to the township and surrounds.
The following information sits proudly on a historical plaque outside the front of the school.
“The first school at Wallendbeen was opened in July, 1881, with 33 children crammed into a small cottage owned by Mrs Mary Anne Price and rented by the Department of Public Education. This temporary school was situated west of the first railway station.
A newspaper article dated 8 April, 1882, reports on the poor conditions Headmaster Mr Joyce and his students had to tolerate:-
“The department rented a miserable house which is far too small, they are crammed in like sheep in a railway truck, worst of all, no water has been provided for the school teacher and children.”
Exactly three years after the article in the Cootamundra Herald covered the official opening of the new school, built in King Street on the site of the present-day infant room.
The building was erected on a magnificent site commanding an all-round view. The department also built a teacher’s residence in 1885, thanks to the efforts of Mr. Alexander Mackay.
During the early 1900’s the district had six schools: Culling, Morrison’s Hill, Nubba, Flixton, Darah, and Wallendbeen.
In 1906 the school residence, occupied by headmaster Mr Foott and his family was destroyed by fire. This residence was rebuilt in 1908.
A new brick school building was officially open May 24, 1911. The school recorded its highest enrolments in 1914 with an attendance of over one hundred.
Wallendbeen School centenary was held Easter weekend 1981, a crowd of around four thousand people attended the celebration.
From 1881 – “140 years of education” in Wallendbeen, there is still a well equipped modern school facility, providing education for the local children.”
Wallendbeen resident Emma Sheridan with daughter Ella.
The Times spoke with Emma Sheridan, mother of three who wants to see the school remain open and is supporting the establishment of a preschool where she would like her children to start attending before hopefully going on to the primary school. The Sheridans have had a very rough trot over the last couple of years since the Wallendbeen Bridge collapsed and needed rebuilding. They have had part of their land taken by the NSW Government in a compulsory acquisition and their business has been severely affected. If anyone had a good reason to throw in the towel and leave Wallendbeen it would be Emma and her husband Andrew. The Sheridans also tragically lost Andrews’ brother last year. He passed away leaving a huge whole in the family, all while the Sheridans were dealing with the Government.
They remain and they also remain persistent and defiant in their struggles and should be commended.
Emma told the Coota Times, “The meeting is Thursday, 27th February at 6:00pm and everyone is invited. It is being held to discuss options such as the preschool to keep the school going. People are welcome to show their interest and have their say in what it would take to get their kids there.”
“The meeting is to gauge interest, you are not committed.”
“Everything is on the table. The idea is to get kids started at preschool and then that flows into the main school.”
“They say once they are gone, they are gone. It’s virtually impossible to get them back.”
“Basically they have done all they can, but I think the Department needs a commitment of 10 to 15 children.
Ivy’s grandmother Maree is one of the ladies on the five person P and C made up of community members who want to see the school remain. Some attended themselves decades ago, some haven’t had children there for decades.
Maree said, “I’m the grandmother of Ivy May at Wallendbeen Public School.”
“We are looking at getting a mobile preschool and I’m hoping that will keep the school open. Mobile pre-schooling is what we can follow on with, and all of those things require numbers.
A survey went online in January regarding the school and it asked a few questions of those willing to take it.
She said, “I have 25 people who have responded to the survey and of those 25, 19 have said transport is fairly important to them and of those 25, 16 have stated that pre-schooling is important.”
“If these were all kids coming up or even later this year, that would be really helpful.”
If those surveyed have multiple children it would be even more beneficial as his could translate in to more numbers.
“I’ve addressed the meeting as an information, no obligation meeting, because I don’t want to scare people off.
I’m at the point now where I have got to have the numbers. I can’t proceed with any of these things unless I’ve got numbers, but everyone is welcome to attend. The Department won’t talk to me, no-one will talk to me about the ideas unless I’ve got the amount of people who are very interested or willing to sign up to putting their children in the school.”
“That is the reason for the meeting on Thursday at 6:00pm and I will go through with the parents who attend, our options as in to what we can and can’t apply for. We can apply for all these things if I have the numbers.”
The immediate future of the school is that more children are needed alongside Ivy, however, interests and committed names for preschool helps.
“With a mobile licence they come with their educational tools in a bus and they hold the session there.”
“Playgroup is the same thing. If I was to go down that track which is another option, I have been given numbers to contact in regard to mobile playgroups, they come out, set up and off you go again.”
Getting children to and from school or preschool is another option with some parents already committing to taking a car load to Wallendbeen from certain areas.
“The bus route is a different one again. We have two options, go to one of the local bus companies and see if they will consider putting on a run that would service the school. Our alternative there is to get our own bus route, which means the community would then have to raise the money for it, but that is not the hardest thing to do either. People think it is impossible, but it’s not. Stockinbingal have one, a lot of little schools have them.”
“That’s our transport covered, but again, I’ve got to have the numbers to move forward with anything.”
“In terms of numbers, 10 would save the school, 15 I think would secure it and then if you have got people that have said my child will be there in twelve months, the Department wants to know if its worth keeping it open, that’s all they are requesting from us at this time. If we can’t prove it’s worth keeping open, they will close it.”
“Depending on the dynamic of people that show up and what ages their children are, yes, we’re happy to try and get the preschool set up. A couple of kids already ready for school would be good, but we can start with the preschool because then that feeds your school.
“Small schools are good and this one is extremely small, but it won’t grow unless we feed them in. You can’t just rely on families moving here and bringing their kids. That is what has happened as it’s been a pretty transient population the last few years as they come and go and come and go.
“The after school care is another thing I’m looking at. A lot of the reasons the mums are taking their children to Coota is because of the drop off and pick up times.
“I’m looking at before and after school care. I’ve got two routes for that. We can do through the Department or we can do it independently, and again it is all reliant on numbers.”
“There are possibilities to make the school a far more useful place and to fit better with modern families, but I have to have feedback from people to tell us what they need.”
The Department sent a notification before Christmas and it was pretty forthright about their intentions.
The school got the letter and it said they were going to do a review of the school. They were going to meet with Toni and the community and look into the viability of the school.
“We called a community meeting before Christmas and got a really strong response.”
“The Director was very impressed with how many people attended.”
Maree stressed the importance of the meeting.
“I just need the prospective parents to come to this meeting, because otherwise I’ve got nothing.
“The community support is lovely, and that gives me hope that getting a bus and all this other stuff is a viable option. I need prospective parents there also.”
“We have ten on the P&C. Some of them haven’t had children there for a long time, but they just love the school and they have always done it.”
Maree described the timeline over the last few years.
“In 2024 there was two kids there, but we’ve lost one of the other families as they have moved out of the district.
“In 2023 there were four for the best part of it, including Ivy.
“When I enrolled Ivy in 2022, there was four boys and Ivy. She was the only girl there for a little while. Those boys at the end of that year, one of them went off to high school. In 2023 we got another little girl.
“The boys left mid 2023 and that is when it came back to being just two little girls.
“In 2023 one little fella went to high school and the other boys went to another town.
“They have zoning for schools and it works great in the cities because it stops everyone from going from one school to the next, but it works against these small schools because people think they can’t come out here.
“We can’t go and poach kids from other public schools, of course that is not right, but when you are initially enrolling your child, of course you can go where you want. The Principal of the other school direct them back to that area, but for any reason that makes it too much of an inconvenience or whatever else, they can’t lock you in, so you can actually choose schools and people don’t realise that.
It sounds like it’s definitely now or never for Wallendbeen Public School. If you want to help secure the school’s future and possibly open up other avenues such as a preschool, now is the time to do so.
Make sure you don’t miss Thursday’s meeting at the school at 6:00pm, all welcome.