Objects of Substance – Confidential Report Book

1934 Trustees initials and comment

These books are a precious resource for the School, giving us an insight into the School across decades and the personalities of the staff who melded the students, curriculum, and the corporal essence of the School into what is Brisbane Girls Grammar School today. Did the Inspectors across the decades ask themselves, ‘what makes a good school’? Perhaps Mr George, Inspector of Secondary School and Technical Colleges, managed to capture the essence underpinning this difficult question in his report in 1958. ‘The control of the Head Mistress is firm and effective. An excellent tone of earnest endeavour pervades the School, and this is due, in no small measure, to the leadership of the Head Mistress. There is a very friendly relationship between the Head Mistress and her staff. The same happy atmosphere exists in practically every class between teacher and (student)’ (Confidential Book 2, 1958).

Precious words kept for posterity under lock and key!

Mrs Pauline Harvey-Short (Harvey, 1971) Manager, School History and Culture

References

BGGS Annual Reports 1910-1913.

Confidential Book, Property of the Trustees, 1910-1912.

Confidential Book, Property of the Trustees, 1913-1958.

Goodman, R.D. (1968). Secondary Education in Queensland 1860-1960, Australian National University Press, Canberra.

Lawson, R. (1973). Brisbane in the 1890s, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia.