Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2010

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LEADERSHIP IN THE INITIAL REGULATIONS OF 1874, THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES INDICATED THAT THE ORDINARY WORK OF THE SCHOOL WOULD BE SELECTED FROM A LIST OF SUBJECTS WHICH MIGHT INCLUDE THE ELEMENTS OF NATURAL AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

In addition, it would appear that the Board of Trustees were somewhat reluctant, if not measured in their ability to approve requests by the Headmistresses to spend money on the necessary resources for the teaching of Science. It is not exactly clear where Science lessons took place. There is mention of several different venues but not of a specific room which could be called a laboratory. Miss Beanland, Miss Pells

Neither the School’s first Lady Principal Mrs Janet O’Connor, or the Second Mistress Mrs Elizabeth Anna Elcock held formal qualifications. This was not unusual as resourceful well-educated women often found employment in schools for young ladies especially if they were well-versed in English, History and Languages. It is to be remembered that the latter part of the nineteen century was a time when there were no state secondary schools and very few private, academic schools either in Queensland or in Australia. Brisbane Girls Grammar was one of the first schools in Australia to offer girls the same educational opportunities as boys and was established six years before women were admitted to universities in either Sydney or Melbourne. Sydney University and later Melbourne University were the major sources of tertiary education. Therefore, qualified teachers, meaning those who held a university degree, usually came from interstate or from overseas. Consequently, in the 1870s there were very few women who had knowledge of, and the ability to teach science. It was inevitable that the teaching of science could only be implemented with the help of the masters from Brisbane Grammar School. This solution, however, was far from easily delivered. Logistical difficulties such as timetabling, moving between two differently sited schools, transporting necessary equipment and specimens and male teachers having to absent themselves from their responsibilities at the boys’ school were fundamental issues. Suitable and accommodating arrangements between the Headmaster of Brisbane Grammar School and the Lady Principal did not seem possible; a situation which was only relieved by the appointment of their successors. Eventually when appropriately qualified female science teachers arrived they were not known for their longevity of service. Usually this was because they accepted another appointment, or followed the social mores of the day and upon marrying retired gracefully from the work place.

and Miss Mackay in particular had all called for the establishment of a suitably appointed Science laboratory. Their calls were unheeded definitely because of financial constraints and hypothetically because the trustees may have privately conformed to societal values about the inability or inappropriateness of young ladies studying Science. Until 1933, these recurring themes which inhibited, but not quite thwarted the teaching of Science remained. On August 25, 1933, after the Department of Public Instruction had finally acquiesced, the School’s first laboratory finally opened. But Science still struggled to find a constant place in the curriculum. As George R Hendren, Inspector of Secondary Schools and Technical Colleges wrote in his report of 1950:

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