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Thursday, March 10, 2016

Opening of Noble Park Primary School 1911

With ¼ acre block subdivisions by Frank Buckley in the Noble Park area that began in 1909 and the establishment of market gardens, a rural population developed, this in turn saw the need for a school to be established to cater to the children within the area.
So it came to be that in January of 1911, the Head Teacher, Olga Ernst, began teaching local students in the public hall. By the following year when the new Head Teacher, E. Beguin began teaching, enrollments had already risen to 50. By 1917 enrollments had risen to 100, so Frank Buckley donated ground where the Education Department built a two room school in the same year. By 1926 when there were 300 students recorded, three more rooms were added to the site.
With the combination of industry growth in Dandenong, the migration influx of post war years and the general availability of cheap land in the Noble Park area, student numbers rose even higher. So, in 1951 the Department of Education provided a second Bristol unit to the school. The Department then decided to purchase a three acre block further along Buckley Street where it then established what was known as the infant school.
By 1965 despite the opening of the new Southvale Primary School which relieved Noble Park of 250 students, along with Heatherhill Primary, Harrisfield Primary and Yarraman Park Primary, Noble Park was still recording a student attendance of 750 in 1969. 
The Noble Park P.S continued to operate as a split school until 1978. It was in that same year under the then Principal, Mr J. C. Campbell, that the original site was finally vacated altogether as senior students were all moved to the junior school as it had been extended to accommodate all of the students, this is where the school is currently located today

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