Christ Church School (Colony of New South Wales)

Christ Church School (1816 – 1883) was the first school in the penal settlement of Newcastle, in the Colony of New South Wales. The school opened in 1816 as a co-educational primary school. In 1883, Christ Church School closed when it was incorporated into the New South Wales government school system.

History
On 15 March 1804, Governor Philip King, the Governor of New South Wales, instructed a penal settlement be re-established in the area of Coal Harbour and the Hunter River. Governor King commissioned Lieutenant Charles Menzies commandant of the settlement. Lieutenant Menzies, five expedition personnel, 11 military guards, and 34 convicts, a total of 51 people, arrived on three small ships on 30 March 1804.

In 1810, Reverend William Cowper requested a charity school be established for the 12 school-age children in the settlement. Reverend Cowper recommended Reverend John Eyre be appointed as schoolmaster. However, in March 1810, Governor Lachlan Macquarie appointed Reverend Eyre schoolmaster of a new charity school in Parramatta.

In February 1814, Lieutenant Thomas Thompson was appointed commandant of the Newcastle settlement.

In 1816, the population of the penal settlement had risen to 413 people, including 38 school-age children.

First School in Newcastle
The first school in Newcastle started under the superintendence and direction of Lieutenant Thompson. Lieutenant Thompson appointed Henry Wrensford, a convict on conditional parole, as the first Schoolmaster. Wrensford held a Master's degree from The University of Oxford, England.

Slab Hut
On 5 May 1816, Wrensford started the school in a whitewashed slab hut near Watt and Dalton Streets. The first students at the school were eight girls and nine boys.

In 1816, when Lieutenant Thompson's commission as commandant was about to finish, he appealed to Reverend Cowper regarding the school. Reverend Cowper entreated Governor Macquarie for the Crown to continue to support the school when the next commandant was commissioned. When Captain James Wallis was commissioned as commandant in June 1816, Governor Macquarie gave him a list of 41 instructions. The 40th instruction concerned the school:

"There being a considerable number of children at Newcastle belonging to the convicts now at that settlement, and the present commandant there having very laudable recently established a School for their education under his own immediate superintendence and direction, such school is to be continued and patronised as well by yourself as by every succeeding commandant and you are to give it every possible support and encouragement, it being highly approved of by the Governor as a most benevolent and praiseworthy institution."

Christ Church
In mid-1818, the school moved into the vestry of the newly constructed Christ Church on The Hill. The church was designed by Captain James Wallis and opened by Reverend Cowper on Sunday, 2 August 1818. The church was named Christ Church by Governor Macquarie and became the school's namesake.

In June 1820, Samuel Dell replaced Wrensford as schoolmaster when Wrensford became a free man. Christ Church School had 33 students when Dell became Schoolmaster, 26 of whom were children of convicts.

In June 1828, John Gabbage replaced Dell as schoolmaster when Dell was granted a ticket-of-leave by Governor Ralph Darling. Gabbage was the first free person appointed schoolmaster.

Cnr Church and Bolton Streets
By the early 1830s, overcrowding in the vestry led Christ Church School to relocate. The Crown granted the land on the corner of Church and Bolton Streets to the Church of England for the express purpose of building a school. The school operated on the site for 50 years. In 1882, after changes to government education regulations, the NSW Government Minister for Public Instruction paid £2000 for the school. The purpose was to establish a second government school in Newcastle.

On 1 April 1883, Christ Church School closed and the students were integrated into the NSW public education system.