Strong memories of Timaru Main School
Today, Timaru Main School is no more.
Instead the grounds are home to a Technology Education Centre for primary school children from around the district. Memories of the school remains strong for many in the community, including past staff and pupils.
The school’s early history also features strongly in the South Canterbury Museum’s exhibition, The Three Rs.
With education in its infancy, Timaru Grammar School had struggled to attract and maintain good and well qualified teachers. In the early 1870s a new and wellrespected headmaster, JFL Hunt, brought about a sea change to the school.
The school roll quickly doubled, then continued to grow. The school was overflowing not only its own building, but additional buildings it had co-opted. It simply needed a new building and a new site.
The first Education Boards had also been established and community engagement had increased, including a community committee taking over control of the school from the Anglican Church.
In 1873 work got under way on the new school site in Grey Rd. The following year, Timaru Main School opened.
At this stage schools still charged fees to attend, but this had been changed to a levy on households within three miles of the school. At the time The Timaru Herald expressed the opinion that this offered the closest thing to compulsory education considering the scattered nature of the local population. But, this was set to change in only a few years.
In 1877 a new Education Act made primary school free, secular, and compulsory – for children aged 7 to 13 years of age. But ‘compulsory’ attendance didn’t necessarily mean what you might think – children only had to attend half of the days the school was open. In the case of rural school especially, children were often required to assist with farm work and harvests.
In the case of Timaru Main, better and more qualified staff, the Education Act, along with a growing and relatively prosperous population saw the school roll continue to rise. Ultimately the school enjoyed a long history, operating throughout the 20th century.
The 21st century saw dramatic change though, as a network review of 2004 brought about the school closure.
Timaru Main merged with Timaru West, on West’s site, and the new school, Bluestone, began operating in 2005.
Visit the South Canterbury Museum’s exhibition The Three Rs to explore more of the development of education in our district.