Ascot State School is a heritage-listed independent public, co-educational, primary school, located on Pringle Street, in the City of Brisbane suburb of Ascot, in Queensland, Australia. Designed by the Department of Public Works (Queensland) and built from 1919 to 1939, the school was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 7 April 2017. It is administered by the Department of Education, with an enrolment of 646 students and a teaching staff of 43, as of 2023. The school serves students from Prep to Year 6.
History Ascot State School was established on 20 May 1920, and opened on 24 May 1920. It is important in demonstrating the evolution of state education and its associated architecture. It retains three urban brick school buildings (Block A: 1920, Block B: 1928–34, Block C: 1923–39), which incorporate rare educational murals in Block B. It is set in landscaped grounds with a playing field, sporting facilities and mature trees. The school has a strong and ongoing association with the Ascot community.
Traditionally the land of the Turrbal and Jagera people, land at Ascot was sold as country lots in the late 1850s and early 1860s, and underwent subdivision from the 1880s after the Doomben railway line to the Eagle Farm Racecourse opened in 1882. However, most housing development occurred after the turn of the century, stimulated by the opening of the electrified tram to the racecourse, along the current Kingsford Smith Drive and Racecourse Road, in 1899.Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Cultural Heritage Database and Register, <https://culturalheritage.datsip.qld.gov.au/achris/public/public-registry/home >, accessed 8 Feb 2017'Land Sales', The Courier, 13 Sep 1861, p.4DNRM, Survey Plan RP34480, 1863'Local and Domestic', The North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser, 27 Apr 1858, p.3McKellar map of Brisbane, 1896, sheets 2 & 3Queensland Places - Ascot, <http://www.queenslandplaces.com.au/ascot >, accessed 27 Sep 2016BCC, Brisbane Heritage Trails: Gallivant Through Ascot and Hamilton, BCC, Brisbane, 2014, pp. 4-5State Library of Queensland (SLQ), Tattersall's Estate map, 1899SLQ, Ascot Railway Estate, 1913.
Dramatic reform of the Queensland Education system began around 1909 and continued until the beginning of World War I. During this period a high school system was introduced, technical education was expanded, the University of Queensland was inaugurated, a teachers' training college was established, the requirement for a local contribution of construction costs for new schools was abolished, and the leaving age was increased from 12 to 14 years.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p. 28. Although technically compulsory since 1875, school attendance was not enforced until 1900. Subsequently, student numbers rose across Queensland during the first 15 years of the 20th century.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, p.18.
Actions to establish a state school in Ascot commenced in 1914. The current site, bounded by Pringle, Anthony and Mayfield (now Massey) Streets, was purchased for a future school in May 1914 at a cost of £1400.DNRM, Certificate of Title (CoT) 218455, being resubdivisions 75-91 and 89-103, comprising 3 acres 2 roods 6 2/10 perchesN Guy and Harold Sutcliffe, Ascot: A different school, Boolarong Press, Brisbane, 1995, p. 1G. N. Logan, "McKenna, Bernard (Joseph) (1870-1937)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mckenna-bernard-joseph-7386/text12841 >, published first in hardcopy 1986, accessed online 25 Oct 2016. In December 1915 a public meeting, held to organise a state school at Ascot, established the prerequisite school building committee for that purpose. However, due to World War I, there were insufficient funds to institute the school.'School wanted at Ascot', Daily Standard, 23 Dec 1915, p. 7Noela Guy and Harold Sutcliffe, Ascot: a different school, Boolarong Press, Brisbane, 1995, pp. 1, 3.
Approval for the school, comprising an urban brick school building, was given on 13 June 1919.Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, p. 3: QSA, Item ID13693, School Files (correspondence for State School, Ascot, No 296), Preliminary Estimate of Modified Plan', Thomas Pye, Deputy Govt Architect, 9 May 1919. Brick school buildings were far less frequently built than timber ones, only being provided in prosperous urban or suburban areas with stable or rapidly-increasing populations. All brick school buildings were individually designed with variations in style, size, and form, but generally retained similar classroom sizes, layouts and window arrangements to timber schools to facilitate natural light and ventilation. However, compared to contemporary standard education buildings, these buildings had a grander character and greater landmark attributes.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp.18, 99QSA, Item ID13693, School Files (correspondence for State School, Ascot, No 296), Preliminary Estimate of Modified Plan', Thomas Pye, Deputy Govt Architect, 9 May 1919.
Ascot State School opened on 24 May 1920 with 124 pupils enrolled. Its urban brick school building (now called Block A) was an "attractive building of brick, rough-casted externally, plastered internally, ceiled with fibro-cement and roofed with tiles".DPW, Annual Report of the DPW for 1919-20, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, 1920, p. 4. Highset, it comprised three classrooms, verandah and attached teachers room. Each classroom featured a bank of windows, which allowed natural light to enter from the left side of the students, and had battened ceilings with a central ceiling vent. A photograph from 1920 shows casement windows, with fanlights, sheltered below window hoods and a tiled, gable roof with a central ventilation roof fleche. Verandah corners were enclosed with dark-coloured weatherboards, centred four-pane windows, and light-coloured, vertically battened timber balustrades and trim. Costing £3,556, the school building was designed to accommodate 120 pupils.Department of Public Works (DPW) drawing, 16192660, July 1919Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, p. 8Project Services, Ascot State School' in Queensland Schools Heritage Study Part II Report, for Education Queensland, 2008, pp. 1, 5, end pages.
An important component of Queensland state schools was their grounds. The early and continuing commitment to play-based education, particularly in primary school, resulted in the provision of outdoor play space and sporting facilities, such as ovals and tennis courts. Aesthetically designed gardens were encouraged by regional inspectors, and educators believed gardening and Arbor Days instilled in young minds the value of hard work and activity, improved classroom discipline, developed aesthetic tastes, and inspired people to stay on the land.Burmester, et al, Queensland Schools A Heritage Conservation Study, a report for the Department of Education, 1996, pp.4, 48-9. From Ascot State School's inception, there was an emphasis on creating a beautiful environment for the pupils, with the result that the school's gardens were admired by locals and visitors.Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, pp. 241-3. However, Arbor Day was not observed during the first head teacher's administration (Thomas Henderson, 1920–39) because "every Thursday the children [were]...given a practical lesson on the planting and culture of various plants and shrubs".Thomas Henderson, 1934 cited by Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, p. 243.
During Ascot State School's first year, its school committee made enormous improvements to the school grounds. They established gardens, spray lines to water them, an impressive array of playground equipment on a terraced playground, a tennis court (located northeast of the school building on the Pringle Street side) and a swimming pool located to the southeast of the school building and fronting Massey Street. The school's tree-planting programme "strictly followed [a] plan, which allowed for only colourful flowering trees to be planted around the school ground's perimeter i.e poinciana, jacaranda, silky oak and...South African red tulip tree[s]".Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, p. 9. However, the school's small oval was a rough, at times boggy, site that took years to improve.Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, pp. 9, 14'Beautify the City', Daily Standard, 23 May 1921, p. 5.
In the same year, enrolments at Ascot State School outstripped accommodation as subdivision and residential building in Ascot boosted its population. By April 1921, less than a year after opening, the school population was 310.SLQ, Winstanes Junction Estate map, >1918SLQ, Jolimont Estate map, 1938Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, pp, 8, 13.
Money was allocated by the government for an additional wing in October 1922. This northern wing (now called Block C) was completed in the following year and officially opened on 20 October 1923. It ran perpendicular to the school's first building, faced Pringle Street and was connected to the original building by a verandah. Similar in design and materials to the first building, it was brick with rough-cast external render. It provided three new classrooms and a teachers room, while the undercroft was divided into play space and a gymnasium.DPW, Annual Report of the DPW to 30 June 1924, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, p. 4Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, p. 14.
Enrolments continued to grow as Ascot's population increased. In 1927 there were 568 pupils at the school and four classes were taught permanently in the undercroft. In response, the Department of Public Works (DPW) drew plans in 1927 for a new, southern block (Block B), which would form a U-shaped complex plan.Guy and Sutcliffe, Ascot, p. 28DPW, Drawing 16192616, 15 Dec 1927.
On 25 August 1928, Block B was opened by the Minister for Public Instruction, Thomas Wilson. Built of rough-cast render and brick, it provided four extra classrooms on the upper floor level of the existing school and one underneath, each of which was . The whole provided extra seating accommodation for 200 pupils. Folding partitions on the upper floor converted the classrooms into one assembly room. The undercroft was concreted. A photograph from 1928 shows the building had tiled window hoods, and banks of casement windows and centre-pivoting sashes with awning fanlights.DPW drawing 16192627, 31 May 1932'Ascot State School', Daily Standard, 28 Aug 1928, p. 5DPW, Annual Report of the DPW to 30 June 1928, Queensland Government Printer, Brisbane, p. 7Project Services, Ascot SS, p. 6.