Toodyay Valley School

When the opportunity arose to set up a government school in Toodyay, a meeting was organised to take place at the Royal Oak on 10 June 1853.

No fewer than three members should serve on the committee, their principal duties being to ensure that the school was run according to the rules drawn up by the General Board of Education.

The Toodyay School Committee subsequently formed, consisted of the resident magistrate Joseph Strelley Harris, Anglican minister Charles Harper, Samuel Phillips and James Drummond Junior.

[1]: 137–138 Because the local community was expected to contribute a reasonable amount to its cost, a further committee was formed to organize the necessary fund raising.

The Board of Education later introduced a rule stipulating that the land on which a school stood could not be sold for other purposes unless and until it had been specifically released.

He claimed to have the ability to offer his pupils a good English and classical education which included Greek, Latin, geography, arithmetic, geometry, sciences, writing and drawing.

Good Friday, Christmas Day, the Queen's birthday and the anniversary of the foundation of the colony on 1 June were observed as holidays.

Although the school stood well above the badly swollen river, it sustained a good deal of damage caused by the torrents of water gushing down from a series of steep ridges behind, a phenomenon which can still occur to this day.

Although it was suggested that the pupils be moved to one of the unused Toodyay Convict Hiring Depot buildings,[a] the damaged school continued to be used.

A teacher's salary was often quite meagre and, for the last three and a half years, Wylde had supplemented his income by keeping the accounts for the Queen's Head.

The school was forced to close temporarily when Wylde resigned his position as teacher to become the district constable at Newcastle.

Early in 1862, Aquila Bull took up the position of schoolmaster at the Toodyay Valley School with twelve pupils in attendance.

[1]: 172–173 Half way through 1864, the lessening numbers of children attending the school caused Bull's salary to be reduced to twenty-five pounds.