150 years: Seymour Primary School

Seymour Primary School opened as a national school in 1857.

The first head teacher was James O'Neill. In the first year there was 25 students enrolled and the average attendance of 21.

The original building was built using local hand-pressed bricks. Later in the 1850s, the building was extended to three rooms.

The railway line to Seymour opened and the population started to drift away from the highway.

Following this, the location of the school started to be questioned. 

There was an inquiry into the adequacy of the school's location which was held in 1911.

It was led by Inspector McOwen. The inquiry recommended that the school stay on the existing site.

However, as Seymour developed, this turned out to be an expensive mistake.

After the second World War, a rapid increase in Seymour's population caused a housing boom.

The four rooms at Tallarook St could not cope with the increase in school enrolments. An additional or larger school was needed.

 Additional land in Grant St was purchased.

A four-room building was built for classes for up to Grade 4. Later, nine more rooms were built to accommodate students up to Grade 4.

Staff rooms and offices were also built. Grades 5 and 6 remained at the Tallarook Street site.

During this time, new enrolments reached more than 500. This is a dramatic increase from the 25 enrolled in 1857 when the school opened. 

The name of the school changed to Seymour Primary School.

The Seymour Primary School closed and was combined with other schools in 2010 to form Seymour College (No. 8884).

The following schools were combined:

• Seymour Primary School (No. 547)
• Seymour East Primary College (No. 4957)
• Seymour Technical High School (No. 8315)
• Seymour Special School (No. 5149)

The Seymour Primary School became a campus of the new College. The final listed address for this Seymour Primary School was Stewart Street, the site of the Seymour College.