Using school records to research your family history

Enrolment records have information about:

• enrolment dates
• full names of students
• addresses of students
• birth dates of students
• names and occupations of parents or guardians
• name of previous schools and subsequent schools attended by students.

Depending on the age of the record it may be publicly available at the Public Record Office Victoria.

Learn more about student enrolment records.

School photographs can include:

• formal class photographs
• sport team photographs
• photos of school events.

School yearbooks (or magazines) can contain:

• photos and summaries of significant school events, camps and activities
• student artwork and writings
• home group photos / year group photos / class photos
• photos and summaries of events of Year 12 formal / graduation ceremony
• staff photos / staff group photos.

Learn more about school yearbooks and magazines.

School histories can include extra information that provides ‘colour’ to the story of a family member’s school.

Such histories may be informal or unpublished, or produced by a professional historian for a formal publication.

School councils are groups that set the broad direction and vision of a school within the school's community. They usually have between 6 and 15 members, including:

• the principal (formerly known as the head teacher)
• parents
• a staff representative
• interested community members.

In more recent years, high schools have included a student representative on school council.

Minutes of school council meetings can give insights into the culture of a school, include mention of major events and names of Council office bearers.

Learn more about school councils and how schools are governed.

Teacher record books, created from 1863 to 1959, contain the names of thousands of teachers and the schools they worked at. PROV have digitised these books and you can access them online at the PROV website.

Learn more about school staff employment records.

From the 1850s to 1982, school District Inspectors wrote reports about Victorian government schools.

Their role and the contents of their reports changed over time, and involved:

• examining students and teachers
• judging the performance of teachers
• assessing the quality of the curriculum
• assessing the physical conditions of the school.

Most inspector report books include general comments on the quality of the teaching, the teaching resources, and the physical conditions of the school. Student and staff names are rarely mentioned except for the head teacher’s name. However, the books can give the family historian insights into the conditions experienced by their family member.

Learn more about the role of School District Inspectors.

School policies are directives that apply to individual schools and provide rules for the school community to follow.

School policies can set rules about:

• discipline
• student conduct
• health and safety
• parent behaviour.

School policies can give insights into the culture of a school as well as providing proof of what rules were applicable at what time.

Parents and friends clubs and groups, known as mothers clubs prior to the 1970s, were key to gathering financial and other support from the local community.

The minutes of meetings of these groups include information on fundraising efforts and maintenance ‘working bees’. These records can illustrate the issues and activities that the school community focussed on.

Learn more about the role of mothers clubs in Victorian public education.

Corporal punishment was allowed in government schools until 1982. Its use was governed by certain protocols.

The teacher inflicting corporal punishment had to record it in a corporal punishment book. The record had to include the name of the student and punishment they received. These books are rare but, when they do exist, they can offer insights into school discipline in the past.

The Public Records Office Victoria has a list of records created by the department that deal with school matters. These include:

• correspondence between schools and the Department that can be a valuable resource for historical information on the school
• building and property files that provide information on the development of the school’s buildings.