Types of school starting with S
School of the Air (1956-)
A school conducted initially by radio from Broken Hill. It opened in 1956 to provide lessons and contact for correspondence students (later distance education students). Lessons are now conducted via satellite. An additional campus opened in Hay in 1992.
School for Specific Purposes (1923-)
A school for children with special needs which require hospitalisation or with physically, intellectually or psychological disabilities. Some of these schools have no regular enrolment, the children being regarded as temporarily absent from their ordinary school. There have been many variations in the naming and classification of these schools, especially those conducted in centres run by voluntary organisations. Older titles such as 'School for Crippled Children' or 'School for Sub-Normal Children' have not been used in the database, most of the schools being identified simply with ssp or Hospital ssp. Community care schools are also classified 'ssp' by the Department. In November 1985 the Department adopted a policy of integration, where possible, of children with disabilities into regular schools.
Sport and Recreation Centre (1947-)
Beginning in 1947 teachers were appointed to some National Fitness Camps, renamed Sport and Recreation Centres in the 1970s. There is no regular enrolment at these centres but they are visited by groups of children, with the teachers in the centres working in conjunction with the class teacher concerned. Until the early 1970s the emphasis was predominantly on physical education and recreational activities, but pupils’ social development and environmental education are now the main priorities. In 1971 administration of Sport and Recreation Centres was taken over by the Department of Sport, Recreation and Racing although the Department of School Education continued to provide teachers until 1990. These centres are currently listed in the annual Department of Education and Training publication, Directory of Government Schools in New South Wales.
Subsidised School (1903-1989)
A school designed for localities where the minimum attendance required for even the smallest type of government school could not be obtained. While the Department paid a subsidy for each pupil, parents were totally responsible for providing the school building and the teacher; often, however, subsidised schools were permitted to use former government school buildings. Subsidised schools were not government schools, and are not included in the database. The last subsidised school, Hatfield, became a government school in 1989.
Superior Public School (1881-1931)
A Public School officially recognised from 1881 as providing both primary and post-primary education. Pupils who had completed the primary course studied subjects like mathematics and languages which were also taught in High Schools. From 1913 Superior Public Schools were able to compete more than effectively with the early High Schools. From 1913 Superior Public Schools were reorganised, being restricted to offering two-year vocational courses – commercial, home science or junior technical. An individual school could provide one or more of these, but smaller Superior Public Schools, generally in the country, offered a modified composite course. By 1925 there was a less rigid vocational emphasis, the courses had been extended to three years and students could sit for the Intermediate Certificate examination. Although the schools were still officially known as Superior Public Schools, it was common for the names of the distinct secondary 'schools' operating under the same roof as the primary school to be used: in one context a school might be described as a Superior Public School, and in another as a Junior Technical School. After 1931 the term Superior Public School was abandoned, super-primary schools being known only be the names of the courses offered.
