Preshil came into being to answer a need

Manuscript by M.E.Lyttle. Written about 1958.  (601/1/1 Q) First draft.

Preshil came into being to answer a need. The need felt by three fathers and mothers for a school environment more "child-centred" than was usual in Melbourne 27 years ago in which their five children could develop "along right lines". These parents, the first Preshil parents, asked Miss Lyttle to form such a school group for their children because she had resigned from St. Andrew's, the forerunner of Preshil, and they knew of and valued her pioneer work there in the education of little children.

Although she had planned to be retired at this time Miss Lyttle gathered this group of first Preshil children round her naming her school after a spot in Scotland, treasured in family history, because it was there that an ancestor was shot for his refusal to conform in his thinking and beliefs to the authority of the day. It was her hope that at her school, Preshil, "children would grow in self-confidence, independence and a feeling of ease and security which would be apparent in all their work". She said, "But although today the child is made for the school there is reason to believe that tomorrow the school will be made for the child. The new era will come more quickly if teachers assist in its birth - and that they cannot do if they are ignorant of child nature, and if they accept the old discipline as a gospel".

When Miss Lyttle died in 1944 parents and friends of Preshil initiated moves to establish the school as a memorial to her work for education. It was to be owned by a public company (non-profit making) of which any parents or friends could become members for the annual sub of £1 and was to be conducted by a Council acting as the exec. of this body. This company "The Preshil Association" was registered under "The Companies Act 1938" and came into being on October 29th 1946.

In forming this company various objects of its establishment had to be stated and the first of these was as follows:

"To provide for girls and boys from pre-school age a progressive education by which they are helped to develop naturally along their own lines and to provide opportunities for members of teaching staff and others to become familiar with and practise such new and progressive methods of education as a changing society requires."

Compiled by Libby Shade