What's Behind A Name?

The name of the School – Preshil, The Margaret Lyttle Memorial School – is often abbreviated to Preshil School and known by all as simply Preshil. There are two campuses. The Secondary School in Sackville Street is known as Blackhall Kalimna (or, internally, as BK) and the Primary School and Kindergarten in Barkers Road are known as Arlington.

Parents often wonder about the interesting classroom names in Blackhall and how they came about. These teaching spaces over the years have been used for many different purposes but were originally named after the teacher or subject at the time.

Starting at the Blackhall front door we have The Lodge, taken from the Prime Minister’s residence in Canberra, which is the administrative hub consisting of the front foyer, Marilyn’s room and the general office. Through the double doors and off the central foyer is the long Science wing called The Tube, as in test tube of course; at the top end of The Tube we have the small lab which a group of avid Trekkies years ago named The Bridge.

At the bottom of the grand staircase is Hades, naturally, because once you ascend to the second floor you reach Nirvana, named by English teacher and now member of School Council, Doug McCurry, due to his following of zen principles.

Upstairs we also find Academy, named after the Platonic Academy in Florence and where Jean Rumbold and Mary Ann Metcalf taught Renaissance History for many years. Across the hall is Old Bailey where teacher (and later Preshil School Principal, Vivien Millane) taught Legal Studies; in Vivien’s early career she was a barrister who practised at the Old Bailey in London.

Then there’s Domain, the Maths room named after the mathematical terminology ‘domain of a function’; it also happened to be Maths teacher David Main’s room at the time. Finally, at the top rear of Blackhall we find The Tank which was Bill Cleveland’s teaching room for Environmental Studies; because Bill was American the kids affectionately referred to him as ‘the yank tank’.

The VCE common room at the end of the row of peppercorn trees named The Cottage was where the housekeeper who looked after the Jesuit Order residing in Kalimna, then known as Belloc House, lived.

Down the side of Blackhall along Daniell Place is our small theatre, The Blackbox, which was originally built in the 1930s as a gymnasium for the Catherine Booth Girls’ Home. Years later, students from Arlington joined the Sackville Street campus and this small building, together with the Garden School (now our Arts space), became primary classrooms. The Arts space houses a gallery in the centre of the building called the Frances Derham Art Centre; on a day-to-day basis it is now used as the Media room but transforms back very easily to a gallery when required.

Occasionally your child may be required to walk the few minutes away to Arlington, which is the registered office of the School, to attend a workshop or performance in the Kevin Borland Hall, named after the renowned architect who designed Arlington’s buildings, in consultation with students at the time.

Hopefully you have found this little bit of history both helpful and of interest.