The teachers' training school in Grote Street, Adelaide city, from 1876 evolves into part of Adelaide High School

The Training School for Teachers in Grote Street, Adelaie city, was remodelled  from Gothic to Tudor style by government public buildings supeintendent C.E. Owen Smyth when it part of Adelaide High School in 1908.
Image courtesy Adelaide Explorer

A training school for teachers was opened in Grote Street, Adelaide city, in 1876 – a year after the South Australian Education Act made education compulsory in the colony.

The South Australian Register newspaper noted the intense urgency around the opening of the training school in 1876: “Such is the demand for teachers in South Australia that for the present it has been decided to limit the stay in the Training School to six months, instead of two years, which is the rule in England and elsewhere, and which it is hoped may erelong become possible here."  The teacher demand grew as more students enrolled in primary schools. 

The teacher training school building, designed by architects Brown & Thompson, had a large lecture hall with rounded corners to amplify sound. There was an apparatus room, a library and reading room, and a museum of the latest educational appliances. Student teachers could practise in a schoolroom with 75 children.

There were also two other classrooms, a principal’s room, a waiting room and a private room for female students. As well as the principles and practice of teaching, student teachers studied grammar, geography, history, and music. Female student teachers had to learn domestic services and male student teachers were taught drill.

In 1892 and 1908, the adjoining Grote Street Model School was redeveloped. The two main classrooms were divided into three smaller ones. New classrooms were added to the west and east wings.

By 1908, with 13 classrooms, Grote Street Model School joined the Training School for Teachers to become the Continuation School for Boys. Later that year, the adjacent Advanced School for Girls joined it to form Adelaide High School.

The South Australian governor public buildings superintendent  C.E. Owen Smyth remodelled the building in 1909, adding a second storey and staircase to connect the floors. The building changed from Gothic to Tudor style, with the castellations added to the roof line.