The school opened in a two storey building in Arnold Street, Princes Hill in 1889. In 1908 it became a practising school for trainee teachers from Melbourne Teachers’ College. This meant many innovations were introduced or trialled at the school. In 1911 the Education Department bought a former bootmaker’s factory in a lane behind Arnold Street. Woodwork classes for boys (called Sloyd, from a Swedish method of instruction) were held downstairs, and cookery for girls upstairs. In 1899 infant teaching was established with the classroom and activities modified for small children. The school had the first Mothers’ Club in Victoria, which began in 1917 as the Princes Hill Mothers’ Story-Telling Club. In 1916 a first form class was introduced with a modified High School curriculum. In 1924 the infant classes relocated to the ‘little’ school in a new building in Pigdon Street. During World War 2 junior forms from University High School were relocated to Princes Hill and in 1944 Princes Hill became a Central School. In 1959 the primary classes moved to Pigdon Street and the Arnold Street building became Princes Hill High School.
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