Basics on education records

Government school and teacher records

Records of Government schools and school teachers in Australia are generally held by the relevant State archives. In NSW, for example, school records, including admission registers, administration files and the records of Government school teachers are generally held by State Records. If the school you are interested in is still in existence, however, it may have retained its own records and you should contact the school directly to determine this.

University records

Universities tend to operate their own archive of material. You should make contact with the university that your ancestor attended for further information. A number of English universities have published registers of their students. The SAG has an excellent collection of these volumes.

Non-government schools

Apart from some of the early records mentioned above, there are no central records relating to pupils or teachers at non-government schools. Many of the larger private schools, however, have established and maintained good archives and the possibility of addressing an enquiry about your ancestor to the archives officer at the school involved should be considered.

How SAG can help

Schools have typically published books to mark particular milestones in their history, such as jubilees or centenaries, and these usually contain large numbers of lists and photographs. SAG has a particularly good collection of such histories relating to NSW schools and British school and university registers.

Examples of such items in our collections can be found in our online catalogue - search for the school name of interest, or browse under (e.g.) the heading "Australia - [State] - education".