The Mount Noorat School opened on 10 November 1873. Mrs Margaret Evans, an Assistant Teacher at Mortlake School, was appointed the first Head Teacher. It was almost three and a half years since Murdoch MacDonald and David Ellis wrote their first letters to the Board of Education requesting a publicly funded school. There is no record of how the opening was celebrated, but then as now, the Mount Noorat Hotel may have been the venue for some festivities.
Mrs Evans notified the Board of Education of the school’s opening on 11 November 1873:
‘Sir, I have the honour to inform you that I opened the [Mount Noorat] school yesterday with an attendance of forty-three and have to request you will forward the following articles with the least possible delay, as they are urgently required, viz:
1 Teacher’s Desk, 1 Work Table, 1 Notation Frame, 2 Blackboards, 1 packet franked envelopes.
I have the Honour to be Sir, Your Obedient Servant Mrs Evans from 397 Mortlake.’
The school is proud of not only its long history of supporting and nurturing the educational needs of our school community but is ever conscious of the need to maintain the crucial close links so necessary in ensuring that the school remains a true reflection of the desires and needs of that same community. This school believes that all children can and will learn. Consequently every effort is made to provide a school environment in which children feel safe, happy and respectful to the rights of others, while being encouraged to achieve both academically and socially.
Goals
To immerse students in an inclusive, developmental and integrated curriculum program that is based upon the Victorian Essential Learnings Standards.
To provide a secure and caring school environment where children are engaged in challenging, positive and stimulating social and learning contexts.
Our School Priority
Develop and implement teaching and learning strategies in the classroom to more effectively cater for the range of individual needs of students particularly in the areas of English and Mathematics.