Winifred West

Winifred Mary West (1881-1971), head-mistress, was born on 21 December 1881 at Frensham, Surrey, England, the eldest daughter and second child of Fanny (born Sturt) and Charles William West, schoolmaster. She attended Queen Anne's School, Cavesham, and Newnham College, Cambridge (1900-03) where she read mediaeval and modern languages and won a hockey blue. She travelled to Sydney in 1907 where she worked as an illustrator for the Australian Museum and was a pupil at the Julian Ashton Art School. She convened the first meeting of the New South Wales Women's Hockey Association (1908). Miss West returned to England in 1910 but came back in 1913 to found Frensham boarding school for girls at Mittagong 120 km from Sydney. She was headmistress until 1938, and afterwards retained a connection with the school through the two companies, Holt Property Ltd which owned the land and buildings and Frensham School Ltd which paid a nominal rent for the properties.

Sturt, an arts and craft school and centre was opened in 1941, Gib Gate, a preparatory (later coeducation primary) school in 1952, Holt, College of Physical Education in 1953 and Hartfield, School of Senior Studies, in 1968. These other schools were to explore and extend ideas embodied in the 'philosophy' of Frensham, and remained subject to the parent school.

Frensham's experimental 'enriched' curriculum (with a novel emphasis on the arts and physical education) was less a product of contemporary progressive theories of education than a personal response, the result of Miss West's own English education and experience, to an image of the independent modern woman, in Australian society. She said in 1914: 'Women, too, are entering on a new phase - they are waking up to a realisation of their own powers and the need for the use of these powers'. The graceful buildings, carefully composed gardens and expansive grounds of Frensham were conceived as the 'outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace of Frensham'. The rural boarding school was a microcosm for society, providing a structure through which 'social responsibility' could be developed as part of the education process. A favourite metaphor for the school community was the tree; as opposed to the rigidly structured pyramid which was 'inanimate' and 'totalitarian', the tree was 'growing', 'alive', 'regenerative' and 'democratic'. Frensham offered informal education, with few restrictions. Students were encouraged to be responsible and cooperative rather than competitive; the reward for individual achievement and service was an iris.

Winifred West believed strongly in the 'need for sharing actively in the life of the community'. Sturt and Hartfield were established partly in response to perceived shortcomings in the State's secondary education. Sturt opened for local girls from the age of fourteen for whom high school was 'not suited to their special talents or needs'. Its curriculum included spinning, dyeing, weaving, woodwork, divinity, dietetics and hygiene, music and art appreciation. The full-time course was soon abandoned and the school opened to students of all ages, male and female. It has survived as a community craft centre served by professional staff. Hartfield, founded during a period of renewed interest in progressive education, opened to students 'who did not wish to go to University or sit for the Higher School Certificate'. There was to be 'more scope for practising arts and crafts' and 'more time for thinking, discussing and doing'. Winifred West was awarded an OBE in 1953.

She remained a critic of an education system dominated by University entry examinations: it resulted in an 'over-crowded syllabus' which left 'little room for original work and imaginative thinking'. The humanist values of education were constantly remarked in her speeches and she was sceptical about the contemporary emphasis on science and technology: 'we need scientists and technologists . . . they are not likely to be forgotten but we need, too - perhaps even more, artists, writers and musicians - perhaps most of all, teachers, craftsmen and saints'. The schools which she founded and guided were to foster, in her own words, 'the creative spirit'. She died on 26 September 1971.

Mary Varvaressos

Priscilla Kennedy Portrait of Winifred West 1978.