Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
- Textual record
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
Level of description
Repository
Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
1921-1964 (missing: 1932-1933, 1934-1935, 1936-1939, 1940-1941, 1943-1944) (Creation)
- Creator
- Nova Scotia Department of Education
Physical description area
Physical description
10cm of textual records
(original school registers)
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
Other title information of publisher's series
Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
Note on publisher's series
Archival description area
Name of creator
Administrative history
In 1850, J. W. Dawson was appointed as the first superintendent of education for the province of Nova Scotia. During his tenure, Dawson encouraged the establishment of free schools. In 1855, Dawson’s successor, Alexander Forrester, established the Provincial Normal College in Truro, for the training of public school teachers and the standardization of school curriculum. The Free School Act of 1864, introduced by Premier Charles Tupper, created a system of free public schools throughout the province. The Education Act of 1864 assigned a school inspector to each of the 18 counties. The act also increased state funding and encouraged local taxation to support public schools, and standardized the classification and examination of students. Over the next hundred years, public school attendance registers fell under the authority of the Halifax-based office variously known as the Educational Department of Nova Scotia (-1894), the Education Department of Nova Scotia (1894-1929), the Nova Scotia Department of Education (1929-1967), and the Minister of Education (1967-). Today, the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, as it is known, is responsible for K-12 public school education throughout the province.
Custodial history
160 bankers boxes of school registers were transferred from the Nova Scotia Archives to the Colchester Historical Society in 1999. A small number of additional school registers have been donated throughout the years from various sources.
Scope and content
Series forms part of the Colchester County school registers fonds and consists of 43 school registers for Beaver Brook School, from 1921-1964 (missing: 1932-1933, 1934-1935, 1936-1939, 1940-1941, 1943-1944). Most registers measure 28x44cm or 26x38cm and contain 10-20 pages, though in some cases, only a few pages remain. Registers generally include a list of students' names, along with their sex, age, address, parent or guardians' names, as well as a record of attendance and general standing. Registers have been printed by the Nova Scotia Department of Education and data has been handwritten by the schoolteacher.
Notes area
Physical condition
Some registers are in poor physical condition: pages are unbound, tattered, or missing.
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Arrangement is chronological and imposed by archivist.
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
High resolution images may be available for registers 100 years or older. Contact Colchester Historical Society.
Restrictions on access
School registers 100 years and older are considered open, and are accessible to the public. School registers less than 100 years old are considered restricted, and access may be permitted on a case-by-case basis, by request only. Contact Colchester Historical Society for more information.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Boxes SR17-SR18
Associated materials
Accruals
Further accruals are possible.
General note
Several schools have existed in Beaver Brook since the early 1800s. A school was built in 1842 and burned down c. 1865. The first public school in the community was likely built in the early 1880s. In 1963, when the Consolidated Elementary School was built in Old Barns, all students from Beaver Brook were bussed there.
SOURCES:
A History of Beaver Brook. Mildred Pulsifer Burrows, 1981.
Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia. Public Archives of Nova Scotia, 1967.