School days, good old school days, reading, writing and arithmetick, (note spelling).

Schools were established in 1827 in Coote Hill, subjects taught were reading, writing and arithmetick, as spelled then. Church of England Catechism, spelling and grammar, were added in 1844. They used for spelling, books by different authors, including the Bible, as it was difficult to obtain suitable text books.

A Provincial Act was passed in 1802, that the Province would pay ten pounds of New Brunswick currency every six months, to be matched by the school district.

Teachers were licensed by a local magistrate, and the first teacher at Coote Hill was John Inch, to be followed by David Moore in 1830 and 1831, and in 1832, Alexander Quinn, recorded as being forty years of age, and from April to October 1836, John Morgan.

The Provincial Normal School, later the Teachers College, opened In Fredericton on February 10th, 1848.

The New Brunswick Schools Act became law on May 17, 1871. 

Residents of Coote Hill listed as teaching out side the community were, Andrew Hamilton, William Graham, James Mahood and Sam Mahood.

Some of the early teachers were not always very competent, resulting in the students receiving a poor level of education, with many students dropping out of school after only a few years of poor attendance, to work on the farm.

The Coote Hill one room school was constructed about 1872, but the records in the Archives in Fredericton start in 1879, with William Quinn being the first of sixty teachers to teach until the school closed in 1953, with Mary Brooks as the last teacher.

The school district was three miles long, with grades one to eight, with an average enrollment of eighteen students over the history of the school.

The school, had a wood stove in the centre of the room for heat, which also was used for heating lunches on a cold day, and drying mittens and boots. The entrance, was divided into a girls and a boys coat room, was unheated, At the end of classes, on cold days, if left there, made for some very cold coats, mittens and boots.

There were two other buildings on site, the outhouse, with a solid wall dividing the girls from the boys, each with two holes. The second building was the Woodhouse, were the winters supply of wood was stored after being cut, split and left outside to dry.

No running water for drinking, it was carried by pall from a well, in later years on Chris Barnett's property, located behind the school. The water was left in the earlier years, to sit in a pail at the front of the room in a corner, to be replaced by a earthen water cooler, with a tap to pour the water. Everyone drank from the same common tin dipper, despite this no serious illness appears to have spread, except
for colds.

The school year ran from Labour Day to the end of June, with two weeks at Christmas, and one week at Easter, for vacation. School hours were nine to four, an hour for lunch with a fifteen minute recess in the morning and afternoon. On Fridays, the last hour was for Red Cross activities, a much anticipated break from the lesson routine.

School recreation consisted of games of tag, base ball, hide and seek, or in winter sliding behind the Church towards the Allingham Brook. The gym, was the church horse shed, where tag was played on the beams and across the overhead ladders.

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Reference was previously made to the fact that there were sixty teachers during the life span of the school, however, it is known that there were a number of teachers before official records were being kept, some have already been mentioned. The list of teachers to follow (click here) are from the Provincial Archives.