Our History
The History of Nagle Pre-School
In 2011, the lovely team at Sandringham Historical Society helped uncover Nagle’s humble beginnings.
They shared original typed minutes of AGM’s and mother’s clubs newsletters from over 40 years ago.
Some highlights…..
Sacred Heart Parish School, at 11 Fernhill Road North in Sandringham, was established by the Presentation Sisters (a faith community) in 1912 and was under their direction for 70 years. In 1989, the first lay principal was appointed.
In 1956, the Presentation Sisters started an unsubsidised Play Centre within the Parish school and named it after the founder of the order, Nano Nagle.
When the directress of the Play Centre resigned in early 1964 and the Play Centre was threatened with closure, the local community and families rallied to keep it operational.
In July 1964, the Nagle Pre-School Association Inc was founded with the aim of establishing and maintaining a Government subsidised pre-school at 20 Fernhill Road North, Sandringham.
The pre-school continued to operate at its original premises until the committee identified that Nagle was in need of a new home.
In July 1972, a Co-op was formed for the purpose of raising funds to build our 59-61 Sandringham Road pre-school, in cooperation with the Sandringham Council of the day.
The new building cost approximately $21,700 (just over 1/3 of the cost of the refurbishment we celebrated in March 2011).
To give you some sense of relativity at that point in time there were 55 children attending Nagle and the fees per term were $13!!!
The current Nagle property was officially opened somewhere around 1975-76 although the information is a little sketchy.
What is exciting to note for local families is that in 2014 the association turned 50.