The Farm School was a model of residential ‘care’ for children, based in a rural area, which trained children (typically boys) in agricultural duties.
A Western Australian newspaper article from 1935 described the purpose of farm schools:
The policy has been to remove unemployed youth from the scrap heap of idleness, train them, and place them in an avenue of usefulness, of benefit to themselves, their parents and the State (Sunday Times 20 October 1935, p.15).