Moresland Special School was a private residential school for disabled children located at North Springwood during the 1930s. Its principal, Miss Marva Temple, a Catholic teacher who had strong support in local Catholic networks, later founded St Thomas More School for Backward Children in Linden.
Marva Temple was highly educated and an activist around the education of children thought to be mentally deficient or subnormal. She arrived in Australia around 1928, after pursuing an education overseas. She had a radio programme on 2BL's women's sessions about 'training the child' and dealing with problems such as stammering. She appears to have begun working for Moresland Special School soon afterwards. She left in the mid-1930s to set up St Thomas More's School.
Sources used to compile this entry: 'The Art of Teaching: An interesting visitor', The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 May 1928; 'Mental Defectives: Replies to letters', The Australian Women's Weekly, 16 December 1933, http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/53243976; 'The Moresland "Special School."', The Catholic Press, 11 July 1935, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article104509511; 'Letters: Backward children [Marva Temple]', The Sydney Morning Herald, 26 August 1937, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17389116; Searle, Alan, Historic Woodford and Linden, Springwood Historical Society, Warrimoo, 1980, 90 pp; Information provided by Joan Edwards and Shirley Evans to Naomi Parry, 20-22 May 2013.
Prepared by: Naomi Parry
Created: 11 April 2014, Last modified: 30 April 2014
Last updated: 4 August 2023
Cite this: https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/nsw/biogs/NE01567b.htm
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
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