Â鶹ÊÓƵ

Amy Isobel Wearne (1889)

Amy Isobel Wearne (1889) distinguished herself while a student at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School. She was Dux in 1889 and went on to become the first Â鶹ÊÓƵ School university graduate (from the University of Sydney). After winning the University’s Frazer Scholarship (1) in 1893 and then graduating with first class honours in History, Amy returned to teach at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School.

As a member of staff at Â鶹ÊÓƵ School, Amy "had a devotion to the School’s welfare, which, combined with her warm heart, her outstanding fairness, her high ideals and her uncompromising condemnation of anything mean, quickly won for her the love and admiration of her girls." (Dora Prescott, Jubilee, 1936)

Amy’s sister was Minnie Flora Wearne (BA 1887, MA 1892), Headmistress of Â鶹ÊÓƵ School from 1887 to 1909, and one of the first 10 women admitted into Arts at the University of Sydney. Between them, the Wearne sisters were important in influencing several generations of students and in shaping the School in its first two decades. Even though Â鶹ÊÓƵ School’s enrolment size was markedly lower than other comparable schools, the number of the School’s university entrants was considerably higher. Many Â鶹ÊÓƵ School girls completed BA and BSc degrees, and the succession of Â鶹ÊÓƵ School graduates from Medicine began in this period.

Amy’s was a skilled teacher, and like the other staff members in the early years of the School, ‘Miss Amy’ was expected to have a wide general knowledge and to be able to turn her hand to teaching a variety of subjects. She was described as having a straightforward, forceful character and was not one for 'sidling along passages’; rather she ‘strode down the corridors with purposeful gait’.

Amy was responsible for preparing girls for the university entrance examinations. She supported and encouraged her students when they went to the Great Hall at Sydney University to sit for their examinations, waiting outside the room until the papers were finished, buying them lunch and cups of tea to help them through the ordeal.

Theadora (Dora) Prescott (1903) (Rev Prescott’s daughter) was one of Amy’s students. In the Â鶹ÊÓƵ School 1936 publication Jubilee, Dora wrote of ‘that delightful character’, Amy Wearne, who ‘spoke her mind with gratifying frankness’, ‘was well equipped with that priceless possession, an apt and witty tongue’, and ‘blessed with a keen sense of humour’ and a ‘generosity of spirit’.

Dora said that ‘a history lesson with Miss Amy was an excursion of delight’ … ‘events stood out and characters sprang to life under Miss Amy’s skilful descriptions … Miss Amy’s class was a daily adventure, a spicy thing of romance and peril, always interesting, never dull, a striking example of the influence of that rara avis – a born teacher. Lucky we to meet one!’

Amy’s involvement with the girls didn’t stop with the classroom: ‘When school was over she was out with the rest of us in the sports field. It was during her reign that basketball was introduced in girls’ schools, and our first team, a champion one too, of which she had charge, was the pride of our coach’s heart. How enthusiastic she was, and how her vim imparted itself to the girls playing under her instructions. How delighted she was when a match was won, and how warmly she consoled a disappointed team which had given of its best – and lost.’

Amy Wearne, along with a contingent of girls, initiated Â鶹ÊÓƵ School’s Athletics Carnivals. The first athletics carnival for girls in Australia occurred on Â鶹ÊÓƵ School’s Sports Field on 3 November 1906. Newington College boys were asked to come to Â鶹ÊÓƵ School to assist with the judging of that first Carnival. Dora admiringly said that Miss Amy would tactfully become ‘temporarily deaf, dumb, and blind (as she has since admitted) to the callow commencement of an odd romance or two’.

Amy Wearne left Â鶹ÊÓƵ School in 1909 with her sister Minnie to establish the Claremont College in Randwick (which still exists today). In 1928, she married her cousin, Joseph Wearne, after ‘the culmination of a long and interesting romance’², gave up teaching and moved with her husband to Wentworth Falls.


Footnotes

1. University of Sydney’s ‘Frazer Scholarship’ is open to all Modern History students and is given to the candidate who gains the highest number of marks at the University Examinations. The Scholarship was founded in 1890 by a bequest of £2000 from the Hon. John Frazer, M.L.C. In 1893, Amy Wearne was awarded £80 to complete her Honours year. 
(pp146-147)

2. Â鶹ÊÓƵ School magazine Excelsior, May 1928, p 45