Historical information

Sunshine High School had the system of Prefects being elected by the students from candidates nominated by the teachers. It is unknown whether the exact number of votes each elected Prefect received was ever released to the students. Prefects were used to supervise the behaviour of other students, and to book them for offences such as not wearing caps on the way to and from school. In the Pledge book there are empty pages after 1971 so it is unknown whether the signing of the Prefects Pledge was abandoned after then.

Sunshine High School existed in its own right in the Melbourne suburb of Sunshine for a relatively short period between 1955 to 1991. The school amalgamated with the following five secondary schools: Sunshine Technical School, Tottenham Technical School, North Sunshine Technical School, Sunshine West High School, and Ardeer High School to form the multi campus Sunshine College in 1992. The buildings of the former Sunshine High School on Ballarat Road now form part of the Sunshine Campus of Victoria University.


Significance

The book is a historical record of the names and signatures of the Prefects that signed the Prefects Pledge, and served the Sunshine High School over the 14 years between 1958 to 1971 inclusive. It also contains the names and signatures of witnesses to the signatures.

Physical description

Small brown hardcover book with cream pages. Contains the Prefects Pledge hand written in black ink, and the signatures in blue and black inks of boy and girl Sunshine High School Prefects from the years 1958 to 1971