Following the devastating fire that burned the Labrador Public School to the ground in Muddy Bay in 1928, construction began on a new school at Cartwright. The Lockwood school opened in the fall of 1930, and was run by the International Grenfell Association. Lockwood school included a principal assisted by several women from Labrador who had been educated through IGA institutions.
In 1934, just four years after construction, the Lockwood school dormitory was accidentally destroyed by fire. The school, hospital and all other IGA buildings remained undamaged. A new dormitory constructed in 1936 was a four-storey building with four large bedrooms that separated the older and younger boys and girls. It included kitchens, bathrooms, dining rooms, study rooms, staff living quarters, equipment rooms, a laundry, a carpentry shop, and a furnace room. By the latter part of the 1930s, a new era of institutional life began at Lockwood. However, the goal of transforming the children’s habits, manners and morals to those of British and American standards remained an important aspect of education at Lockwood. Schooling aimed to teach children social values and practices such as colonial-based personal hygiene and housekeeping in addition to the standard curriculum of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
In the early days, most of the students came from scattered settlements around Sandwich Bay and larger communities of the southeast coast of Labrador. By the 1960s, many of the children came from the communities of Seal Islands, Spotted Island and Batteau. Other students came from communities such as Rigolet where they wanted to continue their education in a larger school.
Schooling was not compulsory until 1942, and attendance was not enforced until after Confederation in 1949 when school officials could threaten to take away family allowance payments if parents did not send their children to school.
Students attending Lockwood varied in age, and all had different experiences, but the shock of being immersed in a foreign and institutional environment was experienced by most children. Children, some as young as four and five, arrived to Lockwood school in the fall when the IGA boat would pick them up from their communities. They would return home again in the spring. Many children rarely saw their families during this time and would spend holidays such as Christmas and Easter at the school. Many children felt intimidated upon entering the school and dormitory. For many, the lengthy separation from family increased children’s fear and loneliness.
Life was very different at the school compared to life at home. In the community, life was centered on family. Families cared and looked after one another. For many children, the time spent at Lockwood was a very lonely time away from their families and friends. Some felt life at home offered many freedoms while living in the dormitory posed many restrictions.
Children living at Lockwood were expected to do many chores throughout the day. Some chores were divided by gender: boys brought in wood, lit fires, shoveled snow, cleaned and took care of the hens. Girls cleaned, baked bread, and sewed. All children had to clean up after meals, wash dishes, scrub floors and bathrooms, make their beds and clean up their rooms. Chores were done before and after school every day. There were strict rules at the dormitory and school, and children were disciplined when disobedient. Students were sometimes punished physically with long wooden sticks or leather belts, but often discipline was in the form of food deprivation. If students misbehaved, they were often sent to bed without any food.
Many students felt the food at the dormitory was strange, new, institutional and unappetizing. Mealtimes were very structured and were served three times each day – no snacks were available between meals. At home, children ate local food such as salmon, cod, caribou, rabbit, partridge, eggs, berries, bread and tea. At school children were fed canned and dried foods such as beans, peas, lentils, vegetables, stews, and macaroni with the occasional meal of fish. During mealtime, students were taught table manners and other cultural behaviours considered appropriate for western / European cultures.
Students were also taught British and American cultural values through recreation, special events, and sports. During the holidays, students put off plays and concerts while sports days and outdoor recreation included soccer, ice-skating, hockey, and running races such as three-legged races and sack races.
Because of a lack of communication with the outside world, there was little accountability for the bullying and abuse that took place at Lockwood school. Children depended upon the adults, the teachers and the staff for their well-being. While many children had positive experiences and gained useful training while attending the school, there were many others who endured hardships and abuse that for some, had devastating long-term effect on their lives
Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, the International Grenfell Association found it more and more difficult to obtain the necessary funding to keep Lockwood School and dormitory operational. In addition, teachers were unwilling to relocate to Labrador for very little wages which contributed to downsizing classrooms. The influence of denominational schooling in smaller communities also had an impact on lower attendance at the school.
Lockwood school closed its doors forever in 1964. St. Peter’s School, the Anglican Church school in Cartwright, would later use the Lockwood school building for extra classroom space for its growing student population. The dormitory remained standing until the 1990s, when it was demolished. The Lockwood school building was demolished in the fall of 2020.
Only time frame after Confederation with Canada (April 1, 1949) included in Newfoundland and Labrador residential schools Settlement Agreement.