Nadur Primary School

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School History

The first Government Primary School at Nadur was opened in 1842.  It was the second one on the island of Gozo after that at Victoria and the seventh in Malta and Gozo.  Nadur as a village was the first chosen since it incorporated Ghajnsielem, Qala and Comino and hence it was the biggest village in Gozo.  At first, only boys could attend, but later on girls were included too.  A small house near the church was rented to be used as a school and the number of children continued to increase.  Later on bigger houses had to be found for boys and for girls.  In fact in 1850 there were 55 boys and 46 girls attending and in 1858 there were 70 boys and 63 girls.  The curriculum consisted of Reading in Maltese, Italian and English, Arithmetic, Religion, Handwriting, Gymnastics, Geography and Geometry for boys and Needlework for girls.  For nearly fifty years Fr Saviour Vella managed the school not as a head teacher but as a teacher in charge. 

As the schools’ population continued to increase, the Director of Education Can. Paul Pullicino proposed the building of two schools.  However this dream was only realised in 1932 when the present school in Racecourse Street was opened.  The head teachers were Fr Micheael Galea for the boys’ Schools and Ms Teresa Xuereb for the Girls’ School. 

It was during this time that the boys from Nadur Primary School first sat for the Entrance Examination for the Lyceum Secondary School in Victoria.  Mr. Anton Buttigieg from Qala succeeded Fr Michael Galea at the Boys’ School and Ms Mary Zerafa from Nadur succeeded Ms Teresa Xuereb at the Girls’ school.  Under these two heads, school improvement was very evident.  Attendance increased steadily until it became compulsory in 1947.  Schools were involved in many extra curriculum activities. 

Nadur Primary Schools excelled particularly in Sports.  In fact Nadur Boys’ School had won the Aggregate Cup for sports 12 times up to 1972 and the Tug of War for 5 times.  At the same time the girls won the first Net ball Competition that was organized.  The girls had several successes with the Aggregate Cup as well. This shows the love for sports that existed in these schools and the commitments of both teachers and pupils.  Academically 1 out of 5/6 entrants into Secondary Schools for both girls and boys used to be from Nadur.

Schools became co-educational in 1974 and from then up to the present time Nadur School has housed all the children of the village with care and dedication with the integration of children with special needs.  In 1992 the name chosen for the school was Dun Salv Vella who was the first head teacher from Nadur who for 50 years dedicated his whole career to the education of the younger generation.