19th–20th century The school was
opened on 25 February 1889 by ex-
New South Wales Premier Sir Henry Parkes on a Saturday afternoon with a large assemblage of parents and children (although the school was opened for the reception of children a month prior to the grand opening). On the opening day, classroom visitations were made with
garlands of flowers, in addition to children making
speeches to the guests. In one of the speeches, the school's chairman expressed agitation for the establishment of the school, but then he stated they were all pleased with Sir Henry Parkes, who came to open the new school. Mr Willis, the school's first headmaster, had his house within the school grounds (facing
The Horsley Drive) in the late 1890s. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, the students were called to school each day to ring the solid iron
school bell three times at 9am and again at 9:30 am. The school has organised sport picnics from as far back as the 1920s, with some events being notable enough to be reported in local newspapers like
The Biz. By 1958, Fairfield Public School was one of the largest primary school in New South Wales, though enrolments in that year decreased from 1400 to 1350 students (despite an increase of enrolments in schools of the surrounding areas). In the 1950s, approximately 15% of the students were recent immigrants to Australia. Since the 1960s, classrooms have oftentimes been renovated through government-funded
painting, with blue being the school's emblematic colour.
21st century On 15 March 2002, a
pedestrian bridge over The Horsley Drive was opened to link the school with Fairfield High School on the opposite side. The bridge was named the
Eva Wesley Stone Pedestrian Bridge, after Eva Wesley Stone (1894–2001), who was Fairfield's
oldest resident and lived in Fairfield all her life, in addition to attending the school in the late 1890s/early 1900s. In June 2014, Fairfield Public School celebrated 125 years of education where former New South Wales governor
Marie Bashir, and as well as former principals, visited the school and participated in a special
assembly; the school choir performed
I Am Australian in Bashir's honour, and the school's drumming group played for her. Also in 2014, principal David Smith decided to use the
autotuned pop song
Go! by Noise International for the school bell, because he thought it was a pleasant way to start lessons. In November 2016, Fairfield Public School had recorded the biggest increase of students in its
Intensive English Centre. In January 2017, over 200 families enrolled their children in the school, many of whom were recent refugees from overseas,
including Syria – The new students received a pencil case, teddy bear and drink bottle. In December 2017, students from the school took part in the annual Christmas
trolley run for the disadvantaged in Fairfield CBD, where students rode
trolleys filled with food and were led by the school's
drumming band to the
Fairfield Uniting Church. In January 2018, the school began to improve its
indigenous education due to national population boom in school-aged
Aboriginal children. In June 2018, the
school's library picked up of new books from
Dymocks, after Dymocks Children's Charities assisted the students to raise to help refill the school's library with 500 new books. In 2018, every new refugee student was given a "welcome pack" that featured a
jump rope, colouring pencils, a
colouring book and a
tennis ball. ==Demographics and statistics==