Dressing Rm

Line Plan of the Leeds Central Higher Grade School.

Entrance

The residents in this part of London are chiefly connected with business, either in charge themselves or as assistants in business houses, and so the children are largely trained for business pursuits, and compete in large numbers for the Junior Certificate of the London Chamber of Commerce. To this end, Typewriting and Shorthand form a considerable part of the curriculum, and both subjects are taught by members of the ordinary staff. A small amount of teaching is given in a Foreign Language.

The Manual Training and Art Work are very fine features of the school. Each branch is presided over by a very competent, specially-trained man. The science teaching cannot be compared with what was seen in the large provincial towns.

The pupils have the best inducements to remain on at school. The London County Council awards scholarships worth £10 per annum for two years, and in very meritorious cases a scholarship worth £12 for a third year, with free education and books. At the age of 15, a pupil may qualify for a secondary school course by passing the Intermediate Examination. The list of private benefactions for scholarships which admit to the secondary schools is large. Very few go on to the University, the expense, even with a scholarship, being too heavy. Many of the pupils enter the Civil Service, business houses, or a training college for teachers. The discipline in the class room is good, but the dismissal, as in all London schools visited, is not orderly. The conduct in the street is not decorous, the boys are boisterous but not rude. They are extremely civil, and when asked a question reply in an intelligent, straightforward manner. They are just as keen on sport as our Australian boys. Drill receives little attention in the curriculum. There appeared little occasion for corporal punishment in the Fleet Road School. Perhaps the finest feature of this School's work is the excellent part-singing and reading at sight. A small, splendidly balanced choir of about sixty voices has a large and varied repertoire of the best school choruses.

Burghley Road School.-The Burghley Road School has an elementary and an upper side, and the boys and girls are in separate class rooms. Drill is taught in the Girls' School on admirable lines, and with apparent good results on the physical bearing and discipline of the pupils. Little girls in Standard II drill with the steadiness and precision of soldiers. In the march movements the position of the body, the accuracy of the step, the general effect, are features quite as good as our teachers are accustomed to witnessing at the magnificent annual gatherings held by our own Public Schools Associations. Drill is not usually a strong subject in the Board Schools of England, but some teachers, among them those of Burghley Road, make a point of regular physical training in their schools. Another

Another class of girls in the same school shows great proficiency in reading and recitation, expression and enunciation being particularly good.

The Higher Grade School is a centre for the district, and admission is gained by competition between pupils of elementary schools from Standard V upwards. The enrolment approaches 400 and there are fourteen teachers upon the staff. The school aims at the Intermediate Scholarship and the Cambridge Local Examinations. Manual Training and Art work are well developed in the school. Science is a subject which receives great attention, and the pupils have the privilege of attending the laboratories of the pupilteacher centre near by. Commercial work is limited. French is taught on the conversational method. It was pointed out by one teacher in a Higher Grade School that there is a tendency in teaching foreign languages on the natural method of going too far in that direction. His opinions are worthy of some attention, from the fact that he is a trained English teacher who has lived in France, and has had considerable experience of French life. Alongside the conversation in the French language, which he admits is sound teaching, he advocates a study of the grammar, so that the lad may learn for himself some of the beauties of French literature. It is known to the Commissioner that in our own city we

have a gentleman, M. E. Périer, who has conducted for some years classes for public school boys, on the natural method almost exclusively. That he has been successful in making our boys proficient in French conversation is proved by the fact that several of them have been awarded prizes at the annual examination held by the Alliance Française.

While acknowledging the good work that is going on under this gentleman's admirable system, the Commissioner coincides in the view taken by the teacher of the Higher Grade School already referred to.

Special Schools-Special schools for physically and mentally defective children have been established in many of the large towns of Great Britain under the management of the City School Boards. In London alone there were in 1902 under the supervision of the London School Board

[Through the courtesy of the Government Statistician, T. A. Coghlan, Esq., the following information, regarding the number of children between the ages of 6 and 14 years in the metropolitan area of Sydney, who are deaf and dumb, blind, or insane, has been received :-Deaf and dumb, 70; blind, 27; insane, 5; total, 102.

Through the same source the Commissioner has obtained the number of such children located in State institutions, viz. :-Deaf and dumb, 57; blind, 21; insane, 4; total, 82.

Thus it appears that only twenty of these children, mostly the deaf and dumb, are outside the State institutions existing for their benefit. It might be well for the Education Department to further investigate the causes for non-attendance on the part of these twenty. The reasons may be quite sufficient. The Commissioner is of opinion that so excellent a school as the New South Wales Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind is quite capable of dealing with this small number, and thinks it quite unnecessary to suggest any additional provision.]

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XII.

Elementary and Higher Grade Schools of Edinburgh.

[J. W. TURNER.]

A knowledge of the system of public instruction in Edinburgh was obtained by means of visits to several elementary and one Higher Grade School. The Castle Hill Board School is an elementary mixed school, attended by about 1,000 pupils. The buildings are very solid, and the light, which is from the roof, is well distributed. The district in the neighbourhood of the school is peopled by the working classes, and is considered the poorest part of the city. The pupils are not among the most regular, and while many are comfortably clad the evidences of poverty are frequent. The higher classes contain some very brightlooking intelligent boys and girls.

The standard of instruction is similar to that witnessed in ordinary Board Schools in England, and in neither country does it equal the range of our own standards. The master is ambitious, and has passed, and would still pass if he had his own way, his best boys into the secondary schools with the aid of bursaries; but, acting under the advice of his School Board, he is satisfied to prepare them for the Higher Grade Schools by means of the Merit Certificate Examination.

In some circumstances pupils with the Merit Certificate do not desire to attend the Higher Grade Schools, but remain in their own schools and go over the old work. This the head-master regrets he cannot prevent. Boys are not eager to join the ranks of the pupil-teachers, the emoluments and prospects being here, as in many other places, better in other walks of life.

The head master favours Inspection as against Examination, but he states that the system throws immense responsibilities on the head-master. At the last inspection of this school of 1,000 pupils, the Chief Inspector, with four assistants, completed the work in three hours.

Several of the schools visited have very poor playground accommodation, and it was a common sight to see hundreds of pupils engaged in active games in the public thoroughfares. The practice of playing in the streets during the periods of recreation was very noticeable, too, among some of the London Board Schools.

Higher Grade System.-The upper primary work in Edinburgh was investigated in the Higher Grade School, Bruntsfield. The buildings, which are of several stories, have a very fine appearance and are situated among pretty surroundings. The school has an infant department, a lower section in Junior and Senior Divisions, and an upper section, a Higher Grade Department. The attendance is 1,600, of whom 400 are in the Higher Grade Department. Admission to the Higher Grade School is by means of the Merit Certificate, and pupils from various Board Schools in the district attend. Education is free, and the classes are taught on the mixed system.

The head-master sees a distinct advantage in co-education. He has had evidence of its benefits in his own experience, and has noticed that the presence of girls in the class has a refining influence on the boys. The following is the syllabus of subjects in the Higher Grade School, Bruntsfield, for 1902-3:

ELEMENTARY DEPARTMENT.

1. Infant Division (5 to 7 years of age) :-Hours, 9:15 to 12; 130 to 3-25. Reading, writing, arithmetic, musical drill, kindergarten exercises and occupations, needlework, singing, drawing, and committing poetry to memory.

2. Junior Division (7 to 10 years of age):-Hours, 9 to 12:30; 1:30 to 3:40. Reading, writing, arithmetic, English, geography, physical exercises, needlework, singing, drawing, committing poetry to memory, and nature knowledge. 3. Senior Division (for pupils over 10 years of age, but without Merit Certificate) :-Hours, 9 to 12:30; 1:30 to 3:40. Reading, writing, arithmetic, English, geography, history, physical exercises (gymnasium), needlework, singing, drawing, committing poetry to memory, and nature knowledge as an introduction to science.

HIGHER-GRADE DEPARTMENT.

4. Higher-grade Department (with Special Staff: maximum class, 30 pupils), for pupils holding Merit Certificates :-Hours, 9 to 12; 12.30 to 3:30.

A. History and English Literature. -The first two years devoted to the cultivation of a taste for good literature by the reading of interesting works of good style and tone. These to be studied largely at home and discussed at school. Examination to be held as to their contents, themes set upon them, different passages paraphrased, and choice passages committed to memory.

The first two years devoted to revising previous knowledge of history, and to obtaining a clear chronological view of the succession of events in English and Scottish history as an aid to future reading.

In the third year a definite period of history to be studied with special reference to its literature and the general state of civilisation of Europe at the time. The historical origin of present day institutions to be kept in view, a spirit of patriotism cultivated, and instruction given in the rights and duties of the citizen.

B Geography-A revisal of previous knowledge; the reading of maps; contour lines and their construction; elementary exercises in surveying and mapping; survey of the physical geography, flora, fauna, and historical antiquities of the district; study of commercial geography based upon the shipping and trade news of the daily papers.

C.

C. Mathematics and Arithmetic.-Geometry and mensuration-practical and theoretical. Euclid to be preceded or accompanied by excreises in practical geometry with application to mensuration. Mensuration to be based upon the experimental determination of surfaces and volumes, and to include ultimately exercises in surveying involving applications of trigomometry. Arithmetic-the whole. Decimal system, commercial applications; and in certain cases the arithmetic of artificers.

D. Drawing.-The course to embrace instruction in freehand drawing; model drawing from common objects as well as from geometrical models; and drawing to scale of plan, elevation, and section, to be followed or accompanied by simple exercises in the elements of design. In the higher stages the course may bifurcate, attention being given principally either on the one hand to the development of artistic faculty, or on the other hand to the instruction of pupils in the various forms of mechanical drawing which find application in the workshop and the drawing

office.

E. Experimental Science (laboratory work) :—

First Year.-Measurement of lengths, areas, and volumes; relative densities of solids, of sea water, fresh water, milk, and methylated spirit; the principle of Archimedes; expansion of solids, liquids, airthermometer, barometer; evaporation, solution, distillation.

Second Year.-Effects of heat on bodies; study of change that occurs when iron rusts; combustion of a candle; constitution of air and water; study of ammonia, soda, potash, lime, chalk; carbonic acid in atmosphere-plant life, breathing.

Third Year.-Boys: Detailed and systematic study of Charles's Law, Boyle's Law, latent heat, specific heat,
melting points, and boiling points. Force-gravitational, magnetic, electric; reflection and refraction of
light; the heating, chemical, and magnetic effects of the electric current.

Third Year.-Girls: Detailed and systematic study of water; hard water, soft water, softening of water.
Soap preparation of soap. Soda: alkaline nature of, &c. Some food stuffs-Flour: separation of
gluten. Starch: conversion into sugar. Fats presence of carbon. Lean meat: presence of nitrogen.
Classification of foods. Drinking water: its impurities, sources of contamination, the house supply.

F. Practical Instruction.-Boys: Woodwork. Girls: Needlework, dressmaking, cookery, laundry work.

G. Book-keeping, Shorthand, and Typewriting.-During the second and third years for such pupils as intend to enter upon a commercial career.

H. Modern Languages.-The result at the end of the course is intended to be that the pupils are able to read at sight simple narrative, and to understand and reproduce both orally and in writing the substance of a conversation on everyday topics or a simple description.

The advanced work in Bruntsfield is divided into a three years' course, the first of which is common to all pupils as all have started with the standard of the Merit Certificate. On the completion of the first year's work, during which the sifting process has been going on carefully under the eye of the headmaster, specialisation is made in three directions:

(a) Science, Mathematics, Mechanics, and Drawing all the important subjects of the groundwork, English, History, &c., being maintained.

(b) Commercial Arithmetic, Modern Languages, Commercial Geography, Shorthand, Typewriting, Book-keeping, English.

(c) English Literature, Latin, French, German, English, Mathematics, Drawing.

The