Our Work.
Volume 7, 1896, pgs. 556-557
House of Education.--A visit from Mrs. Curwen, which greatly stimulated the students' interest both in the Child Pianist Method and in Tonic Sol-fa, and the various examinations, were our chief events for July.
The Autumn Term begins on September 30th, and is a good time for the admission of students who wish to enter for three months with a view to personal training, but not to the taking up of teaching as a profession.
Parents' Review School.--We publish, though rather late, the examiner's report for the Easter Term:--
"The papers sent in show that, allowing for some unavoidable hindrances, the work of the term generally has been marked by steady, systematic, and patient effort, and that the teaching, in the majority of cases, has been sound, and the results successful and encouraging. The greater number of papers reach a good standard of attainment, some few are excellent, and a small number only fall below a fair average.
"The subjects that have been generally best done are Bible Lessons and the various Histories, and the weakest in all classes appear to be English Grammar and Arithmetic. Class III. and a few pupils of Class IV. have failed to master Decimal Fractions, probably owing very much--in the case of the examples given for examination--to the method employed in solving the problems. In English Grammar, many only give a very meagre quantity of work compared with other subjects.
"In Euclid, the few pupils who attempted the questions have done fairly well, and one student decidedly so.
"The Letter-writing, in almost every case, was very much better done than the composition on the given subject. This should receive the attention of teachers.
"In the Historical Subjects, the facts are almost invariably well remembered, but scarcely sufficient attention appears to have been paid to the teaching arising from the facts, e.g., the questions least satisfactorily answered were such as Nos. 2 and 4 in Literature, Class IV. and No. 3 in English History.
"The Brush Drawing, especially of leaves and plants worked systematically, although perhaps, except in one or two instances, of no great merit from an artistic point of view, and not quite equal to the work presented in the previous examination, must have been of real value in developing the power of accurate observation.
"The mechanical difficulties of Handwriting might probably in many cases be mastered at an earlier age, and more practice in reproducing in writing what has been read or learnt would undoubtedly secure greater accuracy of information and improve the spelling.
"The arrangement of marks given by parents on the printed list, has been of very great help in the examination, by preventing possible loss of marks and waste of time in looking up marks from all possible places and from small scraps of paper. It would be an additional help if the answers were all written on paper of uniform size, and that foolscap."
Proofread by LNL, Oct. 2020