In School and Out

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30975, 3 February 1966, Page 6

In School and Out

This week has seen the beginning of another school year and is the occasion for many scenes of bustle and activity. At home parents and children have been seeking out the necessary things to fill the satchel or school bag. It’s amazing how pencils and pens, rulers and rubbers disappear during holidays; lunch cases have to be extricated from the picnic basket; and books unearthed from all sorts of hiding places. For the mothers particularly this is a very busy time. Sons and daughters seem to have grown beyond belief and uniforms which fitted reasonably well in December now reveal their defects and sometimes too much of their .wearers. There has been shopping and washing and Ironing, lengthening and labelling somehow mixed in with an already full programme of jam making and preserving.

For some it has meant a new uniform and coping with lists of requirements from schools. Finding the correct articles, fitting, and equipping is not a good January activity. But for so many it is a . necessity.

This will be for many an important starting point—almost a new beginning. The five-year-olds are eager for this new adventure which sometimes also demands adjustments from parents. Many older children move to intermediate schools. All face a new year, with prospects of fresh and more difficult challenges, and in some cases new teachers. Some pupils are making their debut at secondary schools. From being the seniors in the primary school they now have to become the most insignificant of humble juniors. These changes all call for adjustments and understanding. Not all of us make changes readily and our children will gain maximum benefit from new opportunities if they have the security which understanding adults can give them. This calls for patience and care from both parents and teachers as well as from older brothers and sisters.

The year’s beginning is also a starting point for many teachers. Two years at a teachers’ college have come to an end and now they have been appointed as probationary assistants in schools. What an ordeal those first days are for most of them! Fortunately New Zealand is one of the countries where the whole teaching service is closely identified with teacher training and all of these probationary assistants will have spent a significant part of their training period in observation and practice in schools. Many of them will have already spent some time in the schools to which they have been posted. Now

for the first time each one will have direct responsibility for his own class, usually a group of not more than 25 pupils, and will be constantly glad of the help and security which a headteacher and experienced members of the school staff can bring. The Teachers’ College too will be the scene of new beginnings. Most of them straight from secondary

schoots. More than 400 new primary students entered college this week, plus many post-primary trainees. They have gained their prerequisite qualifications, have faced the ordeal of an interview with a selection committee, and have been among those chosen. Now they will be meeting their new lecturers and tutors and beginning their training for a career. Although this week is the beginning of a year for pupils in their schools it is for the teachers the culmination of much preparation and work. During January several hundred teachers met in refresher courses to prepare themselves better in various aspects of their professional duties. In Canterbury courses were held at the School for Deaf for teachers in small rural schools and at Lincoln College two courses were held, one in the teaching of arithmetic and the other in English. Head teachers and senior staff members have been working out their organisation for the year, allotting classrooms to teachers, placing teachers in classes and pupils to their appropriate groups. This is a complex and difficult task calling for the fullest possible knowledge of each pupil and, of course, a recognition of the talents and strengths of each teacher. In the case of new schools this preparation, has been going on for some time. The

new Casebrook Intermediate School in Veitch road, for instance, is the result of many months of planning and work in the new buildings. As in the new school at Merrin street the present buildings had their beginnings on a drawing board. Mr J. Bigg, Chief Architect for the Canterbury Education Board, and his staff have given much time and thought to the planning and construction of these new schools and other board officers have been busy ensuring that necessary equipment is there on the spot for the first day. Within the Education Board office, the. first week of school brings to fruition many other activities. Classrooms have been provided where there has been growth of roll, and staffing officers, led by Mr H. Cain, have been working strenuously for many weeks on the staffing adjustments necessary in dealing with over 500 teachers. This preliminary work has also been going on just as strongly for all secondary schools. New pupils make their fresh start this week but teachers have been examining their records and meeting pupils’ previous teachers to enable them to offer the appropriate courses. A particularly significant beginning has been the birth of Hagley High School, drawing together the pupils, many of the teachers, and a rich heritage of tradition and history of two schools. Refreshed by their holidays all look forward to the new academic year. One lesson supersedes all others. That in a country where education to readily open to all, incentives must be retained. There is great adventure for those who set their sights high and work hard for worthwhile goals. This is the task of all of us, in schools and in homes, to see that the talents of those in training are developed and used to the fullest possible degree KEROSENE HEATERS Advice has been received from Ministry of Works that reversible bottle-type kerosene heaters should not be used in schools because of the fire hazard. They should be withdrawn immediately, says the Education Department. Some of the more dangerous features of these types of heaters are as follows: (1) Children’s clothing could accidentally be ignited. (2) They tend to flare when placed on an uneven floor or in an area subject to draught They may also flare when moved.

(3) Flooding of the reservoir may occur as a result of faulty valves. The make of kerosene heater which operates on the principle of convection is permitted in schools for temporary or emergency purposes only, but precautions should be taken against the heater being knocked over. Fixing brackets to the walls or floors would be of value, says the Education Department.