BRIDGE-STREET SCHOOL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 3, 3 January 1877, Page 2

BRIDGE-STREET SCHOOL.

[The following report has beeu sent in by tne Inspector to the Local Committee.] The Hon. Sec. to the Town Education Committee. Sr J.— ln compliance with the request of the Town Committee I held a special examination of the Ist Division of Brido-e---street school on Monday, tlie 11th instant." Twenty-seven boys were present, 7 of whom were in the Ist. class, 8 in the 2nd, and 12 in the 3rd. Tlie examination was'conducted mainly by means of papers, though all the classes were examined orally in mental arithmetic,; reading, and such other subjects as could not well be tested by papers The boys in the first and second classes read distinctly and with good emphasis, showing by their answers that they understood jyhat they were reading. They also acauitted themselves well in mental arithmetic. 'These two classes evidently knew more of arith- ' metic than they did when I examined them in June, five out of seven in the first class ! answering correctly the ten sums of which the arithmetic paper consisted, and none I tailing to solve nine questions. The average , number of sums worked correctly in the 2nd class was 6£. In the dictation of these two classes there was but little improvement, the average number of mistakes in the first class being three and four 7 sevenths, ia the second class seven and one-eighth. The handwriting Was generally neat The geography papers of the Ist and 2nd classes were badly dope, only one boy in the lst class gaining half marks, the average

earned by the lst class being about one-third of the possible marks, while the number gained by the 2nd class averaged only onesixth. A paper on grammar, including the parsing and analysing of a sentence, was fairly done by the lst and 2nd classes, the 3rd class, though not required by me to do so, makiug a by no means unsuccessful attempt at answering the same paper. ' The third class did fairly, viva voce, in grammar, geography, and mental arithmetic. I Their writing from dictation was relatively better than that of the two upper classes, the average number of mistakes made by the juniors being only one and five-twelfths, twothirds of which, it should be said, were due to the paper of oue phonetically-minded boy. The very simple arithmetic paper set was creditably done. To give a summary of the work done by each class is a comparatively easy task, but I do not find that the lapse of six months has helped me much towards giving such an estimate of the present state of the school as will not be liable to be misunderstood by any but a very careful reader. The number •of scholars in daily attendance, if compared with the numbers of those who have been drafted from the Lower Division during the first seven months of this year, is still absurdly small. In February and July 36 boys in all were promoted, while only 27 were present at my examination, this number, of course 1 including the 31 boys who were already at the school when the first draft was made in February. It is obvious, therefore, that in this respect, to whatever cause it may be due, the school still fails to discharge ita chief functionthat of carrying to a higher point ;the education of the boys periodically sent up from the Lower Division. The second draft that I was compelled to send up from the Snd Division in July, merely to recruit the thinner ranks of the upper school (then reduced to 30) was, as might have been expected, far inferior to the class of boys sent up in February. I therefore found it necessary to set a much easier arithmetic paper to the 3rd class of the Upper Division in December, 1876, than had been given to and creditably answered by the lst class of the Second Division in 1875. Time alone can show whether the present master is able to retain, in sufficient numbers, the scholars wao are sent up to him, and time I think should, in all fairness, be allowed him. One point has certaiuly been gained. The hoys are now well behaved and prompt to obey, which is more than could have been said of them when Mr Price 'took charge of the school. That there are shortcomings in several respects I have not shrunk from pointing out; but I have also pointed out that in other respects good progress has been made, and this gives grounds for hoping that ere long the numbers may be recruited to their former strength. Oue thing, however, is clear to me. The teaching during the past year has been far too desultory. I n addition to the six or seven subjects that must of necessity be included in every elementary school course, Euclid, Algebra, Latin, and Practical Geometry have been attempted, Drawing, Geology, and Astronomy having apparently been thrown in as make-weights. All these seem to me so many steps in the wrong direction. If this school is to regain the ground it has lost it must be by rigorously excluding for a time almost all the higher subjects that I have enumerated, and by aiming for another year at least at teachhalf a dozen things well. I am, &c, W. C. Hodgson, Inspector.