DIOCESAN SCHOOL

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20990, 18 December 1939, Page 9

DIOCESAN SCHOOL

SATISFACTORY YEAR

INCREASE IN ROLL NUMBER SEPARATE COURSES TRIED A very satisfactory school year is reviewed by Miss A. E. Satchell, headmistress of the Waikato Diocesan School for Girls, in her annual report. As there were no serious epidemics, the attendance was regular and the school work proceeded steadily, she stated, the highest number this year being 175, against 157 last year and 135 the previous year. The highest number of boarders was 81, the largest number that could be possibly taken with the present accommodation.

“There have been no changes on the teaching staff for several years past, which is always a happy state of affairs for a headmistress, but this year we are saying goodbye to Miss A. Bowden, B.A. In place of Miss Bowden we have secured the services of Miss Dorothy Higginson, B. to teach mathematics and science. At the beginning •of the year there was a change of matron. Miss Shires left after two years here and was succeeded by Miss Goldney. Miss Goldney proved a most efficient organiser, but unfortunately was obliged to leave at the end of the second term owing to home circumstances. We have been fortunate in securing in her place Miss Bowley. Full Training “This year I tried the experiment of providing three separate courses in the secondary department—academic, commercial and home, but I am not very well satisfied with it. In the main I think it is better for those in the fourth forms to take all subjects and try to acquire a good general education. It seems a pity that some of them should go through life without any knowledge whatever of any foreign language and culture, or of the mysteries of mathematics which provide such valuable training in reasoning, order and method. It is also very bad for a child’s character and not good training for after life if it is to be allowed to give up any subject it finds difficult. As for commercial subjects, they may well be left at least until the fifth form is reached, when some specialisation is necessary and desirable. “The school confirmation was held in St. Peter’s Cathedral in August, when ten candidates were prepared and confirmed by the Bishop. I should like to say how grateful we are to His Lordship for all he does in the school. Besides his confirmation classes he has regularly taken three classes in Divinity every week, a Holy Communion service at school at 8 a.m. every alternate Sunday and at 7.15 a.m. on Saints’ Days, and has frequently come out on Sunday evenings and taken evensong. “The athletic activities of the school have gone on steadily all the year. All the pupils have two 40minute periods of drill a week, the middle and upper forms have Greek dancing and all have organised games twice a week. The new asphalted tennis and basketball courts are a great asset, and cricket and hockey and rounders have also come on well. We held swimming sports in the town baths early in the year, but the athletic sports had to be postponed owing to bad weather and were run off without outside spectators a few days later.

“In connection with the Government’s scheme for physical welfare, four of the Sixth Form girls have this term been attending the instructors’ classes held by Miss Stephenson, who is in charge of the women’s side of this work in the Waikato area, with a view to themselves becoming instructors and helping with this work next year in some of the outlying districts.

“Good work has been done in music throughout the year, especially with the choir, and a beginning has been made with a school orchestra. In this connection I would suggest that there are many children who might benefit more from learning the violin than the piano. They are musical enough and would play sufficiently well to join an orchestra and tc derive great enjoyment from so doing without being solo players, which of necessity they have to be on the piano. Tribute To Late Rev. Boyt “We had hoped to do something about building a new hall in the near future, but the war has put a stop to that, and the old one must serve for the time being. The hope of soon obtaining a school chapel has also to be put aside for the present, though we are still slowly accumulating funds toward it in a small way. I had hoped that the school might do something this year toward a memorial in the chapel to the Rev. R. J. Boyt, its first chaplain, before a generation should arise which did not know him. My idea is that it would be fitting to give the altar in memory of him, as all his work and teaching in the school were centred in the altar. Then even if we have to build a new hall first, the memorial altar could be used in that until the chapel is built. However, the present time does not seem suitable for asking for funds for any other than patriotic purposes. “I wish also to thank all others who have helped the school this year. In addition to His Lordship the Bishop, there are those who have given up their time to judging the house handwork competitions each term, namely Mesdames Peterson, Ellis, Acres and Miss McNeil, Mesdames Bennett and Cowles and also Mrs Hammond, who judged the house singing competition, and Mrs Barling for judging the individual drill championships; Dr. Fraser is to be thanked for his ever-ready assistance and advice in matters pertaining to the health of the school. The school’s thanks is due to all the mothers who helped with che Garden Fete; the Diocesan secretary, Mr A. B. Whyte, for his unflagging zeal in all that concerns the school, the preI fects for all their well-intentioned j efforts, and last but not least the members of my staff for their loyal co-operation with me in endeavouring to give what we hope is a worthwhile education to those entrusted to our care. We thank parents for their continued confidence in us.”

RID OF PILESI “ TDank> to Zann i am rid or Piles,” writes sutTerer. Try it. Send 9d stamps for trial treatment. —Zann Pty., Box 952 E, Wellington. (9)