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APPENDIX.

Sheet 1. (h'or consideration (it the Conference of Inspectors of He/tools and Principals 'if Training ('alleges, February, 1007.) EXAMINATION AND INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS. ROUGH DRAFT OF PROPOSED AMENDED REGULATIONS (CLAUSES 1 TO 25.) IV.—lnspection and Examination of Schools. 1. Every public school shall, as a general rule, be visited at least twice in every year by a Public-school Inspector. At least ten days' notice of the date of one of these visits shall be given to the head teacher by the Inspector. No notice shall be required for any other visit. After one of his visits in each year the Inspector shall present an " inspection report." A special report may be presented after any visit. In these regulations a " year " means a year beginning with the Ist January. 2. For purposes of instruction, the pupils of every public school shall be divided into classes for the several subjects according to the standards defined by the syllabus of subjects, as follows: With regard to any subject, Class 1 shall include all the children doing the work prescribed for Standard 1 in that subject, and may be called Sl—for instance, SI English will include all the children doing the work in English prescribed for Standard I ; SI arithmetic, those doing the arithmetic of Standard I ; and so on for the other subjects. Class II shall include all the children doing the work prescribed for Standard 11, and may be called S2 : and so on to Class VII. The preparatory class shall include all pupils below Class I, and may lie called Class P. Class P maj be divided, the lower part being called PI, and the next P2 ; if necessary, these classes may be subdivided, as, for instance, into 1M lower, PI upper, P2 lower, P2 upper. 3. The classification of a school shall be made by the head teacher, who shall have full discretion to arrange his pupils in different classes for different subjects according to their ability and proficiency with respect to the several subjects, and to group two or more classes for instruction in one subject. This discretion he must exercise to the satisfaction of the Inspector, who will regard as an element of weakness any undue complexity in the classification of pupils. As a general rule, pupils should be classified according to their capacity and attainment in English and arithmetic respectively, classification in English being determined by proficiency in English and classification in arithmetic by proficiency in arithmetic 4. In general, the classification of a school shall lie determined at the beginning of the year : but, if necessary, promotion of individual pupils from class to class may be made at any other time by the head teacher. As a general rule, in Standards 111, IV, and V, promotion should not be granted in English unless the pupil satisfies the requirements of the standard in reading and composition, and at least one of the subjects spelling and writing ; and also, as a general rule, the classification for English and arithmetic shall not in the case of any pupil differ by more than one standard. 5. (a.) The head teacher shall draw up for each year schemes of work for all the classes in his school, and shall hold thereon not fewer than three periodical examinations of the classes, the last of which, called "the annual examination," shall be held in November or December, and he shall keep for the information of the Inspector a record of the nature and results of these examinations. (li.) These records, as well as the class registers and the copies of the Inspectors' reports and classlists, shall be kept in the school for not less than ten years, and in the case of the closing of a school shall be delivered up to the Education Board to be kept for a similar period as the Board shall direct, (c.) The records, reports, and class-lists shall be open at any reasonable time, except tlie ordinary school hours, to the inspection of any member of the School Committee, (d.) The written questions used at the periodical examinations and the pupils' answers thereto shall be kepi in the school for reference for twelve mouths, or for such less period as the Inspector at one of his visits to the school during the period may direct. 6. Immediately after the annual examination the head teacher shall forward to the Inspector, in duplicate, a copy of the results of that examination : these results shall be set out in class-lists on the forms provided by the Department. The class in which a pupil has been placed for English during the preceding three months shall determine the list on which his name shall appear. The class-lists shall contain — (a) the names and ages of all the pupils on the school roll; (b) the number of half-days on which each pupil has attended the school since the beginning of the year; (c) the number of half-days each pupil has attended the class in which he is placed for English, where thai number is different from the number in (d) ; (d) the class in which each pupil has been placed for arithmetic during the preceding three months; (c) the number of half-days each pupil has attended such class, where that class is different from the class in which he is placed for English; (/) the number of marks (on a scale 0 to 10) gained by each pupil in (1) reading, (2) spelling and writing, (3) composition, (4) arithmetic, anil a note of any special excellence or special weakness shown by him in other subjects (the absence of a pupil shall be indicated by inserting " a " in the proper column for the marks gained by him) ; (g) the class in which it is proposed to place eacli pupil in consequence of the results of the annual examination, taken in conjunction with those of the other periodical examinations and with the general character of his work during the year; (h) a general estimate of the quality of the work done by the class in each of the other subjects; (i) a summary showing the number of pupils on the roll of each class, the number present at the time of the examination in English, and the average age of the pupils in each class. In regard to any periodical examination other than the annual examination, the record shall be held to lie sufficient if it contains the particulars referred to in (a) and in (/) above, and also, in lieu of (g), merely the changes from class to class made as a result of the examination to which it relates.

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