E.—2

Several of the classes have in the past year given particular attention to athletics, with the result that a great many children have learned to swim, while quite a number have become useful members of football and cricket teams. The value of having classes attached to a school has been demonstrated by the fact that the boys and girls can mix freely, and even compete with the children in the ordinary classes. Prowess in athletics stimulates the respect of non-special-class pupils and tends to remove any stigma that might otherwise be attached to children of poor scholastic powers. Co-operation with the Mental Hospitals Department has resulted in the removal of a large number of uneducable children, formerly a burden on special classes, and it is anticipated that as a consequence special-class teaching will, in the future, be more effective. Physical Education. This important part of the work of the school continues to make very good progress. The subject includes physical exercises, organized games, swimming and life-saving, athletics, folk and country dancing, and rhythmic exercises. Up-to-date methods are used, and both teachers and children are entering into the true spirit of the work. At the training colleges more attention than ever before is being paid to the subject, and the students are consequently more capable of giving instruction when they go out into the schools. Twelve specially selected students undertook a third year's course in physical education at the Dunedin Training College. Folk and country dancing is being taught in a larger number of schools throughout the Dominion. As a means of producing good deportment this phase of the subject is most valuable from the point of view of the girls. Corrective-classes are held for children with postural defects who have been selected for treatment by the School Medical Officer. Good progress continues to be made in swimming and life-saving. Last year 14,168 certificates were issued to pupils in primary and secondary schools. I have, &c., N. T. Lambourne, Chief Inspector of Primary Schools. The Director of Education, Wellington.

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