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The Correspondence School, established in 1922, has completed twenty-one years of service, providing educational facilities for students unable, on the grounds of distance or disability, to attend for classroom instruction. The total on the roll for 1943 exceeded 3,400. Over 400 of these suffer from physical disabilities. Over 1,000 are engaged in farm or homo duties or in factories or offices, and carry on their studies in the,evenings. The school provides serial instruction, personal correction, library facilities, vacation schools when possible, broadcast lessons, and visiting teachers, of whom four are continuously in the field. There is a wide range of extra-mural activities, including Scouts, Guides, Red Cross, S.P.C.A., Garden, Mecanno, Stamp, Camera, Naturalist, and International Penfriendship Clubs. Besides full-time primary and post-primary courses, the school has developed short practical courses in various branches of farming, woodwork, housecraft, needlework, as well as in fine arts and crafts. The library comprises 9,200 volumes, with a circulation for 1943 of more than 24,000 mailing deliveries. The school store supplies all necessary text-books and school stationery, including scientific apparatus and craft tools and materials. All instruction papers issued are prepared and cyclostyled at the school, the average daily output being 50,000 imprints. There is a staff of 120, of whom 90 are teachers and 30 clerical officers. Interesting Developments. —There has been a revival of the adopted-school scheme, the purpose of which is to enable inexperienced teachers in small country schools to obtain assistance from experienced teachers in parent schools. The " adopted " teachers make at least a one-day visit each year to the parent schools to observe methods and organization and to discuss problems and difficulties. At intervals they forward samples of pupils' work to parent teachers, and in return receive samples of work from parent schools for comparison. Where possible, adopted teachers bring all their pupils on a whole day's visit to the parent school, where the pupils intermingle, and the teachers collaborate in the day's work. All speak highly of the great educational benefits derived from the scheme. The movement of inter-school visits has also been extended. To give one example, a number of small country schools gathered at a central school to follow programmes of combined activities under specialized direction in art, crafts, physical education, verse-speaking, singing, and use of school films, and later in the year for a field-day in connection with calf and lamb clubs, and a vegetable and flower show. In another district a community week was held, the pupils and teachers of five country schools being billeted by parents of the central school, and the children of all the schools participated in combined work that can be undertaken only with larger groups of pupils. The movement has not been confined to country schools. In one city, as part of the February programme, senior pupils of various schools joined in physical instruction, games, and also visits to factories and institutions. An interesting innovation, initiated by the Principal of a girls' college, was a special community week for a group of fifty girls from district high schools. The visiting girls with their teachers were billeted, and the scholars of the girls' college collaborated in a suitable programme of work and activities. Despite war conditions, club work in the schools has continued to flourish. In connection with calf clubs and home gardens, generous support has been given by parents and various public bodies. In progressive schools, the special interests and aptitudes of the children are further provided for in such clubs as art, crafts, dramatic work, literature, nature-study, and Junior Red Cross, the last being a valuable aid in giving a practical basis to the teaching of health. A commendable feature of all these pursuits is that many pupils who are unable to cope with the ordinary academic school work find compensation, and even become leaders, in practical activities. Holiday recreation schemes have been successfully inaugurated iti several centres, partly in connection with the Church Youth Movement. In order to keep children usefully and happily occupied during school vacations, there is a real need for these amenities. Parents have shown willing co-operation and appreciation, and it is hoped that an extension of the movement can be made. Teaching Aids : Handwork— Cinematograph films, 16 mm., both sound and silent, are being increasingly used in the schools. In the National Film Library there are nearly a thousand films, more than half of which are owned by the Education Department. The number of film-strip projectors in use is steadily increasing, and new film strips have been added to the Education Boards' film-strip libraries each month. All films and film strips are lent, free of charge, to schools and to any organizations interested in adult education. The School Library Service now provides hampers of books, exchanged at regular intervals, for over six hundred schools. This number is increasing as rapidly as books can be obtained from overseas. Radio broadcasts to schools, provided by the National Broadcasting Service, have continued through the year in seven sessions a week. Teachers are becoming more appreciative of the high quality of the programmes. The Museum Education Service has been extended by the appointment, for one year, of an assistant to each of the four Museum Education Officers. This has made possible visits by many more classes from city schools, and the provision of more museum cases for circulation to rural areas. Although art on the new lines, and various kinds of handwork, are very successfully taught in various schools, it has become necessary to reorganize the teaching to ensure continuity and progression, and to make the best use of local materials, as supplies from overseas are, in some cases, unprocurable. As an exploratory measure, a specialist in art and handwork was appointed to the staff of a large school of 650 pupils to give full time to the teaching of these subjects in all classes. Not only was fine work done by pupils in art, bookcraft, modelling, and spinning and weaving, but arrangements were made for teachers of other schools to see the specialist at work and to participate in the work. The experiment has proved so successful that an extension has been planned to provide instructional courses for selected teachers from sixteen schools in the whole area. To carry this out, an Assistant Area Organizer in Art and Handwork has been appointed, this being the first appointment of its kind in the Dominion. Physical Education in the primary schools has progressed steadily in spite of the grave shortage of certain types of equipment, such as balls and bladders, and of the travelling difficulties of the itinerant specialists. Many one-day refresher courses have been held by Area Organizers and their assistants. A noteworthy development has been the increase of inter-school physical-education meetings, where whole schools have visited others for a friendly day together of physical-education activities in which every child takes part. Organizers of Physical Education have paid particular attention to the continuation of the new work into the upper forms of district high schools, where the work is proving very popular. More schools have adopted suitable costumes for physical-education periods, although footwear remains a problem. Altogether there has been a steady year of consolidation of the new work, which is now, to

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