Page:Hints for the improvement of village schools and the introduction of industrial work.djvu/12

8 Industrial Report.—"Every effort is made by the managers to give a practical character to the instruction, and with a very satisfactory result. The industrial department of the girls is under a fully competent person, and the work therein is well done. In the boys' department, the ground, a stiff clay, is well worked, and the crops flourishing. I recommend that the usual grants shall be made."

July, 1859. "This school (mixed) continues to be conducted with great care and assiduity. The standard of attainment has been raised, the boys in the first class having a good knowledge of Mensuration. Throughout the school the instruction is evenly graduated, all classes receiving a due share of attention.

"The Industrial Departments for boys and girls are carefully worked, and are valuable additions to the school."

"A certificated mistress, aided by a large staff of subordinates, carries on very efficiently the instruction of the children, and the daily supervision of the clergymen gives a finish to the moral tone as well as to the acquirements, which is rarely to be met with. In consequence the school is resorted to by the classes above the labourer, constituting almost the entire first class; and as they pay according to their means they lighten the otherwise heavy expense of the establishment. The penmanship alone seemed to me open to criticism.

"The Industrial Department for girls consists of a kitchen and washhouse, in which a separate mistress teaches daily five or six girls at a time cooking, baking, washing, and household work, about twenty girls being thus employed eight hours each per week. The good things operated on in the kitchen find a ready sale in the parish: so that this branch is nearly self-supporting.

"A small cost is incurred in teaching the elder boys gardening on two days in the week in a piece of ground adjoining the school, which has lately received a valuable addition by the enclosure of waste."

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL ACCOUNT, (GIRLS' DEPARTMENT,)