Board of Education School Inspection report - 1914

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This is not a typing error!! A recent search through the School Archives has unearthed a very old School Inspection Report dated October 1914 and it is reproduced in full here.  

1914 Inspection_1

There is reference to an earlier Report in 1910 which was described as the second full inspection but we have not found either of them; however, we have discovered two other old Inspection reports from 1923 and 1937 and these will be featured on the website in due course.

In this 1914 Report, it is a point to note that while there were only 75 pupils and 6 staff, there were 13 Governors. Also it is very interesting to see the “Class of Life” breakdown on page 3.

The School finances were in a bad state of affairs and thus the expansion of the School was very restricted. You will see the “l” symbol which was a forerunner to the present day £ sign. Payments to Staff were under pressure and expenditure of equipment is minimal. It is sad to note the comment that it would be in the interests of promising pupils to transfer them to another school for their last year.

The comments on the subjects taught are very interesting. In Geography, there were no books dealing with Geography in the Library, and that a globe and a few wall maps had been purchased since the last inspection. Perhaps surprisingly, French was taught throughout the School. In regard to Physical Exercises it is interesting to note that there were only 2 twenty minute periods per week in quite poor conditions. Please do not be too concerned about the comment that the Master responsible should be sent on a holiday course for “Swedish Exercises” – at that time, various types of physical exercise methods were popular, see this link: ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Systems).

All this being done just a few months after Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914.

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1914 Inspection_3

 

1914 Inspection_4

 

1914 Inspection_5

As the report was printed on paper size larger than A4, you may need to save each image and use a suitable viewer to expand the text. 

Alan Snelling