CLUB MOVEMENT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 153, 10 April 1941, Page 4

CLUB MOVEMENT.

VOGUE IN THE SCHOOLS. VARIETY OF UNDERTAKINGS. Apparently there is no end to the variety of work that can be usefully given to school children; through the operation of dubs during school hours, and from the work that is being turned out by these children it is obvious that apart from the excellent instruction and encouragement given by the teaching staffs in this branch of education, the dub members are. interested and have -ability. Two periods a week, each of half an hour, are devoted to club activities, and during one of these periods the children are free to do whatever they like. Some prefer to read at that time, others get on with handwork, while some spend the time on hobbies of mdnv kinds.

The teachers take groups for differ-ent-subjects. For instance, at the Ashburton Borough School clubs deal with first aid, folk dancing, stamp collecting, handwork of many kinds and arts and crafts, while there is a choir and a mouth-organ band, all flourishing and efficient.

Occasional experiments are undertaken and the work goies on, smoothly from week to week. In the handwork sections many useful and attractive items are made by the deft fingers of the pupils. Some boys in the higher standards take up jig-saw pork and intricate patterns are cut in plywood. Sometimes pictures are pasted on to the wood and the pupils make jig-saw puzzles from them, a task that develops patience and ingenuity. Through the stamp collecting club good work in the teaching of history and geography is the result, as some series of stamps prove entertaining for the dub members in the way they set out the progress of development of a country or mark important dates in its history. For the pupils in the lower classes the clubs cater for more simple tastes, hut it is tflere that a good deal of the foundations are laid and particular care is taken in guiding the, work.

Teachers with special leanings to certain types of club work take groups from all parts of the school and the interchange of ideas is also found to be valuable.