KOWHAI SCHOOL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 105, 6 May 1939, Page 13

KOWHAI SCHOOL.

LAST YEAR REVIEWED. GROUND . IMPROVEMENTS. VOCATIONAL TRAINING. The annual report of the Kowhai Intermediate School Committee, which will be presented at the annual meeting next Wednesday evening, records a successful year. The report draws attention to the fact that similar intermediate schools have been opened at Te Awamutu, Ponsonby and Onehunga, all being moulded on the Kowhai plan. At Kowhai, the committee had succeeded in getting an extra playing-area added to the school ground, and it would fill a long-felt want. During the year rockeries and gardens had been kept in order by the scholars taking the agricultural and horticultural classes..

A number of successful functions were held and more than half of the pupils took part in the annual sports meeting. Instruction by cinema and radio was successful, and the loud-speaker system was in use for drill and marching displays. The children Were taking full advantage of the free milk supply, and it was considered that under the system health was greatly benefited.

The report mentions that about one liotlr each week at the school is devoted to hobbies, and great interest was being displayed by pupils. The parents' representatives on the school committee have been reelected unopposed, the names being Messrs. A. A. Buckley, E. H. Page, L. E. Rhodes. ■I. M. Bowler, P. Richardson and Mrs. Iv A. Smytlie. Special Work. The annual report of the principal. Mr. J. IT. Wells, stresses the value of special work carried out at the school. Personality classes had been formed, as it was found that children, rounding off their education preparatory to taking np work, should receive training of such a nature as to improve their personality and address. The training in consisted of formal introductions, telephone con . crsations, and introductions and impromptu conversations. The classes so far had been restricted to ■.'iris, but they had proved successful, and it Was proposed to extend the classes to include boys. ilr. Wells added that all the 21 classrooms had now been equippea with speakers, and from the study, messages, broadcasts and music could be transmitted throughout the building. Vocational visits continued to be an important item of the school experience, and visits were paid by pupils to workshops and factories, so that they could come into the atmosphere of what some day might be their permahmt occupation.