STEPS AND STAIRS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 31, 6 February 1943, Page 3

STEPS AND STAIRS

AGES 12 TO FIVE WELL-BEHAVED CHILDREN Seven children all in a row, one ooy and six girls. They are brother and sisters. Their ages range from &ve to 12 years, and they are all attending the same primary school. This is unusual in these modern days when large families are rare. They are all pupils of the Vermont Street Catholic school, and the teaching brothers ana sisters speak well of the children's behaviour and scholastic abilities.

Mr. and Mrs. .7. Arnold, of O'Neill Street, Ponsonby, are the parents. Valerie, at the head of the row, is the eldest of the family, and her's the responsibility of getting the team to and from school each day. The boy, Raymond, 11 years old, has to be at school earlier than the others, so he is exempt from traffic control duties on the route taken each day by the others. Valerie is in the fifth standard, and it will not be long now before she passes on to a secondary school, when Aileen, who is ten, and in the fourth standard, will have to be "the little mother."

Nola is the next girl. She' is nine and in the third standard, while Bernice is seven and in standard two. When this girl is in standard six she will 4)e in charge of the remaining members of the team, which will have an addition of at least one. This is Jacqueline, who is in her second year. She sadly misses her sisters when they are all away at school, and would like to go with them. Rosalind is in standard one. She is six years of age, and Alison is in the kindergarten class. She is five, and went to school for the first time this month.

The sister in charge of the girls department of the school said that there were not nearly so many large families to-day as when she went to school. "I was one of 14," she said with a bright smile. "It was nothing unusual for eight or nine of us to go together to the same school." She added that at Vermont Street School there, were children attending who belonged to families of nine and ten, but she could not say that .there was another case of seven children of one family all attending school together. It was unique. The girls were.all splendidly behaved. They came to school regularly and were always neat and tidy and paid attention to their lessons. The teaching brother in charge of the boys said that Raymond was a smart, intelligent boy.

When interviewed, Mrs. Arnold had nothing to say beyond stating that the children gave her no trouble. The boy went off to school a little before the girls, and Valerie took charge of them. Jacqueline, who was a year and nine months old, was the only child not at school, and even at her tender age showed eagerness to be one of the team.

The children have an unbroken record of successes in passing all their school examinations.