WEST CHRISTCHURCH SCHOOL STATUS

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21483, 27 May 1935, Page 17

WEST CHRISTCHURCH SCHOOL STATUS

TO THE EDITOB 01? THE PRESS Sir,—At the meeting of parents and guardians at West Christchurch District High School on Tuesday we learnt that the grant for the cookery department which is to be opened at

' the school next week was made and was actually available in October of last year. We also learnt that enquiry as to why the work was held up for several months after the Education Department had made the grant brought the reply that this was entirely due to influences at work "in a city other than Wellington." This is very illuminating. It places on a certain institution in Oxford terrace the responsibility for depriving the school of this equipment and more than CO candidates for examination of tuition in this subject for the whole of last term. It is impossible to overlook the fact that the cookery department at Shirley—for which the grant was made later—was installed at the beginning of the year. Another piece of pettifogging in which board members were chief actors was related in explanation of the apparently' indefinite delay in opening the wood-working department and yet another in explanation of delay in replacing work worn-out typewriters with machines fit for the children to use. What about sending chairmen of education boards Home with the Director! Similarly, has it ocurred to the authorities to apply the teachers' exchange system in the case of the Director? —Yours, etc.. S. R. EVISON. May 24. 1938.

LWhen this letter was referred to the Education Board authorities they paid that, a full and satisfactory explanation would be given to the duly cccredited representatives of the West Christchurch school committee on spoliation.]

TO TUB EDITOE O* Tnjt PRBSS Sir, —In reply to "Mother," I am sure that she cannot be a resident of Christchurch South, or perhaps she does not take a very keen interest in school matters, when she asks if Mr Andrews and Mr Howard are interested in the children. Did "Mother" ever attend any of the householders' meetings before the new school was built? The member for Christchurch South took pieces of match lining up to Wellington to convince the Minister for Education of the state the school was in. As a result of all the meetings and petitions, we got the new school, which was lost later on through a misguided committee not consulting the householders.

This school, I might add, is still a district high school until such time as the Minister for Education declares it otherwise. I still maintain that the intermediate department is a failure, and will continue to be so, until it has another contributing school. 1 can perhaps explain why it was that "Mother's" pupil made such good progress in the intermediate department. A report from "The Press" of September 1!), 1934, in a.s follows:—"Mr de Berry said the remarks that had been made that evening cbout the numbers at West Christchurch had no application this year. There were 50 lower children in the intermediate department than there were last year, he

said, but the staff had not been reduced. This year the boys and girls in the intermediate department had hnd advantages that no oilier school in the Dominion had received, and he believed that the manually-minded child had been given benefits that he would never get again." In reference to the various districts the pupils come from, why omit Rangiora. which has u high school in the township? "Mother's" concluding paragraph leaves me in doubt as to her residential qualifications. I, as a resident in clc.se proximity to the school, know that there are more mothers sending their children to primary school than to the intermediate; so I think it is clearly true that mothers want the restoration of the primary department.— Yours, etc., HOUSEHOLDER. May 25. 11)35.