PART-TIME WORK BY BOYS

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27862, 10 January 1956, Page 6

PART-TIME WORK BY BOYS

Opposition By School

Master

“HEALTH AND PROGRESS AFFECTED” (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, January 8. A Kent schoolmaster has criticised grammar school boys who take parttime jobs during school terms—particularly delivering newspapers. He is Mr C. H. Beeby, head master of Skinners’s Grammar School, at Tunbridge Wells.

In a letter circulated to parents. Mr Beeby asked them not to allow their boys “to attempt to combine a full school routine. with the demands of part-time employment.” He said the burden was one which no boy could possibly bear without a very serious effect upon his school progress.

“Growing boys studying intensively require adequate rest and sleep if their health and school work are not to suffer,” he added.

One part of his letter said: “I write frankly in the interests of the boys, since I am acutely aware of a considerable number whose health and progress are plainly affected by parttime employment and whose places at the school are in serious jeopardy as a result.

“In some cases I must inevitably recommend the boys’ withdrawal from the school or transfer to another form of secondary education in the very near future, unless some marked improvement in their work is forthcoming.”

Mr Beeby said that he appreciated the financial strain borne by some parents and that he would be glad if such parents would approach him so that he might explore all possible sources of assistance.,

Mr Beeby, married, and with two young boys, has had 20 years’ experience in grammar schools. He said today: “While I have touched on the financial factor, I do not really believe that this comes nearly so much into the picture today as it did before the

He had little doubt that he would have the support of British grammar schoolmasters up and down the country and also a great volume of support from parents.