YOUNG PUPILS TO MEET

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28099, 15 October 1956, Page 7

YOUNG PUPILS TO MEET

SCHOOLS’ EXPERIMENT AT PALMERSTON

An experiment in combining social studies with communal living will bfe undertaken near Palmerston during Labour week-end when 18 children from Christchurch and 16 from Dunedin —all between nine and 11 years of age—gather at the Inch valley Activity Centre. Living quarters there have been erected qy students of the Dunedin Teachers’ College. Arrangements were made by two young school teachers (Merrs P. J. Walsh, of Harewood School, and R. Thompson, of the Mornington School. Dunedin). They plan to give their pupils social studies on the hilly, bushclad property of 20 acres through which the Shag river runs. At the same time the children will learn to adjust themselves to new social relationships. Many of them have already been exchanging letters and photographs. Most of the children have been earning money to pay the expenses of £2 10s each and other efforts have been held to swell group funds. The Parent-Teacher Association at Harewood is enthusiastic about the educational potential of the scheme and the opportunity for their children to meet others in a new district under careful supervision.