GIRL HOUSEKEEPERS IN MODEL FLAT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 69, 14 December 1939, Page 8

GIRL HOUSEKEEPERS IN MODEL FLAT

School Pupils Trained

LEARNING TO MANAGE

A HOME

For one week a year, iu batches ot four, approximately 160 girls from eight Wellington schools have a "home of their own” in the form of a model flat at the manual trainiug centre at the Mt. Cook School. There they are trained in cooking, house and laundrywork by Mrs. K. B. Johnstone, who is iu charge of home science instruction at the centre. Newtown, Brooklyn, Kelburn, Te Aro and Roseneath public schools and several convent schools send in turn four girls a week to 1 the model flat. There under supervision, they take charge of the flat and all the duties, connected with it. In pairs, they take turn about on alternate days with the cooking and housework. First morning job for the young housekeepers is the shopping. They are guided in their selection and soon learn to know the best foodstuffs from second rate. They plan and cook the midday meal for themselves and any visitors, are instructed in the economical use of cooking power ,and the dishing up and serving of the food they cook. The other tasks associated with cooking and the kitchen finished, they are taught to calculate the cost of the meals cooked and make an entry of this in a menu book. In the afternoon they bake biscuits, cakes and other eatables for emergency occasions such as unexpected afternoon teas. A visitor to the centre can always be sure of a good cup of tea and freshly baked cakes or biscuits. The girls in charge of the housework are instructed in bedmaking and other household duties, such as laundering. The girls who take this instruction are standard six pupils, aged from 12 to 14. The average cost of running the flat is 17/6 a week, which is met by the Education Board. The bedspread, dressing table covers, sideboard covers and table covers were made by the girls using the flat. Most of the furniture was provided by the board, but the boys of the Mt. Cook manual training centre made a cabinet and tea wagon, both -well done. There are a kitchen, a dining-living-room and a bedroom in the flat. All that is lacking is a bathroom. Two of the four girls in charge of' the flat!this week are Chinese from the Mt. Cook School. (Picture on page 7.)