CITY SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume XCIX, Issue 78, 1 April 1920, Page 8

CITY SCHOOLS

MR. C. J. PARR'S CRITICISMS

SITES AND AREAS.

After a visit to the Wellington primary schools yesterday, Mr. 'C. J. Parr, T.'ho takes over the portfolio of education on Saturday, expressed the opinion that the city has so grown that several of ■the schools were in the wrong places. Clyde-quay School; for instance, is in the centre, or a least on the fringe, of a big business district. It would be good policy for the board and the Department, in a few years, or possibly in a shorter time, to make a sale of this property in the main street, and acquire oilier more suitable land. The policy of the Department and the Education Board should be to realise on these ■sites in a few years' .time, and in the meantime to secure other and more suitable areas. He had been furnished with a return showing that the average area of school grounds in Wellington was leos than an acre. This was a condition that was not found in any other part of the Dominion.

In regard to the Newtown School — one of the dingiest and most -unattractive buildings he had seen—the policy of the board and the Department would be to acquire another site more suitable, providing more playing space, and to realise on this site on the main tramline.

The Mount Cook School was apparently a. school under three roofs, with about 900 children in attendance. It was obvious that divisions of the school in this way are not in the interests of the teachers or the pupils. ' Action would shortly be taken, through the Beard of Education, to improve matters there.

Theßerhampore School appeared to be a model of what a school should be. It was situated 1 on a healthy, breezy, elevated site, with ample playing space, modern ventilation, a,nd proper lighting. In regard •to the Wellington South School, he desired to express his appreciation of the tasteful manner in which the committee and teachers had laid out the grounds.