PORT CHALMERS SCHOOL

Evening Star, Issue 22804, 12 November 1937, Page 11

PORT CHALMERS SCHOOL

PRIZE-GIVING DISCONTINUED Mr W. D. Sutherland (chairman) at the monthly meeting of the Port Chalmers School Committee. Hie motion, " that the annual system of competitive prize-giving .be discontinued,” which was carried unanimously at the previous meeting, was confirmed. Amongst the reasons advanced in favour of the motion were that only a few pupils more favourably endowed than the others secured the prizes year after year through the standards, with the result that other pupils, brighter in one class of work but less so in another, or not quite up to the standard of the few prize-getters, were inclined to become discouraged. _ These pupils who yearly are successful in winning the prizes mostly do so with little effort on their part, while the pupil who, by hard work, reaches a position just below the prize-getter, receives nothing. Others with more brilliant intellect and better work through the terms fail at the examinations because they have not the temperament. The abolition of prizes, which, however, does not affect the “ gift ” to infant children, will now enable tho committee to secure better facilities for the crafts room; in fact, six looms besides other implements are in use with excellent results, also better reference and reading libraries can be maintained. Special prizes donated to the school could, with the donor's approval, be utilised in the abdV© direction with better results to the pupils as a whole than as a special prize. The head master reported that the good attendances at the school continued, and that Miss Parry would be leaving later in the month as exchange teacher to England, and the committee recorded its appreciation of her services to the school and congratulations on her appointment. The pupils had performed creditably at the drill display and the sports, _ although they had not been successful in any of the finals.