ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 6 February 1928, Page 9

ENGLISH SCHOOLS.

EDUCATION OF GIRLS. NEW ZEALAND-BORN PRINCIPAL. Miss Clara Taylor, M.A., who is at present in Wellington on a visit to her mother, Mrs. Taylor, at Hadfield Terrace, its one of those New Zealanders who have made good in England, where she has been now for the past fifteen years. Miss Taylor was trained, in Wellington for the teaching profession, and l taught for a very short time in the State schools and afterwards was at Chilton House, when islie decided to try her luck in England. She has been for a number of years head mistress of a girls’ secondary school at Northampton, and recently was appointed head mistress of Redland High School at Bristol (says the “Dominion”). Speaking on education' in England and New Zealand, Miss Taylor said that she had been away so long that it wais not potssible to make any comparison, but she felt that mistresses had perhaps more freedom in England in the organisation of the schools. The higher education of girls in England was a system over 50 years old, beginning with the founding of the University Colleges—Girton, Newnham, and others. Subsequently came the founding of girls’ schools on the same lines as the big public schools of England, previously all secondary schools being private ones. Just now the jubilees of many of these schools are being celebrated, St. Andrews, in Scotland, one of the first, having just held its jubilee. Badland High _School is one of these, and its jubilee will be celebrated in two years’ time.

Redland School is supported partly by endowments and partly bv school fees, and is under the control of a Board of Trustees, of which the Bishop of Liverpool is the president. There is also a grant from the Board l of Education, and for this the school takes 10 per cent of free place pupils, all the others being paying pupils. Northampton, on the other hand, was a Municipal High School supported directly from the rates and under the control of the local school board. I't is the fact that, these large public schools are thus endowed 1 that gives them such independence, iso that the principal is truly ahead) of the school and able to organise according to her own ideas and knowledge.

Speaking of the modern trend’ of education, Miss Taylor said that what they were all trying to do (and not succeeding, she added) was to find out on what lines a girl could develop most successfully and to educate along those lines. For this the educating to a required standard, such as matriculation, was impossible. Head mistresses in England were endeavouring to have the subjects for school-leaving certificates and the matriculation made as wide as possible. At present two subjects were compulsory, while any subject, music or art, as. well as academic subjects, could be taken as the other subjects. The endeavour was to eliminate any subject as compulsory, and allow the pupil to choose those subjects on which his or her development, could best be based.

The English school girl or boy certainly has an advantage, in that lie started life with centuries of tradition behind him, she said. Even the newest public seholos, like Stowe, were founded in eld and historical houses. Of such was Redland School, for it was on the site of an old Elizabethan manor house and park, Redland Court, and it has been said there was once a Roman villa on the site. The Elizabethan building was owned by Jeremy Martin, a Doctor of Medicine, and was later bought by John Cossins, a retired London merchant, in 1730, who pulled down the old house and built the present one in the Italian style. This was the nucleus of the school, and though much of the park has been sold there was still a large area of garden and park. With this history actually round them, the- three hundred pupils at Redland High School start with an advantage over their sisters overseas. One of the things which has surprised Miss Taylor is the growth of women’s clubs in "New Zealand. In London there are very many, but few of the provincial towns, even such as the size of Wellington, have any such social movement. One thing which she has noticed with pleasure is the generally good standard of speech in New Zealand as compared to the many local differences of accent and intonation in England. Miss Taylor is spending some weeks in New Zealand, and will go through America on her way back to visit her sister, Miss Lyra Taylor, who is in Baltimore. She will return in time for the second school term in England. Miss Taylor is a daughter of the late Mr R. Taylor (of Ngaerc) and Mrs M. Taylor, of Wellington, and started her education at the Stratford School, where she was dux of the school.