High School Hall

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 143, 2 June 1936, Page 6

High School Hall

AN URGENT NEED Means of Creating a Corporate Spirit MR. PENLINGTON’S VIEWS •‘I believe that many publicspirited people are willing to contribute towards promoting the welfare of their fellows, and it would be difficult to point to any kind of social investment so likely to be productive of good as the equipping of a school,” said the Principal Of the High School, Mr W. A. G. Penlington, to a "Tribune” reporter to-day in reference to the appeal for £BOO with which to pay off the debt on the school assembly hall and to furnish and equip it. ‘‘New pupils from every primary school in Hastings and the surrounding district come to the High School at the rate of about 200 a year,” Mr. Penlington added, “and the influence for good that can be brought to bear upon them while at high school must have a wide an lasting effect on the people of the district, but that influence cannot be created adequately without an assembly hall in which the children can be gathered together as a corporate body. It is only in that way that the children can be brought to realise fully that together they form a single unit as a school, and not just a collection of separate classes. THE CORPORATE SPIRIT. “If for those few hundred pounds the school can be helped to do its work more effectively, surely no better way for spending money could be found. “The school has grown so large,” continued Mr. Penlington, “that without an assembly hall it has become practically impossible for the principal to get into touch with the pupils as a whole. In fact without a hall the school is merely an aggregation of classes in which it has become very difficult to develop a corporate spirit throughout the school as a whole. It could be said that during the past 10 years since the present building was erected the attendance has grown by nearly a hundred per cent., the present roll-number being 48-1. “Even though the hall is still unfinished we are already finding it of great valuo in a number of different ways. It is at present used for physical culture classes for the girls, which work is much better conducted indoors even in fine weather. Also it is used for singing, for instruction in musical appreciation, and for talks. We are hoping that in time it will lead to the development of dramatic work, and arrangements are now in hand for installing up-to-date equipment for radio reception and for the reproduction of gramophone records for educational purposes. “With its large gallery the hall will hold up to 800, and is quite large enough for all ordinary purposes. So long as the building has to be used as a gymnasium it will be necessary to have on the ground floor a type of furniture simply and strongly constructed so that it may be easily moved. Seating of a more permanent kind could be installed in the gallery when we arc able to buy it.” PARENTS’ LEAGUE VIEW. Speaking on the same subject, Mr. F. J. Hull, president of the High School League, makes an urgent appeal to all parents and citizens of the town to provide tho money with which to finish the hall and furnish it, and to free the board from debt in connection with its election. Until the school is so equipped, said Mr. Hull, tt could not properly carry out its work nor justify comparison with similar schools in other towns. It needed little imagination, ho added, to realise that the assembly hall was the focal point of the pupil’s loyalty towards his school and of his pride in it, and that it provided the only effective means for the headmaster to keep in contact with the school as a whole. “The finishing and equipment of the hall,’’ added Mr. Hull, “is an absolute necessity if the school is to do its best for its pupils It enables the headmaster to assemble all the pupils in one room to address them on current events, school conduct and discipline, and on other matters nt a I to school life. Also it enables well-known or distinguished visitors to speak to the pupils as a whole Later, the hall may be properly furnished as a gymnasium for the benefit of all pupils. “In years to come,” concluded Mr. Hull, “all contributors to the fund, when they see the type of scholar produced by the Hastings High School, will be proud to think that they helped in the work of creating such a fine body of young citizens.”