GISBORNE SCHOOL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 8191, 21 April 1898, Page 2

GISBORNE SCHOOL.

The following report of the Committee of the Gisborne District High School for the year ended March 31st will be presented to the meeting of householders on Monday night : — " Your Committee, in presenting its annual report, have to congratulate j'ou upon the good work done duriug the past year. It is discouraging, however, to have to again record the continued irregularity in the attendance of many of the pupils, affecting aa it does so seriously the progress of the school, and notwithstanding the pest efforts of your Committee and the teaching stuff to improve matters in this respect, the evil is ao pronounced that more drastic remedies must be tried. It is only necessary to point out that the attendance at the 'Gisborne school is 10 per cent, bfilow the average of the whole educational district to show under what immense and unnecessary drawbacks I the school is working. Your Committee has accordingly taken the only step open to it, and recommended the Board to appoint a | truant officer, the responsibility of which action must rest entirely witli those parents who have failed in the past\to realize that without regularity in attendance our school cannot continue' to occupy its past high standard of excellence. "In the scholarship examination the pupils from your school did fairly well, Marjory Thomson cominc second on tho list. thereby winning the gold medal presented by tho Poverty Bay Caledonian Society. Scholarships were also gained by Bertie Johnson, Otto Hansen, and Florence McClive. Otto Hansen, however, did not accept the scholarship gained by him, In addition to these, scholarships were also granted by the Governors of the High School to Boberta Good, Mary Nolan, and Fred Bourke. " The secondary classes under Mr Mann have also done good work. Effie Colebrook, Bertie Smith, William Driller, Kenneth Thomson, and Roy Thomson have passed the matriculation examination, and tho junior division obtained a very good report. " Miss Evans having resigned the position ! of second mistress, so ably filled by her for a great number of years, Miss Kiley, a teacher with high credentials who has lately arrived from England, was appointed in her place. 11 During the year a course of lessons on cookery were given undor the auspices' of the Committee of the Technical Classes Society, who very kindly invited the girls of tho upper standards to attend same gratuitously, an offer which was largely taken advantage of. The Governors of tho High School also gave the girls of tho secondary clacses the same privilege by paying their fees. " We have endeavored to get a grant from tho Education Board for necessary works, bub bo far have not been successful. We would draw the attention of our successors to these, notably, the tarring of the playground, a division fence on the south siae of tho school grounds, and in view of the fact that for the last two summers we have been ! under the necessity of buying water for the children, it will be necessary to have another large underground cistern erected during the winter. "Instead of a picnio, an afternoon's sports was got up by Mr Bull, which was a great success, the public generously supporting tho same; A sum of £19 was realised, which will be spent in procuring gymnastic apparatus for tho playground.''