MASTERTON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8236, 14 September 1906, Page 5

MASTERTON DISTRICT HIGH SCHOOL.

HEADMASTER'S REPORT. The monthly report of Mr W. H. Jackson, Headmaster of the Masterton District High School to the School Committee last evening, stated, inter alia:— "Attendance, Main School, roll 680; average attendance, 601; percentage of attendance, 8b; yide School, 177, 141, 80; Secondary Classes, 74, 68, 51. The prevailing scarlatina epidemic has materially interfered with the attendance during the past mouth. The number of cases of school children who have contracted the disease has not been very large. The reduction in the attendance has bseu mainly due to the stringent application of the regulations prohibiting the attendance of children from homes in which the disease exists. No child who has been suffering from scarlatina, or in whose home the disease has made ita appearance, has been allowed to return to school without a certificate from a doctor or from the Health OiSoer. As very few fresh oases are coming under my notice, I feel sure the outbreak has nearly died out. Miss Clark, one of the pupil-tea-ohers on tbe Btaff, resumed duty on the Ist inst., after four mouths' absence caused by illness. Miss Wilson retires from the staff at the end of the present month. If the weather is favourable during the term holiday, I would recommend that the Committee arrange for the completion of tbe asphalt work in the. front grounds, during that week. > The supplementary readers authorised some time ago, are now in use in nil standards. Farents have been called upon to buy only one school reader this year, instead of two aa in former years. The books purchased by the Committee will last three years, and as one book is made io serve two pupils, the cost is about one-sixth of the amount that parents would have had to pay in order to supply uow books to their children every year for three years. During the last year or two the teaching of physiography, geography and facts connected with industrial occupations, has been vastly improved by the introduction of the stereoscope into schools. In America, and iu some of the leading educational institutions in England, the stereoscope, as an aid to effective teaching, is in general use. I should like to be able to introduce it into our. school in connection with the work of the upper classes. I have obtaiaed a specimen instrument, and a set of slides illustrating industrial oooupationß. Theso 1 forward for the Committee to inbpeot." The question of stereoscopes for class use was referred to the Finance Committee to report on the ways aud means.