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SUMMARIES OF TABULATED REPORTS, FOR 1853-4, ON SCHOOLS INSPECTED BY HER MAJESTY'S INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, S. N. STOKES, ESQ.

SUMMARY A.

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24.62 11.72 13 81 14 11 13 16 9 66 6.82 3.82 2.28 1.76 3 02 7:05 12.62 25.58

The amount of accommodation in square feet, divided by 8, will give the number of children who can be properly accommodated. Calculations of area in school-rooms, as compared with the average attendance of scholars, should be made upon this basis. At the date of closing this return.

These per-centages are confined to boys' and girls' schools, and do not include infants.

SUMMARY B.

Aggregate Annual Income, as stated by Managers, of 99 of the Schools
enumerated in Summary A.

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General Report, for the Year 1854, by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, E. WOODFORD, Esq., LL.D., on the Schools in connexion with the Church of Scotland, and other Schools inspected in Scotland; including a Report on the Training Schools in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

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MY LORDS,

Edinburgh, 9 January 1855.

THE report which I have this year the honor of submitting resolves itself into two principal branches, the one on training schools, and the other on elementary schools.

I. Report on Training Schools.

schools.

The training schools in connexion with the Church of Scot- Training land are two, one in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow. I have been instructed to give, in this report, a comprehensive view of these institutions, showing the present accommodation, the numbers attending, the staff of teachers, course of study, timetables, and other arrangements of each, with any facts or circumstances affecting their condition and efficiency, either collected from former reports or now supplied.

Commenced in Edin

burgh.

1. In Edinburgh, training to some extent may be said to have commenced in 1826, when the General Assembly's Education Committee began to send the teachers who were appointed to their Highland schools, to observe in operation the most approved methods of teaching, more especially those used in the Edinburgh Sessional school, which was at that time regarded as the best model school for elementary instruction in the country. In 1838 the committee obtained a transfer of the entire property and management of this Sessional school, for the purpose of more effectually and systematically carrying out their object. They expended upon it, in one year, 3301 over the income from school fees, chiefly in the maintenance of these teachers, during whatever time seemed expedient for each, and in defraying their travelling expenses Other teachers also availed themselves of the opportunity afforded them, on the payment of a guinea of entry money, to profit by the instruction there given, and the practice by which it was illustrated, for as long a time as they might find convenient. The daily attendance was thus seldom under 25, and increased during the two Grant ap- following years. In 1841, the Assembly's Committee applied to the Committee of Council for a grant to aid in the erection of new and larger premises, and in operating on a proportionately enlarged scale.

plied for.

Commenced

2. In Glasgow a model infant school was established in in Glasgow. 1826-7, for the training of teachers, and to this was added, in 1831, for the same purpose, a juvenile model school, by an association which gave rise to the "Glasgow Educational Society."

Extended

buildings.

Grants.

Further

grants.

Up to 1838, about 200 teachers had here been trained. The society then undertook the erection of extensive buildings for Model and Normal schools, on an enlarged scale, and in 1840, had expended 12,500l., including a Treasury grant of 1,000, and a Privy Council grant also of 1,000, leaving a debt of 7,000l., independently of the current yearly expenses, which were estimated at 6007. or 7007. above the fees, and for meeting which there was no adequate provision. This state of matters was explained by shortcomings of expected subscriptions and collections, and the determination of the society to adhere to the original low scale of fees, that the schools might continue to be attended by the children of the labouring classes, thereby excluding others who would readily have paid greatly increased fees, but whose attendance would thus have been equally exclusive, and would have altered the character and objects of the schools.

Application was made for a further grant of 5,000l., one half of which was to be used in completing the buildings, and the other towards the payment of the debt. The reply to this

application (22 February 1840) was that 2,500l. would be allowed to complete the building, but the claim of further aid towards liquidation of the debt was reserved for after consideration. ~ In 1841 (5 May) the completion of the building was intimated, but at a cost of 3,7007, instead of the 2,5007. which had been granted, and application was now made for the difference, 1,2007.

Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, Mr. Gibson, was now Debt. directed to visit the school, and to inquire minutely into the state of the finances. By his report, dated 8 February 1842, the entire amount of the debts from every source, after payment of grants to the amount of 4,500l., was 10,6777. 78.

grants in

The application of the General Assembly's Committee, and that of the Glasgow Educational Society, with various relative papers, were taken into consideration together by the Committee of Council; and intimation was given (31 De- Amount of cember 1841) of a grant of 10,000l. for building purposes in timated. Edinburgh and Glasgow, and also of 1,000l. annually towards the maintenance of the intended training and model schools, on conditions which, through the authorized intercommuning of Conditions. the Inspector with the parties, had been previously ascertained to be acceptable and satisfactory, and which are summarily as follows:

a. That the Glasgow Educational Society make over their Normal school premises to the General Assembly, in trust for ever, free of bond for the debt, and incapable of being mortgaged on that account.

b. That the General Assembly expend 5,000l. of the building grant in liquidation of the debt on the Glasgow School premises, and undertake the future payment of the rest of it, according to the amount reported by Mr. Gibson, but shall incur no farther liabilities whatever on that account.

c. That the General Assembly expend the remaining 5,000l. of the building grant, and also with it an equal sum from their own resources, in the erection of suitable premises for a Normal school in Edinburgh.

d. That, to meet the annual grant of 1,000l. or 500l. for each of the training schools, the General Assembly add an equal sum, besides the return from the school fees, in maintaining their efficiency.

e. That there be maintained in each a Rector, whose qualifications shall be approved of by the Committee of Council previously to his appointment.

Much of what remains to be said here of the two seminaries will be best stated under a separate head for each.

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