APP. VI. Tintwistle. Stockport. Middlewich. Chirk. ditable to him; but the latter is likely to remain a permanent difficulty while instruction is so lightly valued by the surrounding population—all of it, at least, which cannot be obtained gratuitously once a-week at the Sunday-schools of the different denominations. None of the children are yet quite prepared for admission as pupil teachers, but the promoters of the school will, I believe, memorialize for the apprenticeship of one or two of the eldest. See also p. 446. 15th NOVEMBER-Stockport, B.S. (Boys 76, P.T. 2.) The British school of this town is in much the same state as at the date of my former visit, on the 7th of April last, but with the important difference, that a new committee has been formed, with the express purpose of maintaining at least the boys' school in efficient existence, in the hope that, aided by the Committee of Council with the grant of a staff of pupil teachers, it will demonstrate the efficiency of schools thus strengthened, and give occasion, by its success, for the revival of the girls' and infants' schools, which ought also to have an existence under the same roof. If it thus contribute to shake the overweening confidence of the Stockport public in the Sunday-school, as a sufficing instrument of secular as well as religious instruction, it will prove a great blessing; for the Sunday-school can never satifactorily attain its highest and holiest aim so long as public day-schools are unfriended, not to say checked, by the ardent supporters of the former. It cannot certainly do so, where it is attempted to accomplish all the secular instruction of the young on the sabbath; it cannot do so even where the Sundayschool is merely supplemented by the night-school for a few evenings in each week, for in these only part of the children attend, and there are no skilled teachers out of the few volunteers in attendance to instruct the number assembled; it can do so, only where there are day-schools with skilled teachers for the instruction of the younger children by day, and, until an instructed generation shall arise, also superintending the rising youth in the evening. 16th NOVEMBER.-Middlewich, Wesleyan. (Boys and Girls 65.) The school occupies a small room, with a class-room over it, at the rear of the Wesleyan Chapel. It is on the Glasgow plan, under a master working very industriously in the system in which he has been trained. More intent, however, upon the system than its application, with every variety of age and both sexes under his sole instruction, too much of the instruction is beneath, above, or unheeded by a considerable proportion of the children, and the general progress of the school is slow and inaccurate. I believe the master to possess the capacities greatly to improve the application of his system by a revision of his methods, but in its present state the school is a very inferior one, except in tone and discipline, which appear to be good. 17th NOVEMBER.-Chirk, B.S. (Boys 85, P.T. 2.) The Chirk boys' school is conducted on the British system, by a master brought up in a school on the same plan, maintained in efficiency for many years by the clergyman of a neighbouring parish, and who has himself been teaching here, with the like plan, ever since he left that school, 28 years ago, although it is but recently that he obtained his first few weeks' training at the Borough-road. This was at the instigation of the resident agent of Col. Myddleton Biddulph, the Lord Lieutenant of the County, to whom nearly the whole parish belongs, by a member of whose family the schoolhouse was erected, and who meets all the expenses of the school, beyond the small proportion defrayed by the pence of the children, of whom all the poorest are taught without making any payment whatever. It is throughout pervaded by a healthy tone, and by considerable activity in the use of good methods, though the order and precision of their employment admits of improvement, especially in the teaching of the master himself, which, on a reading-lesson, requires to be more analytical, and to call forth more of the individual energies at the same time that it secures APP. VI. the collective attention of the children. The result is now, however, a 20th NOVEMBER.-Wrexham, B.S. (Boys 80.) The British school, Wrexham. under the Independent Chapel in Chester-street, Wrexham, has increased in numbers but decreased in vigour of teaching since my visit three years ago. It is in fair organization and discipline, as a monitoral school, but the methods want vivifying throughout by mutual correction. The instruction, therefore, is slow and imperfect; but as 13 out of 28 in the top class had been admitted in the course of the present year, it is obvious that there is but a fluctuating attendance. 22nd NOVEMBER.-Swallow-street, Piccadilly. (Boys and Girls, about Swallow-st. 40.) The Scottish Church school was in confusion at the date of my visit, London. owing to the reparation of the contiguous place of worship; and I therefore examined particularly into its affairs only so far as concerned the grant for building, upon the memorial for which I have already made a special report. It appears to have limited numbers, and little organization, though its master has sufficient acquirements for his task. The boys' 23rd NOVEMBER.-Great Queen-street, London, Wesleyan. (Boys 130, Great QueenGirls 90.) This is perhaps one of the oldest public day-schools in the st., London. kingdom supported only by voluntary exertions, having been founded so early as 1779 by a member of the late Rev. J. Wesley's household. It is held in premises at the rear of the chapel in Great Queen-street, which do not afford it sufficient accommodation; but the Committee of Management are now making arrangements for their ample extension. school is organized on the British system, under a master of good ability and industry, and would perhaps be in a much more finished state of discipline with more complete appliances, especially in regard to space. It is one in which, I have no hesitation, to recommend the immediate apprenticeship of pupil teachers. The girls' school, organized on the same system, is in weak condition throughout, although it has a considerable attendance of younger children. I cannot, therefore, recommend it at present for the apprenticeship of pupil teachers, but only of stipendiary monitors, to whose scale of efficiency and remuneration the committee are scarcely prepared to bind themselves for the next four years. See also p. 448. 24th NOVEMBER.-Limehouse, Wesleyan. (Boys 150, P.T. 2; Girls 75, Limehouse. S.M. 2.) Here are schools for boys and girls respectively, occupying the ground floor and the upper floor of a substantial school-house, facing the Blackwall Railway, with a class-room containing a gallery attached to the rear of it, for the use of the former. The latter has only its one large room, fitted up like that of the boys, on the plan of the British schools, but with the means of separating one end of it from the rest to form a class-room. The boys' school is conducted with considerable vigour and ability, which, however, would tell with greater effect upon the body of the school, if combined with more analytical precision, and applied to the training of the minds of the children with more complete collectiveness in the several sections and classes where simultaneous exertion is supposed to be made. There might usefully be introduced more of mutual correction in the reading drafts, as well as in the collective teaching of the master in Limehouse. Arr. VI. the gallery, where he contemplates to accomplish all the higher teaching, while the more mechanical is referred to the monitors. The girls' school is not in high condition, though under a teacher of respectable abilities and earnest industry, who would be able to do much more for her little charge with some little countenance and support to enable her to revise her methods at the Borough-road school, and to moderate her exertions in an evening school, if not to supersede them altogether. Both teachers receive only what they can obtain by the children's pence, and both schools are very ill supplied with books. Some renewed exertion is, however, about to be made to meet the grants offered by their Lordships. Dartford. British and Foreign So ciety's Schools, London. 4th and 5th DECEMBER.-Dartford, Wesleyan. (Boys 50, Girls 50, P.T. 1.) The Wesleyan schools for boys and girls respectively at Dartford are under separate committees, and situated in different parts of the town; the former occupying a good room in the rear of the Wesleyan chapel, and the latter a small but neat room in Water-lane. Neither, however, have play-yards attached to them. The boys' school, on the British system, though the master appears to be active and zealous, is in low condition, partly through its division into two separate schools according to difference of payment on a graduated scale, so fixed as to interrupt the general current of instruction, and partly in consequence of a want of methods which shall develop throughout habits of common attention and mutual correction, and diffuse the instructions of the master himself with more care and accuracy. It is about to be entirely reorganized. The girls' school is under a young female teacher, trained at Glasgow, and conducted relatively with much greater efficiency upon a plan which is an intelligent compromise between the Glasgow and the British systems, which wants only the element of mutual correction (not taking of places) to complete its scheme, and equally distribute the good instruction which is to be obtained in it. The youth of the teacher demands and receives support from the ladies of the family of Hall, who principally support the school; and her abilities, with this support, certainly challenge the assistance of a pupil-teacher. The tone of this school is very good. 6th and 8th DECEMBER.-Model Schools of the British and Foreign School Society, Borough-road. (Boys 700, P.T. 12; Girls 360.) See Report on the Normal and Model Schools of the British and Foreign School Society, in Borough-rd., their Lordships' Minutes for 1846, Vol. II., p. 363. I availed myself of the present opportunity to look through the model school generally, and find scarcely anything to add to my former report, bearing date the 7th April, 1847, except that there is a little higher finish in the details of the draft teaching and that of the galleries. A want of more distinct logical arrangement in both, and of greater completeness in the details of the simultaneous instruction, are yet, I think, observable; and the present petition for pupilteachers is the first movement towards adapting this great old model of the "British Schools," to be a model of whatever improvements the recently augmented means of the affiliated schools, receiving aid from their Lordships, may render practicable in the whole system. To make it such is a great undertaking, demanding wide experience, great judgment, a lively invention, untiring energy, and an undistracted, affectionate, and almost paternal regard for the best interests of the young people who will now, under the name of pupil-teachers, become the moral centre of the system. Of these I beg to certify ten, as in every respect well qualified. Another is defective only in his handwriting, from a proper improvement of which he has been restrained by the great, though not wholly unremunerated use which has been made of his services in instructing the younger classes. A twelfth boy shows defects which, it will be seen from their nature, arise only from a temporary defect of hearing through cold. I hope, therefore, that all the 12 will be accepted to apprenticeships. My report of last year is still applicable throughout to the model girls' school, in which there has long been a class resembling that of pupil-teachers under their Lordships' APP. VI. Minutes, the character of which the Committee have not deemed it advisable at the present moment to alter. 12th DECEMBER.- Sherston, B.S. (Boys and Girls 126, P.T. 1.) The Sherston. tone and discipline of this school present the same graces, derived chiefly from the constant superintendence of the Rev. D. B. Sherry and his lady which I found in them a year ago; and the instruction of the upper drafts has now the vigour and vigilance which it then wanted. The middle section of the school has partaken less of this advancement; and if the young master would exercise himself in next studying and doing all that he can for the training of the faculties of these little ones, it would be of as much advantage to his own professional abilities as to the children themselves. The yet smaller children are under affectionate, matronly care, but they require to be for the most part of their time in a separate room, or in a play-yard, both of which are wanting. 13th DECEMBER.-Downton, B.S. (Boys 100, P.T. 3.) This school has Downton, undergone steady improvement (though chiefly in its upper classes only) during the past year, in the course of which the master has been enabled to obtain his own certificate of merit, and to give a higher vigour to his classes by the aid of his three pupil-teachers, grouping the drafts into larger sections for lessons in geography, &c. The pupils themselves have made due progress in every respect, and the secretary, Mr. E. A. K. Welsh, to whose zeal and intelligence the neighbourhood primarily owes the existence of this school, will make application for an additional supply of books for their especial use. The lower part of the school, with the teaching power which is available for it, ought to show a more vigorous training. 14th DECEMBER.-Fordingbridge, B.S. (Boys 110, P.T. 2.) Not only Fording has the interior of the humble building in which this school is held been bridge. reconstructed and refitted since the date of my last visit, but the school itself has been entirely re-organized; a vigorous life has been given to the upper drafts, and a renewed activity and decided progress is observa ble throughout; that on the girls' side being in no small degree attributable to the systematic superintendence of the lady visitors. Greater strength is yet however requisite, in the shape of more skilled monitorial agency in the lower drafts, and a greater precision of discipline, neatness of habit, and economy of noise on the boys' side. The master has shown within the year so much vigour and ability in his own improvement, as well as in the advancement of his scholars, that I cannot decline his challenge to advance his stipendiary monitors to the rank of pupil-teachers, or rather re-submit the whole case for their Lordships' decision. The children's papers convey the whole case. They show abundant zeal and rising ability, but a want of more complete method, and greater neatness. The circumstances of the school demand the most indulgent consideration, as it is maintained in being for the use of a very poor and numerous population only by great personal sacrifices on the part of its treasurer, Mr. Samuel Thompson, and a few other friends. 15th DECEMBER.-Corfe Castle, B.S. (Boys and Girls 100, P.T. 2.) This Corte Castle. school has improved in every respect in the course of the year, and presents a very pleasing picture of order and progress. I think, however, that some of the teaching power which it enjoys in its pupil-teachers might be devoted to the more vigorous and active education of the faculties of the younger children, and not so entirely devoted to the upper classes. Such a course would be not less important in the training of the pupils than conducive to the real strength and efficiency of the school. 18th DECEMBER-Crawford-street, Camberwell, B.S. (Boys 227, P.T. 6; Crawford-st, Girls 130, P.T. 1.) The boys' school retains the same organization which Camberwell. it had a year ago, but its methods have undergone a most complete revision by its improving master, and it therefore presents throughout a scene of active and vigorous instruction, which leaves little to be desired, except APP. VI. Crawford-st., more space for the exercise of the master's energies; and this is about to be provided by the erection of extensive class-rooms. The reading might Camberwell. exhibit more of mutual correction, and the collective lessons, especially to the younger children, more of logical purpose and familiar application, to the strengthening of the children's minds by healthy exercise rather than overrunning them with mere information; but the tone and discipline are now nearly as good as the general spirit of activity; and the noise is reduced to little more than that attaching to this activity, or resulting from the incurable reverberations of the room. The pupil-teachers are doing their duty, and have been duly advanced in their own studies. The girls school has also experienced improvement in numbers and in welldisciplined activity, except in the drafts for arithmetic, which as, completely require reorganization as ever. A little more of mutual correction in the reading classes would tell upon their general industry. The committee are desirous to have a pupil-teacher or two, and are going to have a classroom with gallery added to the school-room. Red Cross-st., Tiverton. 20th DECEMBER.-Red Cross-street, Bristol, B.S. (Boys 250, P.T. 9; Girls 125, P.T. 2.) This school shows throughout its classes the advantages arising from the superior agency of responsible pupil teachers when employed by a master of ability. Still their methods, especially in giving simultaneous lessons to large sections, might be advantageously revised. He very judiciously gives the original genius of each boy room to develop itself in these matters; but every skilful ruler of the minds of his children, such as Mr. Turner, is well aware that this is quite consistent with their being sedulously trained to the main object, which in this instance should be the stimulation of every mind, if possible, to clear perceptions and independent exertion, but it is sometimes overrun by the young people now under criticism, both in matter and manner. The pupil-teachers gradually move forward in a definite circuit through the writing desks, so as to teach children of every rate of progress in succession; and this is one of those simple combinations for the common advantage of the young apprentices and the school at large which every teacher, in employing the augmented power which they supply to his hands, should seek to multiply, wherever it is possible. The girls' school, improved in like manner by the augmentation of responsible subordinate agency, has, nevertheless, all the defects of method which I observed in it a year ago, and with analogous, though not equally disadvantageous results. The teacher says that she is constantly expressing her desire that they should be abandoned, and yet they remain. The numerous top class, however, has made decided progress in all its studies; and the instructions of the pupil teachers has been thoroughly sound, though their powers, like all others worked in this school, are not distinguished by the amount of neatness which commonly characterises those of female pupils and candidates. 26th DECEMBER-Tiverton, B.S. (Boys 150, P.T. 6; Girls 124, P.T. 4; Infants 222, P.T. 6.) Since the date of my last visit to this school, its premises have been enlarged, so as to give an equal accommodation of classrooms to the girls' as to the boys' school; each having now two such rooms, with a gallery in the larger of those attached to the boys' school, and in both of those attached to the girls' school. The infants' school, too, instead of one small class-room, has now two good rooms attached to it, each containing a gallery; and the two are separated from each other by a little entrancehall for the children. The remaining portion of the space formerly occupied by the habitation of the teacher of the infant-school now forms two other convenient little class-rooms for its pupil teachers. In construction and outfit, the premises of this whole group of schools may now be considered perfect. Not only the schools, but a staff of pupil teachers, under the name of assistant teachers, was maintained in each of them by their patron, John Heathcoat, Esq., M.P., for the borough, previous to the publication of their Lordships' Minutes of 1846; the only fundamental |