✨ Education Reports
xxi
SPECIAL REPORT ON THE LITTLE AKALOA SCHOOL.
VISITED SEPTEMBER 17 AND 18. PRESENT, 21 CHILDREN.
The school buildings now stand on an advantageous site, consisting of about half an acre. The premises have been fenced and drained, and are in good order.
A detached lean-to, of two rooms, comprises the teacher’s dwelling. The school-room, originally built more with a view to public worship, and to a church-like effect, has now been as well adapted as the circumstances will permit to the purposes of a school. Its dimensions are 30 x 18, and about 7 or 8 feet high to the wall-plate. The room has been lined, and a good and substantial chimney has been built.
There is a good stock of books, maps, and apparatus. The desks and the arrangement of them, owing to the fireplace and door being on opposite sides, are somewhat cumbrous and inconvenient, but not so much so as to prevent the children being taught with remarkable success, and considerable credit, by a very steady and painstaking teacher.
BOARD OF EDUCATION.
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS.
(QUARTER ENDING SEPTEMBER, 1866.)
To the Honorable H. J. TANCRED, Chairman.
Sir,—I have the honor, in obedience to your instructions, to submit a Summary of the Quarterly Returns and a Schedule as to the efficiency of the schools examined, both for the quarter ending September, 1866.
It will be seen from the Tabular Summary, that during the quarter the number of attendants has been 2,292, an increase of 169 upon the former quarter; the average daily attendance 1,559, an increase of 134; the amount of school fees £814 5s. 1d., an increase of £38 3s. 11d. These results show a considerable increase (about 35 per cent.) upon the corresponding quarter of last year.
It is highly satisfactory to observe the steady increase in both the numbers and the efficiency of the schools generally throughout the province. Larger and loftier rooms, well aired, warmed, and lighted, and sufficiently supplied with furniture, apparatus, and books, obviate much painful endurance to the children, who have been attracted and retained in numbers increased in a greater ratio than the increase of population in their educational districts.
The interest awakened among parents and other residents, by placing in their own hands a large share of the management, causes the district school—“our school”—to be a source of pride and pleasure to the inhabitants; and, under their local supervision, some abuses which prevailed in former days do not now wait for correction; their existence is not tolerated.
I have, however, observed during the past quarter a few instances of decreased attendance, as to the cause of which I am dissatisfied. A reduced attendance, in country schools, during the spring of the year may perhaps be easily accounted for; but the same occurrence in a town school is so unsatisfactory that I propose, unless I find an alteration during the current quarter, to bring any instance of it more prominently before the notice of the Board.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
J. P. RESTELL,
Inspector of Schools.
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Canterbury Provincial Gazette 1867, No 21A
✨ LLM interpretation of page content
🎓 Special Report on the Little Akaloa School
🎓 Education, Culture & ScienceSchool Inspection, Little Akaloa, Canterbury, School Buildings, Teaching Success
🎓 Summary Report of the Inspector of Schools
🎓 Education, Culture & ScienceSchools, Inspection, Education, Canterbury, Summary Report, Quarterly Returns
- J. P. Restell, Inspector of Schools