Newsom (1963)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction, Principal recommendations

Part 1 Findings
Chapter 1 Education for all
Chapter 2 The pupils, the schools, the problems
Chapter 3 Education in the slums
Chapter 4 Objectives
Chapter 5 Finding approaches
Chapter 6 The school day, homework, extra-curricular activities
Chapter 7 Spiritual and moral development
Chapter 8 The school community
Chapter 9 Going out into the world
Chapter 10 Examinations and assessments
Chapter 11 Building for the future
Chapter 12 The teachers needed

Part 2 The teaching situation
Chapter 13 What should secondary imply?
Chapter 14 An education that makes sense
Chapter 15 Attainments and achievement
Chapter 16 The subjects and the curriculum
Chapter 17 The practical subjects
Chapter 18 Science and mathematics
Chapter 19 The humanities
Chapter 20 School organisation and staff deployment

Part 3 What the survey shows
Chapter 21 The 1961 survey
Chapter 22 The boys and girls
Chapter 23 The work they do
Chapter 24 The men and women who teach them
Chapter 25 The schools they go to

Acknowledgements

Appendix I List of witnesses
Appendix II Sex education
Appendix III Deployment of teachers
Appendix IV Letter to Minister on teacher training
Appendix V Statistical detail

Index

A report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England)

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1963
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 12 The teachers needed
[pages 98 - 108]

272. Whatever happens in the schools depends on the men and women who staff them. Imaginative accommodation, modern equipment, skilful organisation, a determined attack on social and economic handicaps - all of these are necessary to progress, but the key figure remains the teacher. This fact is confirmed again and again by the remarkable achievements of some schools in the most adverse conditions, and by the evidence that boys' and girls' behaviour, confidence and attitude to work can all be shaped by successful relations with individual teachers: what ultimately counts is a person.

273. In the teaching situation success depends on more than having a kindly and sympathetic interest in young people: most men and women who choose the teaching profession as their career can be counted on to possess that; control is required also, and knowledge, which the pupils respect, and the professional skill to transmit that knowledge to boys and girls whose own manner and means of learning may be different from the teacher's own.

274. That is why in this chapter we find it necessary to consider both the work of the teachers in the schools and the implications for professional training. In doing so we do not wish to appear to be entering into questions of detailed planning which are properly the concern of the National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers: but we do feel bound to draw attention to those aspects of training which particularly affect the educational problems at issue.

275. For many years much anxious calculation has gone into questions of teacher supply. We believe no less anxious consideration must be given to the question of demand: not simply how many teachers are needed, but what kind of teachers, with what professional and personal resources, do the schools require to do their job? To ask this question is realistic, even in face of the formidable prospect of continuing shortages: one way to mitigate the effects of the shortages is to make sure that the teachers who are available are equipped to tackle the job which requires to be done; ways to improve supply are to widen the basis of recruitment and to make the work attractive by showing that it is personally and professionally satisfying in its demands.

276. Here we must urgently draw attention again to the special difficulty of securing and retaining good teachers, for schools of all kinds, in slum, heavy industrial and other ill-favoured areas. The children of these areas, because of their surroundings, are severely handicapped at the outset of their education, and they stand in need of especially gifted teachers. In these times of teacher shortages, however, to which we see no early end, highly gifted and experienced teachers can choose where they will work; and, although some with a strong sense of vocation fortunately do choose to work in the least attractive areas, many, understandably enough, do not. These areas in consequence tend to have more than their share of teachers who cannot secure other appointments, coupled with a formidable turnover of teachers who are only there until they can move elsewhere.

277. This problem of uneven distribution of highly qualified and experienced teachers will not be solved merely by increasing the general supply of teachers. The Crowther report drew attention to the serious difficulties, and made a recommendation:

'The bad areas, which pay more than their fair share of the price for a shortage of teachers, need a direct attack on their problem. There should be an attempt to discover by experiment whether financial incentives to teachers to serve in difficult areas would be effective.' (para 658 (k)).

278. One of the problems, as many heads assure us, in finding teachers for our pupils is just the lack of a sufficiently attractive professional image. Most people enjoy teaching the abler pupils: the response is quicker and surer, interest is more readily established and maintained - and discipline the easier for that reason - and the teacher welcomes the sense of intellectual challenge. Teaching the very backward is also attractive in a different way: the teacher is often moved by a deeply compassionate desire to help those pupils who seem to be heavily handicapped, the dependence of the pupils can lead to a particularly close personal relation, and even their slow progress is a proper source of professional pride. It is the pupils in the middle, the majority of our pupils, and indeed the majority of all boys and girls, who excite the least professional interest: too often seemingly rather dull pupils get rather dull teaching, with equally dull results.

279. In discussing the teaching demands made by our pupils, we should make it clear, though we hope the implication is plain throughout the whole report, that we are not designating any special corps of teachers for 'average and less than average' pupils. We are concerned with the majority of teachers in the non-selective schools, in which our pupils constitute the majority of the pupils. Any system of training or of appointment which would tend to create in a school separate categories of staff or of pupils is to be avoided; and any students who are proposing to teach in secondary modern and comprehensive schools should include in their training some study of the pedagogic problems presented by our pupils. Similarly their training ought to be preparing them now for the new situation which will exist when all our pupils are in school till the age of sixteen, with the many implications that will have for the nature of the curriculum and of the relation between teachers and older pupils.

280. Many heads have stressed that for the sake of morale all pupils should feel that they are enjoying a fair share of the school's resources, whether in special facilities or in teachers with special knowledge and experience, in science, for instance, or the craft subjects or physical education. Equally, heads of departments in subjects such as English or mathematics should contribute to the teaching widely throughout the school. They obviously cannot teach all the pupils every year, but their work ought to be so disposed over several years that they meet different ability and age groups, and thereby acquire a cumulative experience of the teaching problems of their subject which they can discuss with other members of their departments. This principle will be especially important to preserve in face of the growth of public examinations in secondary schools, since the time and energies of the senior staff are likely to be in heavy demand for examination work. It is frequently urged that teaching average pupils requires more than average professional skill; what is not so often noted is the intellectual challenge to the teacher presented by these pupils, with whom, even more than with the most able, he has to act as mediator and interpreter of his subject.

281. Only the most backward pupils - the lowest ten to fifteen per cent perhaps of the whole ability range - probably ought to be singled out as a group to be taught for the larger part of their time by one special teacher. Even here, we think it in the pupils' interest as they grow older that they should rub shoulders with their abler fellows, as they will in the world outside school, and get accustomed to working with a greater number and variety of teachers. As for the teachers, even those most dedicated to the care of backward children ought from time to time to have the personal stimulus of undertaking a wider range of work.

282. Given, then, that most of the staff of the school may be expected to take some part in the teaching of our pupils, what qualifications and resources will the teachers need, to provide the kind of programme which we have suggested elsewhere in this report as desirable? In particular how can greater coherence over the curriculum as a whole be contrived, and a larger craft and practical element be included? One way of giving coherence is through continuity of contact with particular persons. The school can attempt this by various means, socially, for example, through tutors and housemasters, or through form teachers to whom real supervisory responsibilities are delegated; in the classroom, by ensuring that there is some continuity from year to year in the persons who teach particular groups of pupils - and that the groups do not get reshuffled too frequently; and most commonly of all, perhaps, by arranging that some one person teaches the group often enough to establish a close personal relation with the pupils.

283. The traditional, and still valued, method of supplying this last kind of continuity is through a form teacher who takes the form for a substantial part of its work. In practice, this has usually meant that the subjects which were regarded as 'not specialist' - religious instruction, English and mathematics, particularly - have been assigned to the form teacher, with the grave disadvantage that, despite some excellent work, these subjects have too often been handled with an amateurism not accepted in other parts of the curriculum, and they have been among the least well taught. Yet they constitute what many people would regard as the essential core of general education.

284. While we accept the form teacher principle, we urge more widespread rethinking of the basis on which form teachers are assigned. It is enough that they should be capable of teaching with confidence and competence some two or three subjects which, together, would give them a substantial amount of time with a particular group of pupils: but there is nothing to be gained by a teacher taking his form in subjects of which he knows too little to teach effectively. There seems no logical reason why the 'form' subjects should be confined to the range which is still traditional in many schools. More useful groupings, and more manageable from the teacher's point of view, might be subjects which were related in some way. Typical combinations might be English and social studies; English, drama, art; English, religious instruction and social studies; biology and rural studies; biology and geography; geography and mathematics or science; science and housecraft; housecraft, art and needlework; mathematics, technical drawing and handicraft; music, drama and physical education. There are many other possibilities. The starting point should be the range of subjects and interests which one teacher can reasonably hope to handle, not an unwarranted assumption that some subjects are inherently 'form' subjects. We have stressed elsewhere the unsatisfactory situation that often arises from this assumption in religious instruction and in English.

285. We think it reasonable and desirable that the majority of teachers should, in addition to offering one major subject which they are competent to teach at all levels in the school, be able to contribute to the teaching of at least one and preferably two other subjects over a more restricted range whether of age or ability. In suggesting possible groupings of subjects, we have deliberately included housecraft, handicraft, art, music, drama and physical education, the traditionally 'specialist' subjects. We believe the schools require more teachers whose pattern of qualifications cuts across the conventional divisions of 'specialist' and 'non-specialist', 'practical' and 'academic' subjects. A school so staffed would be capable of a more flexible organisation; could offer many of its pupils more choice and variety in crafts and other practical work and physical education; and be less at the mercy of staff changes, which at present bring a whole department to a standstill if the one 'specialist' departs.

286. We are convinced that many men and women could, with training, including intensive short courses for teachers already in service, make a most useful contribution as assistant members of a 'subject' team, as well as making a major contribution in their chosen main subject, and that many would welcome the chance of combining more freely than is now possible subjects of different types. For example, some men whose main subject is science or mathematics, with a personal interest in woodwork or model making, might more readily develop a useful competence in handicraft than they do in teaching English as a general form subject; many married women teachers could surely acquire with little difficulty sufficient professional techniques for teaching junior housecraft, and could combine it very effectively with a main teaching responsibility in, say, social studies or English; and many young men and women would be ready to help with a variety of recreational sports and athletics, given some basic training. The enlarging of some 'practical' departments would have advantages for the main specialist teachers also: the housecraft teacher, for example, who is often isolated in her 'specialist' room from the rest of the life of the school, could more easily be released to do more wide-ranging work with the older pupils in household science or child-care studies. And not least important, from the pupils' point of view, the chances of one side of the curriculum consciously reinforcing another would be markedly increased.

287. We conclude that many more general training colleges should be able to offer housecraft, handicraft, science, art, music, or physical education at an appropriate level to students who are not aiming to become main specialists in these fields but who would be interested in acquiring a teaching competence at a subsidiary level; and that short, intensive courses over a similar range of subjects should be available nationally or locally for serving teachers. The 'specialist' colleges similarly would need to offer a complementary range of subsidiary subjects on the non-specialist side. We realise that there are many implications here for the policies on which training colleges are staffed and equipped, and indeed, for the sixth form curriculum of grammar schools, from which teachers are recruited, but we believe these should be seriously examined in the light of the apparent staffing needs of the schools and the educational interests of large numbers of pupils.

288. In the schools we should hope to see teachers working even more closely than now as teams; not only in relation to the teaching of a particular subject throughout the school - and the head of department's function would become even more significant under the kind of staffing pattern we have suggested - but also in relation to the total curricular programme of particular groups of pupils. The form teacher, as redefined, might have a key role as coordinator of studies. No one person can hope to possess all the skills, knowledge, and personal qualities required to supply the needs of a group of older adolescents, if their experience is to be varied and demanding as it should be, but there must be some means for ensuring that the experience is not too fragmented, and that important knowledge about the pupils is shared by all those who teach them. This is not to advocate the artificial straining of one subject to relate it nominally to work in another, but simply to urge that all the teachers concerned with a group of pupils should be aware of each other's work. In senior coordinating roles some valuable members of staff might qualify for graded posts who would not be eligible for posts as heads of subject departments. We see salary and promotion incentives of this kind as more acceptable than posts specially allocated to teachers of average pupils, which would tend to create a separate class of teachers.

289. The more points of contact teachers have with their pupils, the better the chance they have of establishing successful personal relations. All that we have said earlier in relation to the value of extra-curricular activities applies here, and the suggestion that more teachers should be able to make some contribution in the field of art, crafts, music and physical education has added force, in that these are subjects particularly likely to lead to informal, recreative activities outside the lesson programme.

290. We note with interest the growing practice in training colleges of encouraging students to gain experience of working informally with young people in the neighbourhood, by service in youth clubs and societies, and by assisting with school journeys and camps. These seem developments worth fostering as a regular part of teacher training, for two reasons. First, because it will help the young teacher to recognise the significance of the social and recreational side of the school's life, and to participate more readily in it; secondly, because these contacts with young people will provide a useful background to the sociological studies which we believe should be part of any general training course.

291. Such work as has been done in the study of social and environmental influences suggests that the learning difficulties, including the linguistic, of many of the pupils with whom we are concerned can be related to home background. And for some pupils the relation would seem to be very close indeed. Much investigation remains to be done, both in establishing the nature of the educational difficulties and in developing teaching techniques for dealing with them; we believe experiment in teaching techniques, based on the findings of research, is needed, and that some of this might best be undertaken by a training college in association with a specially staffed experimental school.

292. Apart, however, from these special enquiries, all teachers in training should have some introduction to sociological study, such as many colleges now offer, in order that they may put their own job into social perspective and be better prepared to understand the difficulties of pupils in certain types of area. They need, we suggest, some straightforward courses in recent social history; a study of the family and its changing function and structure in present day society; and guidance in understanding the current literature of sociology and psychology and the implications of research results. Some students may need to examine their own social preconceptions. It cannot be assumed, for example, that teachers with the same social and economic background as the pupils they teach will automatically have more insight into their pupils' difficulties; in so far as the teachers' own educational progress may have been untypical of others in their circumstances, they may even have less sympathy with environmental difficulties.

293. We have already indicated that we consider the greatest possible liaison is desirable between the schools, the youth service, the youth employment service, and all the social and welfare services which deal with young people, extending to some joint appointments of the teacher/youth-leader type, or, in difficult areas, to teacher/social worker posts. Liaison would be easier if it were possible to provide joint training facilities for teaching and the social services, including the youth service and the youth employment service.

294. Training courses of this kind might appeal to school leavers who do not necessarily want to teach, although they are interested in work with adolescents. We recognise that one of the problems of providing joint facilities is the inevitable disproportion between the numbers of future teachers and the students who wish to enter the social services. To be effective, joint training courses would need to be concentrated in one or two colleges, and in colleges which train a substantial number of students for secondary rather than primary work. Because, however, of their special bias, these colleges might develop strongly on the side of sociological studies and provide eventually a source of future college tutors and research workers in this field.

295. What we have advocated in relation to the recognition of vocational interest in school work, and the preparation of pupils for adult working life, requires that many of the teachers themselves should have experience of the industrial situation. Schemes such as we have referred to in Chapter 9 for introducing selected teachers to industry by a series of concentrated visits or studies deserve encouragement; and there is need of more machinery by way of conferences or courses which bring teachers and the youth employment service and industry into closer consultation.

296. In this connection, men and women recruited to teaching after experience in other kinds of work may have a special part to play. But mature persons, with experience of a world outside school, may also have a valuable contribution to make in the personal education of adolescents. Older, married teachers, for example, can often handle the problems of sex education more easily than younger members of staff. We strongly urge the further expansion and permanent retention of day training schemes with mature entrants and enquiry into how these schemes may be made financially more attractive to older men and women, with family responsibilities, who may be relinquishing a considerable salary in other employment to take up teaching. Greater generosity in grant arrangements may well be justified here, in that many of these older entrants will subsequently give a long period of service, whereas many young students, particularly women, leave the profession within two or three years of completing their training.

297. We do not overlook the fact that many young women may be expected to return to teaching at a later stage in their lives, and should, indeed, be encouraged to feel that they have some moral obligation to do so. It is essential to recognise that the changing pattern of society, with the trend towards earlier marriage and child bearing, is compelling some changes in the structures of the professions and in the rhythm of professional careers. Every means of making it easy for the married teachers to return to the profession ought to be examined, including, for example, the provision of refresher courses with full salary paid from the beginning of the course; and since many women will be prepared to serve part-time though not full-time, the possibility of making part-time service more attractive in terms of increments and pension rights should also be investigated.

298. Whatever arrangements are made to recruit or bring back older men and women to the profession, the main source of teacher supply is bound to be the young entrant who makes teaching a first choice of career. The young probationer teacher faces special problems in relation to some of the pupils with whom this report is concerned. Teachers are needed who are able and willing to meet boys and girls on more adult terms, and who yet can preserve a necessary authority. If the pupils are also of limited abilities and difficult to interest, the task may well be beyond the skill of a very, young and inexperienced teacher - our evidence argues it often is. As a general rule, we think probationer teachers should not be given the older and less able groups, and that the probationary year should be treated as a year of continued training and guidance, for which the head of the school and the senior members of the school staff have a major responsibility. We should also welcome more schemes whereby the schools and the more experienced members of staff were drawn into direct partnership in the training of students.

299. So far, we have implied throughout this discussion that the teachers will be receiving their training in training colleges. We have done so deliberately, because we are convinced that the kind of training the colleges offer, that is a 'concurrent' course in which the personal higher education of the student is combined with pedagogical studies, is likely to provide the most suitable professional preparation for teaching most of the pupils with whom we are concerned. We are also aware that current policies require the colleges to concentrate on the training of primary teachers, and that in the immediate future only a minority of teachers with this type of training, mainly specialists in certain 'shortage' subjects, will be available to the secondary schools. While we recognise the serious teacher shortage which the primary schools face, we are concerned lest an emergency measure which does not rest on any positive assessment of the needs of the secondary schools should be retained as long-term policy.

300. It was for this reason that at a fairly advanced stage of our deliberations we requested the Minister to make known our views to the Robbins Committee. The letter is included as an appendix to this report. Briefly, it argues that a 'concurrent' training, which includes a prolonged study of child development combined with a study of a range of subjects, is more likely to produce effective teachers of less able pupils than the existing 'consecutive' pattern of graduate training which consists of a more specialised course followed by a much shorter period of professional training. We realise that many changes may be contemplated in the future in the relative roles of the training colleges and the universities, and indeed that altogether new types of training institution may emerge. We are not concerned with types of institution, or with the title of the qualification which trained teachers may eventually claim, but with the preservation of a pattern of training which we are convinced has marked value for the future teachers of large numbers of boys and girls.

301. It is clear, however, that if current expectations are fulfilled, not only will university graduates, as opposed to concurrently trained teachers, enter the secondary schools in increasing numbers, but also many of them in the near future will be without any kind of professional training. We view with extreme concern the prospect of large numbers of teachers without any training in the craft skills of their profession, whose own educational experience will have given them very little insight into the learning difficulties of many of the pupils they will teach. We echo the statement of the National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers, in its Eighth Report:

'Here (in the primary and secondary modern schools) teaching methods and techniques, with all the specialised knowledge that lies behind them, are as essential as mastery of subject matter. The prospect of these schools staffed to an increasing extent by untrained graduates is, in our view, intolerable.'

303. We are convinced in any case that the content of many graduate training courses should be re-examined, and the inclusion of some introduction to sociological studies and the possibilities of work in practical subjects be considered. Graduates who are likely to be teaching in secondary modern schools ought to do some part of their teaching practice in those schools; and we believe that the training colleges with their experience of work in this field could have a valuable part to play in the training of these graduates.

304. We have found an incursion into questions of training unavoidable, because these ultimately affect the teaching resources of the schools. But whatever training provision is made, there remains the need to persuade students that teaching our pupils is personally and professionally rewarding.

305. We believe that many students may have been deterred from entering the secondary modern schools by a false image of indiscipline and of work which held small promise of intellectual satisfaction. On discipline, the evidence presented to us demonstrates convincingly what those in daily contact with the schools have always known: that by far the majority of schools are healthy and orderly communities, and that the number of schools where serious disciplinary problems arise has been grossly exaggerated. The difficulties of particular schools and pupils are formidable, and must not be minimised, but they are not characteristic of the secondary modern schools as a whole.

306. Reassurance about the possibilities of the work may be even more necessary. A young teacher may expect to manage his classes more confidently as his experience increases, but if he is as lively-minded as we hope our teachers will be, he will be looking for a prospect of growth in his own intellectual experience. It is there for the taking. There is evidence that our boys and girls, properly taught, can reach much higher standards than is commonly assumed. They need an intellectual and imaginative diet which goes far beyond the routine skills in English and arithmetic, and, if they are fully to benefit from it, they need teachers who have a deep insight into the subjects they teach. Teachers, for example, who are going to present literature to our pupils must themselves be widely read and sensitive in their own responses. The fact that few, if any, of their pupils will ever read so widely or so deeply makes the role of the interpreter more, not less, exacting. In all subjects, to make the connections with the world outside school demands constant alertness and frequent additions to the teacher's own stock of knowledge and understanding. In relation to those pupils whose potential ability may be masked by environmental and, particularly, linguistic handicaps, here is a largely unexplored territory; the evolution of practical teaching techniques will demand the highest professional skills, and might contribute to a major breakthrough in learning. It is work which can only be done empirically in the classroom, and which, we hope, may qualify for support by research grants. Finally, the provision of a longer school life for all boys and girls will create a new situation, calling for teachers with imagination and energy. These seem to us personal and professional challenges to which able men and women will respond.

307. There is one further point which has been well made by one of our contributors to evidence:

'For very many teachers conditions of service are as important as monetary awards. Fatigue is already a serious and continuing difficulty to many of the best teachers. If teachers are to bring to the kind of teaching we are now envisaging, the power to devise and carry through original schemes of work, if they are to organise a variety of purposeful out of class activities in the evenings, at weekends and in the vacations; if they are to develop close contact with the homes and with the employers; if they are to devise and conduct local and area schemes of assessment; if, above all, they are to know their young people thoroughly and to exercise considerable personal responsibility for them - if they are to do all these things and yet retain the freshness and vitality which is essential for successful work with young people growing up - then they must have time to do all these things and adequate ancillary help of many varieties must be provided.'

Recommendations

(a) The training of teachers should include preparation now for the new demands that will be made on them by the raising of the school leaving age. (para. 279)

(b) The training colleges should be equipped and staffed to enable students to teach pupils of secondary age in a main subject and in at least one, preferably two, other subjects; with the possibility of a choice of subjects which cuts across conventional divisions of 'practical' and 'academic'. Facilities in other institutions e.g. art colleges or technical colleges, might be used to supplement training college resources. (paras. 285-287)

(c) More flexible use should be made of the system of graded posts to provide salary and promotion incentives for teachers who may not be eligible for posts as heads of subject departments but who have a valuable contribution to make in the work with 'ordinary' pupils. (para. 288)

(d) The training of all teachers should include sociological and environmental studies, with special reference to the problems of pupils in culturally deprived areas. (paras. 290-292)

(e) There should be expenditure on research in training colleges and departments of education, to include the setting up of a special type of training course in association with an experimental school. (para. 291)

(f) One or two joint training courses should be established, for intending secondary school teachers and for students intending to enter other social services. (paras. 293-294)

(g) The recruitment of persons from other fields to teaching, and schemes for introducing selected teachers to industry, should be strongly encouraged. (para. 295)

(h) We urge the expansion and retention of day training schemes for older students, and re-examination of grants. (para. 296)

(i) The policies on which the teacher training programme is based should be reconsidered, to ensure that a substantial proportion of intending teachers in secondary schools will have training of the 'concurrent' pattern. (paras. 299-300)

(j) A training requirement for graduates should be introduced at the earliest practicable moment, and a date announced in advance. (para. 302)

(k) As interim measures, an emergency programme of in-service courses should be instituted for graduates and other teachers who have obtained qualified status without training, to help them deal with the problems they encounter in the schools; and the content and conditions of the training course for graduates should be reviewed, in order to make voluntary training more attractive. (paras. 302-303)

(l) Schools should have more ancillary help of various kinds. (para. 307)

Plates

[The following photographs appeared between chapters 12 and 13.]

Plate 1 Typical schools in typical neighbourhoods (a) (above) Spacious grounds in a new housing estate (b) (below) A cramped site in an ageing urban area

Plate 2 Welcome to visitors (a) (above) The headmaster's door in an old boys school (b) (below) The entrance to the neighbouring girls' school

Plate 3 The library in a large new school.

Plate 4 Classroom conditions. These girls might well be the sisters of the boys in the plate below for this new school serves the same district

Plate 5 Classroom conditions. Note the boy on his knees in a desk too small for him; the thin wooden partition, the lack of storage and bookshelves

Plate 6 Physical education. The good conditions in this modern gymnasium help the staff to secure a good turnout by the girls.

Plate 7 Physical education. This narrow space serves as assembly hall, dining room, gymnasium and main corridor. Glass partitions separate the classrooms from the hall. They are not sound-proof.

Plate 8 (above) A modern laboratory with good facilities for individual work. (below) Makeshift accommodation. An improvised workshop in an undersized room.