Spens (1938)

(page numbers in brackets)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages (i-xxxviii)
Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter I (1-86)
Development of the secondary curriculum
Chapter II (87-106)
The present position
Chapter III (107-139)
Physical and mental development of 11-16 year olds
Chapter IV (140-205)
The curriculum of the grammar school
Chapter V (206-217)
Scripture
Chapter VI (218-253)
English, classics, mathematics, general science
Chapter VII (254-267)
The School Certificate Examination
Chapter VIII (268-290)
Technical schools
Chapter IX (291-341)
Administrative problems
Chapter X (342-348)
Welsh problems
Chapter XI (349-385)
Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix I (386-402)
List of witnesses
Appendix II (403-414)
Liberal education (Young)
Appendix III (415-428)
Secondary curriculum (Kandel)
Appendix IV (429-438)
Faculty psychology (Burt)
Appendix V (439-452)
Transfer of training (Hamley)
Appendix VI (453-464)
Curricula in the Dominions (Clarke)
Index (465-477)

Notes on the text: revised version (June 2009)

The full text of the Report (including the Appendices) is online.

In this revised version of the text the page numbers from the original print version are now included, and the footnotes (which were previously collected together and renumbered at the end of each chapter) are displayed where they were in the original - at the foot of each page - with their original numbering. The alphabetical index now shows page numbers, as in the original print version, and page numbers are included in the chapter list (in the left hand column of each page) to facilitate finding subjects or quotations in the text.

I've modernised some of the punctuation so that, for example, " secondary " is shown here as 'secondary', I've updated a handful of spellings (today instead of to-day etc) and corrected a few misprints. Paragraphing is as printed in the original. I've added explanations to a few archaic words which are no longer in common use. Anything added by way of explanation is shown [in square brackets].

In the previous version, I had removed most of the capitalisation (because I felt it was excessive and inconsistent - which it is!). However, for the sake of authenticity, the text is now displayed with its original capitalisation. I've also amended the formatting of the text (bold, italics, centred etc) so that it is now a reasonably accurate representation of the printed text. However, please note that the pages presented here are not exact facsimiles of the original printed version: the font (Times, Arial etc) and size of print - and therefore the number of words to a line and lines to a page - are determined by the settings you have chosen for your web browser.

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If you have any comments - positive or negative - on this new version of the text, or if you spot any errors, I'd be grateful if you'd email me.