Primary Education (1959)

(page numbers in brackets)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages (i-xiii)
Foreword, Preface, Contents

Part 1 Historical
Chapter I (1-11)
Recent History of Primary Education

Part 2 The Primary Schools
Chapter II (15-26)
Introduction
Chapter III (27-36)
Nursery Schools and Classes
Chapter IV (37-55)
Infant schools
Chapter V (56-77)
Junior Schools
Chapter VI (78-105)
The Working of the School
Chapter VII (106-110)
Special Educational Treatment

Part 3 The Fields of Learning
Chapter VIII (113-116)
The Curriculum
Chapter IX (117-129)
Religion
Chapter X (130-134)
Physical Education
Chapter XI (135-178)
Language
Chapter XII (179-212)
Mathematics
Chapter XIII (213-246)
Art and Craft and Needlework
Chapter XIV (247-259)
Handwriting
Chapter XV (260-274)
Music
Chapter XVI (275-288)
History
Chapter XVII (289-313)
Geography and Natural History

Part 4 The Special Problems of Wales
Chapter XVIII (317-329)
Wales

Index (331-334)

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1959
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

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This chapter discusses matters which are relevant to all primary schools, and is part of the picture of nursery, infant and junior schools attempted in Chapters III, IV and V.

The first and longest section, on discipline, makes no claim to completeness, but is intended to put the consideration of discipline in a sufficiently broad setting and to connect it with every facet of the relationship between teacher and children.

The task of education is two-fold. It has to enable children to grow up as good members of the societies in which they live and this entails their developing a sufficient degree of conformity to the ways of those societies. At the same time, it is expected to develop in them a proper sense of independence in thought and action, which implies a power to choose and to make judgements on their own account. These two aims are complementary, for no one would deny that the full development of an individual is brought about in large measure by his playing his proper part in society, and that society can be good only if it is made up of men and women fully grown as individuals, working together unselfishly, and appreciative of purposes common to all.

But in practice it is far from easy to bring up a child in a way which satisfies both his need to belong to a group and to play his part adequately in it, and his need to be himself and to develop his own personality. The twin functions of education which lead children to conduct themselves freely as individuals and at the same time to live unselfishly with their fellows lies at the heart of all those problems associated with 'discipline'.

(a) Freedom and choice

The word 'discipline' is sometimes given a restricted mean-

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ing which brings the idea into many sharp and false antitheses, especially with the idea of freedom. The word 'free' is used by teachers to describe a variety of situations - 'free periods', 'free play', and a 'free timetable'. The idea common to all is that the children can make a choice. But, in the nature of the school situation, the choices are made within comparatively narrow limits. For example, in most primary schools today, children are given freedom to move about as they find it necessary. They have a great variety of media with which to express in their own way what their thought or imagination suggests; they may have the responsibility of doing some of their work in an order arranged by themselves individually. They frequently choose the books they need for their work or those they want to read. They cooperate with their fellows in work which they carry out in their own way.

The choice allowed to the children does not permit behaviour which disrupts the work of others or which is injurious to any child's progress and welfare; nor does it normally involve children being left out of what is planned for all jointly, or allow interference with the main framework of the day's proceedings. On the contrary, the field of choice is arranged so that it permits the children's progress towards maturity. The extent of choice made possible is as much as the children can manage; but, restricted as it must be, it is nevertheless of great educational importance, and produces an entirely different psychological situation from one in which no freedom is allowed.

Between discipline in the liberal sense of the term - learning a good way of living as an individual in a society - and the kind of freedom the children enjoy in most primary schools today, there is no antithesis at all. True discipline includes the exercise of responsible choice as an important part of learning.

The following paragraphs show some of the ways in which these ideas are expressed in practice.

(b) Early stages in discipline

It has already been shown that, from birth, a baby is taught to do and expect certain things, and is weaned from expecting or doing certain others. There are many things which, to begin with, he does not want to accept but which he is led to do because of his relationship with his mother. She helps him to meet frustrations and conflicts.

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As he grows to be a member of the family group, even a very young child learns what behaviour pleases others and wins approbation, and because he enjoys affection and wants to be accepted he tries to please. He learns the ways of his family and becomes aware that life within it has a pattern and is governed by order; he begins to share, though perhaps only very slightly, some common purpose with others in the family.

This participation in family life gives a child his first experiences of sharing in a common purpose, and it is this which gives meaning to group order and to conformity. If, from the beginning, children have known the need and pleasure of sensible and friendly ways of doing things with others, they are likely, as they get older, to accept with good grace those regulations which conduce to a common end.

(c) Early experience of moral principles

It is also during his early life at home that the roots of the most fundamental moral principles are established in a child. He shows his love in small ways and enjoys the rewards of the happiness he creates. He comes to expect a stable, sympathetic control. He learns to trust those about him, and in time he expects to be trusted in return. He begins to have some notion of justice and fair play, and becomes dimly aware of his obligations in his dealings with others. By three years of age, many children have some idea of 'mine' and 'thine' and in some degree can control the actions to which unrestrained curiosity or greed would lead them.

This discipline in a child's early years is not merely a matter of doing, still less of understanding in any adult sense. It is concerned with feeling, with the growth of sentiments which inspire the family group; with every extension of his experience the range of situations covered by these moral attitudes increases.

There are times, of course, when children resent interference, finding ingenious ways of resisting what they are wanted to do, and this may lead to a conflict of wills. Gradually, however, a child usually responds to patient handling. He learns a measure of tolerance and to make allowances, and discovers, sometimes by the hard way, where he stands with his family and friends and what he can expect of them and what they can ask of him. In these and in many other ways the discipline of living satisfactorily with others is begun.

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(d) A young child's life as an individual

But, also from early years, a child, besides being a member of a group, must live his own individual life. Control within the group, however gentle and affectionate, if continuous, stunts his mental and moral growth, since it precludes the exercise of the very powers on which these depend. He must therefore be allowed considerable freedom to play, to follow occupations of his own, to enjoy the pleasures of imagination and construction, where he can choose what he will do and how he will do it, though in much that he does thus freely he will call for the appreciation of those about him.

Not every home affords this well adjusted balance of discipline and freedom. Some children come to school thwarted by the repressive effects of an overwhelming family anxiety about them or inhibited by the fear which has been played upon to instil 'good behaviour' in them; others have been allowed to 'run wild' in a world where they had neither the knowledge nor the capacity to choose rightly; others are bewildered by the inconsistent treatment they have received from those about them. It often takes time before such children can respond to the regular kindly life with their fellows and teacher in the classroom.

(e) Discipline in school

(i) Absorption into a group

When a child goes to a good nursery or infant school, he meets a group of other children in charge of a teacher who takes considerable trouble to make his entry into the group happy, with the security that he needs and the interests which will appeal to him. If he feels sure of the teacher's good will and of her care of him, he trusts himself to her and gives her that affectionate regard which is the basis of good behaviour. If he finds the life the children are leading to one in which he too can become happily absorbed, he gradually slips into it and actively wants to remain in it and be accepted by those within it. If he does not find security and interest, he may shrink apart from them, unwilling sometimes even to take off his outdoor clothes, and certainly unable to enjoy what is offered to him. Or he may seek to reassure himself by noisy, aggressive behaviour.

A five year old cannot really apprehend a group as large as a full class in an infant school, and he usually allies himself to some

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small band of friends. The children are seen to cooperate in threes or fours, and only gradually get the sense of the whole class.

But whether with members of a small group, or later as members of an older class, most children in a congenial environment want to please, and by unconscious and sometimes deliberate imitation they learn the manners and customs of those about them. In fact, a child is apt to become more of a 'traditionalist' than his teacher, so eager is he to keep all within the familiar pattern which he knows and likes. This desire to stand well with the life of the little community remains a strong motive of children's good behaviour throughout the primary stage, and throughout this stage too they have a liking for simple tradition and ritual.

(ii) Broader concepts of discipline

But all the time there emerge from the children's experience with others broader concepts of what is right and wrong, which cover aspects of a child's life far beyond his school. What is acceptable at home or at school becomes the standard by which behaviour elsewhere is judged, the criterion by which conduct may be regulated when neither parents nor teachers are at hand. Hence the fundamental importance of the quality of the human relationships and of the standards accepted and admired within the school, as within the home.

These criteria are not established in early years by talking about them, although much may be done through story and discussion as the children get older. To each child the teacher is necessarily the main source of standards of conduct and taste, inspired and reinforced as they will be by what is accepted by the school as a whole. Consciously or unconsciously, the values and the standards which the teacher himself acquired through his own experience make themselves manifest to the children and profoundly affect them. He encourages or discourages certain likes or dislikes, certain forms of behaviour, desires or sentiments, and in this way he is constantly shaping the children's attitudes to life, and helping them to build their own values. If he shows kindness and courtesy he is likely to find the children imitating his voice and manner and accepting the kind of mutual behaviour by which such virtues are expressed. In contrast to such behaviour, the roughness and carelessness of a few individuals

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are likely to be resented as much by the other children as they are by the teacher.

(iii) Regard for the teacher

The teacher's power to influence the children depends on the regard they have for him. At best this regard has in it something of affection and something of respect, and especially of trust. A child wants to be sure that his teacher likes him and understands his difficulties. Children expect that their teacher will 'look after' his class. Where there is a warm relationship between him and them they do what he asks of them because it is he who asks it. They obey because they trust his authority and respect his judgement.

(iv) Sharing common purpose

In good schools, the children are encouraged to know and to think about common problems and purposes. Most of us feel satisfaction and become more closely attached to a group if some of our suggestions for its betterment are regarded seriously. As children get older they become increasingly able to take a responsible share in planning and organising, as well as playing an active part in what has generally to be done, and this experience is of great value.

The more that common purposes are understood and accepted, the less is the need for a rigid imposition of rules and regulations. In schools where restrictions are reduced to a minimum and the children understand and accept the arrangements that are necessary to smooth working, they usually behave sensibly and contrive to make even these few rules almost unnecessary. Movement from place to place and the handling of large masses of materials are carried out with surprising quietness and speed; the children take upon themselves a large share of the responsibility for the physical management of their affairs, and take a pride in putting an efficient organisation into practice. In short, where the children are aware of, and sympathetic to, the general intentions, where their teachers are agreed about what they expect from them and the children know where they stand, where what must be done for mutual comfort is understood by all and there is consistency of standard throughout, then, even in a very large school housed in a bad building, a good life is made possible. But a teacher who makes a fetish of 'discipline' in a

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narrow sense and invents a multiplicity of rules and commands which he attempts to enforce by trivial or ingenious punishments is certain to run into difficulties sooner or later. The more that can be left to the children's general good sense, so that they feel personal responsibility for their own behaviour, the better. The teacher's respect for them, which such freedom implies, appeals to their self-respect and contributes to their growth as self-controlled and reliable people. Further, since personal responsibility allows everyone to adapt his conduct quickly to particular circumstances, it makes for increased efficiency all round.

(v) Importance of nature and conditions of work

It is important from the point of view of discipline that the children should find their work of sufficient interest, and that it should seem to them sufficiently worth while to demand their best efforts; and equally, that they should learn to persist through phases of drudgery and difficulty to achieve what they have undertaken. Young children need to enjoy success, and to experience the triumph of mastery through persistent endeavour. Their own curiosity or determination is often sufficient to sustain them; but the teacher's help and encouragement, and especially his example and what they know he expects of them, are essential. It is also important that the conditions of life in school should be such as allow order and convenience, and make for social and physical well-being. These themes recur constantly in most of the chapters of this book and need no elaboration here.

(vi) The discipline of materials

A child's love of investigating and of making prompts him to experiment with all kinds of materials. As he learns more about the nature of the things which he handles, and what he must do to 'make them work', he learns also to adapt and control his own behaviour accordingly; he is accepting the discipline that work with each particular material imposes. The more a growing child learns about the peculiar natures of different materials, the better able is he to choose the right ones for his own purposes and to win satisfaction in using them. The responsibility for this choice is in itself important, because it is part of the process of coming to terms with the external world.

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The ten-year-old who attempts to screw one piece of wood to another must accept the discipline of the materials if he is to make a workmanlike job. Unless he makes a hole to take his screw, and then drives it straight, placing himself in the best position to use his strength, his effort fails. Having once succeeded he still needs to practise until his skill becomes a part of him. So, besides respecting his materials and accepting the disciplines they impose, he must go on learning to use his power and endure trial after trial if he is ever to reach the stage when he can do what he will with his material and tools. He can never escape the discipline of practice, and there are no short cuts to achievement. The materials must, of course, be such that the child can manage them. It not infrequently happens that a class of young children becomes upset because the materials they are using are unsuitable, and only a change to more suitable materials will remove frustration and restore good temper.

Helped by the discipline of using materials to make things with or to express their ideas or feelings, children become better able to manage and control themselves and to meet new situations with confidence and competence; they begin to relate effort to the purposes behind it. In short, they show that they are developing a sense of standard and are becoming able to direct their effort in a disciplined way towards some definite end. Thus, modelling with clay or painting a picture serve ultimate as well as immediate ends.

(vii) The organisation of time and work

The way in which time is used and work organised is a crucial factor in the development of a sense of purpose and of the self-discipline needed to pursue it. Children are quick to recognise competent organisation, and they dislike muddle and confusion.

If time is so split up that the children can seldom achieve what they set out to do and their keenness is always being frustrated by having to stop and change to something else when their concentration and zest are at their height, they not unnaturally lose interest and begin to doubt the value of their work; they then become a ready prey either to boredom or to mischief. On the other hand, if a topic or activity is continued long after it has served its purpose and the children's power to attend to it has ebbed away, they are again likely to show their boredom in troublesome behaviour. If arrangements are such

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that children can go ahead as nearly as is practicable at their own pace, and if they are encouraged to develop individual initiative and responsibility in the pursuits they are engaged in, they are more likely to look after themselves than if they are perpetually regulated by their teacher and feel themselves too much curbed or goaded by the pace or methods of the group.

Similarly, a healthy alternation of strenuous activity and more peaceful pursuits is necessary. Young children cannot be still for long, and there is no doubt that the generally good standard of behaviour in most primary schools today owes much to the fact that children have plenty of opportunity for using their abounding physical energy and high spirits in legitimate activities of all kinds, and that movement is used, not merely to promote bodily health, but also to arouse and to satisfy both feeling and imagination.

It should be added that the better health which children now enjoy, and the added comfort of clean bodies and suitable clothing, have also contributed a great deal to a better spirit in the schools.

Like sensible organisation, good teaching which holds the attention of the children is always conducive to good behaviour. Children who, like hungry sheep, 'look up and are not fed', can become in time as resentful of that as of muddled arrangements. Both waste their time and confound their reason, and they soon lose respect for a teacher who so fails them.

(viii) Help for a teacher in difficulties

When an individual teacher runs into difficulty - when he so loses control of the situation that his pupils no longer feel his grip - the Head should be ready to come to the rescue, for children readily perceive weakness and deal ruthlessly with it. It is in just such a case that the good feeling that exists among the whole staff can give the necessary support. The teacher may be inexperienced and beset by fears; or his failure may arise from lack of adequate preparation for his teaching. Whatever the reasons, the teacher in trouble should never be allowed to feel alone and unsupported. He should be able to discuss his problems with the Head in the assurance that he will not 'lose face' in doing so. The good Head not only shows understanding but also strives to find a remedy. What is there that this teacher can do really well? What is there in his teaching that might be

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specially fostered? Is he really aware of his low standards of preparation or organisation? With what standards can he compare his own? Does he realise that his handling of children is inconsistent, that he does not always fulfil the promises he makes them or that, when irritated, he makes threats which both he and they know cannot be carried out? Is there insufficient mutual respect between the teacher and his class to enable him to deal strongly and satisfactorily with whatever crises may occur in the day to day life of the crowded classroom? These, and many other questions of the kind, the Head must be prepared to help the teacher to face squarely, and then to see how the situation can be changed.

(ix) Troubles of individual children

If all goes well, if the children respect and like their teachers, and if the teachers establish a way of life in school that in its community spirit, in its friendships and activities, in its alternations of work and play, gives the children a sense of progress, of intelligible order and of purpose, then the great majority of children are happy and behave well. This is shown beyond all doubt in the schools where such a spirit and such conditions prevail. The teachers' difficulties are then limited to the few children who for some reason or other find themselves unable to fit in with the life of the class or school.

On occasion, every teacher is faced with the naughty, idle, wayward, interfering, selfish or disobedient child, with whom he must deal firmly yet without damaging the relationship he has with him. He has to try to find the cause of the trouble, and then to deal with the situation as seems best. As the causes of the trouble may be extremely varied, so the remedies will be equally diverse. An act by one child might mean something quite different from the same act by another. For example, naughtiness in school by one six year old might be due to jealousy of a new baby at home; or by another, to her realisation that she is always dressed in left-over clothes which she thinks are ugly compared with those of the other children; or by yet another, to the fact that his best friend can read and boasts about it while he cannot. The ways of dealing with each case must clearly be related to the cause, and not infrequently some cooperation between the children's parents and the teacher will be necessary.

Again, all parents and teachers are aware that children seem

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to go through difficult phases, without any apparent cause. Perhaps they are at some stage of growth when their development is, in some way, lop-sided and they feel ill at ease. These are times when firmness and sympathy have to be nicely balanced; at all times the mutual trust and regard between the child and his teacher must be preserved. A child who for the time 'does not know where he is' may seek reassurance in ways which sometimes seem infantile or odd, but, if an understanding teacher helps and encourages him until the phase is over, he is generally able, often through some success or achievement, to pull himself together again and go forward on a new plane of development.

If a child's behaviour or lack of progress continues to cause serious anxiety to a Head, to a teacher or to his parents, the nurse or the school medical officer should be consulted. The school nurse, who is often also the health visitor, may be able to explain the child's difficulties because she knows his home, and she may well be able to promote helpful cooperation there. Alternatively, the school medical officer may find that the child is in need of medical or psychiatric treatment; or it may be that the child is in need of special educational treatment, provided either in a special school or in his own school. The help and resources of the school health service are always available to teachers; and it is better to err on the side of carefulness than to neglect a potentially serious disorder of mind or body.

It should not be necessary to resort to corporal punishment for any primary school child. The 1937 edition of the Handbook of Suggestions spoke of 'the gradual recognition on the part of teachers that the superiority of the adult over the child is a matter of length and width of experience and not of moral quality, and that few children are so unreasonable or unmanageable by nature as not to respond to the calmly exercised control of an intelligent teacher who has their best interest at heart.' 'As a result of this change', it continued, 'there has been a great decrease in the amount of punishment inflicted, whether corporal or of other kinds. In the best schools, in fact, there is now very little punishment at all, and corporal punishment may be absent altogether.' It should be remembered that this referred to children up to the age of fourteen.

Traditionally, punishment of any kind has most often been inflicted when children have disobeyed orders and the teacher has decided to assert his authority in that way. Life in schools

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today, founded on a closer cooperation between teacher and taught, and the minimum number of orders, invites less disobedience. But, with an occasional child, reason and even persuasion may fail, and the teacher has no alternative to punishing him and may decide to do so. If he is wise, he tries all other means first, and he would do well to ask himself what he expects the effect will be upon the punished child, upon his relationship with him, and upon the remainder of the group. In the course of time a teacher learns to anticipate and so to avoid many of the most likely causes of difficulty.

(x) Conclusion

In the complexity of school life, where the smooth running of the work and play of large groups of children entails constant vigilance and exacting care, it is no easy matter for the teacher to hold firm to his aim of helping the children to grow as individual persons, self-controlled and responsible in their behaviour towards others and ready to learn those further disciplines that they will meet before they reach maturity. But, as has been said, a child's power to make decisions for himself cannot grow under constant coercion from without, but only from the compulsion that comes from within. The teacher provides just such opportunities for responsibility and for such choice and decision as are within the child's capacity; he it is who decides within what limits the children can range, and his knowledge of the children helps him to avoid restricting them too much or asking too much of them. His aim is to expose the children to the best that he knows, in the belief that they will, each according to his capacity, appreciate human attributes of most worth and will act accordingly. His own example is the most powerful of all the influences he can bring to bear to this end.

(a) Health education

Like so much else that is of great value in the bringing up of young children, health education is not a subject that appears in the timetables of primary schools. From the nursery to the top of the junior school, the physical well-being of the children is the hourly concern of the teachers, and health education is for the most part a matter of incidental and informal teaching, of good

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example by the teachers, and of the encouragement of habits and attitudes of mind likely to promote and maintain good health. If the amenities of the school are reasonably good, the teacher's task is the easier, though those who are convinced of the importance of health education are seldom altogether deterred even by the most unpromising buildings.

The children should learn from daily acquaintance to enjoy activity in the open, and fresh air and light in their classrooms. They should come by habit and imitation to wash and make themselves tidy when they need it as well as before meals, and they can be led to take a pride in keeping cloakrooms and lavatories and corridors as presentable as their own classrooms. Meal and milk times, physical education, and the care of living plants and animals offer special opportunities for good health education and for such explanations as the children seem to need; but there is in fact almost no occupation or subject which might not give rise to useful incidental discussion or practical experience. Good posture is at all times important.

In the junior school there might well be a syllabus of health teaching, and the teachers should know its aims and content, but specific lessons on health are rarely found to be useful. The children are interested in the working of their bodies and on this, as on other matters, often ask searching questions which should be honestly answered. For the rest, in the junior school as in the infant school, the kind of life the children live there, what is expected of them and in what conditions they work and play, are the most potent influences on the habits they form and the attitudes they adopt.

'Health education has been fully discussed in a recent pamphlet of the Ministry of Education, in which the contribution of the primary school is considered in some detail.*

(b) Teachers and the School Health Service

The School Health Service is as old as the century, and its doctors, nurses and dentists are familiar figures in the schools and play an important part in the children's lives. Besides conducting periodical and special medical examinations of the children, the doctor and nurse should be fully familiar with the physical conditions in the school - ventilation, lighting, tem-

*Health Education: Pamphlet 31: Ministry of Education. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1956.

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perature and sanitary arrangements, and the school doctor reports to his local education authority on these matters. It is the duty of the medical and nursing staff to safeguard the well-being of the children in every way they can, by promoting measures to prevent infection and maintain good health, to attend to nutrition and to the physical conditions of the children's lives, as well as to detect defects in health and arrange for their treatment.

Since it is the Head and his staff who are most immediately aware of how satisfactory are the conditions in school which affect health, it falls to them also to make known to the local education authority or to the managers any deficiencies which seem to be impairing the children's well-being. The school doctor is available for advice and for consultation on these matters.

The smooth and effective working of the school health service depends on the cooperation of the teachers. Only a minority of schools have medical rooms, and the arrangements for doctors', dentists' and nurses' inspection often entail improvisation in classrooms or even in the Head's room or that of the staff. Besides relying to a certain degree on the teachers to bring cases to their notice, the doctors frequently need the information the teachers can supply before a diagnosis of a child's difficulty can be made and treatment suggested. When the diagnosis has been made, there may again be need for consultation and cooperation with the school staff, since the remedies proposed might include some changes in the child's life at school. Throughout his school life, his teachers can strongly influence for good a child's attitude to illness or hurt and to doctors, dentists and nurses who are there to help him.

In evoking and sustaining cooperation with parents, the Head's influence is very important. Most parents want to know all they can about their children and to assist those who care for them; others are less ready and less able to show interest or to learn. Some shirk the responsibility of decision or of taking the necessary steps when medical or dental treatment is recommended for their child. The attitude the Head adopts, and the way in which he treats the parents who come with their children to meet nurse or doctor, may determine whether all concerned work together effectively for the child's good, or whether confidence and interest are lacking. In many schools the Head or an

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experienced teacher is present during the medical examination of the children, especially of the young ones, and this may be helpful: but there are occasions and cases where the parent or doctor or, indeed, older children do not wish a teacher to be present, and these wishes must of course be readily and fully respected.

All that has been said about cooperation with the doctors, dentists and nurses applies equally when the teachers are working with and using the help of speech therapists and the educational psychologists and other workers in the child guidance clinics. The present state of development of the child guidance services and recommendations for their future growth, are fully set out in the recent Report of the Committee on Maladjusted Children.*

The overriding responsibility for planning and supervising the life and work of a school rests with the Head - though he usually makes his staff feel that their views have had due weight in the decisions taken. The Head must give a lead to his staff, he must be constantly aware of the children's behaviour and progress and he must do his best to maintain good relationships all round, within the school and with the parents and with the school's neighbours. It is the Head's personality that in the vast majority of schools creates the climate of feeling - whether of service and cooperation or of tension and uncertainty - and that establishes standards of work and conduct.

A Head is likely to fulfil all these functions better if he continues himself to be a good teacher and is seen to be so. As a fellow practitioner of quality he is more likely to win the regard of his colleagues and to inspire confidence in the inexperienced ones; as a teacher he meets the children in the normal circumstances of the classroom and therefore knows them better. How much teaching he can do depends on the size and nature of the school, and often on the weight of his administrative and clerical work. But whatever the difficulties, the Head's own teaching function is so important that he would be most unwise to neglect it, and fortunately in many schools some clerical help is now available.

*Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1955.

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In the small village school where the Head works alone or with one assistant and is necessarily teaching all day, he inevitably comes to know every child intimately and is constantly aware of the progress and the needs of each. The day to day pressure upon his time naturally leads him to expect a good deal of independence on the part of his pupils; but in this family atmosphere the Head is always at the centre of the little community. Perhaps more than those who teach in cities he needs to seek exchange of ideas with others and, although visits to schools and journeys to conferences may be difficult to arrange, it is to the credit of many village school teachers that they courageously surmount these difficulties and revitalise their work by the stimulus of discussion with their fellows elsewhere.

In the training of teachers the Head often finds himself in a position not unlike that of a practised craftsman with his apprentices. It is his responsibility to launch young teachers on their careers, and their confidence in their own powers and happiness in their profession may be largely determined by his example, sympathy and tactful help. Many schools also provide the practical training in teaching for students in training colleges. The long and close association between schools and colleges in this work is essential in the training of teachers, and again it is the Head who sets the tone and pattern of this relationship within his school.

Responsibility for promoting the craft of teaching does not stop with the student and the young schoolmaster or schoolmistress. In thought, idea and practice the good Head leads his whole team. The commonest way of sifting and disseminating ideas is through discussion, and in small schools it is not difficult to find occasions for them. In large schools there may sometimes be isolation even between classroom and classroom, and where teachers travel long distances daily the occasions for serious discussion should be regular for, where the Head withdraws from being the mainspring of the school or where there is insufficient sharing of thought and experience, the inspiration of a commonly accepted purpose dies.

The teacher in the nursery, infant and junior school will always be for the most part a general class teacher rather than a specialist; yet the primary school is richer for any specialist knowledge or skill possessed by any of its teachers. Men and women who, for example, are naturalists, artists, musicians, his-

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torians, or lovers of English, though they are not likely to turn to the primary school for work as specialist teachers, will nevertheless expect to find a satisfying opportunity to use their talent. It is important, therefore, for the Head to make use of his staff's special interests and knowledge when occasion for doing so arises, and to encourage individual members of his team to seek specialist help from each other where this is available.

Nor is the Head concerned only with the teachers and children. Others who work in the school should and can share in its purpose and spirit. For example, it is possible that the caretaker as a boy attended a school whose educational aims were narrower than those of today; if he is to do his work intelligently he needs to understand the purpose behind those aspects of school life today that are less familiar, or perhaps, at first, surprising to him. If there was a hall in the school of his childhood it was certainly not used as it is now, and he may be interested to know why these changes have come about and what the school is aiming at; if there was a garden in his school its function was different from that of gardens in primary schools today. He sees boys and girls using materials that would seldom have been provided in his day, and only if he is helped to see why these things are so can he be expected to undertake sympathetically the cleaning and storing which they involve.

It is equally probable that the kitchen staff, as girls at school, did not enjoy a midday meals service such as we know today. In the nursery, more than elsewhere, the kitchen staff are an integral part of the daily life; but in infant and junior schools, too, they might well share with the teachers a common view of the purposes and standards of those parts of school life to which they contribute.

To encourage and guide the best that each can give and to cultivate a sense of unity among all who work in the school, from the young and untried to the older and experienced, and from the less competent to the distinguished, calls for the utmost patience, good sense, humour, humility and sense of purpose.

Current ideas and practices in organising schools, based mainly on an age grouping and on annual promotions of each child, have already been discussed in the chapters on infant and junior

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schools. In these chapters also, some of the means adopted to cater for the wide variety of ability within the schools, and the differences in these respects between large and small schools, were also described.

All that need be added here is that there is no central directive to a Head about how he should classify his children or organise his grouping of them, and, though it would be obviously unwise to change the organisation fundamentally more frequently than is necessary, most Heads aim at an organisation sufficiently flexible to meet the changing needs of the children and the changing situations, such as a rise or fall in numbers of pupils, enlarged or diminished accommodation, and more generous or more stringent staffing. Always the most effective way of using members of staff is an important consideration. In some areas, and at some times, the rapid changing of staff, or the shortage of teachers, calls for constant adaptation or improvisation. But, given fairly settled conditions, a Head can keep a critical eye on how his organisation is in fact promoting the children's progress, and gradually change it if he finds it at fault. He generally discusses this problem, as he does others, frankly and fully with the staff, so that he is assured of their understanding and cooperation.

The arrangement of time in nursery, infant and junior schools has been discussed in earlier chapters. Reduced to its simplest terms, the timetable may be thought of as a convenient framework within which the school can function. Statutory requirements are less exacting than they have ever been, and concern only the total time given to secular instruction and provision for the daily act of worship and for religious instruction. The Head is thus left considerable freedom for planning the daily programme. The timetable is an expression of his educational philosophy and that of his colleagues; it reduces to firm terms what they consider best for children, and demonstrates their beliefs about the relative values of what the school has to offer.

It has already been said that young children thrive best on a regular routine, and that they respond to its rhythm and balance. But this does not mean that the timetable should ever be a tyrant which, by its fragmentation of time, encourages short-lived

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occupations, or which brings to an unnecessarily abrupt end undertakings in which children are profitably engrossed.

It is of course necessary to fix times for the use of amenities which are shared by everyone, such as a hall, playing spaces, or specially equipped rooms, but apart from this the allocation of time is frequently in large blocks which can be used at the teacher's discretion. He is thus able to prevent waste of effort and stultifying of interest; it is his responsibility to see that within the span of time the children, as a class or in groups or as individuals, get the kind and variety of occupation they need to keep their attention fully held. Children's powers of concentration, and their ability to follow through or delve deep into what they are learning, are so diverse that it is to be expected that in practice the detailed programme followed by any one child may sometimes differ from that of his neighbour, and a good teacher allows for this. What is suggested for any period of time should be such as to avoid confusion and a sense of rush and strain.

It has also been realised that the traditional association of certain subjects or activities with certain hours of the day does not necessarily correspond with the way children learn best, and changes have been made which may at first appear strange to the teacher trained in an older tradition.

In the allocation of time, as in other matters, it is the Head's duty to review the effects of his arrangements on the well-being of the children and staff and, as far as physical conditions allow, to make the timetable serve the educational ends he and his colleagues have set for themselves.

Like the timetable, a school's schemes of work are an expression of its educational aims and values. Taken as a whole, they show the aims of the teaching in the various fields of work and, in general terms, the scope of the work to be attempted in these fields. Good schemes indicate the progress which might be expected in the development of children's powers and skills. They are not straitjackets, but provide a framework within which the individual teacher can make adjustments and adaptations. Their content in different fields of learning is discussed in Part 3.

Since the proper use of them depends on every teacher's

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knowing and accepting their purpose and intention, schemes are best made by consultation amongst all the members of the staff. If any one member is especially qualified by training or experience in any one field of work, he might well be given the responsibility, under the Head, of taking the lead in making the schemes for that subject, and advising his colleagues in the working out of it. Schemes for the whole school should be made available to each teacher, so that each can see his own work in relation to that of all his colleagues and feel his responsibility as a member of a closely knit team. By an experienced teacher, the schemes may be regarded as a map of country through which he and his children will journey as time, circumstances and opportunity permit. To the newcomer they indicate the nature and scope of the work to be attempted and, together with his predecessor's records, suggest to him where and how he can begin. For the Head they are the scaffolding round which he expects the children's education to be built.

But now and then a scheme of work may turn out to be but a point of departure for some of the most inspired work at the school. Not infrequently schemes are found in practice to have failed to take account of the range of ability and the variety of needs within each age group of the children. They have therefore to be kept constantly under review and checked against the teachers' experience and their records of what in fact it has been found possible and profitable to do. It is rare to find a good school without clear and up to date schemes of work.

Adequate records of the children's progress, and ways of ascertaining, from time to time, how the children are getting on, are integral and essential parts of teaching.

Records can be of different kinds. Some teachers keep accounts of their observations of each child, and as the purpose of these is primarily that of an aide memoire for their own personal use the accounts take the form best suited to the writers. Many find that the act of indicating a child's progress - not in anyone attainment only, but in his all-round development - is of itself a clarifying process: it stimulates their own observations

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and can sometimes serve as a guide to future action, though it can never be a short cut to a solution of a child's difficulties.

Many schools also make records that may be the result of discussion among the staff. Individual teachers draw on their personal records for their contributions, but the object of these records is to estimate as objectively as possible the progress of the children in different fields, and thereby to judge the fitness for the children of the education which is being provided for them. They are of value when the schemes of work and general matters of organisation and classification are under review.

Another kind of record is that intended to be passed on with the child when he moves to another school. Some local education authorities provide special forms for this purpose and these, like the forms invented by schools themselves, vary in usefulness. Perhaps the best criterion is whether what is said about the child's progress helps those who will continue his education to do so without misjudging his abilities. No mere catalogue of his achievements can do this without some word on his temperament and behaviour, his interests and the relevant background.

In estimating a child's powers a teacher should be on his guard against the assumption that because a child shows certain personal qualities in one set of circumstances he will show them also in others. The children may be 'persevering' in one field of study but not in another, 'cooperative' with one teacher but not with another, 'sociable' in one group but not in another. Only rarely can generalisations be made with any safety. Before he leaves the junior school a child will usually have given fairly clear signs of his intellectual powers, but at that stage many of his qualities have not yet emerged as permanent features of his personality. To place him therefore in a category with any feeling of finality is unjust.

No written record, however complete, can take the place of a personal meeting between the teachers who have taught a child and those who receive him in the new school. One of the dangers inherent in an organisation of education in stages is that there may be too little contact between those concerned with the consecutive levels. This is most acute and difficult to avoid between the junior and secondary schools. Where, however, it is found possible for teachers to meet, and especially where the teachers from the secondary school visit the primary schools to see and be seen by the children, to know at first hand what kind and stan-

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dard of work they are achieving and by what methods they are being educated, the children are less likely to suffer the setbacks which some of them now do. An appreciable number of children do less well than they might in their secondary schools because the transition from the primary school has proved too disruptive. Adequate communication between his teachers should in no way undermine a child's feeling that in his secondary school he is making an exciting new start.

Still another use of records is the part they may be called upon to play in connection with allocation to secondary education. This use may entail a special form of record designed by the local education authority, though there is always an opportunity for the Head to make additional observations. For some records of this kind, the Head is required to scale his estimates according to certain directions; sometimes he is required to give tests, in intelligence, arithmetic and/or English, provided by the authority for this purpose. If these are required at intervals spread over a large proportion of the junior school period, and if they are known to have significant influence on the allocation at eleven, they have the effect of keeping that allocation in the forefront of teachers', parents' and children's minds over a long period and work and attitudes of mind are very likely to be adversely affected. Ironically enough, the attempt to give less weight to the results of an examination conducted on one day has sometimes led in practice to several repetitions of external tests, with all their attendant anxiety and liability to distort the content and methods of teaching. If the records for use in allocation demand these repeated tests, schools have more than ever to be on their guard against letting the requirements warp the children's growth.

Tests and examinations

Any review of a child's progress implies a comparison of his present stage with an earlier one and of his progress compared with that of another child of roughly the same ability. In any case, the main purpose is to discover what is succeeding best with the particular child and where he needs help.

Sometimes the review takes the form of a teacher's looking back at what a child has achieved over a significant period of time - all he has written, the books he has read; the things he has

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made, his advance in speech, his management of himself and of social situations, his powers of concentration and persistence, and the way he uses his body and limbs. The value and completeness of such a review depends, of course, on the teacher having, in some form, a record which makes the picture clear, at least to him. If others besides the child's own present teacher can contribute, so much the better. Such cumulative reviews as this, though they may not be amenable to expression in precise terms, give opportunities for human understanding, with which no formal tests can compete, and they are the kind of statement most appropriate to a professional estimate of young children's progress.

But tests and examinations also have their uses and, properly interpreted, may form a useful part of such reviews. Tests, chosen and applied by the Head or assistant teachers, in relation to the work in the school and for a particular purpose, need have none of the disadvantages of external tests, set by some body outside the school. Within the school a test may be useful in singling out for appraisal some particular aspect of the work. It can be a ready check on learning and teaching, and it may disclose and clarify children's misunderstanding and difficulties. Diagnostic tests devised specially to reveal certain difficulties and sources of error, for example as in arithmetic, may provide a check which the prudent Head or class teacher may want to use from time to time; where fully understood, they can be economical of time and effort, and helpful in suggesting possible remedies for weaknesses which are disclosed. The value of these tests lies in the action taken as a result of them; if they are appropriately used, their results may suggest changes of teaching method or modifications in schemes of work.

Another guide in the assessment of progress may be found in the use of standardised tests which compare one child's performance with a 'norm' of attainment. While providing a comparative estimate of both ability and attainment they may also serve as a further check upon the school's judgements and standards. They may help in forming truer judgements of anyone child's potentialities, and in showing differences between his capabilities and his attainment, that were hitherto unsuspected or undisclosed. In small schools, for instance, where there are only a few children in any age group, it may be many years before the Head comes into contact with the full intellectual range at

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any age level, and in such cases these tests may have special value.

Any Head or assistant teacher, however, will be wise always to consider carefully whether any formal tests he proposes to give are really necessary, what exactly their purpose is, whether they are the best means of achieving that purpose, and whether the time spent on them is justified, since it must be taken from time in which children might otherwise be learning something of value.

Primary schools take education in road safety very seriously. The children are taught kerb drill, to use the crossings properly, to observe the traffic lights, and to obey the signals of school crossing patrols and police. They are told of the dangers of playing in the streets. Training is directed to forming an attitude of alertness and a sense of responsibility for their behaviour on the roads and habits which are likely to prevent accidents. Various methods are used in this training, and the schools get help from a number of sources. The majority of local education authorities subscribe to the Child Safety Section of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, through which schools are able to obtain useful publications such as posters and a simplified version of the Highway Code, as well as films and filmstrips. There is usually good cooperation with the police who willingly give talks and demonstrations in schools.

Because many children, especially in country districts, bicycle to school, the training and testing of child cyclists is strongly advocated.*

Many teachers believe that the influence which the radio exerts generally in young children's lives, and particularly on their standards of taste, has important consequences, and that they should therefore help the children to develop a discriminating

*See Child Cyclists: Report of the Working Party: Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1958.

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attitude in their listening, so that they grow in sensibility and are able in later years to appreciate the many fine things in broadcasting they might otherwise never hear.

School broadcasts offer valuable material which the teacher may use both directly and indirectly in helping the growth of critical appreciation in his pupils; it is through practice that they learn to listen and through talk with their teacher and among themselves that they learn to appraise what they hear. The broadcasts planned for children from five to eleven range over a wide field of music, story, poetry and drama, nature study, tales of travel and stories from world history; with so much to choose from, they are best thought of, not as 'wireless lessons', but as a rich source available to the teacher in working out his own plans for his class. He may consider a single broadcast, or a series, not only for its relevance to his specific plans for his children but also in relation to their general background; for example, listening to a story well told is one of the most enjoyable experiences of childhood and - whether it be of a folk tale or an historical narrative - the broadcast, with its command of resources beyond the teacher's range, can be a superb medium for telling it. The response of children to the evocative powers of broadcasting, the strength of their interest in, and sympathy with, characters and situations conveyed only by sound, can be studied and appreciated by the teacher only by listening with his pupils.

Careful preparation for listening is essential, and what follows from it may be expected to take a good deal of time also. For instance, one broadcast may lead children not only to discuss what they have heard but also to search for further information; another may inspire them to make something of their own, perhaps a play or model; yet others may suggest visits to places in the locality where investigations can be carried out at first hand. Broadcasts may fire young children's imagination and excite their curiosity, but it is the teacher who will discover and provide the right opportunities for sincere expression of feeling and for the satisfaction of this curiosity; the broadcasts do not usurp his role - they challenge his skill as a teacher. Sometimes they create a situation in which he and his children learn together, and at these times he must be specially aware of the differences between his pupils' reactions and his own. Always he should try to appreciate the aim of each broadcast and just what the producer hopes to convey; and here the publications of the School Broadcasting

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Council and the advice of its regional education officers are at his service.

The importance of using equipment that gives the best quality of reception cannot be urged too strongly; poor reception results in wasted and distorted effort and it puts unworthy standards before children.

Television is not yet a part of primary school life, and experiments may in due course show whether or not it is a useful aid to the education of young children. But television at home is already an important influence. Ideas, knowledge and vocabulary are all recognisably affected, and, less obviously but even more important, so are attitudes of mind and standards of all kinds. Teachers cannot ignore this part of children's experience, and many are finding that the children can contribute to their education in school from what they have learnt from television at home. But, on the other hand, many children are allowed to watch programmes not intended, and quite unsuitable, for them, and so get bewildering and sometimes frightening impressions; some children stay up late and are tired at school next day; some become blasé from the daily passive acceptance of matter which is presented to them with great technical skill, but which calls for no effort on their part and requires from them no subsequent action. Some schools, therefore, make the use of television for children in the home a major topic for discussion with parents.

Teachers have always used the device of illustration to help children to understand and appreciate many things that lie beyond the range of direct experience. The blackboard sketch, picture, photograph, model and specimen which children can handle, will always hold an important place among the aids to learning. The great advantage of these traditional and simple means is that they are ready to hand; the teacher can select and emphasise those aspects which are relevant to his purpose. Newer and more complicated aids, which require apparatus for the reproduction of picture and sound, may be resorted to less readily. For a time they may even tend to come between the teacher and his class and so preclude the discussion and explanation that lead children to grasp the full meaning of what they see.

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Nevertheless, such inventions as the cinema, the silent film and the film-strip, the gramophone and sound recorder, provide him with an almost inexhaustible source of illustration in picture and sound. Further, they open up a wide variety of vicarious experience which has been hitherto beyond the reach of children in schools, and which, when skilfully used, may add greatly to their understanding and enjoyment of the world they live in. The cine-film, to which sound may be added, can be a powerful aid to both teacher and pupils whenever movement is an essential element in the illustration; for example, in showing how people live and work, in demonstrating some agricultural or industrial process, or presenting certain aspects of natural history or physical science that could not be shown otherwise. The film-strip with its pictures arranged in ordered sequence and individual slides arranged for a specific need, provide a score of illustrations where formerly the teacher may have had access to one only.

The great variety of material now available increases the teacher's responsibility for judicious selection. He has to consider whether his pupils are ready for what he chooses - for, however vivid and arresting the material may appear, it is still removed from reality or direct experience, in which the sensations of size and space, of movement and vibration, of heat and moisture, of taste and smell, make an impact which no substitute can rival. Moreover, a teacher has to remember that he interprets what he sees against a background of personal experience and knowledge far wider than any possessed by boys and girls, and a study of their mistakes can be a sharp reminder to him that children sometimes fail utterly to understand words and pictures whose meaning is clear to an adult. But, though these aids can never have the same value as direct experience, they can do much to prepare for, to extend and to illuminate it; not only can they give children a fresh impression of something familiar to them, but they can also bring reality to something that is unfamiliar, remote and inaccessible. The interpretation of a picture may take much time, and unless enough is allowed the children may gain but little of any value from what they see. It is important, therefore, that before a teacher shows a film or a strip he should review the ideas it presents, note the pace at which it presents them, estimate what preparation the children need in order to get the most out of what they are going to see, and decide whether all or only selected pictures should be shown.

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Children bring their keenest attention to what satisfies their immediate interest, sometimes heeding nothing else; and what interests them may well be something which, from the teacher's point of view, is quite irrelevant or unimportant. It is only through discussion with his pupils and by giving them opportunities to record their impressions in various ways that he is able to discover what significance they give to what they see and hear. Through this exchange of ideas, questions, answers, and of critical comment and enquiry rather than through docile acceptance, children are helped to relate their experiences to others, to clarify them and to make them articulate.