Hadow (1931)

(page numbers in brackets)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages (i-xviii)
Membership, Analysis, Preface, Introduction
Chapter I (1-21)
The development of the conception of primary education
Chapter II (22-32)
The physical development of children between 7 and 11
Chapter III (33-58)
The mental development of children between 7 and 11
Chapter IV (59-72)
The age limits for the upper stage of primary education
Chapter V (73-82)
The internal organisation of primary schools
Chapter VI (83-90)
Retarded children in the primary school
Chapter VII (91-106)
The curriculum of the primary school
Chapter VIII (107-115)
The staffing of primary schools and the training of teachers
Chapter IX (116-122)
The premises and equipment of primary schools
Chapter X (123-132)
Examinations in primary schools
Chapter XI (133-149)
Summary of principal conclusions and recommendations
Suggestions (150-206)
on the curriculum of primary schools
Appendix I (207-221)
List of witnesses
Appendix II (222-254)
Physical development of 7-11 year olds (Harris)
Appendix III (254-279)
Mental development of 7-11 year olds (Burt)
Index (280-290)

London: HM Stationery Office

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62. There was general agreement among our witnesses that the results of the reorganisation, which has been in progress during the last few years, were no less evident in the primary than in the secondary stage of education. There seems to be no doubt that the bringing together of the younger children in one school, and the better classification thereby attained, has been highly beneficial. Where the primary school has once been established as a distinct educational unit, it receives a wholesome stimulus and a definite aim. This is largely due to the fact that the teaching which these younger pupils are now receiving is better adapted to the needs of their age. In schools which have not yet been reorganised, there have been in some cases difficulties in meeting the needs of the younger children, more especially in rural areas where 'all-age' schools are small. This obtains because the teachers are concerned with children of the age of fourteen as well as with those of the age of eleven, and are not in consequence free to give adequate attention to the special needs of the pupils between the ages of seven and eleven. In the reorganised schools, primary as well as secondary, the teachers are more free to concentrate their attention on the needs of children who are nearly alike in age, capacity, and attainment.

The function of the primary school for children between the ages of five and eleven, with its two well-marked stages - one extending up to the age of seven, and the other comprising the period between the ages of seven and eleven - may from one point of view be regarded as that of filling the place which for some decades after 1870 was filled by the public elementary school. The primary school in the rural parts of county areas will not, even though the children over the age of eleven go to centrally situated modern schools, simply be a school which has been decapitated. It is not a mere preparatory department dominated by the requirements of the modern school for older pupils. So far from being 'an elongated Infants' School or a truncated Senior School' (1)

(1) Report of the Departmental Committee on the Training of Rural Teachers (1929) Section 108.

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the primary school, organised as a distinct unit for pupils between the ages of five and eleven, is set free to concentrate on discharging its own proper function and developing its own technique. It has already acquired a character and identity of its own, as the teachers have discovered the possibilities of grouping children appropriately and giving them individual attention. In chapter IV, section 57, we recommended that in areas where it is possible there should be separate schools for children under the age of seven. It is especially important to make adequate provision on the one hand for the brilliant children who in the former 'all-age' school would have been in the top classes (standards VI or VII) at the age of ten or eleven, and on the other hand for the retarded pupils.

63. The transition between the two sections of primary education is still often top marked, both in methods of teaching and discipline, and in the character of the courses of study. We would accordingly urge that the courses of teaching and the general organisation for the two sections of primary education, whether carried on in two schools, or, as is generally the case in rural areas, in one school, should always take into account the points of contact between them.

We regard it as important that the transition from the general treatment and the methods of teaching in use at the infant school to those in use in the next stage of primary education should be easy and gradual, and that the teachers of the lower classes in the latter should have some knowledge of infant school methods. (1) Under these conditions there is, in our opinion, no good reason why promotion from the infant school should not be made between the ages of seven and eight. It is obvious that any marked discontinuity in methods of teaching, discipline, and general treatment in the lower classes of the school for pupils between the ages of seven and eleven may seriously delay the progress even of gifted pupils, who indeed are often peculiarly sensitive to such changes. Our witnesses laid particular stress on this point. In some schools the head teachers and their staffs visit the infant schools in order to see the children who are shortly to be promoted. They talk with them, and afterwards discuss their tastes, aptitudes and attainments with the teachers of the infant schools. In this

(1) See also Section 87, p. 107.

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way the teachers in the upper section of the primary school are able to do much to make the process of transition as smooth and easy as possible for the entrants from the infant school. We would urge that further recourse might be had to this and similar arrangements for maintaining close contact between the two sections of the primary school. (1)

The Medical Officers of Schools Association called attention to the desirability of adopting in the lower classes freer methods of teaching and discipline more resembling those in use in the infant school, and of allocating more time to 'out-of-door' studies and rest. (2) It appears from our evidence that several schools have been organised on these lines with satisfactory results.

64. All the teacher witnesses stressed the point that the primary school would discover even among its normal children a fairly wide range of ability, and between the brightest and the dullest children in any one class a considerable difference of mental calibre. The results of a comprehensive survey of children in one large urban area showed that even if the 'more retarded' children were transferred to a 'special' school, there would still remain a number of children at the chronological age of ten with mental ages of seven and eight, and also a number of children of the age of ten with a mental age of thirteen and fourteen. (3) In any single school the range of difference in mental capacity might, and in most cases would, be narrower. On the other hand if a school drew its pupils from a mixed area such as one which fronts on to a good district and backs on to a slum, 10 to 20 per cent of the children might be more than a year below, and 10 to 20 per cent more than a year in advance of the average level.

If the claims of the individual child to suitable treatment arid attention are to be met, it is essential that the classes should be reasonably small. A class of say 50 children must mean stereotyped instruction and mass discipline, and inability on the part of the teacher to deal appropriately with the individual child. Particular emphasis was laid on this point by the various educational organisations. For instance,

(1) See also Chapter IV, Section 60.

(2) Cf. pp. 27, 32 and 201.

(3) Cf. Section 35, p. 34, and Section 68, p. 83.

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the National Federation of Class Teachers contended that no class should ever exceed 40 scholars on the roll. The National Union of Teachers pointed out that 'if in urban schools, 50 children continued to be regarded as a not unsuitable unit in teaching, it was scarcely possible to hope for any effective advance in technique in Junior Schools. Classification in groups presented certain advantages, but there was a limit to the number of groups which one teacher could superintend successfully.' In substance, the National Union of Teachers adhered to the view which it had expressed recently (1) that classes in 'Junior Schools', like those in 'Senior Schools', should be limited to 40. The National Association of Inspectors of Schools and Educational Organisers urged that the greatest single factor in education was, or should be, the personality of the teacher, since schools were neither made nor marred by curricula. Classes of appropriate size were just as desirable and as important for 'junior' as for 'senior' pupils. This body thought, however, that 'junior' classes might be slightly larger than 'senior' classes, and that at present a suitable size was 40 to 44 for 'juniors' and 35 to 40 for 'seniors'. The London Teachers Association considered that large classes were as detrimental in the 'junior' as in the 'senior' school. The Association considered that no class in the 'junior' school should exceed 35 on the roll, and that the staffing of 'junior' schools should approximate to that of 'senior' schools. The New Education Fellowship also pressed strongly for a reduction of classes in 'junior' schools to a maximum of 35.

We discuss in chapter VIII the problem of the staffing of self-contained primary schools. At this point we will only say that, having regard to the great importance of the foundation work that must be done in the upper stage of primary education and the difficulties of training young children to study independently and to do individual and group work in the various branches of the curriculum, we agree with the majority of our witnesses in holding that the size of classes in primary schools is one of the most urgent problems to be faced by educational administrators. It would be impossible to put into operation many of the suggestions which we make in this report, if large classes be retained in primary schools.

(1) The Hadow Report and after (1928), pages 45 and 46.

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65. We think that there is no valid objection on general sociological and educational grounds to 'mixed' primary schools, provided that due regard be paid to the differing needs of the boys and girls in the matter of games and physical exercises. In this context it is of interest to note that of the 2,518 departments in England and Wales classified as 'junior', 2,265 are organised as 'mixed' departments. (1) We think, however, that it is most undesirable to attempt to lay down any rigid rules on the subject of co-education at this age. In populous areas containing large numbers of young children it may often be found advisable to organise separate schools for boys and for girls. Such schools have worked well in many urban areas and have been found convenient for administrative reasons. (2)

66. The internal organisation of a primary school must clearly be, to a large extent, conditioned by the available staff, the available classroom accommodation, the number of pupils, and the proportion of retarded children. It is obvious, therefore, that it is only possible to describe a few types of classification which are of general application. The break at the age of eleven has rendered possible a more thorough classification of children. It is important that this opportunity should be turned to the fullest account. One great advantage of the self-contained primary school is that the teachers have special opportunities for making a suitable classification of the children according to their natural gifts and abilities. On the one hand, immediate treatment of an appropriate character can be provided for retarded children, and on the other hand, suitable arrangements may be made for specially bright children. If the school is adequately staffed, the teachers will be able to obtain a full knowledge of the character and capacity of each individual child. In view of the varying attainments of children it is specially important that there should be small classes or groups. Where classes are rather large, the task of the teacher will be lightened if the pupils are carefully classified according to their capacity. In general we agree with our psychological witnesses in thinking that in

(1) Statistics of Public Education for 1928-29, Table 13.

(2) See also Section 47, p. 54.

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very large primary schools there might, wherever possible, be a triple track system of organisation, viz. a series of 'A' classes or groups for the bright children, and a series of smaller 'C' classes or groups to include retarded children, both series being parallel to the ordinary series of 'B' classes or groups for the average children. (1) Such general groupings are not incompatible with re-classification for special purposes. It is of course essential that any improvement or otherwise in the capacity of a pupil should be provided for by early and easy transfer between the different parallel classes or sets. In the smaller schools there might well be at least two classes or sets for each age group. It seems desirable that there should be no attempt at a rigid classification of the entrants from the infant school. (2) In this connection our psychological witnesses stressed the desirability of classifying by capacity rather than by attainments; the method of assessing ability at this age by a simple test in reading and calculation might yield misleading results, since, for example, retardation at the end of the infant stage is frequently due, not to any inherent defect in the individual child, but to prolonged absence through illness, or to unfavourable home conditions. (3) Moreover, the freedom and variety of the methods of teaching now employed in many infant schools are apt to render mere attainments a rather untrustworthy criterion of general ability at this stage.

It may be of interest to quote the following example of a type of internal organisation, designed to meet the needs of children of varying grades of ability, which has been adopted with satisfactory results in a 'mixed' department containing 450 children between the ages of seven and eleven. When the children first entered from the infant department they were grouped on their former records. The head teachers of the two departments conferred together and classified the pupils; the various classes in the infant department from which the new entrants would come were visited by the member of the staff of the upper department concerned, and notes made regarding teaching methods, etc; each entrant brought a personal record. At the end of the first term all the classifications were reconsidered. The brighter entrants were given accelerated promotion on the recommendation of

(1) See Section on curriculum and methods of study for Retarded Children, p. 203-6.

(2) Cf. Section 102, p. 123.

(3) See Chapter VI, Section 69.

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their former head teacher. There was a class at the bottom of the school for 'the duller and more backward' children. Here every effort was made to observe and remedy their weaknesses, and they were promoted as soon as they had reached a normal standard. There was a series of parallel 'A' and 'B' classes for each year of the four-years' course, for brighter and less brilliant pupils, respectively. There was also a 'fifth year' group designed to meet the needs of those pupils who completed the four-years' course in less than the normal time. Each parallel class throughout the school was divided into two groups, under leaders, and had record boards showing stars which had been received for excellence in work and play.

It would appear from our evidence that some otherwise excellent teachers still fail sometimes to make appropriate provision for the specially gifted children who are in effect frequently classified with children of average capacity, with the result that their special gifts are not adequately recognised and developed, at any rate in the lower classes or groups of the primary school. The range of curriculum required for specially gifted children need not differ greatly from that hitherto in vogue in some 'all-age' elementary schools. It is largely for this reason that we suggest that in the smaller schools steps might well be taken to organise at least one separate class for the abler children. On the other hand, we deprecate the opposite practice, which to judge from our evidence still obtains in many schools, of devoting over much attention to the clever children who give promise of winning free places and scholarships, with the result that insufficient care and thought are given to the problem of making adequate provision for the average and retarded children in the school. (1)

67. The differences between rural and urban schools are often exaggerated: the fundamental problems of organisation and teaching are much the same in both; nevertheless the primary school in rural areas presents some problems of its own. We refrain from discussing the organisation of the 'all-age' schools, as we assume that under the general reorganisation of public elementary schools which is at present being carried out, the 'all-age' school will gradually dis-

(1) See Chapter X, page 131.

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appear. While the curriculum for infants is excluded from the purview of our present inquiry, it is nevertheless most important to bear in mind that the lowest class in the typical rural primary school is an infant class, and that the curriculum which is possible for children between the ages of seven or eight and eleven depends to a large extent on the general character and scope of the instruction given in such classes. It was generally admitted that owing to the composite character of the groups or classes, it is not an easy matter to organise a small primary school effectively so as to maintain a progressive course of instruction. However small a school may be, it may contain children who differ in age and in innate capacity as widely as children do in the larger urban schools, but so few children will fall within any particular age range or grade of capacity that it is quite impossible to staff the school on the basis of a separate teacher for each grade. The adoption of a rougher classification is inevitable, and the fact that children of varying age and ability have usually to be grouped together would render the task of teaching them sufficiently arduous, even for a trained teacher. In point of fact, however, many of the assistant teachers in rural schools are untrained. (1) Individual attention is as essential in rural as in urban schools, and, owing to the smaller numbers of pupils, should be more easily secured. Equal care must be given, however, to ensuring that it is secured in fact, and that the requisite steps are taken to make certain that any retardation of the abler children is avoided and that at the same time adequate consideration is given to the special needs of backward pupils.

To quote from an interesting memorandum sent to us by the Education Section of the British Psychological Society 'The diversity in age and attainment, together with lack of opportunity for group classification, makes flexible and individual methods essential, if good work is to be done. A well-organised arrangement of individual work in definite study together with abundant opportunities for group activity in the directions where such activity is really fruitful is particularly important in the rural school.' It is clearly no easy matter so to organise group teaching as to give sufficient oral instruction and to secure sufficient oral practice for each pupil, and at the same time to make adequate provision for sections or groups of children who are not at the moment under oral instruction. The small country school con-

(1) Cf. Section 93, p. 113.

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taining, say, 25 pupils and staffed with one teacher only, presents a problem of its own. In such circumstances it is exceedingly difficult for a single teacher to devote adequate attention to the infants and at the same time give appropriate instruction to the different groups or sets of older children. The difficulties presented by these schools have been successfully overcome by the genius of the teachers in some parts of this country and in Scotland. Nevertheless it seems unfair that the teachers should have to contend against such great obstacles, and we think that they should be removed at as early a date as possible. We accordingly urge that, wherever the numbers justify, there should be a responsible assistant to take charge of the infants. (1)

We have received a large number of interesting memoranda from head teachers of rural schools, describing the internal organisation and methods of instruction adopted. The impression gained from these memoranda and from our oral evidence is that the teachers in schools which have been converted into primary schools for pupils between the ages of five and eleven are developing a technique and a type of organisation which are yielding good results. It may be of interest to quote a few examples of the internal organisation adopted by experienced teachers in small country schools. In a small country school in the north with an average attendance of 12 children under one teacher, the pupils are grouped for the different branches of the curriculum. The teacher makes the fullest possible use of individual effort on the part of the children by training them from the very beginning to work for themselves, and by allowing them all to make their own pace. At the same time she has fully realised the value of developing a family spirit within the school. Every child on entering the school sees all the pupils working independently, with their own books, and is gradually made to realise that he must learn to read as soon as possible in order to be able to work by himself. In the earliest stages the teacher concentrates on reading, so that by the age of seven the normal child can read with profit and is accorded the privilege of working to a certain extent by himself. The scholars are allowed, irrespective of age, to proceed to other and more advanced books as soon as they can show their competency. By encouraging individual work within reasonable limits, the teacher is able to give her attention to different groups of

(1) See also Section 57, p. 68.

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children in turn. The head teacher of a primary school in the Midlands, containing 21 pupils, stated that she placed her pupils in sections according to their ability. As soon as a child could do the work of a subject in one section it passed on to the next. It did not follow, however, that a child would be in the same section for every subject or for a whole year, e.g. a pupil might be in section F, i.e. the top section, for reading, and in section C (equivalent to standard II) for arithmetic. Again, at the beginning of the year a child might be in section C for reading, by the end of the year in section E for that subject. This head teacher had five sections for arithmetic and reading (not counting the infants), three sections for composition and recitation, and two sections for history and geography. Music, drill, needlework and handwork were all taken in one class.

In another primary school with an average attendance of 30 pupils, which is staffed with two teachers, it has been found possible to make the work as individual and progressive as in smaller rural schools with an average attendance of from 12 to 15 children and staffed by one teacher. Each pupil advances at his own pace in the several branches of the curriculum, and the older children help the younger children with their work. From an early age in the infant class the children begin to read simple books, and they pass on from one grade to another in number, writing and composition, when the teacher is satisfied as to their ability and attainment. Methods of self-instruction are not discarded when the child leaves the infant stage, but are continued throughout the school. Transfer from the infant class normally takes place at about the age of seven or eight, though the varying number of entrants from year to year determines to some extent the age of transfer as the classes have to be kept fairly equal in size. It has been found in practice that the best results are obtained when the work is conducted on individual lines, and that attempts to organise children in small groups according to age are, as a rule, unsatisfactory and retard their progress. The only occasions when the children work together are in conversation lessons, speech training, and rhythmic work. The work throughout the school is based on a confidence in the child's desire for knowledge, supplemented by careful correction and control on the part of the teacher.