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Plowden (1967) Notes on the text Volume 1 (page numbers in brackets) Preliminary pages (i-xxii)
Part 1 Introduction
Part 2 The growth of the child
Part 3 The home, school and neighbourhood
Part 4 The structure of primary education
Part 5 The children in the schools: curriculum and internal organisation
Part 6 The adults in the schools
Part 7 Independent schools
Part 8 Primary school buildings and equipment; status; and research
Part 9 Conclusions and recommendations
Notes (486-495)
Research and Surveys about Plowden |
The Plowden Report (1967)
A Report of the Central Advisory Council for Education (England) London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1967
[page 273] 752. Most primary school work is done in classes. The children who form a class spend most of the day with their class teacher. This is what teachers are used to, and what overwhelmingly they think right. More than two thirds of those in our sample of primary school teachers (Appendix 1, Table D.22) thought that the class teacher should be mainly responsible for his class, while a further quarter accepted the system but thought that the class teacher could reasonably share more of his present responsibilities with other teachers. The bulk of the evidence received also supported the class teacher system. 753. But a class need not necessarily be taught as a whole. There has always been much class instruction and we believe that there is still too much. Yet to some extent, the early age at which English children were admitted to school has always put limits on it, as can be seen from reports from the early twentieth century of three year olds falling asleep on the floor from the gallery benches where 80 at a time were assembled for needle-threading drill or for object lessons. There was also a far more liberal tradition deriving from Robert Owen and reinforced by the ideas of Froebel and Montessori. By the time of the 1933 report, the majority of infant schools divided their classes into groups for teaching reading. Some teachers found they could arrange their work in such a way that children learnt individually at their own pace. The 1931 report on the junior school was more cautious in advocating group and individual learning except for younger juniors. Throughout the thirties, the number of groups within a class of 40 or 50 tended to be limited to three or four, whether or not this number corresponded to the range of achievement in the class. In junior schools 'group reading', with each group supervised by a child teacher (whose fate was usually to read below his own ability) and the teacher circulating round the groups, was and is a popular device for increasing the number of occasions on which each child read aloud. It was an improvement on reading in chorus or reading aloud round the class but is shown by recent research to be far from effective. Class instruction in arithmetic was often followed by practice in two or three groups which were given sums of varying difficulty. Other schools allowed individual children to work through the sums in their text book at their own pace. Individual Group and Class Learning 754. In the last 20 years schools have provided far more individual work as they have increasingly realised how much children of the same age differ in their powers of perception and imagery, in their interests, and in their span of concentration. The more obvious this becomes, the less satisfactory class instruction seems. When children first come to school they learn most effectively if they choose what to do from amongst a range of materials carefully selected by their teachers. Similarly, throughout the primary school, children should have time to follow their own interests and hobbies, to read for pure [page 274] enjoyment and to record their personal findings and experiences, in words, in pictures and in movement. But from the start there must be teaching as well as learning; children are not 'free' to develop interests or skills of which they have no knowledge. They must have guidance from their teachers. The younger the children, the more solitary their pursuits are apt to be and the more short-lived the groups they form. The demand for help in the exercise of techniques and skills, whether, for example, in reading or in so different a skill as sewing usually arises 'on the job'. Teaching must often be individual, though other children will look on and often learn in the looking. The varying interests of older children and their differing ability and knowledge means that they too ought often to be taught as individuals both for reading and mathematics. Sharing out the teacher's time is a major problem. Only seven or eight minutes a day would be available for each child if all teaching were individual. 755. Teachers, therefore, have to economise by teaching together a small group of children who are roughly at the same stage. Ideally, they might be better taught individually but they gain more from a longer period of their teacher's attention, even though it is shared with others, than they would from a few minutes of individual help. This is particularly true of children who have reached the same stage in reading and computation. A group of this kind should be formed for a particular purpose and should disappear when the purpose is achieved. But it is rare to find a class all of whom will fit tidily into groups. If children are learning according to their capacity, some are almost bound to be racing ahead and some will barely have reached the starting point. 756. Choral singing, games and physical education for the older children are obvious examples of things usually taught to a whole class. Experiences like listening to a story, a poem, or music may be heightened by being shared with a class, but it is often best to leave children to make their private and individual response. There are no infallible rules. Recapitulation, explanation, or question and answer may standardise and devalue the more deeply felt experiences, yet on occasion the right comment, briefly made, may illuminate them. A vivid reconstruction of the past or an account of life in another part of the world can also be presented to a whole class. Sometimes a topic for group or individual work is introduced to the whole class which is again brought together for discussion and instruction as the work develops. Some modern language teaching is also usefully given to all together. Class teaching for these various purposes is sensible and helps to make the class a unity. On the other hand, the practice of setting a whole class laboriously to copy notes from a blackboard, and other similar mass drills are best avoided. 757. Children of junior school age tend naturally to go about in small groups. Groups of three to 15 pupils are good for many kinds of school work. In this way children learn to get along together, to help one another and realise their own strengths and weaknesses, as well as those of others. They make their meaning clearer to themselves by having to explain it to others, and gain from opportunities to teach as well as to learn. Some children are so timid and inarticulate that they need to hear their companions put to teachers the questions they themselves are unable to frame. Apathetic children may be infected by the enthusiasm of a group, or decide to sit back as idle passengers, a danger which the teacher needs to watch. Able children benefit from being [page 275] caught up in the thrust and counter thrust of conversation in a small group of children similar to themselves. They would also profit from reading with a teacher a book which is too difficult for the rest of the class. But this is an opportunity they rarely get. 758. Group work has often demonstrated the capacity of primary school children to plan and follow up mathematical and scientific enquiries. They are less shy of risking a hypothesis in a group than before the whole class, and sometimes the extravagant guess turns out to be right. More children, too, get the chance of discussing, and so understanding more clearly, what their problem is. Expeditions gain in value when the class is broken up into smaller groups. More children can help to plan the visit and each group can be given a different target. But each individual child needs some time during the expedition to follow up his own interests. 759. A class or group 'interest' depends for its value on the children being absorbed in it and the teacher giving it skilful guidance. There should be opportunity for each child's individuality to show itself. The production of a class magazine illustrates this. It calls for class discussion of the general outline, for the formation of groups to plan sub sections, and freedom for children to make their individual contribution. 760. Some types of group work are too ambitious. Local historical or geographical surveys, for example, may demand from each child an artificial narrowing of the field of study and a measure of collaboration which few adults can achieve. Success depends on the teacher's skill in knowing when to drop a topic, when to intervene, to sustain or reinforce the interest of an individual, a group, or occasionally, the whole class. Then the pieces of the jig saw can be fitted together or seen not to fit. Usually children's records of their work should be individual. Occasionally the outcome may be a group or class record and will give children an incentive to reach a particularly high standard of presentation. The final product may be a useful addition to the school collection of books. Team Teaching 761. In making a case for children to have experience of individual, group and class work are we merely justifying what exists? Are the class and the class teacher necessary? Supporters of 'team teaching', a method developed in the USA, raise this question. The broad principle of team teaching is that, instead of each teacher working mainly on his own, teams are organised within a school so that the experienced and able carry responsibility, the newly trained receive guidance, and students and teaching aides are integrated into the work of the school. Use is made of the special skills and knowledge of individual teachers. A team of teachers may be responsible for the work of a number of children ranging from 60 to 200. For teaching purposes, the children are arranged in groups which vary in size and composition according to what is being taught. Some groups may contain only a handful; others one or two hundred. In some schemes, the class as a teaching unit disappears. Any number larger than 15 is considered a big group, so that a class of 30 is thought little better than an assembly of 100 or more children. The pupils, however, usually have a 'home room' and a 'home teacher' who registers their attendance and is generally responsible for their welfare. [page 276] 762. Many English primary schools have for long tried, and liked, several of the practices which, taken together and raised to a principle, are described in America as 'team teaching'. But they have done so without abandoning the framework of the class and its class teacher, our principle of stability. It is common, for instance, for junior school teachers to exchange classes. In this way special strengths are made use of, special weaknesses avoided. The musical and the tone deaf will change places; a teacher with scientific interest will take more than one class: a young teacher will relieve an elderly one for physical education. New subjects for primary schools such as French are leading to more interchange of classes. 763. Classes in the junior schools are sometimes rearranged for mathematics and reading because a child's achievement often varies considerably from one to the other. Sometimes the classes in one or two year groups or even the whole school are redivided into sets based on the children's attainment. The size of sets can be varied according to the amount of help their members need. If a part-time teacher is available, or if the head teacher takes a set, there can be more sets than classes and smaller teaching groups all round. But in spite of these advantages, this practice seems to be less favoured than it was (see Appendix 11, Section 6b, paragraph 1), probably because it has been applied too rigidly and emphasised subject divisions on the timetable before they were desirable or necessary. 764. For part of the week, the senior classes in the junior school are sometimes reorganised into clubs for music, drama or art so that children get an opportunity to make further progress than they can achieve within their own classes. Several classes may be linked together in arts and crafts, and children may go term by term to pottery, painting or needlecraft, each taken by a teacher with a particular bent for it. These arrangements are especially helpful for children who develop special interests at an early age. 765. The informal arrangements possible in small schools have probably done more to make teaching flexible between classes as well as inside a class than the organised timetabled arrangements discussed in the last two paragraphs. The recognition that nursery children gain from living in a family group of mixed ages made it artificial to divide the school into separate rooms and classes for different ages. Because the entire school is rarely more than 60, it is common for children to have the freedom of the whole building and be in touch with all the staff including the nursery assistants and students. But each member of the staff has a small group of children who are her special charge. They naturally turn to her. An infant school classroom is too small and too confined for all the things the children need to do. They overflow into the open air where there are no walls to shut off one class from another; they stray into corridors which are not marked out into pens like sheep folds. The classroom is the children's home, their teacher's base; but outside it any teacher may be drawn into any child's concern. The school becomes a unity. 766. A similar situation is becoming more usual also in the junior school. Room for individual work is found in corridors and foyer. Here may be the central collection of books which are more accessible and more fully used than in a library room, in which each class may have only one or two timetabled periods. In an increasing number of schools, classroom doors are, [page 277] metaphorically at least, open. Teachers know what is going on all over the school. Children are encouraged to visit classes other than their own, to use equipment kept there, or to consult a teacher who has the particular knowledge that they need. In overcrowded town schools where an additional teacher is provided but where there is no room in which to form an extra class, two teachers sometimes work side by side and find that in this way they can learn from each other and do more for children individually. 767. Another kind of flexibility, arising from a different situation, has been developed in many two teacher country schools. The strict class teacher system would mean that children would be taught for three or four years by one teacher who would be unlikely to possess all the necessary gifts. Instead both teachers and the ancillary helper, if there is one, take some responsibility for all the children. Space is shared as seems best from time to time. On occasion one teacher supervises the majority of the children in order that the remainder can be given special help. 768. Until recently primary schools were designed merely as a collection of classrooms and a hall. Thirty years ago they were furnished in such a way as to make class instruction easy, group and individual work difficult. We have seen how they are now used. This in turn has stimulated the building of experimental schools in which classrooms are linked, some facilities shared and quiet individual working spaces provided. Experiment in buildings has reinforced experiments in teaching. If this is team teaching, we welcome it. The Class Teacher 769. How far should schools break down class organisation? Even young children can work happily with more than one adult. In fact, some change of teacher during the week is stimulating to most children. It also makes easier the transition from one class teacher to another after the summer holidays or when there has to be a change in the course of the year. A particular child and a particular teacher may find it difficult to get on with one another. An occasional change gives relief from the situation, a sense of perspective and a second opinion to help decide whether a change of class is necessary. Yet it is not surprising that when children are asked what class they are in, they usually give their teacher's name in reply. The youngest children in particular need a steady relationship with one teacher who should know them well. It is hard enough to know 40 children; it is virtually impossible to know 160. If there were no class teachers, nobody in a school would have the depth and clarity of knowledge of individual children on which their education depends. The most economical way to get to know children is to supervise their learning, to talk to them, to teach them, to be with them for enough of the day to see their changing moods and responses. 770. Children may sometimes see too much of each other as well as of their teachers; a few need a fresh start with new class mates. Yet the dismay that children usually show at a change of class in the middle of the year suggests that they benefit from a stable community whose values they can assimilate and where they know what to expect. A class is large enough to have groups which can form and reform for different purposes. A skilful teacher is able to some extent to influence the roles that individuals play within the groups and to provide some measure of success for most children. Meantime the class [page 278] takes on a personality, with its own history, its own jokes, its own favourite words, all in some sense a protection from the mass of the school. 771. It is, in fact, class teachers working for much of the day in their classrooms who have succeeded in establishing individual and group learning as the usual way of education in infant schools, and who are on the way to achieving a similar pattern of learning in junior schools. Teachers are able to make time to help individuals when they have most of the day at their disposal. For the same reason it is possible to take account of children's varying spans of attention, and children are able more often to bring their work to a conclusion instead of being interrupted for a change of teacher or group when interest and thinking are at a climax. The more children move from teacher to teacher, the more time and thought are bound to be absorbed in organisation, and the more anxious teachers may become about whether they are covering enough ground in the curriculum. Conclusions 772. We conclude that the class, with its own teacher, should remain the basic unit of school organisation, particularly for the younger children. The great bulk of teaching of children up to eight or nine should normally remain with the class teacher. Yet even at this age there are benefits in the children knowing and having access to other teachers. The classroom doors should no longer be shut, as still happens in some schools, with the teachers, both experienced and inexperienced, isolated in their rooms. There may be circumstances when the best course will be for a class to be shared by two part-time teachers, or for two classes to be shared by a full-time teacher and two part-time teachers. But teachers sharing a class must work together and be consistent in their attitudes. There is a good deal to be gained if teachers, especially those who have classes of the same age, or a year younger or older, can arrange to plan some of their work together and to share equipment. Teachers' aides would fit well and easily into this kind of association. Interconnecting classrooms and some shared working spaces can encourage teachers to make adjustments, to vary the size of groups for different purposes and to form some groups from more than one class. 773. The older children might benefit from a more systematically planned contact with two or three teachers, each expert in one of the main aspects of the curriculum and able to teach related subjects. As the range of the primary school curriculum widens, it becomes increasingly difficult to equip students in a three year course to teach all subjects to older pupils. It will be even more desirable, if our recommendation for the extension of the middle school by one year is adopted, to provide the oldest pupils with teams of teachers who, between them, have some mastery of the English subjects, of a modern language, of mathematics and science, and of the arts. We recommend that experiments should be tried out in associating two or three classes up to about 100 children in the care of two or three teachers. Some of these experiments might treat the age group as a social unit, subdivided for various teaching purposes, to test whether children gain or lose from the larger unit. The effects on the teachers ought also to be watched. There is some danger that the staff would become stratified and that teachers would be confined to a narrow age range within the school. [page 279] 774. There will be occasions when the work of both younger and older children should be enriched by occasional or regular teaching from a specialist in a subject such as music. But it needs to be recognised that the result of this may be that some teachers who exchange classes with specialists are left to 'fill in' subjects which become isolated from the rest of the curriculum without the compensation of gifted teaching. 775. The case for giving children some individual teaching and allowing them to work in small groups is strong. We have therefore tried to discover activities in which it is profitable for a large number of children to be put in the care of one teacher so that the other teachers may have time to work with smaller groups. It has not been easy. When children watch television or listen to radio, all the teachers who are concerned with follow up work need to be there. We have received oral evidence which suggests that attention diminishes when a group is larger than the ordinary class. It is also significant that music, which is the subject for which primary school classes are most frequently combined, is one of the least developed. Perhaps the most promising line is for the large group to be engaged on individual work in which many children can get on by themselves without the help of a teacher. 776. Teachers who allow a substantial amount of individual work may have reason to fear that they do not have the knowledge they need of each child's progress and difficulties. But apparent attention to a class lesson may be no more than mask of inattention. Teachers who rely on rigid grouping may have the security of feeling that they know where the children have got to, but the price which is paid for this may be that some have not got far enough, or do not really understand what they are doing. Careful records are essential, but the task of keeping them increases with the amount of individual work. We recognise therefore that the blend of individual, group and class work in any one class must be the one that the particular teacher can manage. 777. Similar conditions apply to the more flexible grouping of classes and teachers that we hope to see. Room must be left for the teacher who is an individualist and works best on his own. The children too will differ in the changes of relationship which they can tolerate. For over sheltered and timid children a gradual introduction to an enlarging circle of adults and other children is best. Even more, those children whose home life lacks structure and consistency will need a simple class organisation from which they can move out to the wider community of the school. The organisation of each school ought to fit the individual circumstances of the children and the qualities of the staff.
778. In 1931 the Consultative Committee deplored the 'stereotyped instruction and mass discipline and lack of help for the individual' that resulted from a class of 50 and recommended that no class should be larger than 40, a recommendation which was not adopted in Ministry of Education Regulations till 1944. As the abnormally large age groups of children born immediately after the war entered the primary schools the size of classes increased but from 1954 there was a gradual fall in average size of class and in pupil-teacher ratio. For the past two years the position has been roughly [page 280] stable, in spite of rising numbers. This has been achieved by employing more unqualified teachers and, to a less extent, by closing some very small schools, which are extravagant to staff. Diagram 7 shows the proportion of classes of various sizes at intervals since the war. Table 16 shows the number of children and the percentage of all pupils in classes of varying sizes: 
Source: Statistics of Education, 1965, Part One, Table 20. 779. In 1965 17 per cent of primary school pupils were in classes over 40, the average size of class was 30.7 and the pupil-teacher ratio, taking into account the full-time equivalent of part-time teachers, was 28.5 (see Table 18). It is clear from the tables that the average size of class and the pupil-teacher ratio are derived from a wide range of sizes and ratios. The smaller classes are in the smaller schools. The National Advisory Council on the Training and Supply of Teachers suggested in 1965 that infant school classes would increase in size in the next few years and that the improvement, which might have been expected in the primary schools after 1970, is likely to be checked by the transfer of primary teachers to secondary schools after the school leaving age is raised. 780. Almost all our witnesses believe in the value of smaller classes. They see the supply and quality of teachers as the two crucial factors in primary education. The LCC [London County Council] evidence urged that an improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio should be a major objective of policy. Most witnesses, asked to suggest what size of class should be the objective for the next 20 year period, chose 30. Some said that 30 was the maximum number of children of the same [page 281] age that an average teacher could teach effectively without strain. But if, for example, a class contained children from 8 to 11, they thought the number ought to fall to around 25. Some witnesses added that a class of fewer than 15 to 20 did not provide sufficient stimulus for teacher or children besides making obvious difficulties for physical education, music and drama. Rather smaller classes were suggested for infants than for juniors and the admission class should, it was thought, be the smallest of all. Support for these views can be found in Swedish practice where the statutory class size for the first three years of schooling from seven to ten years is smaller than in the later years. There is a striking measure of agreement between the witnesses who gave individual evidence and the sample of teachers who responded to our questionnaire on primary education. Some 61 per cent of head and assistant teachers believe that 30 is the maximum reasonable size of class. Of the remainder, the majority favour classes of 25 or smaller (Appendix 1, Table D.18). Parents certainly believe in small classes. That is one of the main reasons for sending children to independent schools, where the average number of pupils to teachers is less than half that in maintained schools. 781. Despite all this agreement, some research surveys have shown no significant relationship between class size and attainment in reading or other aspects of the curriculum in which results can easily be measured. Other surveys (1, 2) (see also Appendix 9) have even shown a positive relationship between attainment in these skills and large classes. What is the reason for this discrepancy? 782. The most up to date and thorough analysis of the relation between attainment in reading and school and home conditions is provided by the National Survey (1966) (Appendix 4). Its results derive from an analysis in which the association of size of class with reading comprehension is isolated, and many other variables - such as the size of the school, home circumstances and attitudes, the effects of streaming - are held constant. In those surveys which produced a positive association this was done for far fewer or no variables. The National Survey itself has provided no evidence that when other things are equal large classes are associated with good results in the reading comprehension test. This squares with common sense. But why has not research confirmed the equally common sense judgement that small classes positively make it easier to learn to read? A possible explanation is that, as we know, small classes tend to be found in small schools; and that small schools tend to be either in the country, or in those older areas of towns where bad social conditions may have a cumulative effect on children. In both instances, classes may contain children of several different ages. 783. There is further evidence from the National Survey bearing on this problem. If, instead of comparing school with school, each school is studied individually, we find that the pupils with the better reading scores tend to be in the larger classes. But general experience, confirmed by the NFER Survey of Junior School Organisation, (Appendix 11, Part 11, Section 5:6) shows that backward pupils are often, as a matter of policy, put into small classes. There is also a tendency for young and inexperienced teachers to be put in charge of them, partly no doubt because their classes are small. 784. The importance of size of class may vary according to an individual teacher's objectives and methods (3). If the teacher treats the class as a unit, its size is relatively unimportant. If the aim is to teach individuals and small [page 282] groups, there is a limit to the number of pupils for whom one teacher can be responsible. Large classes may encourage concentration on a narrow curriculum. As a consequence, pupils' scores may improve in the measurable but limited range of work with which research has mainly been concerned. The advantages of small classes may lie in the possibilities they offer for developing individual work. 785. We agree with the observation of the Scottish Research Council (4) that 'the results of an investigation based on accepted organisation ... are biased from the beginning ... that an investigation of this topic (class size) would require a specific design, in which the accepted principles for organising classes would be altered for the purpose of the experiment'. Experiments should be made to test the effects of small classes and generous staffing ratios. Conclusions 786. Although positive evidence from research in favour of small classes is lacking, this does not outweigh professional advice, public opinion and the example of other countries. The present statutory maximum size of a primary school class in this country is larger than in most European countries and in most American states, where primary classes are also sometimes smaller by regulation than secondary classes. The parents of children in maintained schools, interviewed for the National Survey (Appendix 3, Section 3, paragraph 56) had two principal complaints and anxieties about primary schools. The buildings were old and the classes were too large. 787. Some of our witnesses would not go so far as to maintain that a teacher necessarily did better with his class when it was less than 40 or worse when numbers rose above it. Much depends on the skill of the individual teacher. There are even some who find big classes a challenge to their determination and professional competence. Some infant teachers immediately after the war developed individual work with classes of 50 and triumphed over every disadvantage. 788. But achievement in the face of such difficulties cannot be expected of all teachers, and should be asked of none for long. The fact that the improvement in primary schools is so widespread and general reflects in part at least the reduction in size of classes. Further progress depends on the development of individual and group learning. Teachers must be able to prescribe and provide for each child what he needs. We do not believe that any but exceptional teachers can know, in this sense, more than about 30 children and their parents. We, therefore, recommend that the maximum size of primary class should be reduced and that within the primary schools classes for the youngest pupils should be the smallest. We discuss staffing prospects, proposals for their betterment, and the effect on size of class in Chapters 23 and 24.
789. During the last war two of the set questions which army recruits were asked were: 'What standard were you in when you left school? Was that the top standard?' From 1862 onward the classes in English elementary schools were described as standards. The 'standard' was the level which an average child, taught by an average teacher, was expected to have reached at [page 283] the end of a year's work. The normal rate of progress was one standard a year from the age of six. There was a strong incentive to move children into Standard I as soon after six as possible because under the system of 'payment by results' this was to the school's financial advantage. But there was no financial point in accelerated promotion through the standards because there was no extra grant for children who had got beyond Standard VI. Some schools but not all, had a Standard VII, hence the interviewers' second question. The idea of 'standards' regulating promotion survived the end of 'payment by results' in 1898, and was indeed given a new twist by the introduction of the junior scholarship system. This secured 'free places' in what we now call grammar schools for the ablest children in the elementary schools. A child was held to have a better chance with competitive examination at the age of ten or 11 if he could get quickly to the top of the elementary school. Naturally he was encouraged to do so. Accelerated promotion for some was counterbalanced by delayed promotion for others who repeated the same work year after year. Some left from Standard II or III. Practice had not made perfect. 790. The decision to have separate schools for children over 11 meant, where it was carried out, the rejection of classes with a very wide age range. The building of senior elementary schools left empty places in the old all-age school. These places were not, of course, left empty but filled with other children aged between seven and 11. Their greater number meant that there had to be more classes for them. The development of mental tests by educational psychologists had made clear, and apparently measurable, the differences between children, differences which were thought to be roughly constant but whose effect on attainment increased with age. 791. The Consultative Committee in 1931, therefore, recommended that, where classes were rather large, grading in ability within an age group (now called streaming) should be introduced into junior schools. It had reservations about jumping to conclusions about children's ability as soon as they had left the infant school, and stressed the importance of easy transfer between streams. These reservations tended to be forgotten. Grading by ability, in one form or another, became almost universal in all but the smallest schools. Some shift of opinion and of practice has now become apparent, partly in response to the idea that, since the world contains people of all grades of ability, children should learn to mix with them at school. This has become more practicable as group and individual work within classes has been developed. Infant Schools and Classes 792. Infant schools are exceptionally difficult to organise because of their termly intake but annual output. The number of children is bound to rise throughout the year; whether the size of the staff expands and contracts in the same way depends upon the authority's policy. Few authorities staff for the year on September numbers; the majority base the number of teachers on the January roll, providing an extra teacher in the summer if the pupil teacher ratio becomes very unfavourable and a teacher can be found. Quite often an additional class of the youngest children is formed for the summer term only. Occasionally the classes for the youngest children in September are deliberately kept small enough to take in their newcomers in January and after Easter so that the other classes may be left undisturbed. More commonly, [page 284] all the classes are arranged to be roughly equal in size at the beginning of the year, and there are sufficient termly promotions to balance the termly admissions. This principle may be applied to all classes, or the top classes may be left undisturbed. 793. Some schools arrange all their classes strictly by age. Often, however, the children who are making progress in reading are promoted first and in a two form entry infant school the classes in the final year may be clearly differentiated by attainment. It is rare to find this acknowledged in the way the classes are named. An accurate picture of grading in the infant school could only be obtained from a survey as detailed as that made by the NFER on the junior school (see Appendix 11). Such information as is available to us (Appendix 10) (5, 6) suggests that in a quarter to a fifth of infant classes, children of six are graded by attainment. In some schools grading begins even earlier. 794. As long ago as 1933, in a few areas many infant schools which could have organised on an age basis were experimenting with 'vertical classification'. Each class contained children aged from five to seven or eight. The advantage was said to be that at the infant stage, as in the nursery, children learnt from one another and learnt more successfully when there was an age range wider than a year. It was also argued that children gained from a longer association with one teacher. This type of grouping remains a minority practice. It is prevalent in two or three areas which are among those which have the most lively infant school work in the country. It is now being tried in the lower classes of a few junior schools. We return to a discussion of this organisation in paragraphs 799-804. Junior Schools and Classes 795. About four fifths of the junior schools and three fifths of the junior mixed and infant schools in the National Survey took into account attainments as well as age in deciding in which class to place their pupils (Appendix 5, paragraph 9). The much larger NFER survey of junior schools puts the proportion at 56 per cent for certain with another 14 per cent of probables (Appendix 11, Table 1). In big schools, it is easy to be sure. There are, for instance, eight classes in a two form entry school - two for each year - and these are normally divided into an 'A' stream and a 'B' stream. In smaller schools with anything between two and six or seven junior classes it is less easy to be sure how children are divided between the classes. The most common practice in schools with between five and seven classes is to consider the eight and nine year olds together and divide them between classes according to their attainments and to do the same for the 10 and 11 year olds. A good many schools of this size, and more of the smaller ones, still work on something like the old standard system, though with fewer over age and under age pupils in a class than in the days before Hadow and, of course, a smaller age span because the 12 and 13 year olds are in another school. 796. When a junior school pays attention to attainments or ability in placing a child, how does it assess them? Most head teachers rely in the first instance on the infant school. Often the record card will make specific recommendations about the most suitable 'stream'. Rather less than half the junior schools in the NFER survey use a standardised intelligence test. Some other methods, in decreasing order of popularity, are the head's own judgement, the result [page 285] of internal school examinations, a child's position within the age group, and standardised attainment tests. In the later years of the junior school, increasing reliance is placed on school examinations, teachers' judgements and standardised attainment tests. Most schools would claim that they group children both on attainment and on ability. In fact, the intelligence test itself measures a kind of attainment (Chapter 2), though it is less influenced by subject knowledge than are the skills usually measured by attainment tests. 797. Some 21 per cent of the children in schools included in the NFER survey were placed in classes which were intended to include the whole range of ability in the school (Appendix 11, Table 2, Part 1). The most usual arrangement in a large school is to separate the older and younger children within a year group. Some schools do their best to ensure classes exactly parallel in ability by relying on children's records, test results and so forth. Others allocate children to classes at random, or according to where they live, or alphabetically by their surnames. The Criteria Discussed Age 798. A flexible age of transfer between schools based on developmental age was considered in Chapter 10 and rejected. The same arguments apply to movement from class to class as to movement from school to school. If work within a class is adjusted to individual capacity, there seems little case for moving children out of their age group. If the class is taught as a unit, 'skipping' classes may mean gaps in the course, and retention for a second year can result in wearisome and disheartening repetition of the same work. Investigation in Belgium and in other European countries where promotion from grade to grade depends on achieving a specified standard have shown that failure tends to be cumulative and that pupils who repeat a grade on one occasion, far from catching up with their contemporaries, are more likely to have to do so again a second or a third time (7). They do less well than those pupils who are promoted despite their poor attainment. These results, and similar ones from research in the USA, confirm the experience of English schools when a similar system was in force. We recommend that promotion should normally be by age. Some children are so exceptionally advanced or retarded that they are better placed with an older or younger group. Decisions for acceleration or retention should take into account children's all-round development, physical and emotional, just as much as intellectual. The presumption should be that children are better with their friends in their own age group, unless there is clear evidence to the contrary. 'Vertical Classification' 799. Is it desirable deliberately to extend the age range of each class to two or three years in order to extend the range of attainment that teachers might expect from their pupils and so make it easier for them to provide for children who are exceptionally able or retarded? Some schools in the United States are ungraded, but the evidence they provide is hardly relevant to our situation. 800. Experience of vertical grouping exists in some English infant schools where one of the reasons for its adoption has been termly admissions. Even if all children are admitted, as we have recommended, at the beginning of the school year, some of the difficulties it is designed to avoid will remain. Even [page 286] though children first enter school in small groups, week by week or month by month, teachers of the first year classes will be hard pressed to give enough time to beginners who may up to now have had their mother's full-time attention. If the class covers a two or three year age span, a small group of newcomers can be absorbed into a settled routine in a community which may well include a brother or sister, or a neighbour's child. The new entrants learn by imitating the older children and talking to them. During the first few months the teacher can concentrate on giving personal attention and reassurance to the younger children when it is needed. Later in the year, extra time can be found for the older children who demand daily or twice daily help with reading. Among the newcomers may be a few children who have begun to read at home or will quickly read if they are given help. These children will be attracted to the simple reading books provided primarily for the older children. Certainly no less important, those older children who are not yet ready to read can play and talk with the younger children without any feeling of failure. The teacher becomes increasingly sensitive to her pupils' needs as she gets to know them and their parents over two or three years. 801. But there are also disadvantages. For children to spend the whole of their infant school life with one or at most two teachers may be to distribute the strengths and weaknesses of the staff unfairly. It may also limit children's contacts with adults to too narrow a circle and some children may be too sheltered or lack stimulus. In practice, however, schools which deliberately widen the age range of classes are usually closely knit communities. Teachers work with children from classes other than their own, and children seek help outside their own class. 802. There may be some danger that the younger children will be overshadowed by the older ones, may imitate them too closely, and have insufficient experience of the kind of play that is an investigation rather than a use of materials. Great skill is called for from the teachers, both in supporting the young children and in seeing that the older ones are given enough stimulus. They may need to be taken separately for story telling and music. Yet many of the traditional children's stories have the quality of myth and can be enjoyed at many different levels: and even when a story may seem too difficult for the younger children, they often pick up much from it, as do children in a family who listen eagerly to stories intended for older brothers and sisters. Interests, like stories, may be enjoyed at many different levels. For most infants prehistoric animals are hardly to be distinguished from dragons and from fantasy, and therein lies their attraction. Some of the older children are ready to learn about them quite seriously, measuring their bones in the local museum and memorising their extraordinarily difficult names. The need to make suitable provision for the older and abler children ought to be very much in the mind of teachers of a 'vertically grouped' class. 803. The older children become, the more widely the range of their achievement fans out. Many schools find a year's range in attainments so unmanageable that they group children by attainment at seven. It is of some interest that many of the heads of junior schools of five to seven classes in the NFER streaming survey complained of the difficulties of a wide age range in a large class. Many of these schools have more than one age group within a class of more than 35 pupils. They share, that is to say, the conditions of a school which voluntarily widens the age range in its classes. [page 287] 804. We have been impressed by the liveliness and good quality of the work in infant schools where classes extend over two or three age groups. We think that this organisation has advantages at the infant school stage though they may become rather less marked if our recommendations for a single term of entry and part time introduction to schooling are adopted. In the meantime, it is for each head teacher, in consultation with her staff, to balance the gain and loss of classes containing more than one age group. No evidence is available to show whether a double age group is advantageous in the junior school. Classes Including Less Than a Year Group 805. Some schools extend the age range in their classes. Others, particularly infant schools and some large junior schools which do not grade children by attainment, adopt a precisely opposite policy and narrow the age range in each class to a six months period. The effect in the last year of the infant school may be to concentrate in one class too many children who are needing help in reading. It may also persuade a teacher that she has a class who are all at much the same level and blind her to the exceptions. There is some evidence that, when senior and junior unstreamed classes are formed within a year group, the younger children do less well by the end of their junior school course, even when allowance is made for their age. The explanation may be that the younger children at first appear less able, both because of their age and because they have had a shorter time at school, than the older children. Teachers may then ask less of them so that their achievement is further depressed in comparison with that of the older class. More research on this topic is needed, particularly since this kind of grouping is becoming relatively common. There may be occasions when it is useful to collect the younger children together for a limited period so that they can be given additional help. Teachers, however, need to be aware that a younger class may easily be considered a less able class. Classification by Attainment or Ability (Streaming) 806. Streaming is, as we have seen, by far the most common way of organising junior schools, but there is reason to think that practice is changing. Only four per cent of junior schools had rejected streaming according to a 1962 survey (8). The next year the NFER found in their enquiry into junior schools that six per cent did without it. Their report also showed that recent changes in organisation in the schools surveyed had lessened the amount of streaming and that other schools were intending to introduce mixed ability groups. 807. Teachers' views may be moving faster than practice has done. In the 1962 Survey, 85 per cent of primary teachers favoured streaming, six per cent had mixed views and nine per cent were hostile. Of the replies of teachers to our own enquiry (Appendix 1, Tables D.19, 20) only 34 per cent approved of streaming for all or most junior children, 25 per cent approved of streaming for older pupils and 30 per cent were hostile. It should be added that our enquiry, unlike the earlier one, included teachers in schools which were too small to stream and teachers in infant schools. It may also be significant since heads plan school organisation that many more heads than assistants are critical or undecided about streaming. [page 288] 808. To judge by the parents in the National Survey (Appendix 3, Section 3, paragraph 40 and Table 56) professional opinion is swinging more rapidly against streaming than is public opinion generally. In 1964, two thirds of the parents preferred their children to be taught in classes streamed by ability. There was no difference according to social class. A clear majority favoured streaming even among those parents who thought that their children were being taught in classes of mixed ability. There may be some connection with the preference expressed for grammar school education. 809. Before the 1939 war, streaming was seen as a device for opening the grammar schools to talented working class pupils. The grammar school in its turn was expected to make available to its pupils a choice of occupation and of a way of life. Selection for secondary education has been challenged on three main educational grounds: the accuracy of the selective process, the contrast in the provision made for children of differing ability and the effect of segregating them on their achievement. It has also been criticised as being socially divisive both because it gives middle class children a better chance than manual workers' children to secure grammar school places, and because it gives better career openings to grammar school than to modern school pupils. The same arguments are also used against selection for primary school classes, or streaming. We must now consider them. 810. In coming to our conclusions we have taken into account our impressions of schools which we have visited, the evidence we have received and the results of research. Streaming is almost unknown on the continent of Europe, and repetition of the year's work, which is a form of streaming, is declining. While we have tried to take account of all the research findings which have been brought to our notice, we owe a special debt to the investigation into streaming in the primary school which was undertaken by the NFER and financed by the Department of Education and Science. But, as will be clear from the summary printed as Appendix 11, this research is far from complete. A survey of junior school organisation in 1963, a study of matched streamed and unstreamed schools and a cross-sectional inquiry into the achievements and characteristics of pupils in all four junior years in 1964, is to be succeeded by a longitudinal study of the seven and eight year olds as they pass through the junior schools, and by intensive work on a small number of schools. 811. Streaming involves selecting. In schools which are streamed throughout, children are selected at seven. We know of no satisfactory method of assigning seven year old children, still less those who are even younger, to classes graded by attainment or ability. When head teachers rely on their own judgement and those of the infant school heads, they may underestimate the difference which the home makes to the speed of learning to read. But this is one of the main yardsticks by which teachers compare children. Differences in attainments may be more due to differences in age than heads recognise - after all, some seven year olds have had half as much education again as others. Objective tests have the advantage that these tests make allowance for age but few group tests are satisfactory at seven and few primary school teachers can find time to give individual tests. There is, too, a danger that if objective tests are known to be used a seven plus test with its pressures and tensions may be substituted for an 11 plus examination. It is known that of the predictions made at 11, by the best methods available, between ten per cent and 20 per cent turn out to be mistaken within the next three to five years. The earlier [page 289] that tests are given, the less relevant they are bound to be to an education which will continue to 15 or later. The younger the children, the larger the number who will be clustered together in the middle ranges of ability and attainment. The less useful, therefore, the tests will be as a means of discrimination. 812. If many children are bound to be wrongly placed at seven, the amount of transfer between classes is important. Professor Vernon has estimated that it would be reasonable to expect ten per cent of pupils to be transferred each year. It is clear that the actual proportion of transfer is smaller. One sample of two streamed schools showed an annual rate of transfer of 2.3 per cent between eight and 11 (9). In a small sample of three streamed schools there was a transfer rate of six per cent (10). The conclusion drawn by the NFER from their survey was that there was a relatively small amount of transfer in 1961-62. 813. The reasons for a small amount of transfer are not clear. Teachers, when asked to estimate a figure, almost always overestimate it. It may be that assessments as children progress through a school are no more reliable than those first made and give no firm grounds for reversal of judgements. Once in a class, children probably take on its characteristics, including its average level of attainment, and this may result in part from their adapting themselves to the rate of progress or work which the teacher expects. Some teachers are understandably reluctant to upset children who have settled down with their friends in a class and who may suffer some setback if they are promoted and still more if they are 'put down' to make room for another child. 814. Some of the effects of early selection are evident both from the NFER enquiry and from other research. The system of streaming favours girls who are, age for age, more mature than boys and more disposed to play 'the good pupil role' and therefore to gain the approval of their teachers. Research is certainly not needed to substantiate the evidence of any observant visitor to schools that lower streams and remedial classes contain more than their share of boys. The lower the stream, the younger the average age and the higher the proportion of children who will have had only six terms in the infant school. Conversely, the higher the stream, the older the average age and the higher the proportion of children who will have spent nine terms in infant classes. Of the children in remedial classes in schools studied by the NFER, (Appendix 11, Part II, Table 10), 39 per cent had been at the infant school for the minimum period of six terms and only 12 per cent for the maximum course of nine terms. 815. There is also much evidence that streaming serves as a means of social selection (11). It is not simply that middle class pupils congregate in upper streams and the children of semi-skilled and unskilled workers in lower streams. That might be expected from the association of intelligence with social class and occupation. Evidence is also available that more middle class children are to be found in upper streams and fewer in lower streams than would be expected from their results in objective tests (12). Similarly a higher proportion of children, known from earlier records to have received poor maternal care in early childhood, were in lower streams than their test scores warranted. How much of this placing was due to characteristics in the [page 290] children which might have made them unsuccessful in an upper stream, how much to teachers' assumptions that clean and well kept children are abler, it is impossible to say. 816. Selection will inevitably be inaccurate. If the conditions for upper and lower streams were equally good and if all children stood equally high in the respect and affection of the staff, it would not perhaps matter very much whether children were wrongly placed. One of the principal advantages claimed by teachers for streaming is that it makes possible smaller classes and individual help for the slower children. That significantly smaller classes are in fact organised for these children is demonstrated quite clearly from the NFER survey. But it is also true that a bigger class is thought to demand a stronger teacher, and the smaller classes, where almost every child may have difficulty in learning and many also have emotional problems, may therefore fall to the less experienced teachers. Their lack of experience may make it exceptionally difficult for them to set their sights - or rather the children's sights - high enough. The multiplicity of the problems with which some teachers have to deal, their low assessment of the children's capacity and the slow rate of progress at which they aim may explain why, at the end of the year, few children stand out as needing transfer. There are of course many schools where teachers alternate between upper and lower streams and where much thought is given to the selection of teachers for classes of slow learning pupils. Nevertheless experience, borne out by research (NFER, Appendix 11, Part II, Section 5, paragraph 5), suggests that in the main the older and more experienced teachers and particularly the deputy heads and holders of graded posts are assigned to the upper streams. Teachers may be streamed, no less than pupils. The more established the teacher the more probable it is that he will get one of the better classrooms and a generous supply of books and equipment. The NFER survey showed that a higher proportion of the lowest streams were in classrooms which faced north (Appendix 11, Section 5:6). A low stream may be housed in a canteen or annexe because the children will have more space or be able to make a noise without disturbing the rest of the school, but the gain may be offset by the children's isolation from the rest of the school. 817. Finally what is the effect of streaming on children's achievement and attitudes? In 1959 a summary of research on streaming (13) concluded that it was not possible, on the evidence available, either to establish a case against streaming or to prove that it was a more effective form of organisation. Since that date further evidence (14, 15, 16) (Appendix 9 and 11) has been published, but it has not materially altered the conclusion. There has been some indication that the standards of attainment of the weaker children may rise when schools are deliberately unstreamed (17). But the Manchester Survey 1964 (Appendix 9) shows that attainment in objective tests tends to be better in streamed schools and that this association does not disappear when allowance is made for the size of school, which is usually related to the type of neighbourhood and therefore to good attainment. It also gives no support to the view that streaming has an adverse effect on children of low ability. The National Survey, in which many more variables are held constant, shows no association, positive or negative, between streamed schools and reading attainment, except for a small positive association in the case of top infant girls. The results of the NFER cross-sectional study of attainment in matched streamed and unstreamed schools [page 291] are particularly interesting (Appendix 11, Section 4, paragraph 2). Reasonably enough, the tests chosen are similar to those generally used in junior schools. Both at seven and at ten children in streamed schools did somewhat better than those in unstreamed schools. But in no case save in mechanical arithmetic, which is known to give poor prediction of later success in mathematics, was the average difference more than two or three questions right on a test of 30 or 40 items. The advantage for children in streamed schools was most marked when tests assessed the more formal work such as computation and least marked in reading. By ten the lead of children in streamed schools had been reduced in all tests and there was no significant difference in reading, a result identical with that found in the National Survey. There is other evidence which suggests that children who are taught by informal methods make a slower beginning and catch up towards the end of the primary school (18, 19). Conclusions 818. There is some evidence which suggests that achievement in the limited field of measurable attainment is higher in streamed schools. It is not so marked as to be decisive, and our view - which is supported by the results of the NFER enquiry - is that forms of organisation are less critical than the underlying differences in teachers' attitudes and practice which are sometimes associated with them. 819. Nevertheless organisation can reflect and reinforce attitudes. Schools which treat children individually will accept unstreaming throughout the whole school. When such an organisation is established with conviction and put into effect with skill, it produces a happy school and an atmosphere conducive to learning. Not all teachers are yet ready or able to go so far. Even so, it has now been generally accepted that it is impossible to assess accurately the potential of children of primary school age. The younger the children, the greater the inaccuracy is bound to be. We welcome unstreaming in the infant or first school and hope that it will continue to spread through the age groups of the junior or middle schools. 820. Whatever the decision about the organisation of classes for the older children there will be certain problems to be faced. If streaming is retained, children should be classified in a way which is related to the distribution of abilities in the particular school. For example, in some three form entry schools the usual large 'A' class is bound to contain a wide spread of ability. It would become only a little wider, and some of the dangers of streaming would be removed, if two parallel classes were formed, together with one really small remedial class. In another school where there was too little stimulus for able children, it might be right to form for at least part of the day or week, a group where these children could work together. 821. It is essential to ensure that the staff realise that any classification is bound to be faulty, that there certainly will be big differences between individuals in each class and that those differences can be expected to increase as children grow older. Differences in attainment as well as in interest demand individual and group learning in the streamed class as well as in the class which is avowedly of mixed ability. When all the children in a class appear to work at the same pace and the same level, they are probably conforming to what their teacher expects of them. [page 292] 822. The division into classes made, every possible means should be adopted of blurring the distinction between streams. In this connection the suggestions made earlier in this chapter for informal cooperation between classes are relevant. If for some purposes classes work together and are regrouped, some of the disadvantages of streaming will be reduced. It is difficult to know to what extent teachers remain with the same stream or the same age group but we are clear that it happens too often. If almost all classes are bound to include a range of ability it is important that teachers in streamed schools should turn their attention now mainly to one section of the range, now to another, so that they will be aware of what children can achieve. There may be some teachers who temperamentally or in other ways are not suited to the slower children. Usually it is stimulating to teachers to take their turn with each of the streams. In that way, attitudes and expectations are less likely to harden and the strengths and weaknesses of the staff will be fairly distributed. Survivals from the past linger too long in English education. For the fourth year 'A' class to cease to be the preserve of one or two teachers in each large junior school might be one way of speeding the disappearance of exercises which serve little purpose save to prepare for an examination which is itself now disappearing. 823. Streaming can be wounding to children. Great care ought to be taken not to suggest that trust and responsibility, or prowess in games, or the ability to look after library books are the preserves of certain classes. No more certain way could be found of alienating children from school or of creating irresponsibility. 824. The problem in the unstreamed class will be to translate into practice the principle of individual learning. If class teaching plays a large part, the abler children will be held back and the slower will lose heart. Clear cut streaming within a class can be more damaging to children than streaming within a school. Even from the infant school there still come too many stories of children streamed by the tables they sit at, of 'top tables' and 'backward reader' tables, and newcomers to school mystified by what they conceive to be the art of 'reading backwards'. There must be groups, of course, based sometimes on interest and sometimes on achievement, but they should change in accordance with the children's needs. One difficulty in the unstreamed class will certainly be to provide for the very able and for the slow learners. The slower children can gain from the enthusiasm and interests of the able children but only if the teacher sees that the slow children are absorbed into the class community and into small groups, and given praise, attention and instruction enough to encourage them to fresh effort. For the able children much more can be done by making accessible, in the classroom and the school as a whole, a liberal range of books and other equipment, though they ought sometimes to be fired and challenged by working with like minded children from another class. Checks will be needed that children are working to their capacity. Careful individual records are essential. Schemes for the whole school will need to be in every classroom and classes, as well as individuals, ought to have records which show, for example, the literature that has been read to them and the interests which have provided a point of departure for the class as a whole or for substantial groups within it. 825. It is possible to exaggerate the contrast in the problems and difficulties which confront teachers in streamed and unstreamed classes. In both there [page 293] will be big and growing differences in children's ability and attainment but they will follow no tidy pattern because interest and motive can make havoc of prediction. In both there will be children who are far more alike in their common human needs than they are differentiated by their background and abilities.
826. Schools Regulations require that 'on every day on which a school meets there shall be provided for the pupils:
827. We found on our visits abroad that the school day was shorter than in England, although children may go to school on Saturday and homework is usually set. There is more variation abroad than in England in the length of school day for children of various ages. For example, in Denmark children work for only three hours in the first year and the length of day increases steadily up to the fifth year. The shortness of the day and the early hour at which it begins in some countries makes possible more flexible use of staff and buildings than are usual in England. The longer day here may, however, have allowed an informal pattern of education to develop more easily. 828. Relatively few of our witnesses have commented on the school day except to suggest that a full day's attendance should not be required of the younger children. We have recommended that part-time attendance should be usual for nursery, optional for beginners at school and available in exceptional circumstances until the child is six. It might, however, be preferable for somewhat older children to be in school for a slightly shorter period than now so that they can be in smaller classes for part of the time. Local education authorities might permit schools, in consultation with parents, to shorten the dinner hour so that children get home earlier, or to experiment, where classes are large and cannot be reduced in any other way, with staggered hours for slightly younger children. For example, some children might come to school at 9am and remain till 3pm, others might come at 10am and remain till 4pm. This arrangement would result in sessions the length of which would be within the limits imposed by Schools Regulations. 829. According to Regulations all schools must meet for 400 sessions (half days) in the year. Almost all schools take their main holidays at Christmas, [page 294] Easter and August (with varying amounts added in July and September). An increasing number of schools have a week at Whitsun and in some areas a full week's holiday is taken in October and February. 830. It is commonly held by teachers and parents, and our witnesses agreed, that the summer holiday is too long for the younger children. Many children get bored and there is some evidence that delinquency increases. Our witnesses suggested that four evenly spaced terms with shorter intervening holidays would be of greater benefit to the children. They also expressed the view that holidays should be arranged by the local education authority in consultation with the schools and that primary school holidays should be coordinated with those of secondary schools. There is a general move towards the staggering of holidays and the change of date of the August Bank Holiday is an example of it. Although traditions fade slowly, it is likely that holidays will in future be more evenly spread through the summer months. 831. The spring and winter terms impose some strain upon teachers and children, both of whom tire towards the end of term. These are times of the year when children and members of the staff are most liable to illness. Young children do not work well in school during the long days of June. They might be better served if they were on holiday at this time and at school during August. Yet in some schools, a good deal of time may be spent at the beginning of each term before the work gets into top gear and a similar period is given to winding up work at the end of each term. An increase in the number of breaks might therefore lead to a reduction in the amount of effective learning. 832. We welcome experiments by authorities with a four term year and other variations in the time in which the schools are on holiday. The holidays of primary and secondary schools within each area should be coordinated. Recommendations 833. (i) We recommend a combination of individual group and class work and welcome the trend towards individual learning. [page 295] 1. Morris JM 'How Far can Reading Backwardness be Attributed to School Conditions?', an address presented to the International Reading Association, May 1964.
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