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They are, however assisted by certain material factors. The school lies within the number limits which permit cach pupil to be more than a name to the head of the school so that individual consideration is possible. It is also fortunate in the absence of the lower forms which are confined to the junior schools. This permits of concentration of staff. We hope some day to see a similarly restricted Anglo-Chinese school.
The largest of the junior schools, now housed in "Park- side", is Kowloon Junior School which in 1929 had a maximum enrolment of 116 with an average attendance of 88. One larger room or hall for gymnastics is required, but on the whole this school has benefitted by the move from Gun Club Hill. Miss Cooper, B. A. was absent for most of the year. Miss Hendry acted as Head Mistress.
Miss Newsholme acted as Head Mistress at the Peak School during Mrs. Stark's absence on leave. The maximum enrolment was 70 and the average attendance 57.
Fictoria British School and Quarry Bay School had respec- tively maximum enrolments of 51 and 37 with average attendance of 38 and 29
2.-GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS--GAMES.
Every year sees an increase in the numbers of Chinese boys taking part in games in spite of the restricted space available.
Full use is made of school compounds and in all the Anglo- Chinese schools volley ball or basket ball is played, interest being stimulated by inter-class and inter-school competitions.
Only two schools, Queen's College and Yaumati School have grounds for their exclusive use. Both these schools play foot- ball as do also Central British, the Indian School, Ellis Kadoorie, Gap Road and Tai Po.
The schools which have no fields of their own share grounds under the auspices of the Recreation Grounds Committee.
Queen's College, the Central British and Indian schools play cricket and lawn tennis, which game is also popular at King's College.
King's College is the happy possessor of a bath for swim- ming which very useful form of recreation is enjoyed by most schools either on approved beaches or by means of launch pie- nies.
At the Indian School and Quarry Bay are flourishing gardens.
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3.-GRANT IN AID SCHOOLS.
The Grant in Aid schools, statistics as to which will be found in Table 4, were visited at least twice during the year, the annual inspections being held as usual in October and Novem- ber. There were 4,158 pupils present at inspection.
Discipline can be reported as good in all schools.
With the exception of one point, but it is an important exception, the general work of these schools can be characterised as good, in some cases very good,
Reading and Recitation were good throughout.
Pronunciation and Conversation are improving but are not equally good in all schools. This cannot be hoped for where the Chinese language is used as the medium of instruction in English lessons.
There are Chinese classes in Anglo-Chinese schools and Chinese pupils are expected to be proficient in both languages. The English classes, however, should be conducted entirely in English. It is the particular character of "English" schools that the medium of instruction in other than vernacular lessons is the English language,
If teachers do not teach in English it must be either be cause they cannot or are not required to do so by the head of the school or because they do not carry out his instructions. Either the school is not efficiently directed or the teachers are not "adequate according to Code requirements" the natural consequence of which is reduction of grant.
Written work, Drawing and Map production were on the whole good.
In the girls' schools they were very good as were Painting and Needle-work.
We were glad to notice the freer use of wall maps, atlases and sketch maps in connection with history lessons.
4.-PRIVATE ENGLISH SCHOOLS.
Day Schools-Of the 60 schools existing at the end of 1928, 16 closed and 6 disappeared without giving notice; while 16 new schools were opened during the year, thus making the number at the end of the year 54. The total number of students enrolled was 4,119 including 270 girls (4,059 in 1928); and the average attendance was 3,754 (3,484 in 1928).
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