Sessional_Paper_1906 — Page 630

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History. The progress made by the girls in general medieval history is very satis- factory, and continues to give evidence of careful and intelligent teaching.

Arithmetic. Still a weak subject. The top Standard works very slowly indeed. The syllabus does not seem very well chosen. Too much time is spent on problems involving English money. More use of contracted methods should be made.

Needlework. Very good. The elder girls do feather-stitch particularly well.

Hygiene. Very carefully taught.

*No. 13.-St. Francis.

Discipline and Organization.-The staff was strengthened at the beginning of the year, and is now such as to bring the school under § 34 (2) of the Code. Discipline is poor. The *children as a rule reply in monosyllables and are seldom audible. The syllabus does not

appear to be closely followed. There are two Standards and an Infant School.

Sanitation.-Very satisfactory.

Floor Space.-Sufficient for 147 pupils.

Apparatus.—Unsatisfactory readers and maps.

English.-Reading.-Fair. The Readers used (Christian Brothers') are not suitable. Writing.-Fair. Grammar and Composition.--Poor. As the scholars do not speak, English at home, colloquial should be carefully taught by means of wall sheets and other At present the object lessons are mainly relied on to teach this subject,-nor were they always very judiciously selected. For instance: Larks. It is not to be wondered that many children thought they were large birds of prey.

wise.

Geography.-Fair. Plans of the school-room were well drawn in Standard I.

Arithmetic, Mental.-Fair. Written.-Poor. In Standard I, none of the children could write 100 in figures. In Standard II the work though quick and neat is inaccurate.

No 14-St. Stephen's.

Staff-TANG CHI-KUN and and 5 Assistants.

Discipline and Organization.-Very good. The boys are well mannered. The Time Table and Syllabus give evidence of considerable thought and care. The suggestions made below under Algebra, Euclid and History should be carefully considered.

Sanitation.-Satisfactory.

Floor Space.--Sufficient for 233 pupils.

Apparatus. The requirements to which attention was drawn last year have now been made good. Very satisfactory.

English-Colloquial. In the Standards I and II not so many of the Reading sheets have been learned as there should have been. Not enough stress is laid on making the boys reply in complete sentences. They cannot answer such simple question as "How far have you read?"

Standard III (where good lessons on wall pictures had been given) did much better, and on the whole there is an improve ment. But the masters still lack much of the knowledge of how to teach the subject. Reading.-The method has been improved and the boys did well on the whole. Writing.The composition of sentences is not taught, as it should be, in Standard I. The composition done by the higher Standards was on the whole very creditable, considering the class of the school.

Geography. Standard IV did considerably better at examination than Standard V, which however did fairly well. In the lower Standards more use should be made of the local geography as a means of encouraging the boys to speak English. The method how- ever shewed great improvement.

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