PART 1
Challenge and Response
At this school the spirit of the 1944 Education Act has been interpreted with vision, courage and energy and the resultant development is most impressive. A steady growth, the widest sense of that terms, has been the chief characteristic since September 1953, when the existing school was divided into two upon the opening of a new county school at neighbouring New Haw, and the present headmaster was appointed to West Byfleet, which virtually thus began a new phase of its existence. In the five and a half years which have elapsed since that time the number of pupils has increased from 373 to 555 at the beginning of this academic year and many pupils who would previously have left at fifteen years of ago now remain until they are seventeen top follow a curriculum which, in all respects, offers them advantages undreamed of by their less fortunate predecessors. The advance is perhaps educationally most marked through the operation of these extended courses but there is no doubt that participation of the older pupils also adds a value to the social life of the school community out of all proportion to their numbers and that their presence is responsible, to a large extent, for the unusual maturity characterising all girls and boys in the school.
At the time of the inspection, during the Spring term, there were 524 pupils on the roll. An annual entry of about 120 boys and girls, who have to be grouped into three forms, ensures that teaching conditions are difficult from the beginning and that they continue so during the second year. A re-orientation of this three forms organisation occurs at the commencement of the third year when extended courses in commerce or in engineering are offered to those girls and boys who are intellectually sufficiently well endowed to take advantage of them and who wish to remain at school beyond their sixteenth birth. At this stage, and initiated only this year, a selective entry of about thirty pupils seeking further academic opportunity is received. During the fourth year boys and girls in the B and C forms leave normally, while those in the T forms remain until they reach of sixth form as will those pupils at present in the new selective form 3G. Many obstacles have to be surmounted in endeavouring to work such an organisation successfully, not the least being that the demand for the extended courses is greater than the number of places available. However, parents are consulted whenever such problems arise and difficulties are invariably resolved in an atmosphere of mutual good will – a happy state of affairs which does much to perpetuate and strengthen the powerful parental backing which the school already enjoys.
Within this scheme for extended courses, opportunities are provided for preparation for various public examinations and during the past three years considerable success has been achieved in the examination for the General Certificate of Education at Ordinary level and a few candidates have obtained certificate at Advanced level. Pupils also prepare for the examinations of the Royal Society of Arts, again with most satisfactory and encouraging results.
The headmaster if fully aware of the difference in attainment between the various subjects of the curriculum, all of which were discussed very fully during the course of the inspection. There is some outstanding and quite unusual work to be found in the engineering course, particularly in metalwork and technical drawing, in music and mathematics and these all influence to a great extent much of the other work of the school. In addition some very good work is to be seen in geography, woodwork and science. Other aspects of a full programme, history, physical education, a promising but recently initiated course in French, English, religious instruction, commerce, gardening and art, are most carefully and painstakingly covered and all make extremely full and useful contributions to the general education of the pupils. Housecraft and needlework, under the direction of newly appointed teachers, are making steady progress.
The school is not without its quota of backward pupils who, in the first and second years, are treated separately in a remove form where their difficulties are diagnosed and an effort is made to remedy any defects which may have been discovered. There remains, however, a need for less specialisation among the older slower boys and girls, who would undoubtedly benefit from the more personal contact which can be exercised by a good class teacher. This is recognised but cannot be achieved in a school as understaffed as this one.
Much successful work is maintained in adverse circumstances, some of which are described later in this report. Space generally is limited and equipment sometimes old-fashioned and meagre. In all subjects, and by teachers and pupils alike, the absence of a central library of suitable books of reference is keenly felt. During the tenure of the present headmaster the annual grant received for books has been carefully expended and small collections have been built up in most rooms. More than this is needed, however, but a school aspiring to present candidates for advanced papers in the General Certificate of Education. Her Majesty’s Inspectors can only regret the omission which as a hampering effect on the work all through the school. Books, admittedly, are cost. Nevertheless, they constitute the basic tools of all who work in schools such as this a fact which in itself should emphasise the need for the early removal of this particular deficiency.
Socially pupils and staff lead a busy life which begins when, in the morning, they crowd into the hall for the service which introduces the work of the day. This is an impressive occasion of obvious importance to all. It is conducted by the headmaster with help of pupils and some fine singing is led by a choir in which girls and boys and members of staff sing side by side. The assembled school presents an imposing sight with pupils, all in school uniform, standing with a serenity that overcomes the handicap of extreme overcrowding. It is unfortunate that when asked to sit down they have to do so upon the floor – an indignity which the circumstances impose upon an otherwise highly civilised community.
The same absence of provision for the reasonable physical need of young people is apparent during the school meal when pupils are crowded together in the dining room and the school hall. Only the co-operation, interest and good will of the teaching staff and help given by the pupils enable the service to function.
Clubs which aim to meet a wide variety of interests are
available to all, and through their management, and through the successful working
of the house and prefect systems, pupils are early given a taste of responsibility. During the school year many visits are paid
to places of interest; factories, theatres, the zoo, gardens, sports events, a
farm, museums, art galleries and exhibitions all figure on a long and catholic
list. Further a field, journeys are
made to the Continent;
Public interest in the work of the school is maintained though such activities as speech days and open days. The School Society which exists to help old and infirm is an unusual organisation. However, a catalogue of societies and activities gives little indication of the enthusiasm which motivates the social life; interests may increase or diminish in a rhythm which seems natural to schools, but always there is much to do which in the doing establishes a friendly relationship between staff and pupils that extends to all other aspects of school life.
In short, there is a search for quality in all that is attempted here, and in its progress the school does not disdain, to quote the headmaster, “the virtues of undisguised, unadorned hard work”. The pupils are indeed fortunate young people.
PART II
Some Related Problems
A quite outstanding achievement should not be allowed to obscure the problems which face those who work in this school.
The building was designed in the nineteen thirties to serve as a senior school and offers only indifferent facilities for a progressive secondary education as the term is understood today. The site is sub-standard and, moreover, is shared with a primary school which is based upon adjoining premises. From time to time additional temporary classrooms have been erected in the playground and rooms have been adapted to specialist purposes, but the present picture is one of sheer inability of meet the spatial requirements of this rapidly growing school whose numbers are confidently expected to rise to over 700 by 1964. In the circumstances it is not surprising that the inspection revealed major needs in many subjects. The school, for instance, has no gymnasium or changing or showering facilities; only a sub-standard hall is available while accommodation for science, housecraft and geography leaves much to be desired. The Local education Authority are not unaware of the situation and are doing what is possible to alleviate matters; a new school on another site is scheduled in the Development Plan and in these circumstances it is impossible to recommend now any major building which cannot be used in the future. Clearly, however, the position is so critical that something must be done to relieve the existing strain and her Majesty’s Inspectors, after consultation, agreed that the immediate need could be met by the provision of temporary classrooms, sufficient in number to allow a room to be set aside for use as a library, to provide additional teaching spaces for the advanced courses now in the fourth and fifth years and to compensate for the specialist accommodation lost though an extension to the hall, It was appreciated that such extra temporary classroom space is only an essential minimum and will do little towards reducing the large classes in the main body of the school nor will it provide room for those children who will come to the school during the next few yeas as a result of local housing development or because of the recent introduction of a selective course.
On a smaller scale a transfer of specialist rooms between art and housecraft, with appropriate re-equipment in each case, could do much to help the teaching in both subjects and some investigation might also be made into the possibilities of providing showers and changing accommodation at some please adjacent to the existing cloakrooms. These cloakrooms are hopelessly small – indeed for the girls the effective space works out at rather over a square foot for each pupil. It is a great tribute to the organisation that the virtues of tidiness and good manners are not submerged in such congestion.
The school meal is prepared efficiently under very poor conditions in a corrugated iron kitchen in the playground. This deplorable structure undoubtedly should be replaced. The erection of a permanent kitchen designed to serve the primary school ultimately using the site would provide a great improvement on existing conditions, although of necessity it would be overworked whole the secondary school remained.
The pupils in their first three years of school life are organised in ten classes. With three exceptions, two of which are concerned with less able pupils, these groups are large, some of them very large with over forty on roll. The position in the fourth year was rather easier at the time of the inspection since some boys and girls had left the school at Christmas, but, nevertheless, form 4T, a group remaining for an advanced coursed, numbered 41, whilst there were e37 pupils in form 5, many of whom were preparing to take external examinations. These are though-provoking figures which compare most unfavourably with the 29 girls and boys admitted to the selective group in form 3G. Bearing in mind the standard of work achieved and the high aims of the school, it seems imperative that the number of classes should be increased so that these unwieldy groups, particularly in the first and second years and in forms 3T, 4T, and 5 could be reduced. Unfortunately, little improvement is possible within the existing premises, and, even if the temporary classrooms suggested earlier are supplied, restrictive conditions are likely to endure for some years.
The staff is able and willing and the school is very well directed by a head master who is aware of the problems and determined to surmount them. Working as a team they have achieved much during the past few years. Nevertheless, a permanent assistant staff of twenty-one members with part-time assistance from two others is insufficient to deal with the full programmed to be found here. Many pupils, stimulated as they are by opportunities for an extended education, Produce unusually large quantities of written work, all of which, in accordance with the rule of the school, is conscientiously marked, and there is no doubt that some members of the staff are overburdened in this respect.
It is possible to do little more in this report than focus attention on the inter-related problems involving accommodation, staffing and the size of classes. Temporary expedients have been adopted and in their time have afforded welcome relief. It is however, becoming abundantly clear that the needs of this growing community will only be met fully when a new school building is provided.
Appendix
NUMBERS AND AGES OF PUPILS IN FORMS
|
|
Number of pupils in the school whose ages on |
|||||||||
|
FORM |
TOTAL NO. OF PUPILS |
AV. AGE Y. M. |
|
11 and under 12 |
12 and under 13 |
13 and under 14 |
14 and under 15 |
15 and under 16 |
16 and under 17 |
17 and under 18 |
|
1B |
36 |
12 0 |
B |
7 |
13 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
10 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
1A 11 |
36 |
12 6 |
B |
8 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
15 |
8 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
1A |
38 |
12 2 |
B |
6 |
13 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
8 |
11 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
R |
25 |
12 5 |
B |
6 |
6 |
2 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
2 |
5 |
4 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
2C |
35 |
13 1 |
B |
- |
13 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
7 |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
2B |
43 |
13 0 |
B |
- |
11 |
9 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
11 |
12 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
2A |
42 |
13 0 |
B |
- |
10 |
15 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
7 |
10 |
- |
- |
- |
- |
|
3C |
30 |
13 11 |
B |
- |
- |
13 |
4 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
7 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
|
3B |
27 |
14 0 |
B |
- |
- |
6 |
8 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
7 |
6 |
- |
- |
- |
|
3T |
41 |
14 3 |
B |
- |
- |
5 |
16 |
1 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
7 |
12 |
- |
- |
- |
|
3G |
29 |
14 0 |
B |
- |
- |
5 |
8 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
5 |
11 |
- |
- |
- |
|
4C |
20 |
15 0 |
B |
- |
- |
- |
8 |
4 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
- |
4 |
3 |
1 |
- |
|
4B |
26 |
15 1 |
B |
- |
- |
- |
12 |
6 |
- |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
- |
5 |
3 |
- |
- |
|
4T |
41 |
15 4 |
B |
- |
- |
- |
10 |
13 |
1 |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
- |
6 |
11 |
- |
- |
|
5 |
37 |
15 6 |
B |
- |
- |
- |
- |
13 |
8 |
- |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
- |
- |
11 |
5 |
- |
|
6 |
17 |
16 6 |
B |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
12 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
G |
- |
- |
- |
- |
- |
1 |
1 |
|
TOTALS |
524 |
|
B |
27 |
72 |
61 |
66 |
37 |
21 |
3 |
|
|
|
|
G |
35 |
55 |
61 |
50 |
28 |
7 |
1 |