SDRavensden7/6

Letters from E C Smith to F A Wythes.

January 1881- February 1882

From: 1881 To: 1882

Concern: school accounts; supplies of books, ink and pens, firewood, school registers, and needlework materials; school holidays, esp Harvest and Christmas; poor attendance as 'few parents value education', and its effect on the grant; new school clock; pegs needed in cloakroom; lock on school door broken; glazier paid for two new windows; new cottage for teacher to be pleasant and healthy rather than spacious; two Wilden children who have attended Bolnhurst school for a year request to be admitted as mother, Mrs Franks, says 'it is nearer to send them here & it is of no use sending them to the Wilden School for they learn nothing, she gives a poor account of the efficiency of their school teacher but I suppose Mrs White is getting into years & almost past the requirements of the present stages of education (viii)'; price to charge for Wilden scholars 'I thought if we charged 3d per wk each for the labouring class & 4d each for Farmers children would suit yr wishes' (ix); curriculum to be restricted to the 'Three R's' as it is useless to try special subjects until arithmetic and grammar have been mastered; attendance bad this year (1881) 'for though their pence has been taken, many have only made 5 attendances a week for convenience' (xv).

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school teachers, Wilden School, curriculum, EDUCATION, school clocks, harvesting