City of Brandon-Report of Supt. White

HON. R. S. THORNTON,

Misister of Education, Winnipeg.

Sir, I herewith submit my report on Brandon Public Elementary Schools for the year ending June, 1915.

ATTENDANCE

With the steady growth of population in our city the schools have steadily grown. It is gratifying to note that there has not only been growth in numbers, but what is much more important, improvement in attendance. This will be indicated more clearly by the following figures:

Year

1912-13

1913-14

1914-15

Enrolment and Attendance

Ave. monthly Ave. daily Attendance enrolment. attendance. % of enrolment

It is perhaps difficult to place accurately the influences that resulted in such a marked improvement in attendance during the past year. The various factors that contributed to the results attained were probably the following: An unusually mild winter, the absence of any serious epidemic in the schools, the work of the truant officer, a slackening in the movement of population and positive efforts within the schools to promote good attendance, especially the introduction during the year of an "Honor Card" system. It is impossible for me to say authoritatively which of these factors counted the highest, nor is it necessary where the favorable influences were so outstanding and numerous.

BUILDINGS

School accommodation has been increased during the year by the completion of the Fleming school, a six room unit that may be made into a twelve, eighteen or twenty-four room building at any time. Pressing need for increased accommodation in the north part of the city was met temporarily by the erection of a one-room frame building.

SCHOOL SUBJECTS:

With our large and varied programme of subjects to be taught it is one of the problems of a teacher's work to rightly apportion her time so that all subjects may receive a right proportion of attention. We are persisting in our effort to see that the fundamental subjects of penmanship and composition get their proper share of at

tention. In the case of arithmetic there is a tendency perhaps to spend too much time, and it may be questioned whether the time spent in oral reading is at present wisely spent. One subject on our programme that has needed attention in music. Our teachers do not, as a rule, come to our schools properly qualified to teach this subject. The result is we get loud, harsh singing, indifferent reading power and little musical appreciation. There are of course exceptions to this rule. An effort made during the year to remedy this in some degree by means of a short course of lectures to the teachers, accompanied by demonstation work by classes. We are looking for some beneficial results from this effort.

During the winter months a successful evenEVENING SCHOOL ing school was carried on in the north part of the city amongst the foreign adults. A special teacher was engaged for this work. She visited amongst the people during the day and taught five evenings of the week.

A feature of our schools for many years past SCHOOL BANKING has been a cultivation of the virtue of thrift through school banking. This subject is worthy of special mention this year on account of the valuable additional training afforded by the arrangements inaugurated in the Central school by Principal Tingley. Here, depositing of money is carried out on a system as nearly parallel to that at a bank as conditions will permit. Boys and girls of grades VII and VII act as tellers and ledger keepers. All money deposited has to be accompanied by a deposit slip prepared by the pupil, except in grade I. Thus practical business training is given to all depositors, and specially valuable training to those who are on duty as tellers, ledger keepers and bank manager.

PHYSICAL WORK
AND PLAY

carried on with

Our physical work has suffered in some degree owing to the absence of of our physical director at the war. However, thanks to his excellent training the physical work has been considerable success by the teachers, each with her own room. Soon after the opening of the fall term a "playfest" was held on the Central school grounds. An extensive programme of games, some competitive, some for demonstration purposes, was provided. The result was a considerable stimulus to play in connection with the regular school recess periods. At the present time regular supervised play is carried on at all the four larger schools of our city.

MANUAL TRAIN-
ING AND DOM-
ESTIC SCIENCE

Arrangements were made at the beginning of the year by which the directors of our manual training and domestic science departments should undertake certain duties at the Normal School. In the case of the manual training we added a man to the staff and so were able to extend our work by giving bench wood work to the boys of grade VI as well as grades VII and VIII. In our domestic science department, however, we did not add to our staff and as a consequence we had to modify our sewing with the grade VI classes by having it taught by the regular grade teachers under supervision, instead of by one of the specialists.

HORTICULTURE

The promotion of home gardens continues to be a feature of our school work. Over three hundred children entered for the competition promoted by the Horticultural Society through the schools. In addition to these individual home garden plots we have four rooms interested in school gardens. A change of plan was followed this year. Instead of having individual plots or working in pairs, we organized larger groups averaging about fifteen each and gave each group one-thirtieth part of an acre. Each group elected a captain. They then selected the seeds or plants they would grow. They agreed to a proposal that the aim should be to raise and sell as much produce as possible and devote the proceeds to one of the patriotic funds. Seven groups were organized on this basis; interest has been keen and work good. It is too early as yet to estimate results. One other phase of our horticultural work has been the free distribution of plants and potatoes. The extent of this work may be indicated by the fact that 137 pupils secured one pound of potatoes each, 214 asked for tomato plants and were given three each, and 311 asked for aster plants and were given two each. The culmination of the season's work is the August Show held by the Horticultural Forestry Society, where the schools have a special table of exhibits.

Our work in this direction has been in existHOME & SCHOOL ence three years. During past winter a ASSOCIATIONS new society was organized at the Alexandra school. The programmes for the winter season consisted of lectures, literary and musical evenings, and some social evenings. The organizations have used their influence with the school board to secure cretain needed reforms. They have also co-operated with the school, supporting school concerts and other activities.