SIR GILBERT PARKERI beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that plans for the Hyndburn Park School, Accrington, were approved by the Board of Education on condition that the school should be organised in three departments under separate head teachers; that the local education authority desire to depart from these conditions, and to arrange for one large department for 740 children; that on 17th May last the board refused to consent to this modification on the ground that such a department would be large and unwieldy, that effective supervision would be impossible, and that the head teacher could have no possible knowledge of the children under his charge; and whether the Board of Education now propose to depart from 1424 the principles expressed in that letter, and, if so, on what grounds.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. BIRRELL, Bristol, N.)The facts named in the Question are, so far as I am aware, accurately stated. The matter is having my careful attention, and a letter will be sent shortly to the local authority explaining the views of the board in regard to it and to the principles it involves. The board do not propose to depart from their general principles. As regards the particular instance under consideration, the number of children in attendance will not, at all events for some considerable time, reach the number referred to in the Question, which is certainly larger than can properly be supervised by one head teacher in the proper sense of the term.