§ Mr. GOLDSTONEasked how many secondary schools in receipt of grants from the Board have preparatory departments for children under the normal age of admission to secondary schools; and whether it is the policy of the Board to encourage the establishment of preparatory departments for children of about the age of nine years?
§ Mr. TREVELYANIt would be difficult to name any precise age as being, at present in England, the normal age of admission to secondary schools. The younger children at a secondary school are in some schools organised as a preparatory department under that name, and in others not. It is, therefore, not possible to give any exact answer to the first paragraph of the question. As my right hon. Friend stated in his speech on the Education Estimates on 13th July, the best educational opinion holds that elementary scholars who are proceeding to secondary schools should, if they are to receive the fullest benefit, come in at the age of nine or ten.
§ Mr. GOLDSTONEIs it the policy of the Board to encourage that type of preparatory school in connection with existing secondary schools?
§ Mr. TREVELYANYes.