SCHOOL, BLAYDON (GYMNASIUM) (Hansard, 30 May 1957)

§ Mr. Robert Woof (Blaydon)
The problem about which I wish to speak tonight is one which I raise in a solicitous desire to ease the worn-out patience of the Durham County Education Committee and the Board of Governors of the Hookergate Grammar School. I say at the outset that we are proud and thankful for what has been achieved in the educational sphere in Durham County. I wish to confine my remarks, however, to what would appear to be an insoluble problem in connection with the Hookergate Grammar School gymnasium, the construction of which was originally let to contract on 14th March, 1939, at a tender of £6,440). Work was commenced and foundations were built up to 12, 9 and 10 ft., but the contract was abrogated on 29th June, 1940. Ever since, it has stood like the rock of ages of some ancient human activity.
I am not raising this as a political matter, as I accept that unforeseen circumstances led to postponement of completion of the building upon the outbreak of war and even for some years after the war because of the concentration of available capital on more urgent school buildings and the replacement of pre-war dilapidated schools that were unfit for educational purposes. I also accept the fact that there is still much to 760 be done, but while we look forward to an end of the existing state of affairs, my experience in many matters has taught me not to be too optimistic; and I wish to draw the attention of the Parliamentary Secretary to the conditions and to the weight of anxiety on the part of the board of governors, who are responsible for administration, and to the existing facilities for the teachers who have the responsibility for physical training in the school.
For many years I had the privilege and duty of serving on the county education committee. Whilst the interesting and devoted work encouraged me to discriminate ethically towards the welfare and happiness of education, it also enabled me to understand the deeper and wider scope of responsibility in respect of which, if my memory does me justice, a local education authority's duties require it to contribute to the physical as well as to the moral, spiritual and mental development of those in the schools in order to create conditions for healthy living and healthy growth in the schools.
To a certain degree, that cannot be said to apply in Hookergate Grammar School. To one with knowledge of the conditions and of the absence of the necessary facilities, it is quite obvious that the scholars are being deprived of the means of proper training and the skilful use of equipment which should be a permanent feature in their school life. As the school is used by about 560 scholars. makeshift arrangements are made for physical training lessons. That often interferes with the study and the concentration of the scholars, and at times the education authority has the greatest difficulty in retaining the services of physical training teachers, owing to the lack of facilities.
Furthermore, there are the requirements arising from the encouragement now given to science. More and more scholars are taking the opportunity to pursue this fundamental speculation but. as a consequence, the problem of accommodation is now very real. I would not attempt to challenge or baffle the educated linguists but, if I may be allowed to use a Tyneside Scandinavian colloquialism, to put this matter in perspective, the teachers and the scholars are absolutely "scummfished".
761 We know that gymnasia are part of the education structure. I admit that even in Durham County, new grammar schools arid even some of the older ones have received increased attention, enabling the education authority to promote all-round welfare, stimulate social insight and strengthen the standard of behaviour by means of individual and group training in the understanding of sportsmanship. By wise discipline, the right spirit of this recreation is reflected in self-confidence. Athletics and physical education matched to the capabilities of the scholars have had a salutary effect.
I fully understand the background of the Government's policy of financial stringency and of credit restrictions which have been imposed time and time again. We know that rising costs generally are being reflected in the rising cost of building and that many projects, thought out with the most meticulous care, and involving much planning, time and labour, have been pushed into the background. Indeed, some of them may have now sunk into oblivion. It is truly in the public interest to regulate planning, but there are times when I think that we are spending three parts of our lives living on planning. In spite of setbacks and disappointments, however, we accept the underlying conception that developments must be shaped in accordance with our ideals.
Right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House acknowledge the magnitude of the work assigned to the Minister. He has to aim at conserving and perfecting the life of the community through education, and he has to cater for wide extremes of need. I acknowledge that. in view of the reply which the Parliamentary Secretary gave to a Question which I asked on 16th May. I can only comment that that was a consolation prize of an Answer. But, in view of the circumstances which have been tolerated for such a long time, and in the light of many years of eager anticipation of an opportunity to exert the undoubted influence that systematic physical training with gymnastic apparatus and appliances can bring to bear upon intellectual culture, may I ask whether it is not time now to achieve an immediate solution of this problem? This gymnasium, which was commenced eighteen years ago. has served its 762 apprenticeship for the priority which it should receive as a necessity and not a luxury.

§ Mr. William Blyton (Houghton-le-Spring)
I wish to support the plea made by my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon (Mr. Woof). I can recall an exact parallel of this case which occurred in 1945 at the Boldon Colliery which at one time formed part of my constituency. There we had the shell of a building which was a canteen and which was left derelict. It remained so all through the period of office of the Labour Government, but ultimately we persuaded a Conservative Government to finish the job. But there it stood, without a roof, like a spectre in the night; money was spent on it, and yet it was never finished. It was exactly parallel with the case at Hookergate Grammar School.
The expense involved in this case would not be great. It would not reduce the Government to penury. The amount necessary could be included in the financial estimates of the education committee. I appeal to the Parliamentary Secretary to have the work finished and add an amenity to the school.

§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Education (Sir Edward Boyle)
I am grateful to the hon. Member for Blaydon (Mr. Woof) and to the hon. Member for Houghton-le-Spring (Mr. Blyton) for putting their case so clearly and moderately. I am aware of the close interest of the hon. Member for Blaydon in this matter, because he has had many years of distinguished service on the education committee. He is, I think. Chairman of the Durham County Council Education Committee and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Hookergate Grammar School. It is also very nice, on an evening when the Finance Bill has been debated, to find that the right hon. Member for Smethwick (Mr. Gordon Walker) is still with us to listen to this debate.
This is a three-form entry mixed school, and everyone agrees that such a school requires a gymnasium. I know that as lone ago as 1938 the Board of Education. as it then was, approved the erection of the gymnasium, and work proceeded until January, 1940, when the contract was terminated as a wartime measure. 763 The trouble is that the main building programme of Durham Education Authority for 1958–59 does include a number of projects of much higher priority than the erection of this gymnasium. My noble Friend has given Durham for this financial year a main building programme costing £1,250,000, and if hon. Members recall the number of local authorities there are and the total size of the new building programme, they will agree that this is a pretty reasonable allocation.
Hon. Members have mentioned the credit squeeze. Perhaps I might remind the House that last year was the year of the credit squeeze, and also the year of tighter control on borrowing. Yet if one looks at the figures for the financial year 1956–57, during the first nine months of that financial year the total amount spent on school building was £14 million up on the previous year, and the value of schools completed was up from £29 million to £37.4 million. I am speaking from memory, but I believe those figures are correct. All of the £1,250,000 for the Durham main building programme for the coming year is needed for the larger production of additional places to 764 meet the increase in the school population, for rural re-organisation, and what I think is of great importance, for the teaching of science and mathematics.
So while I should be the last person to dispute the urgent need for this gymnasium, I feel the claim is comparatively slight when one considers the over-riding needs of these other projects.
I can give this reassurance: we have already included this gymnasium in the reserve list of building projects for Durham for 1958–59, and this means that the gymnasium stands a good chance of inclusion in the main programme for 1959–60. I do not think that in present circumstances my noble Friend could be expected to go further. I hope that the hon. Member for Blaydon, having presented the case so fairly, will accept the assurance I have given.
Hon. Members might now consider, having made those remarks, that we have had sufficient debate. I have to get up at half-past-six tomorrow morning to open a grammar school in Leeds tomorrow afternoon.