HC Deb 13 May 1965 vol 712 cc680-1
10. Mr. Tinn

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what progress has been made in developing training of nature study teachers.

Mr. R. E. Prentice

Nature study in its familiar sense is being replaced in the primary schools by wider studies which cover both the physical and the biological aspects of the natural environment. These studies are taken by future class teachers; and suitable preparation is normally included within the training course for students intending to teach in primary schools.

Mr. Tinn

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply, but will he and his right hon. Friend, in order to help forward this most welcome trend, encourage schools, particularly in industrial areas, to develop the kind of field training area which we already have in my own constituency, in the Victoria Street School in South Bank, where, thanks to the courtesy of Imperial Chemical Industries, access to a large area has been available for the school on a permanent basis for some years past? Will my hon. Friend encourage this development and make it available to other schools?

Mr. Prentice

I think I can say "Yes" to that, with the slight reservation that detailed instructions on such matters do not go from the Department to the schools; but this is obviously the kind of thing to encourage, and it is being encouraged by the work of the Schools Council.