The examination papers and certificates accompanying this report have also been reviewed, and his Lordship is disposed to sanction the apprenticeship of the above-mentioned scholar from the day of and to move the Committee of Council on Education to grant conditioual stipends to the apprentice, and gratuities to the teacher, according to the terms of the Minutes of August and December, 1846. His Lordship has directed the enclosed Form of Indenture to be partially filled up, in order that, upon receipt, may be completed and signed without delay by all the parties interested. As soon as this is done, you are requested to write to inform their Lordships. Teachers ought in all cases to make a copy of the indentures for their own use, and the scholars other copies for the use of their parents or guardians, and the originals should be held by the trustees, or one of them, on behalf of the teacher and apprentice. I also enclose copies of the Minutes of August and December, 1846, one of which should be delivered to the teacher, and one to each apprentice. Their attention should be drawn to the subjects in which the apprentice will be examined every year, by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors. These copies of the Minutes should be carefully preserved, in order that they may be from time to time referred to, during the progress of the apprenticeship. I am likewise to furnish you with the enclosed copy of a broad sheet, describing the qualifications of candidates for the office of pupil teacher -the course of instruction through which they are to pass-the nature of the examination which they will annually undergo-the annual stipends payable to them, and the other conditions and consequences of the apprenticeship. My Lords think it may be expedient that this broad sheet should be placed in a conspicuous situation on the inner wall of the schoolroom, where it can be read by the scholars, their parents, and the visitors of the school. An accurate knowledge of the character and objects of the system of apprenticeship of pupil teachers will, it is hoped, be thus gradually diffused among all ranks of society. It will be the duty of the managers to ascertain that the apprentices receive instruction from the teacher during one hour and a half daily, before or after the usual hours of school-keeping, during five days in the week, and at the close of each year to certify that this has been done. My Lords further desire to bring under your consideration the importance of taking care that every pupil teacher be furnished with a good text-book for private study, on each of the subjects of examination at the close of the current year. As the stipends of the pupil teacher will depend on their success in the examination at the close of each year of their apprenticeship, it will be proper, with the consent of their parents, to apply a portion of these stipends to the purchase of the text-books required for the success of the education of the apprentices, if the funds of the school do not admit of such an outlay. In like manner, it is desirable that teachers should be advised to procure text-books for self-improvement, so as to enable themselves to conduct the education of the apprentices efficiently. The gratuity to be paid to them at the close of each year of a successful apprenticeship will afford them abundant means for a supply of such books as are desirable for their private studies. The character and conduct of the apprentice should also be a subject of much solicitude. At the close of each year the apprentices will be required to present certificates of good conduct from the managers of the school, and of punctuality, diligence, obedience, and attention to their duties from the schoolmaster or mistress. Certificates that the apprentices have been attentive to their religious duties are also required in all schools not included in the terms of the supplementary Minute of the 10th July, 1847. The managers of all schools will doubtless observe with anxious attention the conduct of the apprentices in this respect. The payment of the conditional stipend and gratuity will, on the fulfilment of the prescribed conditions, occur after consideration of the report of Her Majesty's Inspector at the close of each year, from the date of the indentures. In order that the of your school may have a clear conception of the special duties devolving upon in the education of and of the personal advantages which may be derived from a faithful discharge of these duties, I am to request that you will tear off the opposite leaf of this circular, and put it into h hands. I have the honor to be, Your obedient Servant, [Letter (annexed to the preceding Form, No. XV.) in explanation of the duties of Teachers in instructing Apprentices, and of the mode in which their interests are affected.] Committee of Council on Education, THE Committee of Council on Education having, on the report of Her Majesty's Inspector, authorized the apprenticeship of the of the scholars in your school, and held out to prospect of annual stipends, and to yourself of an annual increase of your income, upon the fulfilment of the conditions set forth in their Minutes of August and December, 1846, it is considered desirable to call your attention to the duties devolving upon you in relation to this apprenticeship. Their Lordships' instructions directed Her Majesty's Inspector to put a limited interpretation on the requirement set forth in the Minutes, under the head of General Preliminary Conditions,-" That the master or mistress of the school should be competent to conduct the apprentice through the course of instruction to be required." He was instructed to report in such cases whether the acquirements and skill, and the capacity and disposition of the teachers were such as to afford a reasonable prospect that they would be able to qualify themselves to conduct the education of the pupil teacher in the successive years of the apprenticeship. If the teachers had not previously obtained one of their Lordships' certificates of merit, my Lords declared, that they would be satisfied if Her Majesty's Inspectors could report that their character and attainments were such as would enable them to qualify themselves for success in an examination at the close of each year of the apprenticeship, in those subjects in which the pupil teachers would have to be instructed in the then ensuing year. By this interpretation of the General Preliminary Condition, their Lordships trusted that the system of apprenticeship would provide not only for the training of the apprentices as candidates for Queen's scholarships, but also for the self-education of such deserving teachers as might be anxious during the course of the apprenticeship (in which their own labours received an annual recompense) to prepare themselves for those distinctions and more substantial rewards of their profession, offered in the recent Minutes through the certificates and augmentations of salary. This annual examination in the subjects forming the course of instruction for pupil teachers will afford a useful stimulus to private study; will accustom teachers to the method of examination pursued by Her Majesty's Inspectors; and will tend to give such precision aud accuracy to their acquirements as, without painful effort, to ensure their success in the general examination for certificates. By such means they will be enabled not only to maintain, but to raise their relative rank in the profession. My Lords would suggest that you should immediately provide yourself with such text-books as you may be advised to procure, in order that you may obtain a systematic and accurate knowledge of all the subjects to which the general examination of candidates for certificates extends. During the apprenticeship it will be your duty personally to give instruction to your pupil teacher during one hour and a half daily, on five days in the week, either before or after the usual hour of school-keeping. This course of instruction is a condition of the apprenticeship, indispensably necessary for the preparation of pupil teachers. for their annual examination, and if it be pursued by you with diligence and skill, it will also tend to increase your familiarity with those subjects and methods which have not hitherto formed part of the ordinary course of instruction in elementary schools, but which will constitute the substance of the examination for certificates. In proportion as this preparation of your apprentice is successful, will you also derive advantage from assistance in the management of your school, which you will thus be enabled to raise to a higher standard of discipline, organization, and instruction. You will observe that Her Majesty's Inspectors conduct their examination of the apprentices, to a large extent, by the oral dictation of exercises, which are required to be worked in writing. You will find that many advantages arise from making pupil teachers familiar with this method. It gives habits of precision: it tests the accuracy of their knowledge, it imparts facility in composition, and promotes neatness in exercises dictated and worked without preparation. Moreover, it prepares them as candidates for Queen's scholarships, for their public trials, and if they become teachers, for many of their future duties. While, therefore, you give chief prominence to the method of oral examination, as affording important means of developing the intelli gence of your pupils, and communicating knowledge to them, you are recommended also frequently to resort to the methods of dictation and written examination, especially as they exercise the ability of your pupils so as to prepare them for independent efforts for self-improve ment. It is scarcely necessary to point out to you how much your success, even in the intellectual improvement of pupil teachers, will depend on the right cultivation of their moral sentiments and the regulation of their habits. In these respects you will doubtless have such aid and counsel as, it may be hoped, will enable you to fulfil the higher aims of the education of your apprentices. I have the honor to be, To the of the School. Your obedient servant, (1) Insert the (2) Insert the scribe at length the nature of the Premises wherein the School is held, the purposes and objects to which they are lawfully applicable. Insert name of [Grants under Minutes of 1846. Form No. XVI.] (Form of Memorandum of Agreement relating to Repayment of Stipends and Gratuities.) MEMORANDUM of an agreement made between of the one part, and James Phillips Kay Shuttleworth, Esq., on behalf of the Committee of Council on Education and the Lords of the Treasury, of the other part. Dated this WHEREAS the said day of of a certain school held at 2 184. is or are 1 And there is no deed which permanently secures the use of such premises to the purposes of the education of the poor, or which provides for the inspection of the school, by the Inspector for the time being appointed by Her Majesty. And whereas the said have applied to the Committee of Council on Education for aid out of the Parliamentary Grant for the Education of the Poor, to provide the payment of certain stipends, to be (on the fulfilment of the conditions in that behalf set forth in the Minutes of the Committee of Council on Eduthe party of the cation), paid to the persons from time to time apprenticed to the master of the said school, and also of the gratuities payable on the fulfilment of the like conditions to the teachers therein. And the said Committee have assented to such application in consideration of the said entering into an agreement first part. to repay the same on the interruption of the school under the cir- to enable the said1 her, or their. Insert the nature of the reason of the Trusts of the do for 3 executors, and administrators promise and agree to and with the said James P. Kay Shuttle- self, herself, or worth, his executors and administrators, that if at any time during the themselves; his, apprenticeship of any pupil teacher in respect of whom any such stipend shall have been paid, the schoolroom in which the school aforesaid is now carried on cannot continue to be appropriated to the use of such school, from half-past eight o'clock in the morning until half-past five o'clock in the evening, of five days at least in every week, so that the education thereat shall be interrupted, or Deed; or state if the inspection of such school by the Inspector or Inspectors aforesaid, be refused or interrupted by the said ' or by the master thereof, at any time during such apprenticeship, the said will cause to be repaid to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, for the time being, or to the said J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, on behalf of the said Lords, so much money as shall have been advanced by the said Lords, or by the Committee of Council on Education, to the said ' in respect of the stipend of each apprentice in such school whose apprenticeship shall not have been completed at the time when such education shall be interrupted, and in respect of the gratuities payable to the teacher on account of such apprentice. As witness our hands Witness to the execution of the said Witness to the execution of the said J. P. Kay Shuttleworth [Grants under Minutes of 1846. Form No. XXII.] (Letter addressed to Teachers, in presenting them with a Certificate Merit.) Committee of Council on Education, I HAVE the pleasure of announcing to you that I am directed by the Lord President to forward, by the same post with this letter, the certificate of merit which has been awarded to you by the Committee of Council on Education, after considering the report of H.M. Inspector, upon your qualifications, and after reviewing the papers worked by you during the examination held by him at in the month of You are requested to acknowledge by return of post the receipt of this certificate. You will perceive that the certificate not only specifies the class in which you are placed, but also their Lordships estimate of your attainments in each of the subjects upon which you were examined. It is calculated therefore to serve the purposes of advice as well as of encouragement, by indicating not merely what you have done, but also what you have still to do, in qualifying yourself for the discharge of the duties of your profession. some other reason, as the case may be. |