The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-06-22 00:00:00

AIst..VUAL DISTRIBUTION PRIZ.!S

Ar THE GRA.I.B.TAR SCHOOL.

This annual distribution took place on Wednes-
day morning last in the presence of a large number
of parents and friends of the boys. The Yen.
Archdeacon Hone; of Halesowen, presided, and
the other gentlemen on the platform were the
Revs. J. J, Welch, J. S. Bader°, and D. Maginnis,
Mr. R. L. Freer, and Mr. W. B. CQllis. '

_
The Rev. D. Maginnis read the report of Mr. W.
T. Arnold, B.A. (the grandson of Arnold, of
Rugby,) the examiner. The docuu3ent stated that
the examination fell into five parts-1, classics
(French and Latin) ; 2, French; 3, Mathematics,
4; English; (including history, geography, and
grammar); and 5, Holy Scripture. The Greek
papers were creditably done in both forms. In
the Latin work some good papers were received
from the first form 'cif the Upper School. But as
a rule the composition and grammar were hardly
so good as they shOuld have been considering the'
quality of the rest of the work. This remark ap-
plied more or less to the whole school. There we 'e
sufficient exceptions to show that the boys did not
come short in these respects for want of careful
teaching; but the average of marks received in
these parts of the subject Should certainly have
been higher. Still taking the Latin work all
round a very fair level of merit was reached by i
both forms of the Upper School, and the boys who I
fell p:reatly below the level were few. In the
Middle School there was some very promising work
He should particularly. wish to mention the papers
i of Perrins and Thomas in the first form, and
hedges in the second as showing abundant evi-
dence of good work and good training. In the
Lower School the work was, of course of a more
elementary character, but it showed plenty of
vigour ;and liveliness. He should mention the
papers of Pirmstone in the first form, C. V.
Hodgetts in the second, and W. F. Fisher in the
third as being particularly promising. The French
work don,, by zeveral of the boys in the first form
wa3 Sc) nearly equal that lfe was obliged to give a
special- viva voce to four of the boys to decide
which was the best. On the whole he decided t,3
put Evers first, but the work received from Otter.
Hartley, and Maltby was excellent. In the second
Iform he had to give a special viva voce to Thomas
snd Perri= faith. me MO% 11l the third form

some excellent work was received from fledges'
but there were some boys in this form who fell
lower below the average than should have ,been ;
the case. On the whole he w. 1.3 agreeably sur-
prised to find so much ,c;rand, and accurate work
done on this subject, which •vias of so much practi-
cal importance and yet!whioh was soleomparatively
neglected at schools. In the mathematical papers
of the Upper/School Otter's work was most bril-
liant. In fact, the papers were too easy for him.
That he should have obtained 285 marks/ of a
possible 300 on three papers was a result on which
both pupil and master were to be cougratulated.
Excellent papers were also received from Evers.
and A. W. Scott; and in the second form the work
of Raybould deserves to be specially mentioned.
In the Middle School the first form did fairly wells
at most without exception; but there were too
many boys below the average in the second form.
The work of the lower School did not call for any.
very special mention _either way. G. II Smith
did a good paper; so did , Cookson and Bur.ton
and that of G. W.Hodgetts, though not accurate
enough to get a very high mark, showed decided
promise. Some very good English papers were
received from the Upper School: A. W. Scott,
, Otter, and Evers deserve special mention. In the
Middle School Skidmore did an' excellent paper,
and was considerably superior to any boy in the
form. The average, however, was good. In the
Lower School the chief point to be noticed was the
capital paper received from Pritchard, and the
good work of W. F. Fisher. A good average was
kept throughout the school in Scripture. Aftei
some remarks on the tendency shown in some of
the papers a tendency which examiners found
to be very common—to ;win confidence of state-
ment in regard to abstruse -theological- questions,
the examiner proceeds to say that the papers of
Nendick and Perry were worth mentioning in the
Middle School and those of F. W. Fisher and j. F.
Addison in the Lower School. In conclusion, the
Examiner said he wishedto express his opinion, as
, far as his experience had gone, of the very satis-
factory working of the school. The work, as a
whole, showed abundance of'life and energy, and
the boys seemed really interested in it. Without
denying the impossibility of still further improve-
ment here and • there, he believed there was an
abundant stock of energy and good: will on the
part of the boys as well as of masters in which to.
draw from such improvement. The school was '
emphatically alive, and no higher praise than-that
could be given to a school,
The report of the he id master, ReY. 3.3. Welch,
was read by Mr. W. B. Collis. Mr. Welch in pre-
senting his report for the year ending Midsummer,
1878, said he had the pleasure to inform them that
the school continued to maintain its prosperous
condition. The number of boys in the school
during the last quarter was greater than at any
period of its history within his knowledge. It
-afforded him also great satisfaction to be able to
speak in very favourable terms of the good moral
tone pervading the school. There had been much
good work done during the past year; but what-
ever had been the general progress •of the boys
the masters unanimously considered that it would
have been greater in many instances had they en-
joyed more of
_the. co-operatien of parents in. the.
matter of home work. Moreover it would be a
great satisfaction to the masters could they feel
assured that the monthly reports of the boys were
duly scrutinised by their parents. It would In
numerous instances stimulate the boys to greater.
exertions, and thus tend to their advancement in
knowledge. Four boys from this school presented
themselves at the Oxford local examinatien held,
last June in Birmingham. The results of the ex-
amination, however, were not published until the
, end of September, and therefore could not be in-
cluded in his report for last year. Four hundred
and twelve senior candidates from all parts of
England went into this examination, but of these
only twenty-one were placed in the first division.
Two boys from this school—Terry and .Chettoe—
obtained respectively the 17th and 18th plmes ;
and were the only t --o senior candidates of the
Birmingham-centre who obtained the high distinc-
tion of a first class. Both, also obtained honour
places in the sectional lists in Languages, Mathe-
matics and Physics. They however, were not the
only distinctions obtained by them on that oc-
casion. Out of the whole number of senior candi-
dates, only eight were selected by the Examiners
as having shown sufficient merit to be excused
from respoirsions at Oxford should they desire to
go to the University; and he was pleased to add
that Terry and Chettoe were two of the eight can-
didates thus selected. Twojunior candidates from
this school also presented themselves at this exami-
nation ; and out of a total number of 299 candi-
dates Otter obtained the 33rd place in the first
class ; A. W. Scott the 34th place in the second
class. Nine boys also went into the examination
held last year by the Science and Art Department
of South Kensington. In the subject of Inorganic
Chemistry one took a second class in the advanced
stage; four a first class and three a second class
in elementary stage; and one failed. In the
subjects of Magnetism and Electricity all passed;
two obtaining a second class in the advanced stage;
three a first, atid four a second class insthe element-
ary stage. No boys wentkinto these examinations
this year for he found them interfere somewhat
with the regular school work ; and as these subjects
or kindred ones, were compulsory under their new
scheme, they did not now require the stimulus
which they found useful when they were vo untary.
The Walter Scholarship having becoming vacant
last October, Chettoe and Terry became candidates
for it. The examination was conducted by 'the
Rev. C. B. Drake, M. A., of St. John's College,
Cambridge, and comprised questions in Latin and
Greek authors, Greek Testament, Paley's Evidence,
Arithmetic, Euclid, Algebra, Trigonometry, and
Statics; and of the 1650 marks assigned, Chettoe
gained 1133, and Terry 1119, thus giving Chettoe
the lead by 14 marls. The examiner therefore
adjudged the scholarship to Chettoe. He (thehead
toaster) was pleased to say that both Chettoe and
Terry were maintaining at the University the good
reputation they acquired, at that school. The
former, in a recent competitive examination for
the Exhibition at Oxford, for which there were 57
candidates, stood second in Divinity, fourth in
Mathematics and 13th or 14th in Classic. The
latter was placed second in the first class in the
examination of students held at St. John's College
Cambridge.
Arch:lea-on Hone expressed a hope that the re-
marks of Mr. Welch, reminding parents to look
to the home work of their boys, would have serious
consideration. In whatever elms of school it was
teachers could not carry on their work with any
satisfactory degree of success or hopefulness un-
less thoroughly supported by the parents at home.
There ought- to he thorough sympathi, between
the parents and the school, or the school could not
prosper. He urged the boys to make the proper
work of the school their chief business in Me
while schooltime lasted, and pointed out the bear-
ing of what they did at school on the formation of
their character, and the usefulness in after life of
the knowledge then acquired. The archdeacon
also referred to the Scriptural, instruction at the
school, and uttered his great distrust of all educa
tion which left religion out of sight. HO then
proceeded to distribute the prizes. In the follow-
ing list the letter c' P" indicates the prize boys
for 1878, an asterisk denoting those who have re-
ceived the prize on & formsr occas•on, and who are
consequently debarred from receiving it a second
time.

LAT/N.—Upper School, Puri/ 1 : *lO, Otter; P 294
Evers. Form 2, P let, hi.vhou:4l; 211.1, kV. L. Shacklock
and EJ. Brooks, eq %al. 'iii 4Selmol, form 1: P Ist,
Perrins ; 2nd, Thomai 1' rm 2 14 P Hcdgee.; 2nd,
Stuart. Lhwer School. forA 1: P Firmstole ;
2od, J.. F. Addis m Fo,m 2. 14, C. V Hodge ti •
2nd, Pritchard. Form 3, P 1,1; Fier; 2nd, C. B. Cart
•
wricht.

GREEK —For ra 1 : P Ist, A. NW. cico!t; 2qd, Evers an
1. W. Hartley, equal. Form 2, Ist, Maltby ; 2nd, W.
R. Gardper.

HOLY SORIPTDRE.-Upper School, form 1, *lSt. Otter;
*2nd, A. %V. Seott ; P 3rd, J. Hartley. Middle
P Ist, Skidmorn ; 2114:Terry. Lover School:
P Ist, Fisher; 2nd, J F Addison. -
ENGLISH RUBJECTA, -Upper School: *lst, Otter and *%..
W. Scott. equal ; P3r.r. Evers. Middle Sehcol : P Ist,
Skiimor.; 2nd Perrios. Leltrer School: P Ist. Pritchard;
2nd, J. F. Addison.
MAYHEAItT_OS., -Upper School, form 1 ; slst. Otter;
P 2nd Evers. Form 2, P lst RtyllonH ;2nd, Perrins ;
%li.idle School, form 1: P Pritchard ; 2nd, -DAM
Form 2, p Ist, A. IT. Jones ; 2ul, Anson and
Spires, equal. Lower School.: form 1 : P Ist, C. V.
Hodgetts ; 2nd. F. J. Freer. Far,n 2d, P Ist, Smith;
2nd, Voce. -
FaxaTOEt :Form 1, P Ist, Evers: 2,n1, 3 W. Hartley
and *Otter,' eqnal. Form 2 P Ist. Thomas; 2ndaerrins.
Form 3, Ist, P fledges ;2nd, F. J. Freer.
CHEMI4TRY --Form 1, P fiat, Otter,; 2nd, Evers. Fong
2, Ist, J. Uro.,ks ; 2nd, ayboold.
PHYRTO3.--P let, o,ler ; 2od, Evers
BOOE-3ErPING. -Ist, W J Penn; P 2nd, A w. Scott
THEORY AN P^AOTICE OF VOCAL 110410.-P Ist, J, H.
(fins.
Ivorr.
_ND FREEHAND r .VING.-I,t, Otter;
20, lf P 3rd; A. W. Scott.
Dam.- -.a Aso Sw.,rto Exanci,•- -Fist Division, P let,
A.. W. cott. Second Divkion, Ist, Bovbin ;.2nd, C. J.
Wood. • Third Division, I,t, F. T. Homing ; 2nd,
Lonßland.
Mr. Welch said he had formed a spelling bee
and had awarded prizes to the following boys:
FPhLLING.-1:41 Myers ; 2nd,'Skidmore ; 3rd. Hodgetts.
The Rev. J. S. Boldero proposed, and Mr. Terry
(Dudley) seconded, a vote of thanis and hearty
congratulations to the masters of the school,
which the Rev. J. J. Welch biiefly acknowledged.
Theßev. D. Ma2;innis mentioned that a valuable
*geological collection had been offered to the school
on favourable terms, and subscriptions in aid of
its purchase might be forwarded to Mr. G. Perry.
Mr: W. B. Collis moved, and the Rev. J. Slade
seconded, a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which
closed the proceedings.