Girls’ Department.—­Reading, writing, arithmetic, English grammar, literature, history, geography, nature study, hygiene, physical training, drawing (including brush-work), needlework (including cutting-out), knitting, scripture.

Infants’ Department.—­Reading, writing, number, kindergarten and other varied occupations, physical exercises (dancing and games), needlework and knitting, singing, drawing, painting, modelling, recitation, oral composition, dramatising stories, scripture.

The ordinary day is divided into two sessions:  the morning session lasting from 9 A.M. to 12 noon, and the afternoon session from 2 P.M. to 4 P.M. (infants), 4.30 P.M. (girls).

The strain of a teacher’s life in an elementary school, and the deadening influence of routine work will be realised when it is stated that, besides teaching all the subjects above-mentioned, she is in front of her class of sixty pupils during the whole of the two sessions each day, from Monday morning to Friday afternoon.

In addition to the purely teaching work the mistress has to take her share in the various activities which are now centring in the school—­Care Committees, After-Care Committees, the feeding of necessitous children, the cleansing of children, medical inspection, and so forth.  There are also such social activities as old girls’ clubs, school journeys and school parties, in which she has to co-operate; finally, the strain is not lessened by the fact that she has to satisfy two sets of inspectors, viz., those of the Board of Education and those of the local authority who require her to keep special report books, varying in character and in the amount of detail required, according to the idiosyncrasies of the particular inspectors who may happen to be allocated to her district.

In spite of the building regulations of the Board of Education, many school premises are far from satisfactory with regard to lighting, ventilation, construction, and often even cleanliness; these defects naturally have their effect on the health of the teachers, so that notwithstanding medical inspection during training and the rejection of the unfit, an alarming number of cases of consumption has been reported to the Benevolent Fund of the National Union of Teachers.  In addition to this, the strain (already referred to) under which teachers in the Metropolitan and larger urban districts work, is resulting in an increasing number of nervous breaksdown.

The conditions under which a teacher works in a school in a rural district are so unsatisfactory that they deserve special mention.  There are 245 schools in Wales and 2,199 in England with an average attendance of less than 40; such schools are staffed by a head teacher, assisted, in all probability, only by a supplementary teacher.  Education suffers in these circumstances as a result of the number and the manysidedness of the responsibilities which devolve upon the head teacher;