No. VII.

NATIONAL SOCIETY,

For the EDUCATION of the Poon in the
Principles of the ESTABLISHED CHURCH.

THE COMMITTEE of the NATIONAL SOCIETY are desirous to inform the Subscribers, and the public at large, that the Central School, in Baldwin's Gardens, Gray's Inn Lane, has been opened, for some months, for the Education of 600 Boys and 400 Girls, and that it may be visited by the Subscribers to the NATIONAL SOCIETY, or by any Members of the local Societies or Schools in Union with it, or by any other respectable persons desiring to see the •peration of the System. They also wish to acquaint the friends to this Institution, that the SOCIETY, on application through their Secretary, will receive Masters and Mistresses sent to them from any Society or School in Union with them, to be instructed gratuitously in the Madras System, and will assist in paying a part of the expences of such Master or Mistress coming to London to be trained, if the circumstances of the particular Society or School may appear to require that assistance. Every attention will be paid to qualify such persons for understanding and practising the System, which, with due application on their part, may be effected in a very few weeks; as soon as they are deemed competently qualified, they will receive a certificate from the Rev. WM. JOHNSON, Assistant Superintendant, to that effect.

Should the Societies in the Country be unable to send up persons from their own neighbourhood fit to be instructed in the Madras System, which the Committee recommend as generally preferable to receiving Masters from London, a number of persons are now retained in the constant pay of the SOCIETY duly qualified to teach the System, who, upon application to the School Committee through the Secretary, are ready to be sent either as permanent Masters, or as Teachers for such a time as the parties requiring their

H

assistance may wish; and, in the latter case, similar assistance in respect to the expences will be afforded, if it shall appear necessary.

With a view to furnishing initiatory Books with greater convenience, and at reduced prices, the Committee have ordered to be deposited at Messrs. RIVINGTON's, St. Paul's Church Yard, Books of that description, in sets of 50 each, for 100 Children, (of which a list is subjoined,) which may be procured from those Booksellers upon application in writing, by any Member of the NATIONAL SOCIETY, or by the Secretary of any Society, or the Master of any School in Union with the NATIONAL SOCIETY, for the use of such School, at the same reduced prices as those Books are sold by the SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE to its Members.

The first Report* of the NATIONAL SOCIETY has been for some months in the course of delivery to Subscibers, at Messrs. RIVINGTON'S, and may be had by Non-Subscribers, price 28. 6d. Upon a perusal of the above Report, it will be found that in inviting the Societies formed in the Country, to unite with the NATIONAL SOCIETY, it has no view of interfering with, or drawing upon their local Funds. Its only objects are to preserve an uniformity of proceeding, and to adopt the most improved System of educating the Poor that can be devised; and, at the same time, to afford to the Societies in the Country pecuniary assistance, at their first establishment, where their Funds, after due exertion, appear to require it; and to furnish them with competent Masters, and proper Books, at a reduced expence.

The COMMITTEE anxiously hope that the liberality and zeal of the Nation at large will enable them, by Contributions to the Parent, as well as to the local Societies, to furnish extensively such means of assistance as may be considered likely to produce the most important benefits to the public, and to prove the most advantageous application of the general Funds of the Society.

Of the progress that has been already made in the establishment of the System of National Education throughout the Kingdom; of

• The 2d Aunual Report may now also be had as above by Members of the NATIONAL SOCIETY gratis, and by Non-Subscribers, at the price of 3s.

the numerous local Societies already formed in Union with the NATIONAL SOCIETY, information is given in the Report, up to the time of its publication, and much has since been done. Aids have been furnished in sums from £20. to £200., when local circumstances pointed out the necessity of such aids; and numerous Reports have been received from various parts of the Country of the beneficial effects already produced, on the morals and manners not only of the Children themselves, but also of the Parents, whose gratitude for this attention to the interests and welfare of their Children is every where very strongly marked.

The Subscribers are respectfully reminded, that their Subscriptions for the current year became due the first of January, and that Subscriptions continue to be received at Messrs. SIKES, SNAITH, and Co.'s, Mansion House Street; Messrs. DRUMMOND'S, Charing Cross, and JOSHUA WATSON, Esq. Treasurer, No. 20, Mark Lane.

.....

50 dozen Cards or Leaves, or National Soci-
ety Central School Book, No. 1.
50 National Society Central School Book, No. 2. 0,

L. s. d.

}

0 4 2

2 0

And Mrs. TRIMMER'S " Teacher's Assis

tant," 2 Vols. in double Sets, at

0 2 0

0 7 0 each set.

By order of the Committee,

February, 1813.

T. T. WALMSLEY.

No. VIII.

The present State of the CENTRAL SCHOOL,

BALDWIN'S GARDENS.

ARRANGEMENT.

THE CENTRAL SCHOOL is divided into two rooms, well lighted and ventilated: one for 600 Boys, and the other for 400 Girls, allowing six square feet for each Child.

The Building is perfectly plain, and fitted up in the simplest manaer, the walls white-washed, and the floor level. Writing desks, having in front a single row of benches on which the Children sit to write in successive portions, are placed round each School against the wall, with the top ledge about three inches from it, so as to admit the Slates on which they write to hang from hooks fixed 14 inches asunder in a slender deal rail, fastened to the wall about half a foot above the ledge. At the lower end of the School are placed the sand trays, extending across the room, at which the alphabet and stops are taught, and the under classes write a portion of their reading lessons. The rest of the room contains only a desk, on which lies a book for the insertion of Visitors' names, and a few moveable forms in the Boys' School, and two large work tables and forms in the Girls' School; the area being left as open as possible, to allow full space for the classes to form, and the Children to pass freely to and from their places.

The Schools,-in which the Madras System is strictly* observed as well in the mode of tuition, as in discipline,—are divided into aisles, and each aisle into classes of not more than 36 in each; the only rule for classification being the qualifications of the Children.

To each class are attached a teacher, and an assistant teacher, who have the entire management and direction of such class: the teachers

* See "Elements of Tuition," &c. by the Rev. Dr. A. BELL, in which the particulars of the System are fully detailed.

being selected from a superiour, and the assistants from their own, or the class immediately above them, and, in whatever class they have charge, reading a portion of the lesson in turn with the other Children.

To each aisle is appointed a sub-usher, who sees that the teachers do their duty; and over each School presides a head-usher, er monitor.

EMPLOYMENT.

MORNING.

The Schools open precisely at nine with Prayers, consisting of the 2d and 3d Collects of Morning Service, the Lord's Prayer, and "the Grace of our Lord," read by one of the Children; and every Child not present at Prayers, and not assigning a satisfactory reason for absence, is detained after School-Hours from five to thirty minutes.

After Prayers the first aisle cipher till ten-learn by heart Religious exercises till half-past ten-write till eleven- and read till the Schools are dismissed, at twelve.

Second aisle write till half-past nine-learn Religious exercises till ten-read till eleven-and cipher till twelve.

Third aisle learn Religious exercises till half-past nine-and read and write alternately till twelve.

AFTERNOON.

The Schools re-open at two. The Girls' School, still in classes with teachers, assistants, &c. learn knitting and needle-work till half-past four, and arithmetical tables till five.

The Boys' School-first aisle cipher till three-write till halfpast three-read till half-past four,-and learn arithmetical tables till five.

Second aisle write till half-past two-read till half-past threesipher till half-past four,-and learn arithmetical tables till five.

Third aisle read and write till half-past four, and learn arithmetical tables or cipher till five; at which hour both Schools are dismissed with the Gloria Patri, sung by the Children after Prayers