The Parents' Review

A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture

Our Work

House of Education.

Ladies wishing for Probationers for August and September should apply without delay. Ladies who do not see their way to employ House of Education Governesses should take this opportunity of getting their help in nature work, handicrafts, educational principles, etc. Term ends July 16th.

The House of Education is closed from August 1st to September 15th. Letters relating to the House of Education, Parents' Review School, Mothers' Educational Course, Governesses, etc., cannot be answered or received between these dates.

We had the great pleasure of an illuminating and most interesting lecture on In Memoriam, from the Rev. Canon C. V. Gorton, on Friday, June 12th.

Parents' Review School.
The examination papers will be sent out for Monday, July 13th. The summer examination is optional.

Examiner's Report on Nature Note Books, December, 1902

Class I.

Miss Lillian Lees. - A very nice book. Brushwork decidedly clever; has facility in producing character of plants, both in form and colour.
Miss Agnes C. Drury. - Observations profuse and well recorded. Drawings excellent.
Miss E. M. Ogden. - Very full notes, and well written. Drawings very nice.
Miss H. M. A. Bell. - This is a very nice book, and the drawings are excellent, particularly the twigs, in which the details are wonderfully accurate.
Miss Ellen Parish. - A very good book. The notes are excellent and show a fine appreciation of natural beauty. Drawings good. The insects, feathers, and eggs, are very boldly drawn.
Miss E. M. Pike. - A nice book, showing a very true appreciation of Nature. The drawings are very good and accurate.
Miss D. Smyth. - A very artistic book. The drawings of birds and insects are most effective. The notes good.
Miss L. Eleanor Clendinnen. - The notes are full and good. The drawings are excellent.
Miss Beatrice Dismorr. - The same remarks almost precisely apply to this book.

Class II.

Miss C. N. Heath. - Another good book. Drawings abundant and good. Observations might be recorded a little more at length.

Miss E. May Garnier, Miss Winnifred Wilkinson, Miss H. H. Fountain, Miss Ida Emily Fischer, Miss G. A. Mendham, Miss M. E. Moule, Miss C. A. Fraser. - The above seven books bracketed together are all good. The notes are perhaps not quite so full as some, and the drawings not quite so life-like. They all, however, breathe the right spirit. The differences rather lie in quantity of note and quality of drawings.

General Report.

As I have not had the advantage of seeing the previous year's work of the students, this report cannot have any comparative value. I consider the whole of the seventeen note books so good that it is exceedingly difficult to make even two classes out of them. The students will thus be classified rather by quantity and quality of the notes and drawings respectively, than by any great inferiority in the matter of recorded observations. The brushwork of those students high up in the list was both true to Nature and most artistic. The spontaneity of the records was very delightful, and made the work of examining so many note-books quite a pleasure. The students should now seek to extend their observations to the relations of plants to the soils on which they grow: to noting the position of leaves with regard to light and darkness: should learn to interpret the structure of plants in relation to the visits of insects for the purpose of pollination; and if they have time to rear insects, both aquatic and terrestrial, they will thus be able to add many new delights to their rambles.
(signed) Alfred Thornley, M.A., F.L.S., F.E.S.

The Rev. A. Thornley, who is Referee for a considerable district of the Midlands, most kindly consents to be Referee for House of Education students also. He says, "I hope the students will send me plenty of specimens to determine. I can determine plants, animals, insects, shells and fungi." Students should enclose a stamped and addressed envelope with specimens to Rev. A. Thornley, M. A., South Leverton Vicarage, Lincoln. Old students will feel that this is an immense advantage.

Examination in Cardboard Modelling.
Held at the House of Education, 2nd May, 1903

Class List.

Brownell, Dorothy . . . Passed with distinction.
Wix, Helen E. . . . " " "
Brooks, E. M. . . . Passed
Goode, B. M. . . . "
Tibbits, Winifred . . . "
White, W. A. . . . "
Wilson, Marie L. . . . "
Wooler, M. L. . . . "
John Cooke.

P.N.E.U. Literary Society.—Subject for July: Selection from Lowell's Poems.
P.N.E.U. Translation Society.—Subject for July: Selection from Goethe's Gedichte.
C. Agnes Rooper, Hon. Sec.,
Pen Selwood, Gervis Road, Bournemouth.
From whom all particulars may be obtained.

Proofread by Leslie Noelani Laurio, November 2008