230 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 



already qualified for entrance into a university are doing work which 

 may be included under one of the following heads: — 



1. Preparation for Intermediate Arts or Intermediate Science. 



2. Preparation for the Final B.A. (five from one school alone). 



3. Preparation for a scholarship examination at a university. 



4. Preparation for the Cambridge Higher Local. 



5. Preparation for entrance into certain training colleges. 



A great difference exists between the views on the subject of ' over- 

 lapping ' expressed by (c) Headmistresses of schools outside London 

 and (b) Headmistresses of London schools: — - 



(a) Most of these, including headmistresses of large schools in 

 Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Wakefield, consider there is no 

 difficulty as regards overlapping. One headmistress says: 'The fact 

 that there is no overlapping here shows, I think, the value of the local 

 university and the importance of having a close relation between the 

 school and it.' 



(b) With one exception all the London headmistresses who express 

 opinions on the subject of overlapping agree in stating that they are in 

 favour of girls staying at school after they have matriculated, and taking 

 higher work. One headmistress states that she would like all girls 

 who had matriculated to stay on for a year, as she considers : (1) They 

 are often too young and immature to go straight to college ; (2) It is 

 important for the staff to do more advanced work ; (3) It is good for the 

 school as a whole to have work beyond Matriculation, as the standard 

 of the final school is thereby raised. 



The opinions expressed by two headmistresses of long experience 

 are here given in full : — 



North London Collegia!- School (Mrs. Bryant). 



In schools like this, Matriculation is taken (generally in the form of the 

 Senior School examination of the University of London) in the Upper Fifth Form. 

 The Sixth Form studies are on the lines (1) of Intermediate Arts or (2) Inter- 

 mediate Science, except in the case of those who are specialising more closely in 

 preparation for Oxford and Cambridge. .Since the leaving age is nineteen, girls fre- 

 quently take two years in the Sixth Form, when the method of work is transitional 

 between school and university. These girls generally take Honours courses at the 

 university, and, by having passed Intermediate Arts or Science at school, they 

 have three years for their Final Honours work in London, as they would have if 

 they became students at Cambridge. Others who enter the university with 

 Matriculation attainments only become, with some exceptions, Pass students. 



Thus the Sixth Form overlaps the university with respect to the course for 

 Intermediate examinations in the colleges. By doing so it increases the supply 

 to the university of the better type of student more developed in intelligence, 

 more mature in character, with more independent habits of study. On the other 

 hand, the colleges, by overlapping with the schools, make it possible for boys and 

 girls with fewer advantages to enter the university at an earlier age, and go out 

 into the world on a shorter, but still sufficient, course of higher education. There 

 are only two alternatives to overlapping : (1) To level down by the abolition of 

 Sixth Form work, and (2) to level up by raising the standard of university 

 entrance. Each of these alternatives would, in my opinion, have disastrous 

 effects. A certain amount of overlapping appears to me to be highly beneficial. 



Clapham High School (Mrs. Woodhouse). 



With regard to 'overlapping,' I feel strongly the desirability of encouraging 

 girls to remain longer at school, and not to enter the university before the age of 



