SCHOOLS 



Reading, a school of the same type, which was 

 only opened in 1876, and had rapidly risen 

 to 230 boys by the time he left. At Camber- 

 well Mr. McDowell started with two assistant 

 masters and a modern language teacher. In 

 the first term eighty boys presented them- 

 selves. The tuition fee was wisely fixed, not 

 at the minimum £^ of the scheme but at the 

 maximum ;£lo ; so that while there has 

 been no margin, the school has not been 

 actually starved. By 1886 the school was 

 crowded to overflowing. In 1887, therefore, 

 a West wing was added at a cost of ^3,200. 

 A further enlargement, the East wing, was 

 undertaken in 1889, for the better accommo- 

 dation of the Science and Art teaching, at a 

 cost of ;C6,5oo, towards which the London 

 Technical Education Board gave ;£i,200, the 

 rest being met by a loan, which, in spite of 

 the low fee and the small endowment, has, 

 by first-rate management on the part of the 

 Headmaster and Governors, been reduced to 

 ;Ci,8oo. Since 1899 two Manual Instruction 

 Rooms have been built and equipped at a 

 total cost of ;C400, towards which the Techni- 

 cal Board granted £200. 



The buildings, now practically complete, 

 consist of a large Assembly Hall, Luncheon 

 Room, a Headmaster's and Governors' Meet- 

 ing Room, nine class rooms, a small library, a 

 Chemical Laboratory containing fifty-two 

 benches, a Physics Laboratory vnth accommo- 

 dation for thirty-two boys, two Science 

 Lecture Rooms, a large Art Room, and two 

 Manual Instruction Rooms with benches for 

 thirty-two students. There are also a lodge 

 for the school porter and caretaker, two cycle 

 houses, and so forth. 



The subjects of instruction embrace Eng- 

 lish History, Language and Literature, Geo- 

 graphy, Composition, French and German, 

 both spoken and written, Latin, Mathematics, 

 pure and mixed, Science (Chemistry and 

 Physics, practical and theoretical). Drawing 

 and Manual Instruction. 



Up to December 1903, 2,017 ^°Y^ ^^^ 

 passed through the school, and the number 

 in school at that date was 229. Three open 

 scholarships have been won at Cambridge, 

 one at Oxford, and five at London Hospitals, 

 direct from the school. At London Univer- 

 sity seven have passed the Intermediate B.A., 

 twelve the Intermediate B.Sc. and Preliminary 

 Scientific M.B., and eighty have matriculated 

 at the same University. 



The boys attending the school are for the 

 most part the sons of men engaged in the 

 City, others are sons of professional men, 

 journalists and traders. The majority of 

 the boys take up appointments in the City. 

 II 2 



A fair proportion enter professions, more 

 especially the medical. The number of 

 scholars drawn from the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood is constantly decreasing. Pupils 

 are drawn from a wider area every year. 

 The wave of poverty from the river is ad- 

 vancing regularly and persistently southward, 

 the downward change in the social status of 

 the residents of Camberwell having been very 

 marked during the last fifteen years. 



Considerable attention and encouragement 

 are given to athletics. In swimming, this 

 school for some years in succession has been 

 the Champion of the Secondary Schools of 

 London by winning the largest number of 

 events at the annual competition. In cricket 

 and football the elevens have as a rule won 

 the majority of their matches, although the 

 school is at great disadvantage in having no 

 suitable ground near at hand. There are 

 tennis, chess, and cycling clubs and a debating 

 society all well supported. With 300 boys 

 under twelve regular masters, eight visiting 

 teachers and three student-masters preparing 

 for London University, the school is no 

 doubt much larger than at any other period 

 of its history, and has in it the elements of still 

 larger increase. 



REIGATE GRAMMAR SCHOOL 



Reigate Grammar School was intended to 

 be founded by the application in 1675 of 

 ;ei50 in the hands of the churchwardens ' to 

 the purchase of a school site. Owing to liti- 

 gation the school was not actually established 

 till 1744, when the endowment was aug- 

 mented by Robert Bishopp's School Charity 

 founded by will, 14 July 1698, and John 

 Parker's Charity, founded in 1718, but which 

 also was in Chancery till 1744. 



In 1800 the Rev. Joseph Hodgson was 

 appointed master by the vestry, and under- 

 took in consideration of the school and house 

 having been put in repair by them, to teach 

 two boys from Reigate town, and two from 

 the ' foreign,' or township outside the liberty, 

 free. In 1825 he had ten free boys, who were 

 taught the three R.'s, and a kind of private 

 school. 



The Court of Chancery, by a scheme of 

 8 August i860, with the aid of funds derived 

 from charities which were obsolete, or had a 

 large surplus beyond what was required for 

 their original objects, such as the Bell Rope 

 Charity, for providing bell-ropes for the 

 church, put the school on a better footmg 

 with an endowment of about ;C230 a year and 

 new buildings. But it was placed under an 



1 Char. Com. Rep. xiii. 513. 



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