144 " Eukal Bias " in Secondary Schools. [May, 



that there should be an ever-lengthening procession through 

 our secondary schools of boys and girls bent upon acquiring 

 the special knowledge that will enable them to take advantage 

 of modern conditions. The Board of Education is not 

 unmindful of the new needs that the past few years have 

 brought into being, and while expert opinion there is convinced 

 that, if it is to be effective, secondary education must be an all 

 round education and not limited in scope or purpose, yet 

 certain concessions have been found possible. Provided that 

 the curriculum of a secondary school embraces a modern 

 language, some science and English, the " rural bias " is 

 recognised and even encouraged. The new development is at 

 present only in its first stage, and Sexey's is one of four 

 secondary schools in which the " rural bias " may be seen in 

 the working. Welshpool County School for Boys is another, 

 Knaresborough Bural Secondary School in the West Eiding 

 is a third, and the Daunt sey Agricultural School at West 

 Lavington in Wilts the fourth. In three years at Knares- 

 borough thirty per cent, of the boys went on to farms, while 

 others took to surveying or garden work or emigrated to the 

 Dominions. At Welshpool out of 250 boys more than thirty per 

 cent, went on to farm work or took up estate office work and 

 surveying. At Sexey's where the majority of the pupils are 

 associated directly or indirectly with agriculture the proportion 

 that seeks a living from it is larger still. 



Sexey's differs from Knaresborough and Welshpool in so 

 far as it is a co-educational school, the boys and girls working 

 in the same classrooms to a like end. While it is a secondary 

 school by virtue of its four-year course for children who may 

 come in at the age of twelve, there is a preparatory side for 

 boys and girls, so that it is possible for a child whose training 

 and associations suggest the possible development of an 

 agricultural bias to start at Sexey's and receive complete 

 education there. 



The support received for this farm, which is of course a 

 branch of the school and was a subsequent addition to it, comes 

 from many sources. The original foundation was the Manor 

 of Blackford, left by Hugh Sexey, Auditor to Queen Elizabeth 

 and James I, for educational and other purposes in the year 

 1617. Out of funds provided by this foundation a school was 

 built, and when the Rev. Edward Smith, who had been 

 Instructor in Agriculture under the Wiltshire County Council, 

 was asked to take charge of it, his keen interest in farming 



