Thornbury Grammar School 1904
(from The Gazette of 1904)
The following is a copy of the recent examination of the above school.
Copy
To the Committee for the Examination and Inspection of Secondary Schools in the County of Gloucestershire and in the Diocese of Gloucester and Bristol.
Cheltenham
December 29th 1901
My Lords and Gentlemen
I have the honour to submit the following report of the examination of the lower division in December of Thornbury Grammar School.
I visited Thornbury Grammar School on December 19th and examined the Lower Division in History and Geography and I also examined the scholarship candidates orally and by short papers. I examined the school in History, Geography, Scripture, Literature, French and Latin, and one boy in Greek. I must congratulate the Headmaster on his results, which are the more remarkable when one considers that he has to do the whole teaching without any assistance. Many of the papers were quite excellent, showing signs of admirable and careful teaching; all was produced in good form. There was not much bad spelling, and remarkably few if any, silly mistakes. As a rule, if the boys could not answer correctly, they made no attempt to answer.
Scripture. – The subjects prepared were the 1st Book of Kings and St Matthew’s Gospel. In the Upper Division three boys, Bruton (90%), Gale (86%) and George (85%), scored more than 80%. Bruton’s work throughout was excellent, his marks on the whole examination amounting to eighty three per cent .
English History. – The period taken was 1327 to 1603. The marks in this subject did not reach the same high figures as those in the Scriptures paper. But Bruton again with 78% , Young (who has also done an excellent examination) with 72% and Gale with 68% deserve special commendation. The Second Division had much easier questions. Tucker and Fry with 90% each, White with 84%, Ford with 80%, answered exceedingly well.
Geography. – The First Division took up Europe, and the Second took England and Wales. This subject was for the most part well known. Bruton was awarded 90%, and in the junior class Fry obtained 93%, White 90% Ford and Honeyborne 84% each. Only three boys in all the school fell below 50.
English Grammar. – This paper proved to be too easy, and consequently a great number of high marks were gained. Bruton again did best; indeed, he scored nearly full marks. He was the only boy who succeeded in analysing correctly a not very difficult line from Tennyson.
Richard II. – Shakespeare’s play was taken by the Upper Division. This paper was done creditably. Bruton here did much the best paper, obtaining 79 marks, being 21 above the second boy. The work was sensible, but no one seemed to have cared to commit great passages to memory.
French. – The translation into English of passages of prepared books was satisfactorily done and there was not much to find fault with in the answers to the Grammar questions, but not much was made of passages set for translation into French, although they were taken from class books used by the boys. In the Upper Division Young obtained the highest mark 77%, closely followed by Bruton with 75%, Cooper 69%, deserves commendation as does Gayner 66%. In the Second Division Hall and Mulleny did best .
Latin. – Here again the prepared passages were well known but the grammar was poor; in fact disappointing, Bruton again did much the best paper, being marked 76%.
Greek, H. – This was taken only by one boy, Young , who is quite a beginner. He did fairly well on an easy paper.
I have the Honour to be,
My Lords and Gentlemen,
Yours Obediently,
James A. Owen, M.A.
Late Fellow and Classical Lecturer University College Oxford, and formerly Junior Classical Assistant Master of Cheltenham College
Countersigned:
W J Selby M.A.
Hon. Secretary
(Note the boys referred to in the above report were: Wilfrid Charles Bruton, Donald Young, Charles Fry, Harold Cooper, Henry Stafford Ford, Richard Charles White, Charles George, Frank H. Mulleny, Arthur Land Honeyborne, Arthur J. Hall and Roland C. Gayner.)