“Copy of H.M. Inspector’s Report on this school:-
“This school has now been open for two years and at the visit of inspection had 1070 pupils on the roll.The excellent premises provided are comfortably filled, and the work of instruction is carried on under most favourable conditions. “every new school takes a year or two to find itself and to develop a character and atmosphere of its own, and this has proved to be the case with Dens Road. It is satisfactory, however, to be able to report that the performance of the pupils has steadily improved, that the school has shaken off the merely temporary attendees that flocked to it at first from outlying parts, and that it has nowdeveloped into a local centre serving a district of its own. For the first year the work of organisation and instructionwas rendered exceedingly difficult owing to the fact that many of the pupils enrolled were found to be in a very backward state, and it says much for the efforts of the headmaster, supported by a loyal and capable staff, that so marked improvement has been effected in so short a time.
“The school is organised in an Infant Division with eight classes, a Junior Division with nine, and a Senior Division with six, there being included in each of the latter two divisions a special class in which particular attention is given to backward pupils”
Infants:
“The Infant Department is under Miss Paton’s charge, and is conducted with exceptional skill and enthusiasm. All that is best in modern infant teaching is laid under contribution, and the progress of the pupils is most satisfactory.”
Juniors
“Throughout the Junior Division thereare evidences of careful classification, and of steady progressive work. The weight of the teaching effort has been wisely thrown on essential branches, and the good foundation laid should stand the pupils in good stead, when they come to deal with more difficult work of the higher classes.”
Seniors
“In the Senior division there are some promising classes, and also a few which have been difficult to organise owing to the relatively backward state of many of the pupils. All the teachers, however, are working zealously, and everything points to greater and more uniform proficiency in the near future.”
“The number of pupils reaching the stage of the Qualifying Examination is steadily rising, and the number(thirty nine) of those who recently passed this examination is to be regarded in the circumstances of the school as distinctly satisfactory”
The subsidiary branches of the curriculum scaresly call for comment at this time, but it may be mentioned that the excellent provision for physical exercises is a great boon to the school, and that Sewing is taught on lines that should add fresh life and interest to this subject.
The work of the following class teachers impressed the examiners as being distinctly good:
Miss Bruce and Miss Lothian in charge of Senior Classes; and Miss Tosh, teacher of J1a”
The letter from the Clerk accompanying the above contained congratulations on the terms of the report.