A joint school for boys and girls need excite no surprise in an institution that started at once as ‘co-educational.’ But unfortunately, in schemes of this kind there is always a tendency to let the girls come off second-best. This certainly applies to the arrangement of an ‘Organised Science School,’ which is the scheme usually adopted, both on account of its bias in favour of the scientific side and the power it confers to earn grants from South Kensington. Probably the admission of girls was to some extent an afterthought. The Battersea school had been open over a year before girls were admitted as an experiment. The present numbers are about one hundred and thirty, of whom two-thirds are boys. The average age of the junior division is fourteen, and of the senior fifteen. The fees are £1 a term, including books and stationery. The school hours are 9.30 to 12.30, and 2 to 4.30, five days in the week. The work of the three divisions is arranged thus:
1. Mechanical Division. Mathematics, five hours; Mechanics, three and a half hours; Physics, three and a half hours; Drawing, four hours; English subjects, four hours; French, two hours; Manual training, four and a half hours; Drill, one hour.
2. Science Division. Mathematics, five hours; Mechanics, two and a half hours; Physics, three and a half hours; Chemistry, four and a half hours; Drawing, three hours; English subjects, four hours; French, two hours; Manual training, two hours; Drill, one hour.
3. Elementary Division. Mathematics, five hours; Physics, three hours; Chemistry, two and a half hours; Drawing, three hours; English subjects, five hours; French, three hours; Art, two hours; Manual training or Domestic Economy, three hours; Drill, one hour.