THE YEAR'S RECORD.
1915-1916.
Reasons for the Change
Throughout the year the standard of school work has been steadily maintained, and it is rather because a further development of the original conception of the Caldecott Community now appears to be demanded than merely because the children have outgrown their present quarters, that the year 1917 will mark the opening of a new chapter in the history of our enterprise.
From Nursery School to Boarding School.
Subscribers will not need to be reminded that the Caldecott Community began as a Nursery School in October, 1911, and represented at first only an attempt to bridge over the difficult period between the ages of three and five, when the children of wage-earning parents are too old for the Crêche and too young for the Elementary School. Nor is there any need here to detail the steps by which the baby scholars grew out of their Nursery School, and were kept on in what now became a Day School till the ages of seven, eight, and even nine, before being passed on to the rough-and-tumble of the ordinary Elementary School.
It was during the past year that circumstances, added to the natural growth of a live idea, compelled the Directors and their Council to contemplate yet another stage in the evolution of the Community, and finally to make the decision to move into the country and establish a Boarding School for these children and others like them, on the same broad basis of experiment that had characterised their work from its earliest days.
Reasons for the Change
Chief among material reasons pointing towards the adoption of this new plan was the condemnation of the School premises by the L.C.C. Education Authorities in the summer of 1916, and the difficulty, amounting almost to impossibility, of finding a suitable house in the neighbourhood desired. But the more important reasons which led to the Council’s decision may be briefly summarised as follows :—
The Hon. Directors had become convinced that even under the most favourable conditions a Day School in London could not adequately supply the fundamental needs of healthy child life. Unsuitable food; short hours of restless sleep; noise and dirt; lack of space, both in School and home, were going a long way towards checking the healthy desires and ambitions which the Caldecott Community was endeavouring to foster. If such desires were not to be allowed scope, it was perhaps worse than useless to arouse them. This point of view has the cordial sympathy and support of the