to test the efficiency of the highest forms of our public
schools, and to enable boys to pass the earlier University examinations
while still at school. The subjects of study are divided into four
groups. In order to obtain a certificate it is necessary to pass in four
subjects taken from not less than three groups. A certificate therefore
ensures a sound and fairly wide education. The subjects of the groups
are languages, mathematics, English history, and lastly science. One
concession is made to girls which is not made to boys. They are allowed
to pass in two subjects one year, and two others the next, and thus
obtain their certificates piecemeal. Boys have to pass in all four
subjects the same year. The High School sent in seventeen candidates for
the examination in two or three of the subjects--History, Elementary
Mathematics, French, German, and Latin,--and fifteen of these passed in
two subjects at least: and, inasmuch as seven of them had in a previous
year passed in two other subjects, they obtained their certificates. The
rest carry on their two subjects, and will, we hope, obtain their
certificates next summer; six of them appear to be still in the school.
This is a very satisfactory result. The value of these certificates to
the public is the testimony they give to the very high efficiency of the
teaching. These examinations are not of the standard of the Junior or
Senior Local Examinations. They are very much harder. And all who know
about these matters see at a glance that a school that ventures to send
in its girls for this examination only is aiming very high. The
certificates for Music, given by the Harrow Music School examiners, are
also recognised by the profession as having a considerable value. But on
this subject I cannot speak with the same knowledge.

The value of these examinations to the mistresses is that they serve as
a guide and standard for teaching. We are all of us the better for being
thus kept up to the mark. Their value to you is that they help to make
your work definite and sound: and that, if it is slipshod, you shall at
any rate know that it is slipshod.

Therefore, speaking for the Council, and as the parent of a High School
girl, and as one of the public, I may say that we set a very high value
on these examinations and their results. They test and prove absolute
merit. Now, you may have noticed that one of the characteristics of
this school is the absence of all prizes and persona