THE PETERITE Vol. XXXVI
MAY, 1944
No. 306
EDITORIAL. In some respects the Easter Term, though generally short in duration and rarely spectacular, is the most important of the School year. It is the term when much solid work can be done without interference by circumstances outside our control ; when the ship, as it were, ploughs purposefully onwards, untroubled by the distractions of departure, and as yet undisturbed by the excitement of "landfall" and the imminent prospect of the end of the passage. The Christmas Term begins with an unsettled period when we are adjusting ourselves to the opening of a new school year, and it is unavoidably affected by the incidence of important external functions such as Speech Day and the School Play. Similarly the Summer Term is rendered hectic by the inevitable and swift approach of examinations and the business of winding up the year's programme. But in the Easter Term we have settled down to routine and may work undisturbed. It is then that the foundations of success or failure are really laid. A dull term, some may say (though not an inactive one (as the record of the following pages show), but solid, humdrum effort is vital to progress. Numerically, the School has long since reached the limits of its capacity. Places can be filled, and more than filled as fast as they become vacant. That this applies no less to the Junior School is a happy augury for the future strength of St. Peter's. There is, of course, little elasticity of accommodation in war-time, but the problem of extending our buildings as soon as circumstances permit, to meet the ever-growing demand is one to which the Headmaster and the Governors are giving much earnest thought. Already we have been told enough about plans for the future to whet our appetite for more exact knowledge, and it is hoped that before long the authorities will be able to make some definite pronouncement. Old Peterites and friends of the School will be gratified that this question of future expansion is being approached boldly and, above all, in the confident belief that from the present period of great educational changes St. Peter's will emerge stronger and more firmly based than ever. The experiment of abandoning hockey in the Easter Term would seem, on balance, to have been a success. In the earlier half of the term rugger was continued, and, although there were no serious ist XV fixtures (they were not, indeed, contemplated), much good was done in the important, and often neglected work of team-building for the following season. From mid-term onwards, when rugger finished, there was an opportunity to give adequate attention to Athletics and the inter-house rowing. Though many regretted the passing of hockey—a game at which the School has had much success—there can be little doubt that in the past we have generally found that we have attempted too much in a term in which, more often than not, outdoor activities are frustrated by the weather. The conspicuous success of A. H. Terry in the March Open Scholarship (of which details are given elsewhere) adds one more to our "bag" of Oxford and Cambridge Scholarships during the past few months. The recent achievements of the VIth forms, particularly in Modern Languages, have afforded us deep satisfaction. The numerical strength and successes of the post-school certificate forms are the acid test of the academic value of a School of this kind, and we have good reason to congratulate ourselves in this respect.
OPEN SCHOLARSHIP AT TRINITY HALL, CAMBRIDGE. We congratulate A. H. Terry on the award, in March, of the £t00 Open Major Scholarship (Modern Languages) at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. This distinction sets the seal on a remarkable academic career which has been an unbroken success
