THE PETERITE VOI. XLIII
OCTOBER, 1951
No. 328
EDITORIAL The saying of Homer, repeated in various guises by many subsequent and lesser authors, that a city consists not of walls and towers but of men, must be some consolation to us in St. Peter's today. For presumably the sentiment may be applied to a school, which does not consist of class-rooms and laboratories, but of boys : and with that thought we must comfort ourselves for the undeniable inadequacy of our accommodation in the term on which we have just embarked. We manage well enough, but the difficulties have become serious. In a sense, the urgency of the problem is a measure of our success. In 1946, when, in the light of the implementation of the 1944 Act and of the Governors' decision for complete independence of the state system, our post-war policy was carefully considered, it was laid down that we should plan for a school of 500 boys, 300 in the Senior School and 200 in the Junior School. This number seemed to us the ideal, in that it was economically desirable and administratively manageable. We should avoid the Scylla of the large, impersonal school in which the individual boy would be submerged, without falling into the Charybdis of the economic difficulties consequent on a size too small to be financially self-supporting The numbers which were postulated then, and on which our building programme was based, have already been reached. We began the Christmas Term with 299 boys in the Senior School and exactly 200 in the Junior School. Unfortunately, though much has been achieved (more, in fact, than seemed possible in view of post-war restrictions), our building developments have inevitably lagged behind. The Head Master's references, therefore, to this point in his Speech Day report, of which we give a résumé elsewhere in our pages, were of particular interest and showed that he and the Governors had anticipated the problem and had it very much in mind. The extension of our class-room and laboratory accommodation, with, possibly, the enlargement of Big Hall, is to be the limit of our immediate aims. The decision, we feel, is sound. This modification of our earlier ambitions puts first things first and is more in accord with the realities of the times in which we live. 1
