By SOPHIE BRYANT, D.Sc., Litt.D., late Headmistress, North London Collegiate School for Girls.

As late as 1907 a headmistress who was a product of the training of that time remarked: "We have Kindergarten on Wednesday afternoons and then it is over for the week."

The headmistress spoke of her in high terms, and the incumbent of St. Luke's, who knew her family, reported that she had always been remarkably clever.

The headmistress.

THIRKELL, LANCELOT G. The headmistress.

She read it to the headmistress and all, and they agreed that it was too good to be lost, and Arthurine copied it out and added to it, and heMr.

'And her headmistress has just arrived,' said Susan, 'to make her worse than ever!' 'How comes a headmistress to be running about the country at this time of year?' asked Bessie.

The dinner at the Gap was over, and Miss Elmore, the headmistress, was established in an arm-chair, listening to the outpouring of her former pupil and the happy mother about all the felicities and glories of their present life, the only drawback being the dullness and obstructiveness of the immediate neighbours.

Headmistress of the County Secondary School, South Hackney IV.

An honours degree is often essentialalways, nowadays, in the case of a headmistress.

"This freedom," writes a recently retired Headmistress of thirty-six years' standing (Mrs Woodhouse, late of Clapham High School), "was of the greatest value as leading to differentiation of type and character of school.

It ensured a spirit of joy in work for the whole staff; for the Headmistress and her band of like-minded colleagues were co-workers in experiments towards development and sharers in the realisation of ideals.

Long before she is Headmistress she will have made her mark in her schoolfor not only the numerous activities mentioned but also the organisation of ordinary school work require initiative and self-reliance.

On the other hand, a woman, whose best work is that of an assistant, should not be tempted to give it up for the salary of a headmistress.

It is now less common than formerly for the appointment and dismissal of the staff to be entirely in the hands of the Headmistress; and assistants are thus safe-guarded against possible unfair and arbitrary action.

The Headmistress, however, has almost invariably a preponderating voice in the selection of her staffas is right if the school is to be a living organism, not merely one of a series of machines with interchangeable parts; but the power of dismissal, if in her hands, is usually safe-guarded by the right of appeal to the appointing bodylocal authority or board of governors as the case may be.

A still better solution, in our opinion, is co-education, with pupils of both sexes, a mixed staff, and a joint Headmaster and Headmistress.

The salaries of the gymnastic teachers in the London County Council secondary schools are fixed at £130 a year with no possibility of advancement, and, though this may compare favourably with the initial salaries of other teachers on the staff, it must be remembered that the teaching life of a gymnastic teacher is shorter and there are no headmistress-ships to which to look forward.

The headmistress anxious to undertake something of the sort has had many difficulties to face in the immediate past.

The economical headmistress must always be on the look out for an acquisition to her staff who will, like Count Smorltork's politics, "surprise in herself many branches."

If the headmistress can solve her difficulty about her domestic arts teacher by engaging a college-bred woman, with a degree to put on the prospectus, all sorts of ordinary subjects for her odd hours and undertaking to teach cooking as well, she will jump at the chance, and pay her £10 to £20 more salary than the ordinary assistant-mistress.

The initiative usually comes from the headmistress, and is a matter of personal judgment, so that the introduction is still an experiment on trial, and the method of trial varies.

This means serious expense, and the headmistress is naturally anxious to have considerable use made of the room.

A special syllabus is prepared according to the individual need of each school, by the Domestic Subjects' teacher and the headmistress; the instruction is a very definite part of the curriculum, and the teacher a member of the school staff.

In London and other large towns, and with certain County Councils, the Centre is under the general supervision of the headmistress of the school to which it is attached, but technical details are entirely in the hands of the teacher of Domestic Subjects and of the superintendent who visits periodically.