|
The principles laid down by the founders have never varied in
spite of changes in organization. Many thousands of apprentices have passed
through the schools and have raised the technical level of the technical work
in the dockyards. Great numbers responded to the opportunities offered and have
become officers and draughtsmen in the dockyards, or civilians in technical
trades where their dockyard training has stood them in good stead.
The
dockyards have produced many men of outstanding capability; men who have passed
on through the Royal Naval College at Manadon and Greenwich and who have become
distinguished as naval constructors, naval architects, engineer officers and
electrical engineers. Apprentices have found their way into every kind of post
open to men with their qualifications. Some have occupied Chairs in the
Universities or have become principals of technical colleges; others have
become instructor officers or schoolmasters in the Royal Navy or members of the
staffs of the dockyard schools. A case in point is Mr. W. G. Burrell, Head
master of the Portsmouth school since 1947, and who was once an apprentice. He
was a Whitworth Exhibitioner in 1911.
As with such schools attached to
other dockyards, the Portsmouth school is divided into upper and lower
sections. The full course in the upper school is four years, although each
yearly course is complete in itself. The schools at the moment are in the
middle of one of the periodic re-organizations which keep them well up in the
forefront for technical education. Since 1854 apprentices have been entered
into the Royal Dockyards by Civil Service examination based on a definite
syllabus. This entry system has been modified in recent years to encourage the
secondary modern schoolboy, by the introduction of entry by aptitude tests and
interview, in addition to the entry by written examinations. There are also
three entries per year instead of one.
The boys who enter by written
examination are placed in the upper school and do 16 hours a week (two full
days of six hours and two evenings of two hours each week at the school, and
the boys entered by the aptitude test are placed in the lower school and do,
whenever possible, ten hours each week (one full day of six hours and two
evenings of two hours each, a week. A boy who works well can be transferred
from the lower to the upper school. Another innovation, which will be introduce
generally into the system as soon a circumstances permit, is that each boy will
stay for at least three years in the school, upper or lower. This has been
partly applied already.
The Head Master is assisted by a highly
competent full-time staff. There is also a part-time evening staff, mainly for
lower school instruction recruited from men in the technical departments of the
Dockyard. The lecturers for technical subjects for the third and fourth year
apprentices are specialist professional officers.
Source: Hampshire
Telegraph and Post, Friday, June 6, 1952 |