The Headmaster of Friars beg to draw the attention of parents to a serious evil affecting the school, for which they are themselves responsible. At the commencement of each term a large percentage of the boys are late in returning from their homes, and a week or more often elapses from the date fixed for beginning work before the whole school has assembled, as the defaulters, (on) their arrival, bringing excuses for their absence which for the most part are incredibly trivial and ridiculous. Now parents are earnestly requested to consider that the harm done in each such case is threefold: (1) The defaulter himself fails to obtain the full value of his school fees, and suffers a loss of tuition which cannot be estimated by the mere duration of his absence, as the first lessons in any subject, (which he misses), are often the most important in the term. (2) The form to which he belongs suffers, as the late arrival of even a single boy destroys the uniformity of the work of the whole form; and (3) The whole School suffers, in so far as every such case is subversive of that regularity of discipline without which no large body of this kind can have a healthy existence. In many Public Schools this evil is checked by the infliction of fines upon, or exclusion of offenders; but the headmaster of Friars hopes that this appeal to parents will render the adoption of such measures unnecessary.

W. Glynn Williams