Figure 1.--This boy is very concerned about the marks he got on a geography exam on Chile and is watching as the teacher corrects his paper. Turns out he did quite well.

Marks or grades are an important part of prep school life. Most prep school place considerable emphasis on academics and standing in class tends to be very competitive. Marks tend to be very serious business at prep schools. Individual schools vary as to the grading process, but few schools have embraced the kind of non-competitive system recommended by some educatiors in Britain and America. Some educators argue that children should not be subjective to failure because it is psychologically harmful. A number of systems have been suggested such as a non-graded pass-fail approach. Some teachers are encouraged to allow children to repeat tests until they pass them. Other educators suggest passing children from form to form to keep up with their peers regardless of their academic achievements a process of social promotions. Most prep schools have rejected these approaches which are dismissed as lacking basic standards. Prep schools tend to persue rigorous grading systems and a comoetitive approach to academics. Of course there are differences from school to school, but this is the general pattern at most prep schools. Schools often post results or publish them in school publications for all to see. The children often know their precise numerical ranking in each class. These results are often very important to the parents and thus to the children themselves. Commonly there are periodic reports to parents, such as very 3 weeks. and a full report at the end of each term. Schools often have days for the parents to visit to meet the teachers. Usually they are able to look over some of the children's work. This is especially important at boarding schools where the children do not bring their work home daily. Here there are variations from school to school. At St. Michael's in Surrey the parents are invited one day during the Summer and Winter term. The parent's night during the Spring term is reserved for the VI Form students who are at the end of their prep school experience. .

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