ABSTRACT
For the preparatory schools were torn in two directions; the navy demanded modern subjects and the public school held to classical examinations. To cope with this they had to divide their schools. This was a costly business for many private preparatory headmasters, unless the optimum size of a school was raised to 150 to allow such fragmentation into special classes. Notwithstanding the overcautious attitude of Mervyn Voules towards curriculum reform and possible government intervention, some change was recommended both inside and outside the association. The eventual displacement of the language caused much satisfaction amongst the many preparatory school headmasters who had regarded the comparatively high standard of Greek required by public schools as the chief time-consumer. The curriculum reformers of the early twentieth century were the harbingers of pragmatism amongst English preparatory schools. Their achievements in the establishment of the common entrance examination and disestablishment of Greek from the preparatory school curriculum foreshadowed greater changes in the later twentieth century.
