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entrants are those dependent upon (1) faulty nutrition; (2) infective processes;
and (3) unhealthy domestic surroundings. Examples of the first are anaemia, skin
affections, eye diseases and rickets; of the second ear disease; and of the third
uncleanliness and forms of skin disease. As regards changes in the physical defects
of entrants within the previous ten years, the conclusion, broadly speaking, is that
there is not much evidence of substantial improvement, although, judging from
heights and weights, it may be inferred that the general physique of young children
on admission to school is slightly better in the post-war years than immediately
before the war. The need for linking up the work of infant welfare centres, nursery
schools and the school medical service is emphasised and attention called to the wide
field for preventive medical acitivity during the period of attendance at the nursery
school.
Briefly, the functions of the nursery school, regarded from the medical standpoint,
are to provide children of two to five with an environment which is suitable
for healthy growth and which it is impossible for them to obtain in the homes from
which they come, to furnish them with abundance of light and air, to provide them
with nourishing and adequate food, to attend to ailments at the earliest possible
moment and to train them in hygienic habits.
The physical results of attendance at nursery schools are discussed in a separate
report. Details as to prevailing conditions in London, Manchester and Bradford
are given below.

The figures are very similar for the three cities, about a quarter of the children
in the nursery schools being two years of age.
Attendance.—In London with a roll of 566 children (year ending March, 1927)
the average attendance is 82 per cent. In Bradford with a roll of 236 the average
is 70 per cent. In Manchester, where returns were obtained from three schools
with a roll of 146, the average is 83 per cent.
The attendances vary considerably.
In St. Ann's, at Bradford, where the children are exceptionally poor, there is an
attendance of 85.7 per cent., whereas in the same town Lilycroft and Princeville
Schools, with a much better class of child and much better premises, have 63 per
cent. and 58.5 per cent, respectively. Similarly, in London very poor schools such
as the Rachel McMillan and Children's House, have attendances of 88 per cent.,
and 87 per cent. respectively, whilst Goldsmiths' College Nursery School, with a
specially good class of child, has 69 per cent.
Selection.—Most schools have a waiting list from which children are selected as
vacancies arise.
In some, for example, the Rachel McMillan and Notting Hill, children are chosen
mainly on grounds of health. At Collyhurst (Manchester) all children are selected
by the doctor at the Infant Welfare Centre, most being rickety or otherwise debilitated,
though a few only—children who suffer from solitude at home—are also sent.
Only children have likewise had some preference at the Mary Ward, though the
tendency there now is to select on grounds of poverty. At Goldsmiths' College
School delicate children with delicate mothers have priority. At Kilburn Union
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