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The Building:
The construction of the building is of load-bearing brick walls with timber joists
or lattice trussed roofs according to span, lined with fibre-board ceilings and covered
with compressed strawboard slabs with three layers of roofing felt.
The baby nursery is a completely self-contained unit with its own lavatory, babies'
bath and milk room for preparation of feeds. Lavatories and ablutions are provided
separately for toddlers and tweenies with a communal bathroom between the two units.
A laundry is provided together with separate rooms for drying and airing washed
articles during inclement weather.
There is a heated perambulator store where perambulators and the bedding therein
are kept adequately aired and warm. This, together with the baby nursery encompasses a
sheltered area where babies can be put out in fair weather in their perambulators.
All floors are thermoplastic tiles apart from lavatories and laundry which are
clay tiled.
The lavatory and kitchen walls are decorated with a plastic spray finish and the
building is heated by oil-fired central heating system through fan assisted convectors
in the nurseries, and radiators elsewhere.
The building was designed by the County Architect, and constructed by S.G.Cobban
and Co. Ltd., of Ilford.
The Service:
This new day nursery has been erected to replace the existing one which was built
in 1942 adjoining the Leyton Green School. The nursery is designed as a 50 place nursery
i.e. there will normally be 50 children in attendance and these are divided into three
groups: Babies (0-2 years), Tweenies (2-3 years), and Toddlers (3-5 years). Each of
these categories has its own nursery, toilets and washing facilities within the new
building.
The normal opening times of the nursery will be 8 a.m. -5.30 p.m. on Mondays to
Fridays inclusive, and the children are provided with breakfast, dinner and tea.
The nursery is a training nursery and the staff consists of a matron, deputy matron,
warden, six nursery nurses, nine student nurses, and domestic staff. The training of
the students is by theoretical work at the South-West Essex Technical College and
practical work in the day nursery, and normally four students at the nursery qualify
each year.
Children are admitted on a priority system and approximately one-third of the
places are taken up by the children of mothers who do not have the support of the father
and the remaining two-thirds almost entirely by children whose admission is recommended
because of social or economic need.
In this socio-economic group (Priority 2) help is given to young children for whom
parental care is proving inadequate. This failure of parental care can be due to a
variety of reasons, e.g.
Physical or mental inadequacy of mother;
Poor health or irregular employment of father;
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