View report page

77
Morally—By means of the spirit of "playing the game"; by discipline; personal
control and responsibility.
Mentally—By producing alertness of mind by physical fitness.
Results : Attendance—Consistent regularity with steady improvement during the year,
and in some classes very considerable improvement, 87 5 to 923 per cent. Exceptionally
small number of absences through minor ailments and unwarranted absences. Evidently a
desire to be present at school has been engendered. Boys realise that they have something to
gain by coming to school.
Physical—A marked improvement in deportment, cleanliness, general agility denoting
definition of purpose. The regulation requiring all physical training to be undertaken with no
unnecessary clothes has led to a higher standard of cleanliness (person and clothing), especially
in bare-foot dancing, eurhythmies and swimming. This aspect affects the home and parents.
Accelerated growth of physique and activity is noticeable. Game-shy boys and previously
considered delicate boys participate now in robust games. The records of height, weight, girth,
vital capacity and well balanced muscular development are most encouraging.
Moral—A spirit of sportsmanship is gradually evolving as intelligent games are learnt.
Team work telling ; less quarrelling, and vicious tendencies, e.g., bullying, petty theft, destruction
of property, etc., are manifest. Honour and trustworthiness are slowly becoming respected.
An excellent spirit and understanding between boys and teachers is being reached.
Mental—Response, industry, retentive powers, awakened interests, mental effort following
physical exercise, questions asked are the improvements observable. In certain cases physical
training seems to have proved to be the direct way of approach to intelligence.
Permission was given by the Council to Dr. F. G. Hobson of the Oxford Physiological Laboratory
to carry on investigations into physical measurements in certain London schools as part of a larger
research by Professor Georges Dreyer. Vauxhall-street School was selected as one of these schools
in virtue of the physical bias which there existed. Measurements of the "vital capacity" of the boys
taken by Dr. Hobson have been continued by Dr. Boome, and remarkable increases have been noted in a
large proportion of the boys in relation to this function. The measurements were taken as in the Oxford
researches by means of a Verdin's spirometer. The investigations are being continued, but Dr. Boome
has made some interesting observations which are here summarised: Previous illness and res angusta
domi, both are influences which markedly reduce the vital capacity which should be attained in comparison
with other standard measurements. One boy, aged nine years, who w as the son of a widow and who
had himself been in the infirmary a year previously, attained a vital capacity of 0.7, whereas according
to his physical measurements it should have been 1.6. Mr. Haley, one of the masters, has carefully
investigated the home conditions, and in several instances boys who proved to be below their expected
figures for vital capacity were found to live in overcrowded tenements. There appears to be a correlation
between the occupation of the fathers and the measurements of the vital capacity of the pupils.
At Lollard-street School, which was taken as a "control" to Vauxhall-street, there were 11 boys
in the 200 examined who were boy scouts, and these presented a vital capacity relatively higher than the
others.
One boy, approaching 14, at Vauxhall-street, who in June, 1920, gave an index figure for vital
capacity 26 higher than that estimated for his other measurements, was found in October to have a
vital capacity slightly below his true index, and it was considered that this deterioration in physique
was due to his having in the interval fallen a victim to the habit of smoking.
The work being done at Vauxhall-street School is thus of great interest, and where they can be
carried out Professor Dreyer's measurements prove of much value in comparing the physique of individuals.
It is to be noted that in those classes which were given the maximum opportunity for physical training
and games the incidence of albuminuria found by Dr. Frewen Moore at Vauxhall-street School was least.
Personal hygiene.
The late London School Board more than 20 years ago gave permission for voluntary nurses to
visit the schools, where they examined children with cuts, sores, etc., and in 1903 the Board itself
appointed three nurses whose duties were specifically extended to the supervision of personal hygiene.
The Council, in its General Powers Act of 1904, inserted clauses empowering sanitary authorities to cleanse,
purify or destroy articles which the medical officer of health certifies are filthy, dangerous or unwholesome;
and powers were also obtained to compel owners to strip and cleanse any house or part of a house
certified by the medical officer of health to be infested with vermin. This Act was followed in 1907
by another General Powers Act and in 1908 by the Children Act, in both of which Acts powers were
obtained to examine school children and, if necessary, after due warning, compulsorily convey and
detain for cleansing such children as were found to be verminous.
In 1910, after some experimental work had been carried out at Westminster, Bermondsey and
Whitechapel the Council decided that the powers obtained in the Acts above referred to should be used
throughout London as a whole and accordingly agreements were entered into with several borough councils
for the use of their cleansing stations, generally at a flat-rate remuneration of 2s. payable by the L.C.C.
in respect of each child cleansed. In those districts where there were no stations already in existence the
Council proposed to establish its own stations for dealing with school children only. In 1913, 22 stations
were available for this cleansing work. The figures as to the number of cleansings carried out were:
Council stations, 11,636; other stations, 29,822 ; a total of 41,458.
Factors
causing
alteration
in "vital
capacity "