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7
To the Chairman and Members of the
EDUCATION COMMITTEE.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report, on the work
of the School Medical Service for the year ending December
31st, 1034.
The scheme of medical inspection and treatment is complete
and satisfies the Board of Education's requirements. There is
now so little change from year to year in the more strictly
medical side of the work that it seems unnecessary to repeat
in detail the scope and findings of medical inspection and the
various schemes of treatment established to remedy defects
found.
I would prefer to record certain developments of the year
which are not medical, in the narrow sense, but are of inestimable
value in promoting the physical well-being of the elementary
school population, viz.: —
1.—Extension of School Milk Scheme.—In 1030 the
National Milk Publicity Council's scheme for the supply of onethird
of a pint of milk daily in bottles with straws for consumption
by school children, at a cost of one penny per bottle,
was taken up in Hornsey. with the result that by the end of 1031
2,275 children were drinking this quantity of milk daily in schools
at the morning break at 10.30.
In 1934 the Milk Marketing Board launched a scheme for
enabling this milk to be obtained for a halfpenny. The result
has been an increase in the numbers at all the schools, the total
being 4,417 early in 1935. I am so much impressed with the
value of this measure that I have come to the conclusion that
no child, however favourable its home conditions may be, receives
full benefit from its education unless it partakes of this morning
milk. For the less fortunate children it is a correspondingly
greater boon. The proper nutrition of the growing population
is now widely recognised as the .most important responsibility of
parents and public authorities. The milk in school scheme is
an essential adjunct to sound feeding of children at home.
2.—Appointment of Organisers of Physical Training.—
Miss Patricia S. Beale and Mr. Robert S. Squires. B.Sc., were