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168
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1910
the considerably longer time the schools were kept open. The following tables show the average heights
and weights of the boys and girls at the schools; the number of children in each age group is given
in brackets.

Open-Air
Residential
Schools.
During the careful sifting of all classes of defects in our London schools during the
last decennium the debilitated child and chronic convalescent handicapped by environment
has often been referred to. Doubtless proper provision for such children will eventually be
secured by state care in suitable institutions. "Children should be taken there and kept till
healthy, not merely relieved from the most urgent symptoms and sent out again to drag
away months till urgent symptoms again supervene as is the common history of such cases at present."
(Annual Report, 1906.) Their conditions were brought before the Sub-Committee on Medical Treatment
of School Children in 1907, who reported that in the large majority of cases of general debility
a stay in a home intermediate between the hospital and the special school provides the only prospect
of real recovery. In dealing with the provision of medical treatment the Sub-Committee divided children
into three classes: Class I. being "those requiring care in an institution and outdoor life, i.e., (a)
debilitated children; (b) children convalescent from tuberculosis treated surgically; (c) children
suffering from subacute or early tubercular disease." "A large number of the children of this class
can only be effectively treated by segregation in institutions intermediate between the hospital and
the special schools situated in the country, but in order adequately to provide for these children whose
physical debilitation constitutes a grave national danger a number of residential schools will be
necessary." Such residential open-air schools for this class of children would probably be more profitable
for State expenditure than are industrial schools, but as yet no attempt has been made to deal with
this problem in practice. A little progress in this direction has been made by the utilisation of play
grounds in the summer and by the establishment of two open-air schools ; but the intermittent character
of these efforts has made organisation very troublesome and for the same reason and from the fact
that London land is held at such high prices, such schools, instead of being cheaper as they ought to
be, have cost three to four times as much as the ordinary schools. Legislative uncertainties at present
hinder any serious developments, and permanent provision is only likely to be possible when powers
are obtained to establish residential schools in suitable localities beyond the metropolitan area.
The arrangements for a residential open-air school will depend entirely on the type of child
for whom it is intended. There are two classes of cases which, although they may merge into each
other, or overlap, are yet quite distinct from the aspect of treatment.