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In 1908 also two other open-air schools were opened in London at Birley House
(Forest Hill) and Montpelier House, Upper Holloway. That at Birley House has
been successfully carried on ever since, but the site at Montpelier House was
unfortunately lost, and north London has remained without open-air school
facilities.
Other openair
schools.
In 1920, a site was obtained at Stowey House, Clapham Common, and this has
developed into the largest of the Council's open-air day schools.
Stowey
House.
Sir Henry Gauvain, the Council's consulting specialist for tuberculous children,
drew attention to the remarkable results which are obtained by sunhght treatment
of debilitated children. It is found, as shown by Rollier in Switzerland, that merely
by exposing the skin to the sun's rays, a very great improvement in appetite, metabolism
and general health, takes place over and above that produced by ordinary
open-air treatment.
Heliotherapy
Sir Henry has demonstrated that the sun has this special power during the
summer months even in England. He was anxious that the treatment should be
tried for debilitated children in London, and having visited Stowey House, was of
opinion that it was quite possible with easily arranged modifications of the organisation
to carry out the treatment there.
Permission for this to be done was given and the head teacher of the school
threw himself with ardour into the experiment. Thirty-five most suitable lads were
chosen by the school doctor from the upper school. The head teacher explained
the scheme to the parents, and asked each parent who desired his boy to undergo
the course to provide a special costume of a loose shirt, very short serge shorts,
short socks and shoes. These were readily forthcoming, and the class waited rather
anxiously for the sun to appear. Unfortunately the season was most
perverse, and it was not until the middle of June that the treatment could be
commenced.
The first week the lads worked in light shirts, short pants, socks and shoes.
The second week shirts were discarded for certain lessons, the periods of exposure
gradually being increased, and so on up to the summer holidays. As a result
of a few weeks' treatment the children appeared more alert, more energetic, and
particularly happy.
On the return from the holidays, acclimatisation was more quickly effected,
and the bodies, as is essential, were browned without signs of redness. The summer
vacation, unfortunately, seriously limits the time during which the cure can be
carried on, and also breaks up the period with loss of continuity of treatment. The
1923 summer was also deplorable in the lack of sunny weather, but the results were
sufficiently promising to make it highly desirable for the experiment to be continued
next summer.
Bow road
open-air
schcoL
A fourth open-air school was established at Bow-road in 1922, partially meeting
the needs of an immense congested area. The number on the roll was 134 (86 boys
and 48 girls), and present average attendance is about 100. The buildings consist
of adapted Army huts, which are not ideal for the purpose of an open-air school.
On that account lessons, rest and meals are taken outside in the open air on all
possible occasions, This is an advantage. However ideal an open-air classroom
may be, it is not so ideal as the open air itself. Lessons have been in the classroom
on 11.5 per cent, only of total meetings. Rain is the only reason for retiring in this
way to shelter. Meals have been taken indoors on 25 per cent, and rest on 35 per
cent, of total occasions. The desks are collapsible and such that, if a sudden
shower comes on, the boys and girls just fold them up and take them at once
indoors.
Details of 20 children who had been excluded from or were very irregular in
their attendance at their ordinary schools are as follows, the percentage of attendance
at the open-air school of these children being 83.5 :—