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99
expected to see to the hygiene arrangements of his class, such as issuing the 'Health
laws' cards, attending to the roll, and seeing that hands and faces are washed when
necessary.
"The head master carries out inspections twice daily himself. These inspections
are of a very informal but effective nature. The head master stands at the top
of the stairs each morning and afternoon, and as the school assembles, each boy
on entering has to file past him. Any individual presenting dirty hands, face,
knees, unbrushed hair, dirty boots or any other condition giving him an untidy or
dirty appearance, is noted and explanations asked. Should these prove satisfactory
he is sent to 'clean up,' if not he is duly warned, and, if this does not suffice, nemesis
follows in due course. An ample supply of soap is always available in the lavatories,
and toilet paper is manufactured from the waste paper of the school, so that no
excuse will be taken of an inability to securing means of washing.
"Strict attention is paid to carriage and position in class, and thus any tendency
to faulty posture, whether due to any physical defect or merely habit, is quickly
noted, corrected, or if necessary, brought to the notice of the school doctor. The
importance of obtaining as much fresh air as possible is fully stressed. Organised
games are indulged in seriously, and talks on 'health and fresh air' have already
been given twice by the medical officers of the borough. In addition to this, the
boys are encouraged, by means of talks and practical suggestions, to get away,
as much as possible, from the slums of Bermondsey by taking long walks, aided by
'bus rides, where finances permit, into the outskirts of London. It is quite an
easy matter to take some lunch with them and by this means they get what is the
nearest approach to a day in the country.
"The results of these practices were not hard to find. On walking casually
through the classes, my visit, of course, being entirely unsuspected, not a dirty face,
hand or knee was to be seen, nor was there any sign of dirty or torn clothes or footgear.
Heads were all neatly brushed back, and in face, it was hard to believe that
I was still in a school, possibly in one of the dirtiest and poorest slums of London,
on any ordinary school morning and had not been suddenly transplanted into one
of the model schools on the outskirts on a prize day morning.
"As is inevitable, following practices of this sort, the boys' physical condition
is of a high standard. The results of medical inspection show a comparatively
low percentage of defects found, while the percentage of treatment obtained is
exceptionally high. Omitting the hopping period in September, the average percentage
of attendance during the winter term was 92 per cent. This exceptionally
high attendance shows that notwithstanding bad environment and bad food, observance
and encouragement of hygiene and simple health maxims helps enormously
to build up a healthy body with a high resistance to disease, and I think that if
the lead given by Webb Street were followed by all other schools, the immediate
result would be the turning out of a school child healthier and more robust and in
every way more fitted to combat the onslaught of diseases which to-day are filling
special schools and institutions, and with the ultimate inevitable result of a healthier
and happier nation."
Co-operation with Parents, Teachers, School Attendance Officers, Official and Voluntary
Bodies.
Parents.
The response of parents to the invitation to attend the medical inspection of
their children continues to be satisfactory; 163,694 parents took advantage of the
invitation, an increase of 13,332. A remarkably large proportion attended the
inspection of the infants at entrance to school, in numbers 68,538, or 88 per cent.
Refusals to submit children to routine inspection are almost negligible.
Teachers.
Generally speaking, cordial support is given by the teachers to the school
medical service. It is this support which makes the scope of the school medical