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118
"E.L., a very anaemic nervous boy who slept badly and did not gain weight.
In 6 months he had gained 4-8 kilograms.
Open-air
schools for
tiiberculoue
children.
In addition to the provision of treatment for tuberculous children in residential
institutions, the Council continued the use of the open-air schools, specifically for
children notified under the Tuberculosis Regulations, 1912, as suffering from tuberculosis
of the lungs or of glands with no discharging sinuses. During the year the
Grove Hill Road School (Camberwell) was closed, thus reducing the number of schools
to six. The six schools—Elizabethan (Fulham), Geere House (Stepney), Kensal
House (Paddington), Springwell House (Battersea), Stormont House (Hackney),
and Nightingale House, (Bermondsey), have together accommodation for 515 children.
The number on the roll on 31st December, 1929 was 569 and the average
attendance for the year ending 31st March, 1929, was 467.
Admission to the schools is granted on a certificate of a medical officer of the
Council, and children returning home after a period of residential treatment in
sanatoria are given preference. In this way 179 children were admitted during
the year 1929, and 208 children were discharged. Of the latter, 45 were transferred
as fit to attend elementary schools, 90 were fit for work, 35 were transferred to
institutions for residential treatment for tuberculosis or admitted to hospitals for
various reasons, 19 moved away, 5 were transferred to "special" schools and 14
were discharged for other reasons.
At Springwell House and Stormont House schools special attention is given to
the vocational training of the older children in subjects likely to be of use to them
in obtaining employment. Two classes are held at Springwell House, one for boys
and girls in commercial training, which includes shorthand, typing, and general
office routine, and the other for girls in trade needlework. The vocational class
at Stormont House is in needlework. Instruction not ranking as vocational is also
given in gardening and carpentry.
The following observations have been submitted by the medical officer of
Springwell House School with regard to the vocational classes carried on at this
school:—
"No great difficulty has been experienced in placing the children from the commercial
class in employment, but the head teacher tell ms that those children who
have taken the trade needlework class, and got their employment in this branch of
work, are inclined to leave their work to take up some other employment."
During the summers of 1920 to 1925 children attending the open-air schools
for tuberculous children were sent away for a fortnight's holiday to the seaside
or in the country. Subsequently, because of inability to secure suitable accommodation
the scheme was abandoned. In the summer of 1929 arrangements were
made mainly through the agency of the Shaftesbury Society for 234 tuberculous
children to visit certain institutionsat Bognor Regis, Whitstable. Sandown and Broadstairs
for a period of a fortnight. The expenses were borne by the Council from a fund
known as the Tuberculosis Contributions Fund. The scheme was organised on
the lines of "school journeys" but the children selected were those who, in the
opinion of the tuberculosis officers, needed the change on health grounds.
All the parties were accompanied by nurses as well as teachers, and the reports
received indicate that the children benefited considerable from the holiday.
No year since open-air education has been established in London has provided
such remarkable weather contrasts as the year 1929. In the early spring there was
an unprecedented spell of intense frost, the summer was unusually fine and rainless,
and the late autumn months provided gales of a magnitude not before experienced
by the schools. These weather conditions raised questions which called for special
enquiry.
Open-air
schools and
adverse
climatic
conditions.