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All the day open-air schools have been visited and the teachers personally
interviewed with regard to the school buildings. At all schools the teachers resented
very much the bare idea that their feelings and needs should be considered apart
from those of the children. "It is not to be heard of" was their immediate and
resolute opinion. The general health of the teachers was admirable and the opinion
was expressed by practically all that nothing would induce them to return to
ordinary elementary schools. In rare instances was complaint made of suffering from
cold such as would be obviated by heating the class shelters. Very many were
most hostile to the idea of heating the class shelters. There was consensus of
opinion, however, particularly in the more recently opened schools in exposed
sites supplied with the newer type of shelter, that there is need of protection from
biting winds and driving rain.
The provision of heating in the shelters was discussed, especially three methods,
viz., (1) stoves, (2) floor heating by hot water pipes and (3) hot water foot warmers.
The desirability of stoves was negatived almost by all, floor warming received some
support and so did the provision of foot warmers (for children as well as teachers of
course,) but so far from there being any great desire for any heating device, there
was a preponderance of opinion actively hostile. Where support was given it
arose from the desire to keep the shelters dry rather than for the purpose of
supplying warmth.
Inasmuch as it is impossible to heat the open air, any form of general heating
of shelters would be a retrograde step ; besides being unnecessary and impracticable,
it would be a definite departure from the open-air ideal, and would militate against
those admirable results of the open-air regime which depend as much as anything
upon the cool freshness of the air.
All the teachers were unanimous on the necessity of providing shelter from wind
and driving rain. Complaints of suffering from these causes were made chiefly by the
teachers in the more exposed recently erected schools provided with the new type
of shelter. In the older schools hinged shutters are provided which as occasion
demands can be used to fill in the space on the windward side between the fixed
apron below and the protecting overhang of the eaves above. In many of the older
schools also there is some building into which the school children can be withdrawn
temporarily for shelter on the rare occasions when the weather is so wild and boisterous
as to demand it. Many suggestions were encountered. The most generally favoured
desideratum was some form of shutter, preferably glazed, which could be used to fill
in the unprotected space between the apron and eaves (leaving open always that
portion at the top which is adequately protected by the projection of the roof). In
those schools which have no naturally protected nooks, the provision of wind screens
in the open was also advocated, either in the form of brick walls or by a device
of fixed posts with hanging wooden screens which could be swung through an angle
of 90 degrees and thus provide unroofed shelters which could be arranged to form a
protection against the wind from whichever quarter it came. Another idea was the
provision of heavy wooden screens upon wheels such as are used on cricket fields
as backgrounds to the wickets. Yet another proposal was the provision of buildings
such as those at Birmingham where a brick wall is built on one side only,
namely, the side of the prevailing wind ; two brick pillars support the roof at the
remaining corners to which are attached glass and wood shutters which can be
folded right back or can be drawn out to ward off wind or rain, it being made the
strict rule that only one side be drawn out at a time.
The conclusions reached were that each school must be considered separately
from this point of view in the light of the amount of exposure and the natural or
artificial means of shelter which exist, but that everywhere sufficient shelter from
chilling wind and driving rain, must be provided either of a permanent or
removable nature.