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60
In the Christmas holiday, a more extended experiment was conducted, and
milk was distributed at 36 centres to children who receive it during term time on
the recommendation of the school doctors.
Three schools in each of the twelve educational administrative districts were
used as distributing centres. The centres were open from 10 a.m. to 12 noon, except
on Saturdays and Sundays. One bottle was given daily. In issuing the invitations,
preference was given to the free or part-paying cases, but full-payment cases were
invited at three centres, where it was found, in working out the arrangements, that
their attendance would not prejudice the attendance of the free and part-paying
cases. In addition, permission was given to the managers of two non-provided
schools to open distributing centres in their schools.
The following statement shows the number of invitations issued, the number
of acceptances, and the average attendances for all the 38 centres. The figures in
parentheses are those for the previous summer holiday experiment:—
No. of
invitations
issued
No. of
acceptances
Percentage
of
acceptances
Average
attendance
Percentage of
average attendance,
to acceptances
Free and part-paying cases—37 centres (G centres)
14,528 (3,124)
11,823 (2,517)
81.4 (80-0)
7,298 (1,257)
61.7 (49.9)
Full-pairing cases—3 centres (1 centre)
511 (259)
197 (106)
38.5 (41)
113 (72)
57.3 (67.9)
The managers of one non-provided school, who arranged for milk to be sold to
children paying the full charge, did not record the number of invitations issued,
but the other figures are as follows:—
Acceptances
Average
attendance
Percentage of average
attendance to acceptances
83
38
45.8
The percentage of acceptances for the free cases was 1.9 higher than during
the summer holidays, and the percentage of average attendances was 11.8 higher.
For the full-paying cases, both percentages were lower than in the summer, that for
average attendance being considerably so.
With the exception of five centres, the attendance on the first day was lower
than the average for all days, and, with only three exceptions, the attendances on
the last day were lower than on the preceding day. The percentages of attendances
on the first, second and last days were respectively 51.4, 63.7 and 55.6. In the
summer holiday experiment the percentage of attendances declined progressively
from 61.4 on the first day to 30.2 on the last day. Generally speaking, the daily
attendances were maintained much more steadily during the Christmas holidays, they
were not affected, as during the summer holidays, by the operation of the Children's
Country Holiday Fund and similar agencies. On the whole, weather was not unfavourable.
It is gratifying that, for the free-cases, figures, both for acceptances and attendances,
showed an increase on the summer experiment. If the percentage had
proved to be the same for acceptances and attendances, the average attendance
would only have been 5,800 compared with the actual figure of 7,297, which represented
about 21.4 per cent. of the free and part-paying doctors' cases in term time
at ordinary schools, central schools and day special schools.
Defective children
Examinations with a view to the admission of children to special schools,
were made in 4,295 cases. The following table shows the number of children
nominated for examination and the recommendations made:—