View report page

By extending the period to two terms, the number of schools in the survey became
restricted:
Average days'
Type absence
'A' 9.8
'B' 11.3
'C' 13.0
In only two types of school was it possible to extend the period over a whole year :
Average days'
Type absence
'B' 18.6
'C' 17.1
It was decided to confine the comparison of heights and weights to a minimum of
two terms because it was felt that one term only was an insufficient period. In fact, no
conclusions could be drawn from an examination of the height and weight of the
children. Comparisons were made between boys and girls attending Types 'A', 'B'
and ' C but no significant change was observable.
It is doubtful if any valid conclusions of the effect of the type of building can be
drawn from this survey. A much longer observation period and a larger sample would
be needed.
Heights and
weights
These schools, of which there are seven, are intended to help debilitated children to
achieve the normal state of health and as a result to become able to profit by their
education and to lead happier lives. The important word is debilitated, i.e., children who
are 'run down', or 'under the weather.' The cause of the debility may be serious illness
and slow recovery or a poor standard of home, or anything between. The limits are
wide, and the degree of ill-health variable. The reduced ability of the ill child is plain to
see but it is not always so obvious that a child not in the full bloom of health, but yet
not one that could be rated as ill, is capable of better work and a fuller life than is
achieved.
It is this less tangible state of ill-health that is attacked in an open-air school and
boarding is arranged because in so many homes there is inability to give the children a
secure, regular, full life. In a boarding school habits of living a full life, having adequate
rest, proper sleeping time and a diet which is balanced and appetising all play a part in
raising standards for the child.
Most of the children remain for two terms as experience has shown that the gains
of the first term are consolidated by a second. Some need a longer stay and a very few
spend most of their school life away. In all cases-they are seen regularly by the visiting
medical officer and reports are made to the Principal School Medical Officer if any
need for special consideration arises. In addition the schools are visited regularly by
experienced medical officers of the central office staff.
Any person who is aware of a child thought to be in this debilitated condition can
suggest that he or she be seen as a 'special' at a school medical inspection. Many
children are recommended from the special investigation clinics, but more might well
be recommended from the school itself, where the closer, regular, contact of teacher
and child gives great opportunity for observing the day-to-day variations in the 'less
well' child.
Some parents have doubts and find it hard to accept that their child can do well
away from home but it is not unusual to find, after a term or two, that these parents
are amongst the strongest supporters of the boarding open-air schools, to such an extent
that other children in the family are sometimes put forward for examination in the
hope that they too will obtain benefits as valuable as those which accrued to the child
who went away.
1ll
h
Boarding
open-air
schools