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(9) OPEN-AIR EDUCATION.
Open-Air Classrooms and Playground Classes.— The possibility of education
being carried on in the open-air has limits. I do however feel that the fullest
possible use should be made of playgrounds for such lessons as can be undertaken
outside the school premises. This is particularly necessary in your older schools,
which we speak of as the factory type, where the classrooms have not the advantages
found in modern buildings. In your newer schools the classrooms may be said to
be of the open-air type and there are many occasions during the heat of the summer
when their refreshing shade is to be preferred to the intense heat of the playground.
It has been well said that we should shun the heat and love the light.
School Journeys and Camps.—As you know, school camps are run very satisfactorily
at Hainault Forest. During 1934, fifteen week-end camps were held in
which 1,008 scholars participated. In addition to these, during the summer holidays
there were two camps held at which children attended for a whole fortnight at a
time. Ninety-six children took part in these two camps.
In selecting children for these week-end camps, a medical and cleanliness
inspection is held, and for the summer camps those children are selected in whom a
debilitated physical condition is found, or in whom straightened family circumstances
make a holiday desirable.
I wish to speak very highly of these school camps. I look upon them as much to
be preferred to indiscriminate convalescent treatment. Organised as they are on
sound lines I am sure that they give a better return for the money expended than if
the same amount of money were spent in sending odd children to convalescent
homes. This does not imply that I disagree with convalescent homes but that I
think that your way of spending money is to be preferred.
(10) PHYSICAL TRAINING.
(a) Physical Training.—There is no Organiser of Physical Training in the
schools of Barking, but nowhere have I found a keener appreciation of the benefits
of physical training. The teachers of Barking are doing wonderful work and your
Medical Officers are deeply and personally interested in the work. It is of course
unfortunate that your officers have not sufficient time for even closer co-operation.
I would wish to put in a special plea for physical training to be undertaken in
proper clothing. On one occasion one of your Headmistresses asked me to make
this the theme of a few remarks I made at a meeting of parents on what is known as
an " Open Day," and I would wish my remarks to have a wider publicity.