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Food Hygiene Education
Following on the discussions with the Royal Institute of Public Health and
Hygiene in 1965, a pilot course for the Diploma in General Food Hygiene was
organised at the beginning of 1966. As the syllabus was purely experimental,
many meetings were necessary both with the staff of the Institute and with the
bakery staff of Rush Green College without whose willing co-operation it would
have been impossible to run the course. A pass rate of 60% in the final
examination was rather lower than we had hoped, but the fact that there were no
precedents upon which to base the teaching was no doubt to some extent
responsible.
The Certificate Courses in Food Hygiene for the full-time bakery students,
commenced in September 1965, were continued for the remainder of the academic
year, and 100% passes were achieved in the examinations in July. At the request
of the Principal the course was re-commenced in September for the new first-year
students, and it is anticipated that a food hygiene course will in future be
included in the syllabus for all full-time bakery students. Also, in September
an evening Certificate Course was started with the intention of continuing to
Diploma level in the spring and summer terms. The possibility that food hygiene
courses may qualify for grant under the Industrial Training Act was discussed
with the College and Institute, and if this does occur, the number of students
may increase rapidly.
A number of meetings with the staff of one of the bakeries where a
separate food hygiene certificate course used to be run led to the firm agreeing
to organise its own preliminary training for the majority of the staff and to
send those who wished to take the examination to Rush Green College for tuition.
Home Safety
With the co-operation of the local press a quarterly home safety bulletin
was commenced. In addition to those printed in the newspapers, 19,000 copies of
each issue were distributed throughout the borough to schools, libraries and
interested organisations. Support was also given to the No. 10 Area RoSPA Home
Safety Committee and to the RoSPA National Conference. Seven talks were given to
students at the Technical College, women's and old people's organisations, and in
addition home safety teaching is included in every school health education
programme.
Training of Students
In March, one South African and one Chinese student were attached to the
department by the London University Institute of Education for practical health
education training. In December, two others both from Nigeria spent one week
doing practical work.
Four overseas students from the environmental hygiene course of the Royal
Institute of Public Health and Hygiene were with us for two weeks. Occasional
visitors included two social workers from Finland, one from Hong Kong, four from
the Barking Regional College Social Studies Course, three student health visitors
and four student nurses.
Youth
Under the auspices of the Youth Officer in the Education Department, two
meetings of youth leaders were attended and a demonstration of health education
films was given to others on a third occasion. Visual aids were supplied to one
youth club to assist the warden in his teaching and a talk was given by the
health education officer to another at the request of the organiser.
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