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143
The total cost of these journeys did not exceed £350.
You will remember that last year I reminded you that the
question of school journeys on a much more comprehensive basis
than then obtained was being considered by you, and this year it is
pleasant to note that the list of school journeys represents a much
more ambitious and comprehensive programme.
School Camps.—School camps are run during the week-ends
from Friday to Monday evening. The camp is of a permanent
nature and is situated at Hainault. Thirteen Camps were held
during the year, in which 624 Scholars participated.
During the summer holidays, too, there are additional camps
where children are taken for a fortnight at a time to the same huts
at Hainault.
School camps are a step in the right direction, leading to an
appreciation of the open-air life of which I have spoken above.
Indeed, it seems to me the time is fast coming when in large
metropolitan areas the possibility of extending these camps for weeks
and months on end might be entertained.
The idea of a school being a wondrous piece of architecture
that one hundred years hence will form a glorious epitaph to the
people who built it must be broken down. A school is essentially
a number of scholars, with an adequate number of teachers, and
so impressed am I with the strides which have taken place in
open-air education that I am persuaded a very full educational
programme could be drawn up to be carried out in a holiday encampment
which would surpass any of the present curricula
as an educational measure and at the same time promote the health,
happiness and wellbeing of the children.
The idea that such camps must of necessity be costly is, I
believe, unfounded. Providing the children are healthy, are
adequately clothed and properly fed, the material part of such an
establishment could be—and perhaps should be—of a very simple,
inexpensive nature.