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have been found but further inspections are made if
requested by the head teacher or it appears that special circumstances
warrant an intensification of this work.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
I am indebted to the Physical Education Advisers, Mr.
J. Hopkins and Miss E. A. Osgathorp for the following
report:—
General.
There is a noticeable tendency for children to be bigger
and stronger than their counterparts of earlier generations.
The figure for Kent seems to indicate that children are
physically a year older than their predecessors of a decade
ago. On the boys' side, this is often observed as the selection
of younger and younger youths to play in national sides;
on the girls' side, by an earlier onset of periodicity which
very often begins nowadays at the primary stage. The average
junior school is ill-equipped to deal with this problem
but whatever is done for more ancient schools it is certain
that new planning must take this factor into consideration
when making hygiene arrangements.
Primary Schools.
The work of the Borough's Primary Schools continues
to develop along three main avenues. Some schools make play
and games the means by which fitness is achieved, others
use traditional gymnastics, while others make use of creative
free dance as the means to gain poise and the control of all
the body's movements.
It is good to find this varied approach. Schools should
not confine themselves to the idea that only one road leads
to the ideal but, whatever the method used, the final question,
" Has the child benefited physically? Is he or she
happier, more skilul and wants more of the same kind of
lesson?" must be answered positively.
The equipment in the Primary Schools is first class and
is added to constructively each year. It is pleasing to observe
the good use the Borough's teachers make of this material.
Skill of a very high order is frequently observed among the
primary children as a result of this happy combination of
good teaching and good apparatus.
The teaching of swimming is often hampered for lack
of facilities within the Borough for young children. One
noticeable exception is the school with its own teaching
pool and it is commendable that from this school 96% of
the children go forward to the secondary stage able to swim
twenty-five yards or more. If an all round the year heated
swimming pool was available in the Borough, these early
swimmers could develop in the secondary stage into
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