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A great deal of the physical education programme is related
to playing games with other schools outside school hours. This
involves the teaching staiT in many hours of after-school duties
training the many squads from whom the teams are selected to
play at weekends, when the master or mistress again will be
involved in refereeing the game. In addition, many other activities
are being correlated with physical education. These include the
Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and such activities as camping,
canoeing, rock climbing and orienteering. The detailed
preparation for expeditions involving these subjects are onerous.
The safety of young people taking part in these activities must
always be a care, responsibly borne by the teacher and the
authority encouraging this work. Members of the teaching staff
have been encouraged to take the Mountain Leadership Certificate,
which means that they have prepared themselves in a most
thorough fashion, and have been carefully assessed as persons
capable of dealing effectively and safely with hazards. Last year
four teachers qualified for this award.
School Meals and Milk Services
The average daily number of meals served during 1969 was
35,300 or 6,700,000 in the year. A return for a day in October,
1969, showed that the daily number of pupils (all of primary
school age) drinking one-third of a pint of milk was 23,306 in
the maintained schools and 1,665 in non-maintained schools—
equal to 1,040 gallons daily.
Canteens which came fully into use included Langley Park
Boys who are now producing upwards of 600 meals per day, and
Kentwood Boys which moved to the former Beckenham and Penge
Grammar School premises in the autumn of 1969. Convenience
foods were introduced here for the first time at a Borough School,
and early impressions would appear to indicate general approval
of this type of meal.
During 1969 the School Meals Service was asked to provide
approximately twenty meals daily to Stembridge Hall, and eighteen
daily to the Work Centre at Beckenham.
The Health Visitor in the School Health Service
1,698 School Medical Sessions (including B.C.G. sessions)
were carried out during 1969. These were prepared, and in the
Infant and Junior Schools, attended by Health Visitors.
29,954 individual school children have been examined at
hygiene inspections, necessitating home visits to the parents of 112
to advise them of treatment for infested heads, a decline of 65
from 1968.