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9
An exhibition of visual aids suitable for use in schools,
arranged by the Health Education Section, was also on show on
this occasion.
Following this study day, a copy of the Royal College of
Physicians' report was given to each head teacher and many were
also given posters and leaflets.
The Public Health staff continued to discuss the many aspects
of smoking during community health courses held in secondary
schools. Spontaneous discussions were held in other schools when
the health education officer delivered the copies of the Royal
College of Physicians' report.
A psychiatrist from the Child Guidance Clinic visited the
fifth year boys in Ashburton Secondary School with the health
education Officer and took part in a lively discussion. She
thought that the optimum periods for undertaking smoking education
were during the first and second years in the secondary
school and again between the ages of fifteen and sixteen. She
felt that these were periods of insecurity, the first on entering
a school in which the older boys were almost adults and the
second on leaving school to enter the outside world as young
adults.
Two pairs of secondary schools-Ashburton Boys; Davidson
mixed and Shirley Boys; St. Mary's Mixed (controls) took part in
an assessment of the effect on school children of a television
programme in the 'Spotlight' series and of recent publicity on
the ill-effects of smoking. This was undertaken by Margot
Jefferys, B.Sc. (Econ) of the Public Health Department, London
School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 2 The report stated that
the negligible effects of the "Spotlight" programme in persuading
children to refrain from smoking should not be viewed
with unrelieved pessimism or used as an excuse for inaction. The
Problem is, after all, one of creating a climate of opinion
among school children, and this cannot be achieved in a single
day, nor by a single television programme, however well produced
and informative."