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c) It was found the greatest benefit on both sides was obtained from four
to five consecutive visits to a school or clinic. Familiarity with
children, staff and equipment increased confidence and interest.
d) The optimum numbers of girls per visit was found to be three or four
i.e. one or two able girls with one or two less able girls.
e) It was important for the form mistress always to accompany them to the
organisation and to explain how long they were expected to remain.
f) Careful briefing was necessary with regard to observations to be made
and data to be collected.
2. Lady Edridge Grammar School
Sixth form girls who had received a good grounding in the theoretical
aspects of community health were given an opportunity to put them into
practice. They went for five consecutive weeks to spend an afternoon helping
with children's activities, some at toddlers' clinics, child health centres and
others at St. Giles' School for Physically Handicapped Children.
3., Coloma Grammar School
Sixth form girls have started on a course aimed at developing responsible
attitudes to health in the community of which they are a part. It covers:-
a) Human development — The influences of heredity and environment.
Development through learning. Factors influencing safety. Prevention of
disease.
b) Health aspects of social problems — Living in towns - pollution, housing,
mental health, old people. The age of affluence — dental health, weight
control, alcohol, drugs, smoking.
c) The services for health - Environmental services. Personal treatment
services. Personal preventative services.
d) Responsibility for health • Personal. World-wide help.
Primary Schools
Earlier opportunities provided impetus for health education in secondary
schools, but as with all aspects of education the most effective stage at which
to lay the foundations is before the age of eleven years. Experimental health
education work was started by health visitors in Oval Infants and Junior
Schools and by the Senior Health Education Officer in Elmwood Junior Girls'
School with three classes in the fourth year. There the interest of staff and
girls was stimulated by introductory sessions on topics closely related to the
girls' experience i.e. taking a temperature, watching and recording growth and
development of children, tasting food, responding to stimuli. Teachers and
girls continued to discuss these subjects during each week and evolved ways
of testing their ideas and recording their results.