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Physical Training. 127
ban of the Board of Education against new institutions
has been raised, efforts will again be made to obtain a
suitable site and provide an open-air school.
Whenever possible, the teachers in the schools arrange
for open-air classes in the school playgrounds. This
practice, which deserves every encouragement, affects
the children to a limited extent, for usually only one
class can be dealt with at a time, and the open-air
period can therefore be of limited duration.
Physical Training,
The only way in which the school medical service
is associated with the work of physical training in the
schools is when the School Medical Officer makes a
recommendation with regard to the nature and
amount of physical exercise which a particular defective
child should have.
During the year the Education Committee adopted a.
proposal that the Director of Physical Exercises in the
employment of the Baths Committee of the Council,
who is also instructor of swimming under the Education
Committee, should be appointed Organiser of Physical
Training for the public elementary schools. This
proposal was not approved by the Board of Education,
on the grounds that the man proposed as instructor
had not had special training for the position. It is
unfortunate that the Board have never at any time laid
down the qualifications for such a position, and have
given no guidance in the choice of Organisers. The
Board, however, have adopted some arbitrary standard
unknown to Local Education Authorities, who are
liable to be disconcerted at the last moment after the
appointment is made by the refusal of the Board to
give their sanction.