London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

Ealing 1925

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ealing]

This page requires JavaScript

—98—
PHYSICAL TRAINING.
Whenever special exercises are required for defective children,
such as those suffering from round shoulders or heart disease,
instructions are issued to the head-teachers, who see that the
instructions are acted upon. Round shoulders call for special
shoulder exercises and heart disease for restricted exercises
of a less active character than those indulged in by normal children.
No organiser of physical training has been appointed.
PROVISION OF MEALS.
No meals are provided for school children under Section 82-86
of the Education Act. Seldom are children discovered who would
benefit from the provision of meals at school, but when they are
discovered steps are taken by voluntary means to have some form
of meal supplied to them.
SCHOOL BATHS.
Baths are not provided at any of the schools but at the Public
Baths there is set aside one swimming bath for the separate use
of the school children. All children in the upper classes, boys and
girls, attend regularly as part of their physical training and receive
instruction from skilled teachers. There is every evidence that
this form of physical training is much more enjoyed than the usual
gymnastic exefcises given in the playground. The sense of freedom,
the feeling of progress from day to day and the spirit of rivalry,
which this progress engenders, together help in making this form
of exercise enjoyable and at the same time beneficial from the aspect
of health.
CO-OPERATION OF PARENTS.
The parents are encouraged in every way to attend the medical
inspection in the schools and when they do not attend a visit of
the school nurse, in the case of a defective child, encourages the
mother to take an interest in the child's health. Another way in
which the parents are encouraged to watch over the health of their
children is by facilitating their bringing the children to the School
Clinic whenever they are not making progress or whenever some