View report page

11
The number of children for whom special school, convalescent
or hospital school treatment was provided during the
year for periods of varying length was 42.
Physical Training.
Miss F. W. Bentley and Mr. G. H. Atkinson, the
Organisers of Physical Education for Erith have kindly submitted
the following notes on their work during the year.
I have much pleasure in including these in my Annual Report
of the School Medical Service for the year 1939.
"One of the immediate consequences of modern warfare
is its disturbing effect on the minds and emotions of the young.
The daily contact of children with parents harassed by anxieties
of family disunion, and by the general repercussions and horrors
of war, creates a problem which calls for immediate consideration
on the part of all teachers. The influence of a happy
school environment is invaluable to the child, and of all the
means to this end at the teacher's command, none can be so
effective than a well-planned scheme of joyous and disciplined
physical activities.
It is, therefore, unfortunate that, with the abrupt dislocation
of the educational services at the outbreak of war, the
excellent progress in Physical Education maintained during
previous years has been seriously interrupted. Compared with
most other subjects of the school curriculum, Physical Education
has proved particularly vulnerable: the provision of new
facilities, such as gymnasia and playing fields, which in many
areas was approaching adequacy, has been suspended; playground
and playing field space has been restricted by the siting
of Air Raid Shelters, and specialist teachers, whom their
schools could ill afford to lose, have been diverted into military
service.
In spite of these difficulties, however, we are confident
that with the restoration of more normal conditions for work
in the schools, the subject will be afforded every possible
opportunity to play its new and vital role in the service of the
community.
In the light of present circumstances, the following report
of the subject's progress is limited to that period preceding the
war when the normal work of schools was possible, i.e.,
January—July, 1939.