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If the different age-groups are examined separately, it will be
seen that the figures for the first two groups, the entrants and the
eight-year-old children, are not so good as those for the third agegroup,
or twelve-year-old children, or the "other routine inspections,"
which are mostly children of thirteen or fourteen years.
The nutrition of the children leaving school is definitely better than
that of children in their early years at school.
I have remarked in previous Annual Reports that a steady, if
slow improvement is taking place in the nutrition of the children
in Wood Green. The great majority of the children are well
nourished and the number of really badly nourished children is
diminishing as the years pass. This latter type of child is being
helped so far as possible, when poverty is the cause of the malnutrition,
by the provision of free milk at school, free dinners at
the Centre, and free cod-liver oil. Where previous illness is the
immediate cause of the malnutrition, help is often given by sending
the child to a convalescent home. Where the poorly nourished
state of the child is due not to lack of food, but to wrong feeding
habits, poor discipline in the home, or insufficient rest, attempts
are made to remedy these conditions by direct contact with the
parents, either by seeing them at school or at the Clinic, or by the
School Nurses visiting them in their homes.
One factor in the improvement which is taking place in the
nutrition of the school children is undoubtedly the advantage which
is taken in all the schools of the daily supply of milk at half-price
by the Milk Marketing Board. The proportion of elementary school
children in Wood Green availing themselves of this provision
remains steady at just under sixty per cent., and in addition an
average of about 250 children are supplied with free milk throughout
the year on medical grounds.
(b) Cleanliness.
The standard of cleanliness among the children remains very
high, and reflects credit on the great majority of the parents.
Almost 34,000 individual inspections of children for cleanliness
were made by the nurses during the year, and the number of children
excluded on account of verminous conditions was only 91.
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