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

View report page

Walthamstow 1930

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

This page requires JavaScript

38
(e) The following information has been extracted from the Annual
Report of the Walthamstow Association of Tuberculosis Care
Helpers. The Association made the following grants in respect of
children:- Nourishment, 8; Christmas Grants, 15; Cases sent to
Convalescent Home (Myson's Farm. Epping Green), 20. In cooperation
with the Education Committee, 46 cases of Physically
Defective Children were sent to St. Catherine's Home, Ventnor.
(f) Co-operation with Brook field Orthopaedic Hospital and with
the Walthamstow Dispensary in respect of treatment for Tonsils
and Adenoids is acknowledged elsewhere.
(g) Miss Turner, Secretary of the Essex Voluntary Association
for Mental Welfare, sends the following report on the work of the
Occupation Centre provided by that Association:—
''Essex Voluntary Association for Mental Welfare. Occupation
Centres for children unfit for the Shernhall Special School (roughly,
those whose intelligence quotient is below 50). and those over school
age who are unable to take their place as independent citizens, or
face the problems of life unaided, are held by the Essex Voluntary
Association at the Settlement, Greenleaf Road, Walthamstow, by
kind permission of Mr. Le Mare.
"This work is made possible by a grant to the Association from
the Essex County Council.
"The classes are held daily, except on Saturdays, as follows:—
Mornings: For children of both sexes, and Elder Girls; in charge,
Mrs. Louis. Afternoons: For Elder Boys; in charge, Miss Carter.
"Occupation Centre training aims at overcoming anti-social
tendencies and making the child fit more happily into his home,
and all that this implies. Progress in reading and writing are no
longer the criteria by which the child's progress is judged. Some
of the pupils certainly do learn to read, but the written and spoken
word is no longer the media of instruction; progress is made by
children who have not yet mastered the art of speech.
"At the Morning Centre there is class work in drill, dancing,
singing, speech training and rhythmic work, with individual handwork
in raffias and wools for the older girls and apparatus work and
sense-training for the younger children. Lunch time, when the
children take cocoa prepared by the elder girls, gives an opportunity
for the learning of table manners, and with this self-restraint and
self-control, very hard lessons to master.
"In nearly all cases parents willingly co-operate with the Supervisor
by continuing at home the training given in Centre hours.
In this they are helped by the Voluntary Association who, through