View report page

2 I
treatment, e.g., hospital, and 49 attended the Clinic but refused
treatment.
Dental Work.
A further age-group has been added, and with the growth of
the work the School Nurse, who hitherto has been doing half time
dental work, now devotes her whole time to the Dentist, and in
addition to the actual Clinic work, is responsible for the clerical
work in connection with the Dental Clinic.
A very careful series of statistics has been undertaken by the
School Dentist, which will next year, when the whole school population
is under review, form a basis for exact statistics which will
show what progress is really being made.
Open Air Education.
There is no open air school in the district, the only open air
education being comparatively few classes held in the playground
in the summer. There is a great demand for an open air school,
as there are a considerable number of children who could attend
such a school with benefit, from the point of view of education
and also from the point of view of their physical well-being due
to the proper feeding, rest, etc., which form such an important
part of an open air school curriculum. There are a considerable
number of border-line cases with which it is very difficult at present
to deal. They cannot attend an ordinary day school and hope
to cope with its curriculum. Their power of concentration is sadly
Tacking, and one feels that on the whole, the child is better running
about in the fresh air, and even mud larking under what might
be supposed to be far from ideal conditions, than sapping what
energy it has by attempting to cope with the school curriculum.
The presence of these children in a class also makes the work of
a teacher infinitely harder, as they are apt to be a disturbing
element amongst the normal children.
PHYSICAL TRAINING.
There is no Area Organiser of Physical Training for the
elementary schools in the district. Whatever is done is on the
initiative of the teachers, but the School Medical Officers are not
consulted, save as to fitness or otherwise of a particular child to
engage in drill.