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notice of the medical officer of health by the school attendance
officers: —
Measles (including Whooping cough 461
German measles) 217 Chicken pox 980
Tonsillitis 261 Other diseases 470
Mumps 359
It was not found necessary to close any schools 011 account
of infectious disease during the year.
X. OPEN-AIR EDUCATION.
(a) Playground classes. Opportunity is taken, weather
permitting, of holding classes in the playgrounds, and physical
exercises are taken in the open-air whenever possible. Some
schools hold classes during the warmer months in the open-air on
the flat roofs available, and certain schools hold classes in the
neighbouring parks and recreation grounds.
(b) Open-air classrooms. In three of the most modern
schools in the borough, viz. Tollgate, Pretoria Road and the reconstructed
South Hallsville schools, special provision has been
made for open-air classrooms.
(c) School journeys and camps. During the year several
departments undertook school journeys to different places lor
varying periods. The children were accommodated in boarding
houses or hostels, while some went under canvas. All children
before going on a school journey are examined by an assistant
school medical officer as to their fitness to undertake the journey.
The holiday camps which have been held in the summer for
some years, already sufficiently described in previous reports,
were again held in 1937. In this year the camp for girls was
again held at East Cowes, Isle of Wight, but the boys' camp was
transferred from Shoeburyness, where it had been held for eleven
years, to Dovercourt. The children who are selected to go to
these camps all have a thorough medical and dental examination
before their departure, and special attention is paid to cleanliness
and freedom from contagion.
It would appear from the report of Mr. Pannell, the Superintendent
of the boys' camp, that the change to the new camp was
a great success. The site was a sixteen acre meadow in Upper
Dovercourt within ten minutes' walk from the sea; it thus combined
the advantageous features of sea and country. The journey
400