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FYFIELD RESIDENTIAL OPEN AIR SCHOOL
During the year 94 West Ham boys and 100 West Ham girls were admitted, and 83 West
Ham boys and 94 West Ham girls were discharged. Of extra-district children 19 boys and 5
girls were admitted and 25 boys and 11 girls were discharged. The West Ham children are
re-inspected a few months after they leave Fyfield to ascertain if their improvement has
been maintained. Of the 185 who attended for examination, 168 showed continued improvement,
but 17 children had not maintained their condition and were given the opportunity of having
a further stay at the school.
Children are admitted to the school each term and a few at mid-term. During the
year the Chief Assistant School Medical Officer made six visits to the school for the
purpose of reinspectlng the children.
NURSERY SCHOOLS AND CLASSES. The authority has four nursery schools, the Rebecca
Cheetham Nursery School in the north of the Borough and the Edith Kerrison Nursery School
in the south. In October 1949, the Osborne Road Day Nursery was transferred to the Education
Committee and became a Nursery School under supervision by the School Health Service;
and in September 1950, Station Street Day Nursery was likewise transferred to the School
Health Service. The children at nursery schools are medically examined quarterly. Towards
the end of 1950, the classification of the medical examination was changed as a result of
discussions at the Ministry of Education.
The chld's first examination in its year of entry is now classed as an "Entrant";
further examinations in the same year are classed as "Reinspections". This has led to an
apparent increase in the number of reinspections at the expense of the number of routine
inspections; but the effect is largely artificial.
Children attend these nursery schools between the ages of two and five years, and
nursery classes between the ages of three and five years, a period during which defects
commonly make their appearance, and when, consequently, most can be done to prevent them.
The reason that medical inspections are carried out much more frequently than at other
schools is to protect the normal child, strengthen the weakly susceptible child, and free
the "defective" child from physical defects which would retard his development and cause
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