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24
Visits of inspection to the schools have been made by me
regularly and a considerable number of children have been
examined for school attendance purposes. Detailed reports have
been sent each term to Dr. Jones, the County Education Medical
Officer, and these reports are incorporated in Dr. Jones' report to
the Surrey County Council. One large and excellent school has
been built during the year at Mortlake, and recently opened, and
another one is contemplated for erection in Barnes.
The plans in both these instances are on the usual lines,
shewing central halls, but it is to be hoped that in future years
attention will be paid to the plans recently described by Dr.
George Reid, the County Medical Officer of Health for Staffordshire,
which are undoubtedly the best. In these plans the
"central hall " is abandoned and the class rooms open on to a kind
of open corridor, in this way securing economy in space and
simplicity and perfection in ventilation.
Considerable improvements are needed in most of the
existing public elementary schools in the district, and some are, I
believe, under consideration.
With regard to the work of examination of scholars for
school attendance purposes, some remarks may perhaps be made.
The examining medical officer, while exercising the greatest
vigilance in detecting what may be called vicarious malingering,
has to protect attending scholars against risk of infection or
contamination, and defaulting children, who are really ill, from hardships
all arising from their parents' laxity, or evasion of proper
observances. In some instances definite certification as desired by
managers or attendance officers cannot be made.
For instance, a child absent for a week or two is alleged by
a parent to have been ill during that time. The child when