[Report 1952] / School Medical Officer of Health, Southampton County Borough.

  • Southampton (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / School Medical Officer of Health, Southampton County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Since climbing and hanging apparatus has been provided in so many of the infant, junior and secondary schools — and since bare foot physical education has been accepted by the boys’ schools as well as the girls’, the number of children suffering from physical defects has very noticeably decreased. Some difficulty has been experienced over stripping and particularly over the question of bare foot work and the possible incidence of plantar w^arts. The Medical Officer of Health was asked to arrange with Mr. Langston, Orthopaedic Surgeon, to address a meeting of head teachers of all schools. A demonstration of climbing and agility work w^as given, and Mr. Langston and the assistant medical officer gave most helpful talks which convinced the head teachers that the risk of plantar infection was small in school halls and that the benefits derived out-weighed the risk of plantar wart infection. Mr. Langston said that warm wet conditions such as the swimming baths were a much more likely source of infection. Many searching questions were asked by the head teachers which were dealt with convincingly by Mr. Langston. Undoubtedly, this meeting has done a great deal to encourage sensible stripping for physical education lessons. The following table gives details of the work carried out during 1952 Name of Centre No. of children for whom ac¬ commodation is available Individual children dealt with during 1952 Total attendances made by chil¬ dren during 1952 Aldermoor . 30 22 858 Bassett Green . 30 34 1688 1 Bitterne Park Junior 25 28 827 \ Bitterne Park Sec. Mod. 20 15 207 1 Deanery . f * Foundry Lane . 25 18 454 22 10 250 ] Girl’s Grammar 30 21 710 1 Itchen Grammar . 25 19 246 •1 King Edward VI . 25 28 426 1 Ludlow Road 25 22 729 ^ Mount Pleasant . 25 24 553 i Portswood . 25 31 968 :i| Regents Park . 25 51 1344 j Shirley . 30 27 1327 < Shirley Warren . 25 40 767 li Sholing (Middle Road) 27 34 920 St. Anne’s . 25 14 124 :: :J:Swaythling . 25 14 213 d Taunton’s . 25 60 591 Western . 25 20 464 '/j Woolston (Porchester Road) 25 41 815 Totals 539 573 14481 * Closed down 12th April, 1952 X Closed down 22nd March, 1952 I