[Report 1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cambridgeshire County Council.

  • Cambridgeshire (England). County Council
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / School Medical Officer of Health, Cambridgeshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Makjorie Sisson, M.A,, Fsijchothempist. Erxa Popper, B.A., Psychotherapist. Dorothea M. Hutchinson, M.x\., Psychiatric Social ]Vorher. Mabel V. Bishop, B.Sc., do. (from December 1951). Mary Phillips, Mental Healtli Cert., Psychiatric Social Worher (Resigned August, 1951) Nancy Salaman, B.A., Dip.Psych., Educational Psychologist. Heather G. Hramtsov (nee Melvill), L.C.S.T., Speech Therapist. Rosemary Paton Philip, L.C.S.T., Speech Therapist. Shirley Longmuir, L.C.S.T., Speech Therapist. M ARY V\ . Burriuge, L.C.S.T., Speech Therapist (from April 1951). Hygienic Condition of Premises This section which appeared regularly before the war was omitted during the war when reports were abbreviated as much as possible and has not been re-inserted hitherto. It is appreciated that improvements to schools have proceeded steadily since the war but it is not too much to say that many of them still leave much to be desired. It is easy to go into almost any school in a critical mood and find fault with some detail of structure or management but it is not proposed to give a list of schools and describe every defect which can be found. Xe\'ertheless, it cannot be too strongly emphasised that the school medical service is fundamentally preventive in principle and that to go into each school to prescribe treatment for defects discovered in the children without considering conditions which may have contributed towards their making does not represent an adequate discharge of its functions. MoreoA'er to educate children in surroundings of poor hygienic nature and conducive to bad habits is to remove from them much of the incentive to desire in later life improvements in their own homes and better ways of living there. The didicultics associated with the sanitary arrangements of rural schools are well known and are chiefly due in most instances to the necessity of tolerating a conservancy system of some sort. In actual fact no great fault can be found with a conservanc}^ system provided it is projicrly constructed and managed but this desirable state of affairs is not easy to attain. It may be said at once, howe^'er, that there is no shadow of excuse for the old iashioned pit closet and this very primitive condition of things is still in existence at a lev schools. Well managed jiail closets are reasonably satisfactory but it cannot be denied that they ha^ e many unpleasant aspects and that in these days of shortage of labour it is dillicult to secure such a standard of upkeep as to make them free from objection. It is also a fact that it is increasingly hard to find ground for the proper disposal of their contents. There arc maii}^ instances of schools using conservancy systems of a more or less satisfactory tyj^e where