[Report 1935] / Medical Officer of Health, Darlington County Borough.
- Darlington (England). County Borough Council.
- Date:
- 1935
Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1935] / Medical Officer of Health, Darlington County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![THE BARNARD SCHOOL (Mental Deficiency). The Barnard School for backward children continues to do good work, and 83 were in attendance at the end of the year. 15 new children were admitted and 6 boys and 2 girls left on attaining 16 years of age. Four boys who were under 16 years of age were granted special permission to leave as permanent work had been obtained for them. The establishment of an Old Boys’ and Old Girls’ Club, mainly through the Local Mental Welfare Association and Toe H, has done much to ensure the after-care of these children leaving at 16 years of age. No definite change has been made in the curriculum during the year and special attention has been given, as formerly, to tuition in those subjects mainly manual which, it is calculated, will be most useful to this type of child when he leaves school and enters into competition with normal children. THE GEORGE DENT NURSERY SCHOOL. The George Dent Nursery School was visited weekly during the year. Out of 100 children on the School I’oll there was an average attendance of 88. 150 children were subjected to a full routine examination, and 32 were brought forward as special cases. 18 children were immunized against diphtheria. 24 attended the School Clinic for minor ailments, and 4 children were provided with glasses. The addition of a wash room and four lavatories on the first floor has proved a great help, in the routine work of the school, as these are provided solely for use of the children whose classrooms are upstairs. It is only necessary for members to visit the school to realize the enormous value of the work being done there. Both the mental and physical well- being of the child is the first consideration of the Staff and it is the aim of the school that, as far as is possible, the delicate child should be brought up to the normal standard of health by the time it attains the age of five years. NURSERY CLASSES. Nursery Classes continue to be successfully run at Rise Carr Infants’, at Gurney Pease and at St. Williams’ Schools. All these classes are doing excellent work and fill a much needed want, but in all, the accommodation is restricted particularly at Gurney Pease, and the teachers are severely handicapped in their work. There is room for at least one Nursery School with 100 places in the North End of the town. When one sees the work of such a school as the George Dent Nursery School and realizes that this school, with accommodation for 100 children, has a waiting list and is the only one in Darlington, one realizes that it is only a very small unit in a town with a ])opulation of 3,000 children, two to five years of age.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29149174_0102.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
