[Report 1937] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough.

  • Bournemouth (England). County Borough Council. nb2004301338.
Date:
1937
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1937] / Medical Officer of Health, Bournemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    89/110 (page 87)
    They have been greeted by the Head Teachers and their staffs in a spirit of co-operation and in some cases with enthusiasm and a most encouraging l)eginning has been made. Most of the playgrounds can be used for the playing of games and all of the .schools, with the exception of three, have facilities for organised games on the respective playing fields. Many of the schools have a hall or classroom available for indoor work but it would appear that some of the children are not provided with clothing suitable for physical exercises. Arrangements are also made for swimming classes though further facilities are needed, especially for the younger cliildren. During the year, attendances of the children at the Baths were as follows :— No. of No. of No. able to swim scholars who atten- 100 25 12 attended dances yds. yds. yds. 390 4568 79 240 97 416 4880 89 250 102 OPEN-AIR EDUCATION. There is not an open-air school in Bournemouth so that it has been necessary to send children requiring institutional treatment to other districts. For some time, it has not been possible to obtain sufficient vacancies and many children have been compelled to wait for long periods. In consequence, attention has been directed to the matter. Head teachers were requested by the Director of Education to submit lists of children who, in their opinion, should be sent to an open-air school and some hundreds of names resulted. The children w’ere medically examined and classified. It was to be anticipated that the number of those finally selected would be smaller than that indicated by the teachers. Never- theless, 59 children were found and should be sent to an open- air school. Since these examinations were carried out, numerous additions have been made to the list. It has been asked whether the number of children thus found justifies the provision of an open-air school by the Education authority, but there is no doubt that if the institution were established, there would be an increasing demand for vacancies, not only in respect of scholars in Bournemouth, but also on behalf of children residing in less healthy districts.