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School hygiene
730
School Hygiene
SCHOOL EXCLUSION OF Y O U N G
[~.bno ~ea~t~
HYGIENE.
CHILDREN FRO~[ SOHOOL.--There can he no
question that the attendance at school of children below the age of six (the period at which they are undoubtedly most susceptible to infection, is most harmful, and not infrequently disastrous. In previous reports I have drawn attention to this fact, and I still urge that an appeal should be made to the school governing authorities to raise the legal age of compulsory school attendance from five to six years, and, what is of still greater importance, prevent children from attending school while they are under the prescribed age. A step in the right direction has already been taken in the provinces, where the Board of Education are not insisting upon the provision of accommodation for children under the age of five, the present compulsory age.--A. Wellesley tIarri% Ann. R e p t . , Lewisham. SCHOOL BUILDINGs.--A Parliamentary paper [Cd. 2603] has been issued containing " The Building Regulations, being principles to be observed in planning and fitting up new buildings for public elementary schools, together with rules as to construction and certain requirements as to plans." In a prefatory note it is stated with regard to new buildings that the chief aim of the regulations is to secure that buildings newly erected for use as public elementary schools shali be satisfactory for their special purpose. Part I. relates to the designing of a school as a place of instruction, and to the principles on which a building should be arranged and f~tted in order to secure conditions favourable to effective teaching. Part II. deals with the construction of the fabric, the sanitary and other hygienic conditions, and the safety of the scholars in case of fire or panic, and Part III. refers to the submission of plans in proper form for consideration by the Board of Education. Part I. is not meant to restrict liberty of treatment so far as that is consistent with the observance of the rules in Part IL If therefore a local education authority, or any other body of school promoters, desires to arrange a school on lines -which are not entirely in accordance with the principles of school planning as set out in Part I., the Board will be prepared to consider other arrangements of the various parts of the building, provided there is good reason to suppose that an efficient building for teaching purposes will thereby be forthcoming. The rules of Part II. deal with the extent of the site, with the solidity of the fabric, with the lighting, warming, drainage, ventilation, cloak-rooms, and sanitary arrangements, and with the adequacy of the entrances and staircases in view of the use of the building by a large number of ehildxen. Unless there are circumstances of an exceptional nature, no newly erected building which does not conform with the rules of :Part II. WIUbe recognized for use as a public elementary school. These regulations do not constitute a standard by which existing premises can be judged, but must be taken as a guide, having reasonable regard to the principles set forth in these regulations. EXCLUSION FROM SCHOOL OF CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS,wThe
Board of Education have at last come into agreement with the opinion which has frequently found expression at meetings of the Society that
August, 190a]
School Hygiene
7 31
childzen under five years of age should not be required to attend school. Article 53 of the Code, which came into force on August 1st, provides that no child may be refused admission to a public elementary school on other than reasonable grounds, and that where the local education authority h a v e so determined in the case of any school maintained by them, children who are under five years of age may be refused admission to that school. In commenting upon this article, Mr. Robert L. Morant says: " Children under five years of age are not required by law to attend school, and there is reason for believing that the attendance of such children is often accompanied by danger to health. There is also a mass of evidence pointing to the conclusion that a child who does not atieud school before six years of age or more will, in general, compare favourably, a t a later age, with a child whose attendance began at an earlier age. On the other hand, there is no doubt that parents in certain areas desire that their children should attend school as soon after the age of three as possible, or even before that age. The extent to which parents in any locality desire that very young children should attend school, and the weight which should be attached to the wishes of the parents in this matter, are no doubt sufficiently well known to the Local Education Authority to enable them to deal on their own responsibility with the question of admi~ing or excluding children under five years of age; In these circumstances the Board will now give the Local Education Authority complete discretion on this point, and it will be held under Article 53 that a direction of the Local Education Authority to the effect that children under five shall be refused admission to any particular school or schools is a reasonable round for excluding such children from the school or schools concerned. f the Local Education Authority so wish, different parts of their area may be treated differently in this respect." The Board, in coming to the decision indicated, have no doubt been influenced by the recommendation of the Duke of Devonshire's InterDepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, that school attendance in the rv~-al districts should not be compulsory till six or possibly till seven years, and should be discouraged, if not absolutely prohibited, under five years of age. In this connection it is of interest to recall a resolution passed in October last by the Education Committee of Newport (Men.) in consequence of recommendations made by the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Howard Jones). The resolution directed that after the end of the year no child undes the age of four years should be admitted or retained in the public elementary schools in Nev~port. Upon hearing through H.M. Inspector of this resolution, the Board of Education wrote to the Committee expressing the opinion that it was undesirable to adopt such a regulation. The Committee remained persistent in their desire to exclude very young children from school attendance, and in March, 1905, the Board stated that they had decided to leave to the option of local education authorities whether accommodation should be provided in rural districts for children under five years of age, but that in urban districts accommodaCion should be provided for such children if there was a strongly expressed desire on the part of the parents that they should attend school. At the end of June, the Board addressed a communication to other education authorities, to the effect that in future the same right of option.would be left to all loom education authorities, whether rural or urban, as to whether they wilt provide school accommodation for children below the age of five years. This decision applies not only to the provision of fresh accommodation, but to the exclusion of such children from existing schools. 51
~
School Hygiene
SCHOOL EXCLUSION OF Y O U N G
[~.bno ~ea~t~
HYGIENE.
CHILDREN FRO~[ SOHOOL.--There can he no
question that the attendance at school of children below the age of six (the period at which they are undoubtedly most susceptible to infection, is most harmful, and not infrequently disastrous. In previous reports I have drawn attention to this fact, and I still urge that an appeal should be made to the school governing authorities to raise the legal age of compulsory school attendance from five to six years, and, what is of still greater importance, prevent children from attending school while they are under the prescribed age. A step in the right direction has already been taken in the provinces, where the Board of Education are not insisting upon the provision of accommodation for children under the age of five, the present compulsory age.--A. Wellesley tIarri% Ann. R e p t . , Lewisham. SCHOOL BUILDINGs.--A Parliamentary paper [Cd. 2603] has been issued containing " The Building Regulations, being principles to be observed in planning and fitting up new buildings for public elementary schools, together with rules as to construction and certain requirements as to plans." In a prefatory note it is stated with regard to new buildings that the chief aim of the regulations is to secure that buildings newly erected for use as public elementary schools shali be satisfactory for their special purpose. Part I. relates to the designing of a school as a place of instruction, and to the principles on which a building should be arranged and f~tted in order to secure conditions favourable to effective teaching. Part II. deals with the construction of the fabric, the sanitary and other hygienic conditions, and the safety of the scholars in case of fire or panic, and Part III. refers to the submission of plans in proper form for consideration by the Board of Education. Part I. is not meant to restrict liberty of treatment so far as that is consistent with the observance of the rules in Part IL If therefore a local education authority, or any other body of school promoters, desires to arrange a school on lines -which are not entirely in accordance with the principles of school planning as set out in Part I., the Board will be prepared to consider other arrangements of the various parts of the building, provided there is good reason to suppose that an efficient building for teaching purposes will thereby be forthcoming. The rules of Part II. deal with the extent of the site, with the solidity of the fabric, with the lighting, warming, drainage, ventilation, cloak-rooms, and sanitary arrangements, and with the adequacy of the entrances and staircases in view of the use of the building by a large number of ehildxen. Unless there are circumstances of an exceptional nature, no newly erected building which does not conform with the rules of :Part II. WIUbe recognized for use as a public elementary school. These regulations do not constitute a standard by which existing premises can be judged, but must be taken as a guide, having reasonable regard to the principles set forth in these regulations. EXCLUSION FROM SCHOOL OF CHILDREN UNDER FIVE YEARS,wThe
Board of Education have at last come into agreement with the opinion which has frequently found expression at meetings of the Society that
August, 190a]
School Hygiene
7 31
childzen under five years of age should not be required to attend school. Article 53 of the Code, which came into force on August 1st, provides that no child may be refused admission to a public elementary school on other than reasonable grounds, and that where the local education authority h a v e so determined in the case of any school maintained by them, children who are under five years of age may be refused admission to that school. In commenting upon this article, Mr. Robert L. Morant says: " Children under five years of age are not required by law to attend school, and there is reason for believing that the attendance of such children is often accompanied by danger to health. There is also a mass of evidence pointing to the conclusion that a child who does not atieud school before six years of age or more will, in general, compare favourably, a t a later age, with a child whose attendance began at an earlier age. On the other hand, there is no doubt that parents in certain areas desire that their children should attend school as soon after the age of three as possible, or even before that age. The extent to which parents in any locality desire that very young children should attend school, and the weight which should be attached to the wishes of the parents in this matter, are no doubt sufficiently well known to the Local Education Authority to enable them to deal on their own responsibility with the question of admi~ing or excluding children under five years of age; In these circumstances the Board will now give the Local Education Authority complete discretion on this point, and it will be held under Article 53 that a direction of the Local Education Authority to the effect that children under five shall be refused admission to any particular school or schools is a reasonable round for excluding such children from the school or schools concerned. f the Local Education Authority so wish, different parts of their area may be treated differently in this respect." The Board, in coming to the decision indicated, have no doubt been influenced by the recommendation of the Duke of Devonshire's InterDepartmental Committee on Physical Deterioration, that school attendance in the rv~-al districts should not be compulsory till six or possibly till seven years, and should be discouraged, if not absolutely prohibited, under five years of age. In this connection it is of interest to recall a resolution passed in October last by the Education Committee of Newport (Men.) in consequence of recommendations made by the Medical Officer of Health (Dr. Howard Jones). The resolution directed that after the end of the year no child undes the age of four years should be admitted or retained in the public elementary schools in Nev~port. Upon hearing through H.M. Inspector of this resolution, the Board of Education wrote to the Committee expressing the opinion that it was undesirable to adopt such a regulation. The Committee remained persistent in their desire to exclude very young children from school attendance, and in March, 1905, the Board stated that they had decided to leave to the option of local education authorities whether accommodation should be provided in rural districts for children under five years of age, but that in urban districts accommodaCion should be provided for such children if there was a strongly expressed desire on the part of the parents that they should attend school. At the end of June, the Board addressed a communication to other education authorities, to the effect that in future the same right of option.would be left to all loom education authorities, whether rural or urban, as to whether they wilt provide school accommodation for children below the age of five years. This decision applies not only to the provision of fresh accommodation, but to the exclusion of such children from existing schools. 51
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