[Report 1947] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City.

  • Leeds (England). City Council.
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1947] / School Medical Officer of Health, Leeds City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    TO Nursery School and N urserv Classes. Dr. G. F. Prince reports I he number of children attending Nursery Classes in December 1947, was 4,400. Many of these classes are housed in the older type of school, where accommodation does not lend itself to a full nursery regime. Owing to continuing difficulties in organisation and supply the nursery dinner in some schools is limited to the children of working mothers, while in others the children continue to dine in the general school canteen. “ The Hunslet Nursery School makes full provision for 76 children aged from two to five years. “ Admission of two-year old children to the Nursery Classes, was discontinued in 194b. As a result of pressure on staff and accommodation higher up the school the rate of admission to, and promotion from, the nurseries has slowed down considerably. This has led to a rise in the average age of the children, and to the growth of a formidable waiting list for admission. There must be many children on the waiting list with minor ailments for which treatment would have been available had they been in school. “ Dr. Prince and Dr. Holoran have continued to exercise a general oversight of nursery hygiene in association with the Com¬ mittee’s Inspectors, and have assisted in the training of Nursery Nurses, Wardens and Nursery Class Assistants, by whom the nurseries are largely staffed. “ The first two groups of Nursery Nurses to be trained under the new regulations have completed their training and gained their diploma. This course requires the co-operation of the Maternity and Child Welfare Department, the Education Department, the Day Nurseries and the Nursery Classes. Their joint efforts have produced a very satisfactory pass list and a further group has commenced training. “ The health of the children appears to have been maintained at the relatively favourable level of recent years. A small number of children developed signs of rickets at the close of the phenom¬ enally severe winter of 1946-47, but in most cases these defects cleared up satisfactorily during the ensuing months. “ Ihe Measles epidemic of the Spring also made itself felt in the Nurseries. Here, again, the rate and completeness of recovery appeared to be satisfactory by pre-war standards.”