OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 58, 6 September 1916, Page 11

OPEN-AIR SCHOOLS

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Your report On the above in tonight's Post doesn|t show whether it is the Education Department or the Education Board which claims the credit for the establishment of the open-air classroom in conneotion with the South Wellington School, but I do not think it is too much to sa.y that there would not have been any such classroom there if it had not been for the persistence of Dr Elizabeth Gunn, Medical Inspector of' Schools at the time. If the two bodies mentioned, did not actually place obstacles in the way, they certainly cannot be accused of enthusiasm in the matter, but Dr. Gunn was not deterred; and eventually her persistence was-re-warded by the Department making a, grant for the building of the room, which was opened for use after the Easter holidays, 1915. Monthly records of height and weight were kept by the teachers until the end of the year, and the results, when compared with those of ah indoor class of similar age, were most convincingly in favour of the openair class. All these arrangements were made by Dr Gunn, and loyally carried out by members of the school staff, and it is only when the scheme has proved a success that the Education Board appears to have developed any interest in the matter. " Honour to whom honour is due."—l am, etc., GEO. FLUX, Laite Headmaster, South Wellington School. 30th August.