SLUM SCHOOL IN A GARDEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17830, 26 April 1926, Page 12

SLUM SCHOOL IN A GARDEN.

WHERE LITTLE WEAKLINGS HAVE GROWN STRONG LONDON, March 4. In the heart of one of London's poorest districts is a school which, to the mothers of the district, means all' that. Eton does in other spheres. As soon as a child is born it is entered for admission to this school, . and. although the age limit is two much lower than Eton- mothers look forward eagerly to the time when the child is accepted. If they could they would make the limit earlier still. Founded by Miss Rachel M’Millan, ' the Open-Air Nursery School at Deptford which bears her name is a place of miracles. Here come tiny children from some of the meanest streets in -L London—impoverished, rickety, sometimes deformed: wee mites., whose only playground is the gutter. After a few weeks at the school the marvel is performed. Rickets arc curedplain health-giving, food, daily baths, the midday nap, exercise in the open air, and. above all. the watchful care of specially-trained teachers and nurses, transform these children into sturdv-limbed, radiant youngsters. MONTHS LEARNING TO SMILE. Since the death of Miss- Rachel M Millan the work has been carried on by Miss Margaret M’Millan. The superintendent is Miss E. Stevinson, and to a “Daily Chronicle” representative she described some of the terrible cases

I if child suffering which have come to ( their notice. j “One day.” she said, “there was t brought to the school a child of three, J who. because his mother had to go to ! work, was tied to the bed for safety. I Ilis poor little legs were bowed, and lie f could hardly walk. lie was so un accustomed to human society that he « screamed if anyone came near him. It took us three months to teach him to . smile. 1 “Another mite spent most of her little life with a grandmother whose eyes were weak and who lived in a darkened room. The child had hardly . ever seen the sun, and winced and , turned her head away whenever it i r shone. “Some, of the mothers are little more . than girls themselves. The family lives in one room, and the mother, hav- ' ing to go to work, has no one with whom to leave her child. ‘“We open about 7.30 in the morning, so that the children can be brought to us by their mothers on their way to the factory, and wc keep them all day, ’ giving them three meals. For this the mother pays, if she can, one shilling ’ a week.” 1 “GIVE US £5,000,000.” The school has a beautiful garden, surrounded by “shelters,” in which groups of children, from “toddlers” up to big brothers and sisters to 10 to 12, sit with their nurses or teachers. Miss Margaret M’Millan, who has given her whole life to the work, spoke of its wonderful results. “Give us £5.000.000 ’ she said, “and we would save every child in England. “The work here results in the mothers feeling a pride in .their children. and creates in the children a I determination that thev will not be content with slums. The Open-Air Nursery School means the death of the slum.” 1