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Until the Autumn of 1944 when wooden stools were made in the Camp Workshop, the two lowest classes sat on straw mats on the floor from which the wooden boards were eventually removed. The older children used the benches. They never had any tables or desks and knelt at the benches to write and draw. There was no cloakroom. At first the children shared a W.C. with the residents of an adjacent over- crowded building, later they had better accommodation in an adjoining building. There was therefore little opportunity at school to supplement such training as could be given at home in habits of personal cleanliness, neatness and correct posture.
(b) Food. The ration deficiencies have been recorded by Medical Experts. The Medical Authorities supplemented the children's rations with essential foods distributed at first in school and later through clinics. Records of the regular weighing and measuring and medical examination of the children have been set forth in the various Reports prepared by the Camp Medical Officers. By May 1945, when the last weights and measurements were takne, although out of 57 children only 4 had actually lost weight since the previous November, only 6 were of normal weight or above hormal weight, compared with similar children in Great Britain. Of these 6,three had entered the Camp at a later date than the rest, and one was an Ameri ican, belonging to a family receiving regular food parcels. In the opinion of a Medical Officer the children were "holding their own, but in the opinion of members of the teaching staff, who had experience with English children in schools at sea-level in Hong Kong, the Camp children at the beginning of the hot weather April- May 1945, showed more marked signs of fatigue than were normally noticed at the send of a summer term in mid-July.
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(c) Clothes. The children's school work suffered through their discomfort due to lack of clothing in the cold weather. In the rainy season their school attendance suffered because many were without umbrellas or raincoats.
Physical Training. The inadvisability of strenuous physical exercise under conditions of under-nourishment, precluded regular physical training after the first year. Kindergarten Games were taken for short periods with the youngest children. In 1943 Miss Swift, Senior P.T. Mistress, gave the older children corrective posture exercises. For the seven and eight year old groups the lack of training in physical control and mental self-discipline gained in organised physical culture, is likely to prove a serious handicap when they mix with other children of their own age.
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2. Mental. At the time of coming into Camp after a fortnight of seige warfare and four weeks of nerve-wracking confinement, the children were suffer from shock and anxiety. Signs of shock died down gradually but were liable to flare up when bombing or gunfire was heard. Families were less broken up than might have been expected, but the security of a normal home can hardly have existed in Camp, and the children cannot fail to have been adversely affected by the atmosphere of anxiety, irritation and depression. 1945 figures show
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