Ysgol Maelgwn Health
Ysgol Maelgwn - Health
Sometimes the school was closed because pupils had infectious diseases including whooping cough (16-day closure, January 1908), measles (closed 18 March to 19 April 1909; December 1916 to January 1917), mumps (7 to 26 February 1912) and the European influenza epidemic (21 October to 25 November 1918). In November 1908 attendance was poor because of typhoid fever, and several children were absent with diptheria in October 1912.
The “school dentist” visited each January and spent several days inspecting and treating the children.
In March 1926, children were admitted from the newly opened Blodwel children’s home, opposite the school. They had previously attended the boys’ and girls’ schools in Conwy. They stayed at Blodwel when there was infectious disease, including measles and diptheria, at the home. In 1928 scarlet fever kept the 19 Blodwel pupils from school.
Three children broke their arms during the 1933 summer holidays.
In March 1936 Miss Jones of the Milk Marketing Board “gave the children demonstration lessons on the value of milk as food”. In February 1923 “the children were very much interested” in a travelling exhibition by the Canadian Emigration Offices.
“Many children” were absent on 17 December 1924 attending the funerals of three boys who drowned at Conwy. On 18 July 1927 school was closed for the “funerals of two boys who were drowned while bathing in the Conway River”. Pupil Leslie Parry, aged 8, died during the 1936 summer holidays.
Children were sent home if they arrived in wet clothes outside the season when the fires were lit. In October 1926 the school received a “circular from the Education Office re Coal Economy”. Coal miners had been on strike since May.