E/PM4/1/9

Copy correspondence of a School Attendance Officer (Herbert Cross of Streatley) working in South Bedfordshire with Bedfordshire Local Education Authority; the correspondence gives a good idea of a School Attendance Officer’s job at this period, including all matters concerning attendance, and including particularly the following:

1937 - 1939

From: 1937 To: 1939

- request for increased travelling expenses through having to use his car, having been forced to give up using his bicycle through a heart condition; - individual cases of non-attendance for a variety of reasons; - regulations etc. regarding children travelling to schools in other parishes; - employment of children and ensuring they are not younger than school leaving age; - regulations regarding children attending the appropriate school and cases where they did not, including children from on the county border attending school in the neighbouring county; - regulations regarding first admission to school aged five; - H.Cross’ illness and steps taken to carry on his work; - minor repairs to schools; - reports on home conditions of children boarded at out-county schools; - regulations regarding admission and deletion from school register; - alterations proposed by H.Cross to Form 77 SA (attendance return) and 83 SA (warning letter to parents); - misunderstanding as to the rôle of School Attendance Officer at The Weefolk Kindergarten School, Dunstable; - children needing to attend Special Schools; - appointments and resignations of teachers; - building of new estates; - low percentage attendance at various schools; - home tuition of children; - misbehaviour on school buses; - reorganisation of schools; - tracing school career of a mental patient and of prisoners to facilitate accurate records; - Officer’s [request] for a filing cabinet to store the correspondence received from Local Education Authority; - undertaking censuses in certain areas; - welfare of children (arriving at school wet and cold or with clothing in poor condition etc.). [ex EV101]

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EDUCATION, student, health administration, CHILDREN, school attendance officer, STREATLEY, Local Education Authority, South Bedfordshire, business correspondence, employment, money, travel, medical conditions, rules and regulations, employment of children, School, out county schools, illness, education buildings, building work, social & welfare provision children, boarding school, registers, Dunstable Weefolk Kindergarten School, special needs, teachers, resignation, housing estates, statistics, home tuition, behavioural difficulties, mental health, CRIME & PUNISHMENT, census, welfare, health, clothing