View report page

90
necessary, and the public health staff would keep the children under
observation until the advice was followed. In this way the time of
the ophthalmic surgeon would be economised, and the Committee
would have the machinery for securing attention to his advice.
This recommendation was adopted in principle and it was
arranged that Mr. Wray should in the first instance attend at the
Town Hall on two mornings per week to examine and advise selected
children. Owing to the delay in securing the long promised
additional accommodation for my department it has not yet been
possible to carry this plan into effect, but arrangements are under
discussion whereby the Council will provide the necessary rooms.
BOARD'S SCHEDULE OF MEDICAL INSPECTION. — This
schedule has been adopted in its entirety but the order in which the
inspection is made has been varied to meet local requirements. No
attempt has been made to complete each child's schedule. In many
instances 110 examinations of the chest were undertaken, sometimes
because such examinations were obviously not necessary while in
other cases complete examinations were likely to be resented, and
were therefore postponed until the parents were familiarised with
our methods. In a few of the schools (Mitcham Road for instance),
a superficial inspection of the children was all that was possible as
there was no room available in which the privacy and absence of
noise necessary for a complete examination could be secured. '
The results of the Ophthalmic Surgeon's examinations also are
not at present entered on the cards as his method of selecting children
is different from that adopted for the general inspection.
ASSISTANCE TO THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER AND HIS
ASSISTANT.—The work of the health visitors when acting as school
nurses has already been alluded to and is set out in Table E VIII.
The assistance rendered by the large majority of teachers has
been invaluable and I cannot speak too highly of the judgment and
tact which have been displayed in connection with our work in the
schools. Without the cordial and intelligent co-operation of the
teachers little progress can be made and I trust the small minority
who have found it difficult to adjust themselves to the new requirements
of the code will soon become convinced of the importance of
co-operating in the work. Unless the requirements of the Board of
Education are carried out both in spirit and in letter, progress is
impossible and I am confident that we owe our freedom from
difficulties and complaints in no small measure to the way in which the
teachers of Cioydon have responded to the demands made on them.
In quite a large number of schools the teachers have voluntarily
assisted in the weighing and measuring of the children and in this
way not only lightened the labours of the medical staff but turned
what might have been a tedious compilation of statistics into
interesting lessons in weighing and measuring according to English
and metric standards.