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79
ASSISTANCE TO THE SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER AND HIS
ASSISTANT.
The work of the Health Visitors is set out in detail in
Table E. X.
The teachers have continued to render willing and valuable
assistance in the work of medical inspection, and I have once more
to acknowledge the ready help rendered by the superintendent
attendance officer (Mr. Jones) and his staff. Thanks to constant
consultations between the attendance officers and the public health
staff, it has been possible to carry on the work of the department
Without friction and with increasing efficiency.
ATTENDANCE OF PARENTS OR GUARDIANS.
This has been secured as heretofore by written notices despatched
by head teachers prior to the medical inspections. The parents or
guardians of children inspected were present in 1,945 instances, out
of 5,923 children inspected, or 33 per cent. This proportion was
three per cent. lower than in 1909. In the infants' schools 1,357
parents or guardians were present at the inspection of 3,133 children,
or 43 per cent., compared with 44 per cent. present in 1909. Many
parents also attended at subsequent inspections to confer with the
Medical Officers.
DISTURBANCE OF SCHOOL ARRANGEMENTS.
This has been inconsiderable in the newer schools where a
special room can always be set aside for the purpose. In the older
schools much inconvenience to all concerned is more or less inevitable,
though the head teachers have done their best to mitigate
it as far as possible.
In my last report the following suggestion was made:—
Now that a considerable number of children suffering from
defective vision and other eye troubles are referred for further
examination and treatment, I suggest that the Committee should
obtain the consent of the Board of Education to reckon attendance
at the medical department, at the Town Hall, as attendance at
school. Though the gain in grant would be inconsiderable, such
an arrangement would be popular with the children and with the
teachers, as children who are in regular attendance, and are
qualifving for attendance prizes, are very loth to attend at the
Town Hall unless such attendance is counted. Article 44 (h) of the
present Code permits such attendances to be reckoned for school
purposes, and a similar recognition might be sought for children
attending the class for remedial exercises at Whitehorse Road
School.