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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
School Population
The school population of the Borough on the 23rd January 1969 was 35,374, as shown in the
following table:-
Primary Schools and Nursery Classes 21,609
Nursery Schools 119
Secondary Comprehensive Schools 12,236
Other Secondary Schools 1,083
Special Schools
Vale Road School for Physically Handicapped 96
Blanche Nevile School for the Deaf
(including classes for partially-hearing) 136
Suntrap Residential Open-Air School 95
Total 35,374
Medical Examinations in Schools
The re-organisation of the system of medical examinations in school is now almost completed.
Selective medical examinations have been instituted in all primary junior schools. The selection has
been made from the children in their last year in the junior school. From September 1969, there will
be a full medical inspection of each child on school entry, and during the final statutory year at
school, with an examination by selection during the last year in the primary school. The selection
of children for examination at this age is made by the school medical officer as the result of
questionnaires sent to parents, and after consultation with the head teachers of the schools
concerned. The hearing and vision of the children in the group are screened, whether or not the
children are eventually selected for medical examination.
During the past year efforts have been continued to establish closer and more continuous links
between the school health service and the schools. By invitation of the Head Teacher, the school
medical officer for the Drayton Comprehensive School visited the school on a regular afternoon each
week to carry out medical inspections and to be available to discuss problems with the pastoral
Heads, whose Committee met on the same afternoon. The School was fortunate in obtaining the
services of Dr. Edward Griffith, a distinguished authority on the problems of young people. This
system was so successful that the scheme is being adopted in a second comprehensive school, and
it is hoped to extend the same method of medical inspection to all the comprehensive schools.

In the Appendix to this report will be found an analysis of the defects found to require treatment
or observation.
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