View report page

— 12 —
(h) Dental Defects.—During the year 6 dental sessions a
week have been held during school terms, the dentists having
attended on 18 occasions for inspection and on 243 for treatment.
As a result of these inspections 2,584 children were found to
require treatment, and 1,989 were actually treated. The dental
service is deservedly popular in the Borough, and arrangements
have been made for increasing the number of sessions from 6 to
8 per week during 1926. Full details of the work done will be
found in Table IV. D.
(i) Crippling Defects.—Each case is dealt with specially as
it arises, and institutional treatment has always been made
available when such treatment was considered necessary.
During 1925 three crippled children have been sent to certified
residential schools.
OPEN-AIR EDUCATION.
Two places for boys and two for girls are reserved at the
School of Recovery, Parkstone, and a similar number at the
Ogilvie Home, Clacton. During the year 26 children were sent
for six weeks or longer to one or other of these institutions. The
resulting improvement in the health of these children was usually
marked, more particularly in the case of such as were allowed
to remain in the open-air school for a longer period than six
weeks.
The Town Council has under consideration the advisability
of erecting a day open-air school at Coppett's Road, Muswell
Hill. This school would accommodate 125 children from Hornsey
and Wood Green. In the last quarter of the year the School
Medical Officer examined over 700 children referred to him as
suitable for such a school by Head Teachers, School Nurses and
other officials, and finally selected some 75 children, or about
1 per cent. of the number on the rolls of the various schools,
as being of a type likely to benefit from this form of education.
The majority of the children selected either suffered from malnutrition
or debility or were delicate children coming from
tuberculous families.
Playground classes are held in most of the schools during
the summer months, and in six of the departments light weatherproof
shelters have been erected to accommodate such classes.