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6
To the Chairman and Members of the Hornsey
Education Committee.
Mr. Alderman Barrenger, Ladies and Gentlemen,
1 have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the work
of the School Medical Service for the year 1930.
In April Dr. Edith Abbott took up the combined duties of
Assistant Medical Officer for Maternity and Child Welfare and
Assistant School Medical Officer, the object of this new appointment
being to secure closer co-ordination in the work of preventive
medicine as it applies to the school child and the pre-school child.
It has been decided to appoint a whole-time dentist as from
April 1st, 1931, to undertake the work now being done by three
dentists working part-time.
The arrangement with the Hornsey Central Hospital for the
operative treatment of eases of enlarged tonsils and adenoids in
school children is working satisfactorily.
The orthopaedic scheme sanctioned in 1929 was begun in
November, 1930, when the necessary accommodation became
available at Topsfield Parade on the removal of the Education
Office to 79, Crouch End Hill. Excellent work is being done.
The question of building a permanent School Clinic to take the
place of the unsuitable premises now occupied at Topsfield Parade
has received careful attention. An ideal site for such a building has
been secured at the rear of the "Town Hall site" in the Crouch
End Broadway Grounds. Plans will be prepared for consideration
in the near future.
A considerable part of this Report is devoted to an attempt
to explain Table iii of the statistical returns required by the Board
of Education—the return of all "exceptional children" in the area
—blind, deaf, mentally defective, epileptic and physically defective
children of school age (5—16). I have also gone more or less
fully into what I believe to be the most urgent problem which
confronts Education Authorities in every part of the country—the
problem of the delicate or physically sub-normal child. This is not
in any sense a problem confined to "distressed areas." Reports
of School Medical Officers indicate that it is present in every area.
At the same time, I desire to direct attention to three steps taken
during the year towards the solution of this difficult problem in
Hornsey.