London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hornsey 1932

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hornsey, Borough of]

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26
Epileptic children are children who, not being idiots or imbeciles, are
unfit by reason of severe epilepsy to attend the ordinary public elementary
schools.
(b) For the purpose of this return the Board require that children
who are blind within the meaning of the Act should be divided into two
categories, i.e., (1) those who are totally blind or so blind that they can
only be appropriately taught in a school or class lor totally blind children,
and (2) those who though they cannot read ordinary school books, or
cannot read them without injury to their eyesight, have such power of
vision that they can appropriately be taught in a school or class for the
partially blind.
It should be understood that children who are able by means of
suitable glasses to read the ordinary school books used by children without
fatigue or injury to their vision, should not be included in this Table.
(c) It should be understood that none of the children in this category
should in fact be attending public elementary schools. When the heading
is retained, it is merely because at present the insufficiency of Spcial School
accommodation makes it impossible to do better for some of these children
than to allow them to attend the ordinary school, or because there is
some other reason which accounts for the temporary attendance of the
children at the ordinary school.
(d) Children who are deaf within the meaning of the Act should be
classified for the purpose of this Table as (1) totally deaf or so deaf that
they can only be appropriately taught in a school or class for the totally
deaf, and (2) partially deaf, i.e., those who can appropriately be taught in
a school or class for the partially deaf.
(e) This category includes only those children for whose education
and maintenance the Local Education Authority are responsible, and should
exclude all children who have been notified to the Local Authority under
the Mental Deficiency Act.
(f) In this part of the Table only those children should be included
who are epileptic within the meaning of the Act.
For practical purposes the Board are of opinion that children who are
subject to attacks of major epilepsy in school should be recorded as
" severe " cases and excluded from ordinary public elementary schools.
(g) In this part of the Table should be entered the remainder of the
epileptic children in the area, i.e., children whose disease is of such a kind
as not to unfit them for attendance at an ordinary public elementary
school.
(h) Children with " open " tuberculosis should of course be promptly
excluded from publio elementary schools.
(i) The exact classification of physically defective children is
admittedly a matter of difficulty. Valuable information, however, will be
obtained if School Medical Officers will record these defective children as
accurately as possible under the selected sub-headings.
(j) Delicate children suffering from rheumatism should be included
in this category, even though it may be considered undesirable to send
them to an Open School.
(k) The total under this heading should be followed by a figure in
brackets indicating the number of these children who should be receiving
Special School education.