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Eleven new cases were added to the deaf register during the year, the register now totalling
170.
EDUCATIONALLY SUBNORMAL CHILDREN
The Education Act 1944 makes provision (a) for the statutory examination of children who
may require special educational treatment and (b) as amended by the Mental Health Act 1959 for
the examination of children who are deemed to be unsuitable for education at school, and for review
examinations of such children,
Children examined for these purposes during the year by specially qualified medical
officers numbered 132.
There are three schools in the borough for the educationof these children who are medically
examined each year,
HEALTH EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS
At the beginning of the year the syllabus was such that school activities by the health
education staff were largely concentrated on one school A rearrangement at the start of the new
school year resulted in health education being more evenly spread throughout the schools.
In these schools health education has shown a leaning towards the use of informal mixed
discussion groups rather than lectures to segregated classes and has been accepted to such an
extent that many schools have included it as part of a complete social education programme, The
employment of Visual Aids' Officers in some of the schools has proved of great help
Greater liaison with schools has led to the health education staff working more and more
with the teachers as colleagues and advisers rather than simply filling a gap in the school
curriculum.
Subjects dealt with during the year included: Mother craft, Sex Education and Venereal Disease
at 1,171 sessions and attended by 21,573 pupils.
SCHOOL DENTAL SERVICE
The Principal School Dental Officer, Mr-D.F. Waller reports as follows:-
"1969 has been a year of consolidation of the dental services for the 33,000 school
children in the Borough. The benefits that have accrued from the developments of the
previous three years during which re-staffing, re-building re-equipping and re-decoration
had taken place, have been appreciated more and more during the year by the children,
their parents and teachers. The demand for treatment at all our clinics has increased
considerably and one of the main problems which the staff have had to face this year
has been the control of lengthy waiting lists for treatment. The effect of the new
image which we have achieved has created a problem which can only be met by a considerable
expansion of staff and surgeries within the service or a closer liaison with local
general dental practitioners working within the National Health Service who would be
willing to see greater numbers of school children for treatment.
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