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154.
being essential to prevent spread, ulceration and disfigurement. School attendance
is possible for slight cases under treatment, if the sore parts are dressed and covered
with bandages, but where the disease is extensive and severe, exclusion becomes
necessary. This is a guiding policy, but every case should be considered separately
and in conjunction with the treating physician in regard to fitness or otherwise to
attend ordinary school. Owing to the chronicity of the disease exclusion may
be required for a long time.
Several years ago there were, at the London Hospital in the Light Department,
about twenty children undergoing treatment for lupus vulgaris, but unfit
for school owing to the extent and severity of the disease, a number of whom
had not attended for some years. There were, amongst them, children from
different parts of the country, who had come specially to London for treatment
and were boarded out by arrangements made by the Marie Celeste Society in
connection with the London Hospital. They were not receiving education and
were without the benefits of school teaching and social supervision. Dr. O'Donovan,
under whose care the children were at the London Hospital, was anxious that a
special class should be provided for them and brought the matter to the notice
of Mr. Swann, with the result that a hospital class for children under treatment
in the Light Department of the London Hospital and unfit for school was opened
by the Council in April, 1925, in a portion of the premises once occupied by the
Stepney Day Continuation School and placed under the headmastership of Mr. A.
Sinclair, the Head Master of the Trafalgar Square school, and a class teacher, Miss
Gilder. The Board of Education sanctioned the stay of pupils up to the age of
sixteen. To fit in with arrangements for treatment at the London Hospital the
girls attend in the forenoon and the boys in the afternoon.
The educational attainments cf the children vary owing to their different
ages, and the long periods of absence from school which have preceded their admission.
Handwork enters largely into the curriculum. Mr. Sinclair reports that
a total of 40 scholars have passed through since opening (18 boys and 22 girls)
and the average time in the class per scholar is twelve months. When a child
is suspended for a time from hospital treatment and returns home, a further
attendance at the London Hospital is sometimes necessary and resumption at
school. In any case the children leave at 16 years. The school has been a means
of providing some education and social supervision for the children who, through
absence from school for years, have been deprived of both. Their homes are as
far distant as Harringay and Weymouth and the Isle of Wight and Bury St.
Edmunds, and though they were boarded out in London and attended hospital
half a day no school could receive them. They are medically inspected at
school every term and treatment recommended if necessary. Medical inspection
revealed a certain number with malnutrition, dental caries, tonsils and adenoids,
and defective vision. Having regard to the sore condition of their skin a separate
towel is provided for each child.
The school is performing very necessary work, and though the number of
children is small, the value of the school cannot be measured by the numbers,
and there will be need for it as long as there are severe and extensive cases of
lupus.