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Vision
All school pupils, other than entrant infants, have their distant visual acuity tested by
the school nurse by means of Snellen test charts, those pupils who have them wearing
their spectacles for the test. The test is carried out at the time of the routine age group
general medical inspection, and in cases of sub-normal vision the result of the test is
checked by the school doctor. The charts now used by the Council are double sided,
having lower case script lettering on one side and plain block capitals, without serifs,
on the other, as it has been found that children have less difficulty with such types of
letters than with the classical Snellen tvces.

The constancy of the proportion of pupils recorded with normal visual acuity,
about 80 per cent, of those tested, has been noted for many years. The above table also
shows the proportion of pupils referred to ophthalmologists for specialist examination,
and this percentage has also been fairly constant for many years. The table shows that
the higher proportion of children referred for treatment at the older ages was mainly
due to the need for the adjustment of their glasses with the passage of time. The problem
of ensuring that treatment is obtained for pupils with defective vision, now that this
specialist work is the function of the Hospital Eye Service, is discussed on pages 103-4.
Hygiene inspections and the cleansing scheme
For the purpose of assisting at medical inspections, each school health visitor is allocated
to a group of schools. Each school in the group is also visited by the school health visitor
in accordance with a rota, in order that she can carry out the inspection as to the personal
hygiene of the children. Each school is visited at least once a term, so that each child is
seen at least three times a year.
The hygiene inspection of all pupils is, in two terms out of three, concerned
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