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Four children were of the mildly neurotic and anxious type, unable to face up to the
demands of the large classes in ordinary schools. They have all settled down very well in
the more sheltered environment of day special schools either for the delicate or for the
maladjusted.
Four of the cases—all boys—were considered to be real truants. Following Court action
all are now attending school regularly under probationary supervision.
The remaining four cases fitted into no category but were each unique. They included
a 14.year.old girl with a wig who refused to attend school because the other children pulled
it off; and a girl who had not been allowed to attend school for four years, and had been
under a child guidance clinic for two years. Her parents disapproved of school on principle,
but now that she attends an 'open.air' school the parents are amongst the school's most
vocal supporters.
The most acute cases of separation anxiety under child guidance clinic treatment are
placed on home tuition for limited periods. There were some 15 such cases during the year,
of whom over half were back in school or attending special classes at least part.time after
a few months on home tuition.
The Council is fortunate in having the co.operation of the Bethlem Royal Hospital
Adolescent Unit, where seven intractable non.attenders were admitted during the year,
all of whom are now back in day or boarding schools.
Experimental student health scheme
It has never been the Council's practice to arrange for the routine medical inspection
of the older students, many part.time, who attend the very wide range of establishments
for further education in London. At one time, however, certain of the polytechnics and
technical colleges included junior technical departments attended by pupils of compulsory
school age, so that school doctors visited the establishments for the purposes of medical
inspection of these younger pupils. Inevitably the school physician who visited came to be
regarded as the college visiting medical officer and was consulted on a wide range of
problems, including those of the older students who were technically outside the scope of
the school health service.*
In recent years the junior technical schools have been moved from further education
establishments into secondary schools, so the school physicians' visits have ceased. During
1960 the Education Committee decided that a trial should be made of a student health
scheme at Barrett Street technical college, where, inter alia, hairdressing is studied.
The experimental scheme, which started at the beginning of the 1960/61 session, is not
the routine inspection of all students but an attempt to provide a consultative service.
At the beginning of the session all new entrants are asked to complete a simple personal
medical questionnaire, based on that used in Cardiff.†
Scrutiny of the completed questionnaires by the college medical officer enables her to
pick out some students to invite for interview, but the main concept of the scheme is that
the physician visits the college at a fixed time each week and is available for consultation
by students or staff on problems relating to students.
The following table gives statistics of the first term's work under this experimental
scheme:
* Sections 48 and 114 of the Education Act, 1944, taken together, limit the school health service to pupils
under the age of 19 years.
f Vide : A Technical College Student Health Service, Medical Officer, 4th December, 1959, pages 295.296.
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