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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
Pupils on school rolls—In January 1964 there was a total of 414,598 pupils on the day
school roll; 232,242 in primary schools, 171,463 in secondary schools, 2,188 in nursery
schools, 8,319 in special schools and 386 in hospital schools. In January 1963 there were
417,320 pupils on the roll.
Medical inspection
Details of medical inspections during 1963 are summarised and compared with those
for earlier years in the tables below. Since 1958 periodic general medical inspections have
been analysed by year of birth to conform with Ministry of Education requirements, but
to facilitate annual comparisons the year of birth has been turned into ' age ' (by subtracting
year of birth from year of inspection) in the tables throughout this section of the report.
It will be seen from the following table that intermediate inspections now are each
spread over two age-groups because the school year begins in September. The number of
children seen at periodic general medical inspections in 1963 was 37.0 per cent of the school
roll, compared with 39.3 per cent. in 1962 and 38.7 per cent. in 1961. It is of interest that
of the 10,906 special inspections, over half were requested by head teachers, over a quarter
by school health visitors and over one-tenth by parents.
An experimental procedure for medical inspections was introduced during 1962 into
selected schools. The routine examination of the seven to eight years age group was
suspended to allow more time for the examination of selected children considered to be
in need of particular attention. It is too early to assess the full value of the scheme.