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REPORT ON THE SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
DURING THE YEAR 1963
To the Chairman and Members of the Welfare and School
Attendance Sub-Committee.
Madam Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the
year 1963.
The health of the schoolchildren has, generally speaking,
been satisfactory and there were no serious epidemics during
the year. Children of all ages are, nowadays, bigger than
they were at the beginning of the century and are maturing
physically and psychologically at a faster rate. Better nutrition
is, probably, the main factor in this change as well as
the greater opportunities for social development afforded by
the " affluent society but there may also be more subtle
genetic influences at work of which less is known. This
earlier maturation and altered pattern of society bring with
them their own problems of adjustment so that" perhaps
more than ever, the period of adolescence is proving itself,
for many, a time of special difficulty requiring sympathetic
help and understanding.
The School Health Service continued, during 1963, to
provide a full range of services and reference to the statistical
tables at the end of this report gives an indication of the
work which has been carried out. Statistics can, however,
be rather impersonal especially when concerned with the
needs of human beings and one must read between the lines,
as it were, to appreciate what the figures represent in terms
of care and solicitude as applied to the school population
by many agencies
Especially is this true in the case of handicapped
children. Everything possible is done to ensure that these
children get the kind of education or training which will
develop their actual or latent capabilities and which will,
as far as possible, fit them for life among " normal " people.
The whole trend in the health and welfare services, at the
present time, is towards the acceptance by the community
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