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128
CO-OPERATION OF TEACHERS, SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
OFFICERS AND VOLUNTARY BODIES.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the cordial co-operation of
teachers and of school attendance officers in making school
medical work effective. The sympathetic interest taken by
teachers is of paramount importance in the success of the work.
To the attendance officers the service is in particular indebted,
amongst much other valued help, for the constant supply of information
about children who might otherwise escape medical
supervision.
The voluntary School Care Committees have given most
willing help in securing treatment in individual cases, and in
obtaining consent to treatment where persuasion through the
ordinary channels had failed.
The Croydon Council of Social Service has given much information
in individual cases, and has been of great assistance in
the provision of surgical appliances and in help in the homes in
necessitous cases.
Close co-operation is maintained with the Inspector of the
National Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.
BLIND, DEAF, EPILEPTIC & PHYSICALLY DEFECTIVE
CHILDREN.
Particulars as to the defective children of school age, known
to the School Medical Department, are set out in Table III. in
Appendix C to this report. It will be seen that the numbers are
as follows:—
Blind 14*
Deaf 9*
Mentally defective (and still under care of Education
Committee) 122
Epileptic—severe grade 31
slighter grade 25
Physically defective—
Infectious pulmonary and glandular tuberculosis
8
Non-infectious, but active glandular tuberculosis
104
Active non-pulmonary tuberculosis 18
Delicate (pre-tubercular, anaemia, etc.) 355
Crippled (other than tuberculosis) 140
(*i.e., blind and deaf in regard to capacity for education
in an ordinary school.)
Table III. in Appendix C indicates the extent to which suitable
educational provision has been made for these children. The
most pressing need, so far as these children are concerned, is
the provision of a day-school for cripples, and of an open-air
school for the large group of delicate children shown in the table
given above.