View report page

47
Delicate Pupils
In Day Special Schools 49
In Residential Special Schools 8
Awaiting Placement 4
During the year 15 children were found to be delicate and
recommended for admission to a special school. It is difficult
to define a delicate child so that much depends on the judgement
of the school medical officer and upon other factors such as the
child's attendance and educational progress at an ordinary
school. Recently there has been a tendency, particularly outside
the Service, to suggest that other children should be included.
Occasionally the school medical officer is told that the child
is not sufficiently emotionally and socially mature to stand up
to the stresses of a secondary school and sometimes children are
' referred because school attendance is bad although there may be
no medical reason to account for this. Finally the point at
which a specific disease process ceases to make a child delicate
and now justifies the term physically handicapped is essentially
an arbitrary one.
The present regulations specifically refer to an impairment
of physical condition and it seems undesirable to include in
this category handicaps which are essentially emotional. No
doubt the continued improvement in the general health of children
together with the fact that only 0.13% of those inspected at
school medical inspections were found to be of unsatisfactory
general condition accounts for the decline in importance of this
j particular category. Certainly its deletion from the Regulations
would be unlikely to result in difficulties since almost all the
children for whom special education is really justified could be
absorbed into other categories. Children who are categorised as
delicate in Croydon at present are admitted to St. Giles' School
or to a residential open air school if a change of environment
is essential.
Home Tuition
If a child is not fit to attend any school, arrangements are
made for home tuition. wherever possible such children are returned
to a school environment as quickly as possible, since it
is recognised that social contact with other children is an
essential part of normal child development. During the year 3
children were recommended for home tuition and a further 3
children were already receiving such tuition.