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The Principal Health Education Officer was invited again to act as a
consultant on five programmes for the series "Science Session: Health Unit"
and appreciated the help and enthusiasm given by boys and girls from
Ashburton Secondary School in a filmed discussion for the programme on
"Smoking" and also the generous sharing of experience of social studies
by the staff of Westwood Secondary School.
Primary Schools "Growing Up" Talks
For ten years a pattern of two evening talks, the first for parents of
boys and girls and the second for mothers and fourth year daughters in
primary schools has been followed. This sharing of responsibility with
parents is still considered to be the most important part of the exercise.
The demand for the talks is steady although only 34 out of a possible 60
schools make use of the service. There is a growing demand for either a
third session for boys and fathers or the inclusion of boys in the second
session. Limited staff willing and able to deal with the subject at this
level, make the first suggestion impossible and the very large group that
would be formed if the second suggestion were followed is not desirable
especially where no teaching has been given in earlier years. Two or three
schools do manage this and others could overcome the difficulty if teaching
were included at eight and nine years old as suggested in the Croydon
Health and Education Departments' scheme "Health Education - Patterns for
Teaching". At these ages neither boys nor girls are physically or emotionally
involved. They are curious and interested and can accept simple information
about growth, development and families quite naturally.
Visual aids for these age groups are still limited and not entirely suitable.
New material is urgently needed and a request for this will be made to
the newly formed Health Education Council.
It was a pleasure to be able to invite teaching staff to the new Health
Education Section in Taberner House (Room 3 : 16); visits from teachers
are always welcomed and the Health Education staff look forward to the 1969
programmes.
INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS
Children who are not making progress in an ordinary school are referred
to the School Health Service to determine whether special education may be
necessary. A test of intelligence is carried out not only when there is any
suggestion of educational subnormality but also during the investigation of
a large number of other medical problems.
191 children were examined during 1968. The classifications arrived at,
together with recommendations made, were as follows:—