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Assistance of the School Nurses, Teachers,
and Attendance Officers.
87
by providing information regarding absentees, and the
woman attendance officer, who was appointed in the
beginning of 1918 with a special object in view has
proved herself a decided acquisition to the scheme.
The men have the usual cases of non-attendance to
deal with and are useful in reporting cases requiring
medical supervision or on which a medical opinion is
desired, but the woman deals with only two schools as
an ordinary attendance officer, and has also to keep
all the cases excluded on account of verminous condition,
impetigo, scabies, etc., under her supervision.
This arrangement has met with greater success than
was anticipated for she has been able, by the exercise
of tact with the mothers and by giving a certain amount
of instruction and advice, to get the children cared for
or treated and consequently sent back to school at a
much earlier date than would otherwise be the case.
The woman attendance officer has in effect become a
part of the school medical scheme even to the extent of
using the School Clinic as an office where she is in
constant touch with the school nurses. Her success in
Ealing indicates the scope for the development of
women attendance officers in other parts of the country.
One of the most pleasing developments of medical
inspection and treatment of school children is the real
and practical interest of the teachers in the scheme.
Greater attention has, year by year, been devoted by
the teachers to the physical well-being of the children;
they have now fully recognised that the mental development
of the child is dependent upon his proper physical
development and thus have given that constant assistance,
not only in aiding inspection, but in securing
treatment, without which medical inspection cannot be
a complete success.