View report page

-87—
to the head teachers drawing their attention to the actual condition
of the teeth of the children in the various schools as indicated by
the percentage of children found on medical inspection to have
sound teeth in each group and pointing out the need for
greater educational efforts to bring about a further improvement
by giving suitable instruction based on the Dental Board's leaflet
on the care and preservation of the teeth.
It is hoped that the constant reiteration of the need for care
of the teeth will cause greater interest to be taken in the subject
by the children and parents alike.
(j) Crippling Defects.— There were at the end of the year
51 elementary school children on the list of crippled children.
Two of these were in special residential schools and 49 were attending
elementary schools in the Borough. No cases were kept at home.
This list is an accurate and complete one as every physically defective
child not on the school list of crippled children must be reported
by the head-teachers to the School Medical Department at once
and every crippled child of school age not admitted to school must
be reported by the school enquiry officers.
The list is kept accurate by the submission of all crippled
children to medical examination once a year as a routine procedure.
Some, however, may be medically examined oftener to determine
the progress of the defect, the desirability of further or special
treatment and the need for special or restricted exercises in school.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
Through the returns of cases of non-notifiable infectious disease
furnished weekly by the head-teachers, it was ascertained that
during the year the number of children absent from school as
actual cases of, or contacts with non-notifiable infectious disease
were 1,073 due to measles, 375 to whooping cough, 203 to chickenpox
and 429 due to mumps. These weekly returns not only give
fairly accurate information as to the prevalence of infectious
disease in the schools, but enable visits to be made to the homes
of the children affected by the health visitors, who give advice
on the care and nursing, particularly of the children suffering from
measles and whooping cough under five years of age, in whom
Complications of a serious character are so apt to occur,