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82
Towards the end of the year arrangements were completed
for the medical supervision of all children having milk
at the cost of the Education Committee. The head-teachers now
send all children recommended by them as suitable cases to the
Inspection Clinics at the Health Centres. Here the medical officer
examines the child and either approves or disapproves the supply
of milk. Annual re-examination of all the children having milk
takes place when routine medical inspection is carried out in the
schools. The teachers continue to terminate the supply of milk
when they find the home circumstances no longer merit special
assistance.
The additional work placed upon the medical, nursing and
clerical staff, is considerable, but one advantage of these new
arrangements, in addition to the stricter supervision of the free
milk scheme, is that about a thousand of the poorer children in
the Borough are subjected to a special annual medical examination.
BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC CHILDREN.
The return of exceptional children in the area (Table III,
page 90) indicates under each heading the school children suffering
from blindness, deafness, mental defect, epilepsy, active tuberculosis,
crippling, or heart disease. The return indicates the number of
children in each category who are being maintained at Certified
Schools, who attend public elementary schools, etc. The figures
are compiled from the list of exceptional children on the last day
of the year, and show that 34 children were being maintained at
Certified Schools by the Education Committee.
NURSERY SCHOOLS.
There are no nursery schools in the Borough. Children just
under five years of age are admitted to the Infants' departments
where there is some adequate reason for earlier admission to
school. At two schools, St. John's and St. Mark's, special classes
have been formed for children before their fourth birthday, two
classes of 30 children in the former school and one class of 30 children
in the latter. These classes are managed on nursery school lines
and serve their purpose in an admirable way, exactly in those
localities where they are most needed.