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SCHOOL HEALTH
Education (Milk) Act 1971
From the beginning of the Autumn term the Education (Milk) Act 1971
restricted the duty of local education authorities to provide milk in schools
to the following: all children up to the end of the Summer Term next
following their seventh birthday; pupils of all ages in special schools; and
other children in primary schools where a certificate given by a medical
officer of the authority states that a child's health requires that he should
be provided with milk at school. Parents of children at primary schools
were invited by the Chief Education Officer to inform the Principal School
Medical Officer if they thought their children should receive milk in school
for health reasons. Head teachers who themselves may be of the opinion
that individual children should be considered were asked to advise parents to
apply. Medical Officers carrying out routine medical examinations in schools
and clinics were requested to submit recommendations in appropriate cases.
By the end of the year the provision of milk in school had been certified as
necessary for health reasons in the case of 72 children. Eleven applications
were not sustained.
Home and hospital tuition
Section 56
Education Act 1944
In cases where children cannot, for various reasons, attend school, local
education authorities are empowered to provide home tuition. This provision
was made for ten children during the year. In addition, tuition was also
provided in the paediatric ward of the North Middlesex Hospital.
Children unsuitable for education at school
Section 34
Education Act 1944
From the 1st April, 1971, under The Education (Handicapped Children) Act
1970, the provision for notifying a child as unsuitable for education at school
ceased and the provisions of Section 34 of the Education Act 1944 regarding
special educational treatment applied to such children.
Vaccination and Immunisation
Statistics and details of the vaccination and immunisation of school children,
provided under Sections 26 and 28 of the National Health Service Act 1946,
are fully dealt with elsewhere in this report.
Head Teachers continue to co-operate in the distribution of consent forms,
which serve not only to emphasize to parents the need for immunological
protection for their children, but also to remind them that a reinforcing dose
may be due. To minimize interference with the children's school work,
vaccination and immunisation are undertaken at the schools when the
number of children is sufficiently great to warrant this.
Employment of children
Section 59
Education Act 1944
In accordance with the Bye-laws, 365 children were examined and certificates
were issued in all cases certifying that their employment would not be
prejudicial to their health or physical development and would not render
them unfit to obtain proper benefit from their education. Similarly three
children were examined and granted certificates enabling them to take part
in entertainments. It was not necessary to invoke Section 59 of the Education
Act 1944 to prohibit or restrict the employment of any child.
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