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In the Appendix to this report will be found an analysis of the defects found at periodic medical inspections
to require treatment or observation.
Other Medical Inspections
The following are the numbers of special inspections and re-inspections carried out during 1970. A special
inspection is one which is carried out at the special request of a parent, doctor, nurse or a teacher, usually
at a school clinic.
Number of special inspections 3,566
Number of re-inspections 1,548
TOTAL 5,114
An analysis of the defects found at special inspections to require treatment or observation will be found
in the Appendix.
Medical Treatment
Details are given in the Appendix of treatment (excluding uncleanliness and dental defects) of pupils attending
maintained primary and secondary schools (including nursery and special schools), whether provided directly
by the Council or arranged through other agencies.
Handicapped Pupils
The Education Act 1944 places upon local Education Authorities the duty of ascertaining handicapped pupils
in their areas and of providing special educational treatment for such children. Although it is the duty of the
local Authority to ascertain these children from the age of 2 years, it is often desirable, especially in the
case of blind, deaf or cerebral palsied children, that the defects be discovered before this age so that steps
may be taken to help the child to develop as normally as possible despite his handicap.
The School Health Service and Handicapped Pupils Regulations 1953 defined the various categories of
handicapped pupils as follows: —
(a) Blind — pupils who have no sight or whose sight is or is likely to become so defective that they require
education by methods not involving the use of sight.
(b) Partially sighted — pupils who by reason of defective vision cannot follow the normal regime of ordinary
schools without detriment to their sight or to their educational development, but can be educated by
special methods involving the use of sight.
(c) Deaf — pupils who have no hearing or whose hearing is so defective that they require education by
methods used by deaf pupils without naturally acquired speech or language.
(d) Partially hearing — pupils who have some naturally acquired speech and language but whose hearing is
so defective that they require for their education special arrangements or facilities though not necessarily
all the educational methods used for deaf pupils.
(e) Educationally subnormal — pupils who by reason of limited ability or other conditions resulting in
educational retardation require some specialised form of education wholly or partly in substitution for
the education normally given in ordinary schools.
(f) Epileptic — pupils who by reason of epilepsy cannot be educated under the normal regime of ordinary
schools without detriment to themselves or other pupils.
(g) Maladjusted — pupils who show evidence of emotional instability or psychological disturbance and
require special educational treatment in order to effect their personal, social or educational readjustment.
(h) Physically handicapped — pupils not suffering solely from a defect of sight or hearing who by reason
of disease or crippling defect cannot, without detriment to their health or educational development,
be satisfactorily educated under the normal regime of ordinary schools.
(i) Pupils suffering from speech defect — who on account of defect or lack of speech, not due to deafness,
require special educational treatment.
(j) Delicate — pupils not falling under any other category who by reason of impaired physical condition
need a change of environment or cannot without risk to their health or educational development be
educated under the normal regime of ordinary schools.
Pupils handicapped by severe blindness or deafness are normally educated in special schools.
Children with handicaps in other categories may attend ordinary schools with special consideration where
necessary. The vast majority of children with speech defects are educated in ordinary schools and there is no
Haringey child at present with a speech defect so severe that attendance at a special school is required. Most
children suffering from epilepsy or diabetes are able to be educated in ordinary schools. One epileptic child
is at present placed in a special school, but there is no diabetic child at present needing special school placement.
Where appropriate arrangements cannot be made for handicapped children in ordinary schools, or where the
child fails to maintain reasonable progress, or is unhappy because of his disability, arrangements are made for
education in day or residential special schools.
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