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the head teachers of the schools asking them to forward
lists of all children considered to be defective within the
meaning of Part V of the Education Act, 1921. As the result
of these measures one hundred and fifty-nine such special
examinations or re-examinations were carried out in 1938.
Children requiring education in Myope or Sight-saving
Schools are referred by the oculist from the Refraction
Clinic, whilst physically defective children in need of education
in Special Schools are brought forward from the Orthopædic
Clinic.
Every six months head teachers are asked to forward lists
of scholars attending their schools who are suffering from
speech defects or defects of hearing. The children with
speech defects are then examined at the Health Centre by the
assistant medical officer and referred to the speech training
teacher. Arrangements are then made for their admission
either to the classes for stammering children or to the classes
for those suffering from defective speech.
Children with impaired hearing are specially examined
by the ear, nose, and throat consultant in charge of the Aural
Clinic who decides as to the advisability of their admission to
schools for the deaf or partially deaf. Where children with
impaired hearing are already attending the out-patient departments
of hospitals in London, special reports are requested
from the surgeons under whose care they have been and in
every case their assistance is most readily forthcoming.
Lastly, the school nurses visit the schools after each of the
three principal holidays of the year to carry out their cleansing
surveys. At such times inquiries are made from the head
teachers and class teachers with regard to any defective
children who may have been recently admitted to the schools.
Blind and Partially Sighted Children. There was only one
blind child on the register at the end of 1938. This boy was
in attendance at the Linden Lodge (L.C.C.) School for the
Blind, Wandsworth Common. He is a child suffering from
optic atrophy following a fracture of the skull.
One boy and two girls were in attendance at the
Stonhouse School for the Partially Sighted (L.C.C.) at Clapham,
and one boy was at the Kingwood Road (L.C.C.) School
for the Partially Sighted, Fulham. These were all cases of
high myopia.
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