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20
Often the Teacher's influence is the paramount one in a child's
life, and the parents come to them for advice, hence it is of great
importance to the School Medical Service to have the Teachers
as allies.
Much of the improvement in the cleanliness of the school
children is due to the Teachers' zealous work in this direction.
CO-OPERATION OF SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OFFICERS.
There are now three Attendance Officers in this district and
they have at any time the right to ascertain from the Health
Department the condition and fitness of any school child.
In the course of maintaining attendances they render valuable
assistance to the Medical Department by referring to the School
Clinic children who are absent from school on account of alleged
illness, and who are not under private treatment.
Prompt notification by these Attendance Officers of a suspicious
sore throat or rash has frequently directed attention to early cases
of Infectious Disease.
CO-OPERATION OF VOLUNTARY BODIES.
During the year the National Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Children rendered assistance in cases of neglect.
Help is also obtained for some cases from the Hounslow, Heston
and Whitton Philanthropic Society, the Isleworth, Spring Grove
and St. Margaret's Philanthropic Society, the Shaftesbury Society
and Ragged School Union, and the United Services Fund.
BLIND, DEAF, DEFECTIVE AND EPILEPTIC CHILDREN.
Periodical returns are made by the teachers of children judged
to be abnormal. Arrangements are then made for a special
medical examination, and based upon this, a report is made.
During 1927, examinations were conducted in respect of 60 mentally
abnormal children. There are no schools in this District for the
defective.
An attempt, however, is being made to provide a joint school
for Mental Defectives which would serve the Education
Authorities in the western part of Middlesex. A conference of
the authorities was held at the end of the year when the proposal
for a joint scheme was agreed upon. Such a scheme would solve
the problem of the education of the Mental Defectives in this
district, and it is to be hoped that it will materialise.