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other pupils in whose case special medical inspection
is thought to be advisable. Also pupils requiring
follow-up from previous medical inspections can be
seen and thus the visit of the medical officer to the
school is used to cover a wider field than a selected
age group. If the best results are to be obtained from
these visits to school there should be close collaboration
and consultation between medical officer and
head teacher.
At the 'leavers' examination Form Y9 is completed
for each pupil and forwarded to the Youth Employment
Officer. This form indicates if there are any
health reasons for avoiding certain types of occupation.
The number of pupils submitted to periodic
medical inspection during the year was 8,249 and the
results are shown in Table la. The physical condition
ofll6(1.4%)was considered to be unsatisfactory.
The concept of unsatisfactory physical conditions
varies with the examining doctors but the important
point is that efforts are made to bring the pupil to a
satisfactory physical state.
Special Examinations and Re-examinations
Any parent, head teacher, school nurse, speech
therapist, physiotherapist or audiometrician etc may
request the medical examination of a pupil and these
special examinations are usually carried out at clinics.
Regular sessions are held at these clinics when a
medical officer is in attendance to see school children,
and where necessary special sessions are arranged.

The defects found at periodic and special medical
inspections are shown in Table 2.
Uncleanliness and Verminous Conditions
School nurses make examinations of children in
regard to cleanliness of person and clothing and the
presence of lice or their eggs (nits). At one time all
pupils were examined at least once each term but as
uncleanliness of person or clothing is now rare, flea
or body lice infestation almost unknown, and the
incidence of head lice greatly reduced, such regular
examinations are not now held. The nurse now visits
schools to carry out these examinations at the request
of the head teacher or where there are grounds for
suspecting the presence of infestation. During the year
the school nurses carried out 23,799 examinations and
found lice or their eggs in the hair of 211 individual
pupils. Today there is no excuse for such infestation
and the infested pupils are now usually members of a
hard core of families on whom neither threats nor
persuasion seem to have any effect. In most cases the
parents deal with the matter as soon as their attention
is drawn to it, but 48 formal notices requiring the
parent to cleanse the child had to be issued and in 24
cases, where the parent had failed to respond to the
formal notice, a cleansing order had to be issued for
the pupil to be dealt with by the school nurses.
Medical Treatment
Certain treatment facilities continue to be provided
under arrangements made by the local education
authority and parents may use these or seek treatment
otherwise under the National Health Service. The
following notes refer to the treatment facilities
provided as part of the school health service. School
clinics are listed later in the report.
1. Minor ailment clinics
These are staffed by nurses and are held at clinic
premises each morning. Here are treated slight
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