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SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE
SCHOOL POPULATION
There was a small decrease in the school population during the year. On the 31st
December, 1955, there were 29,487 children on the school rolls, as compared with 29,707
on the corresponding day of 1954. The number for 1954 showed a small increase on the
previous year when the school population was 29,653, so it will be seen that the variation
during the past three years has been only slight.
MEDICAL INSPECTION
The School Health Service and Handicapped Pupils Regulations 1953, require that
general medical inspection shall be carried out at least three times during the school life
of the child, but it is left to the discretion of the local education authority to fix the
ages at which these, and any other medical inspections which may be necessary, are carried
out. In West Ham the practice for many years has been to carry out as a routine three
general (or "periodic") medical inspections; at the beginning of school life (Entrants);
at the end of school life (Third Age Group); and at the age of ten years plus shortly
before the child enters the secondary school or department (Second Age Group). This arrangement
was continued during the year. In addition, special inspections or inspections are
undertaken as required.
There was a decrease of over 1,000 in the number of periodic inspections and a decrease
of over 2,000 in the number of special inspections and inspections, The fall in the number
of entrants examined (1,083) was due, in part, to a much reduced intake of new entrants (797).
Another reason for the fall in the number of children examined in the three age groups was due
to the Ministry of Education altering certain definitions used in their returns. Thus children
were regarded as falling into one of the three prescribed age groups (Entrant, Second Age Group
or Third Age Group) only if inspected at the normal time at a periodic inspection. If they
missed the usual periodic inspection and were inspected later, they were to be classed under a
new heading "Additional Periodic Inspection". Inspections at grammar and technical schools
after the normal school leaving age are classed as "Additional Periodic Inspections"; also
the annual inspections at the day special schools come under this heading. The first inspection
of nursery school children in any calendar year other than in their first year is classed as
"Additional Periodic Inspection", Consequently, the number of children examined under the old
title of "Other Periodic Inspections", 595 in 1954, rose to 1,204 in 1955 under the new title
of "Additional Periodic Inspections"„
Tables setting out the work done under the heading of medical inspection and treatment
will be found in Appendix IV on page 159.
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