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to the School Medical Officer who arranged for their examination by the consulting
(special purposes) medical officer. The latter was also responsible for the periodic
medical examination of children at special schools.
It is interesting to find in the report for 1917 a sign that already in these
relatively early days of the service an attempt was made to study and to investigate some
of these unfortunate children. As a result some of those who had been regarded as mental
defectives were, in fact, found to be deaf mutes.
Towards the end of the first world war and in the early twenties, measures which
emphasised a more preventive attitude were introduced. By 1916, West Ham already had five
boys in the Ogilvie School of Recovery; this soon proved insufficient and the authority
opened its own residential open air school at Fyfleld - at first, for boys only. In 1929,
these facilities were extended to girls. The type of delicate child, who was then considered
suitable for this school, was subsequently described as "pre-tubercular". The day open air
school in Crosby Road was opened in 1926, but was never very popular, possibly because the
building was In the same neighbourhood as the school for defective children. In the same
year arrangements were also made for a remedial clinic and out-patient treatment for
orthopaedic cases at hospitals.
The year 1928, saw the opening of the sunlight treatment centre for school children
at the Balaam Street Children's Hospital, and in 1929, a consulting Aural Surgeon was
appointed to examine the children at the special centres for the deaf. It is of interest
to note that in the annual report of this year a new group of children Is mentioned for
the first time. They are described as the nervous, unstable or "difficult" children who
were unfortunately becoming increasingly familiar to both teachers and doctors. The need
for some special service to help these children was becoming evident.
To complete the picture It should be added that attention had been paid to speech
defects since the very early days of the School Medical Service. A paragraph referring to
this subject can be found in the annual report of 1914 which states under the sub-heading
of speech: "The chief defects are defective articulation of nervous origin or due to
presence of adenoids. As will be seen, this is much commoner than the other chief defect
stammering - which only occurs to the extent of 0.7 per cent."
Special remedial classes for stammerers lasting six weeks were established in 1926
and were said to render very good results.
In 1938, the West Ham School for the Deaf in Tunmarsh Lane was opened.
In order to appreciate adequately the impact of the Education Act, 1944, and the
National Health Service Act, 1946, on the School Health Service it should be realised that
until then the service was not provided entirely without charge. Certain payments were
made by parents for medical and dental treatment. The School Attendance Officer visited
each case and ascertained the income of the parents who were then assessed in accordance
with the Council's scales and the money was collected by weekly instalments. Similar
arrangements applied to the provision of spectacles.
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