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Special schools
Six special day schools for handicapped pupils are
maintained by the education committee including the 2
junior training centres which were transferred from the
Health Committee on 1st April 1971 and which are now
known as the Lindon/Bennett School, Hanworth and
Oaklands, Isleworth.
High quality diagnostic and therapeutic services
continued to be provided at the special schools by the
borough's doctors, psychologists, nurses, speech therapists,
physiotherapists, audiometricians, orthoptists and social
workers. Provision is also made in recommended cases for
some handicapped pupils under five years of age to be
admitted to day nurseries.
Busch House School (Isleworth)
This school caters for delicate and maladjusted children.
Because of the nature of the handicaps, seriously aggressive
children are not admitted. Many of the delicate children
suffer from chronic physical illnesses.
With the exception of a few children who are treated by
a psychiatrist in hospital or from another borough, the
maladjusted pupils are under the general care of the
psychiatrist from the Child Guidance Clinic. Some of these
children are in regular treatment at the Clinic, but the need
for full psychiatric team work in the school is being
increasingly felt. The children and their parents might then
find the idea of psychotherapy less threatening, as it would
be as natural in the school environment as pysiotherapy is
now. A senior school medical officer visits the school
weekly to advise on the care of the delicate and to
supervise the physical health of the maladjusted pupils.
Many of the maladjusted children suffer from a
temporary or chronic physical illness or may present with
physical symptoms. A number of the delicate children are
as much handicapped by emotional disorders caused by
their illness and sometimes by its treatment as they are by
the physical disease itself. Increasing use is made of the
visiting psychiatrist to advise on the management of these
children in addition to the growing demand on his services
in the treatment of the maladjusted pupils. By virtue of its
dual character, the school can handle the emotional
problems of the delicate or the physical problems of the
maladjusted pupil with the greatest facility and without a
departure from the routine that might make a child
conspicuous by his appearing to be handled differently
from his peers.

After care
At Busch House School as at the other special schools
leaver's case conferences are held to which the educational
psychologist is always invited. For the most part after care
is done by the school staff on an informal basis; it is most
valuable if it can be undertaken by someone personally
acquainted with the child, particularly if he is going into
normal employment. If the school leaver is unemployable
or is in sheltered employment, he is then transferred to the
care of the Social Services Department.
Martindale School (Hounslow)
This is a day school for physically handicapped children
with a closely associated medical unit.
Furniture and apparatus capable of being adapted to the
needs of the pupils is in use and facilities are available for
hydrotherapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy. The
majority of the pupils suffer from cerebral palsy and many
are dependent on wheel chairs for locomotion. Close
co-operation between the teaching and medical staff is
necessary to secure a reasonable balance between the
educational and treatment needs of the child and to make
the best of his physical and intellectual potentials. Many of
these children have learning difficulties and here the services
of the senior educational psychologist are particularly
useful.

Heston School for the Deaf
This day school with its associated classes for the partially
hearing in Townfield and Harlington Secondary Schools,
Springwell and Norwood Green Infant and Junior Schools,
and Oriel Junior School provides accommodation for 168
deaf and partially hearing pupils. A medical officer to the
hearing clinic visits the school fortnightly and in addition
there is close liason between the clinic and school staff on
children's hearing and learning difficulties.
The figures in the following table relate to the position
in December 1971 and show the number of children who
attend from Hounslow and neighbouring authorities.
48