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will go some way towards meeting local deficiencies and, looking
further to the future, plans are advanced for child guidance
facilities to be provided at Garland Road, alongside new maternity
and child welfare premises.
Delays in Placement of Certain Special Categories
There was an undesirable delay in the placement of children
ascertained as Educationally Subnormal. The delay for those
requiring education at a boarding school was worse than that for
day pupils. A worse delay was experienced for those who were
recommended to schools for the maladjusted. This situation should
be remedied as a matter of urgency—these pupils needed help
immediately and not two terms hence. It is often regretted by
School Medical Officers that boarding open air schools can not
be used for children who are not only "delicate" but who also
require long term placement for social reasons. Too often such
children will enter boarding open air schools where their condition
improves with fresh air, adequate rest and a high standard of
nutrition and, after two terms or so, they are so much healthier
that they are discharged to day schools. Despite great efforts by
social workers concentrated on the home environment during the
children's absence, it must be accepted that there is a small number
of families in which conditions will never be really satisfactory for
the nurture of children without serious risks to their future, and
it is of no benefit to such children to perambulate between day and
boarding open air schools. The placement of psychotic children
continued to give concern to the authorities. Occasionally, such
children could be contained in ordinary schools, pending admission
to suitable special establishments, but sometimes behaviour such
as aggression was so serious that the child was a danger to himself,
other children and to the teaching staff, so that exclusion from
school was imperative. Such cases were treated as a matter of
urgency, but parents needed much support in the home during the
interval between recommendation for special education and
placement.
Provision for the education of children with a dual handicap
may be difficult and, pending placement, such children may remain
in ordinary schools, schools for the physically handicapped or the
educationally subnormal, or may even require home tuition.
Support for the child and family was provided by the Social
Worker or agency most known to the family.
There is no school for partially sighted children in the
Borough. All such children from Greenwich travel to the Nansen
school in Lewisham. There appears to be no delay in admitting
these children, 18 of whom were attending the Nansen school during