View report page

164
Training Centres
Maze Hill Junior Centre
Purpose-designed on a difficult site, this centre is organised on
educational lines and every attempt is made to create a "school"
atmosphere in order to prevent the dichotomy which could so
easily arise between the health and education aspects of such an
establishment.
No arbitrary limit is placed upon educability or ineducability,
each child being considered as an individual and, after his/her
aptitudes have been carefully assessed, the skills or functions,
however modest, which have a potential for development are
encouraged and exploited.
Behaviour and aptitudes have improved remarkably and the
parents and relatives of these handicapped children have been
made to feel that, at long last, education and training is a matter of
degree and not of segregation and priorities. Parents' confidence
has been restored and they feel able to face a future which now
holds a measure of promise hitherto denied them.
The centre provides for the accommodation of 112 children in
three main groups:—
1. Nursery
A unit serving the needs of 20 children between the ages of 3½
and 5 years in the severely subnormal range including a few
selected subnormal children who suffer from specific problems
such as walking, speech, self-feeding or behaviour with a view
to their entering, eventually, a special school.
2. Training Centre
Catering for a total of 80 children between the ages of 5 and
16 years, this section is organised into four classes each of 20
children including a transition class for boys and girls aged 14 to
16 years.
It is the intention of centre training to have regard to the whole
personality of a child and eventually to prepare him/her not only
for undertaking employment but also to encourage the use of leisure
hours to advantage.
3. Special Care Unit
With the object of accommodating 12 very severely retarded
children suffering from other handicaps, this unit must also be
considered as a training unit in that children are being helped