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PERSONAL HYGIENE, SOCIAL TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL
DISABILITIES OF CHILDREN FROM OVERSEAS
I am indebted to R. E. Brettle, Esq., Ph.D., M.A., Borough
Education Officer of Hornsey, for permission to include his report
together with one of A. A. G. Walbridge, Esq., B.Sc., (Hon).,
A.B.Ps.S., Educational Psychologist. Both reports, which were
submitted to the Hornsey Education Committee, are here slightly
abridged and presented as one report.
Language difficulties naturally give rise to many problems.
It is difficult not only for the teachers to make themselves understood
and for the children to respond effectively, but difficulty of communication
exists between the school staff and the parents of these children.
It is very common for both parents of the children to be in full-time
employment and the hours worked each day often exceed those of
English parents who are in employment. In consequence, schools
have little direct contact with parents.
A serious problem can arise with the taking of the school
meal. Some of these children have little or no knowledge of table
manners and the use of knives and forks. Many do not like English
meals and need encouragement if they are to eat anything at all.
Many children have had little training in personal hygiene and
good habits and need to be taught the proper use of W.C.'s and wash
basins. Generally in some families there is a casual attitude
towards parental responsibilities which shows not only in the unpunctuality
of children attending school and in money matters, but in the
failure of parents to keep medical and dental appointments. With
some of these children regular clinic visits and treatment are vitally
important.
For the last eight years information has been regularly collected
about the reading ability of pupils in Hornsey schools, both primary
and secondary. Sufficient information has been accummulated to show
general trends, and, as children from overseas, with little or no
English, have been in Hornsey schools for the last four years, the
time is now appropriate to consider past and present positions and the
implications for the future.
The report is concerned primarily with backwardness in reading,
assessed by using standardised graded word reading tests. Returns
were obtained from primary schools for all first year and fourth year
children, and from secondary modern schools for all school leavers.
The results have been tabulated and the overall percentages of
backwardness in the primary schools are much less than the national
percentages found by the Ministry of Education in 1948 and 1956.
For example, in the National Survey of 1956, twenty-one per cent of
all eleven year old children were regarded as backward or illiterate.
The Hornsey figure for 1961/62 is 11.1 per cent. (It should be
explained, however, that the Hornsey figure does not include the
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